Digital marketing trends are tricky.
They usually move too fast to ever be pinned down and once you learn the “latest” strategy, it soon becomes obsolete. (We know, it’s a rather crappy roller coaster).
So we decided instead of learning the latest marketing strategies when they hit the mainstream, it was a better idea to get prepared ahead of time and take a look at what’s rumored to be taking over the scene in the coming months.
Digital Marketing Trends For 2016
Videos Will Dominate
While we’re already pretty used to seeing video ads on television and YouTube, you might want to get ready for those ads to pop up in more than your expected video sites.
What could make 2016 a lot different from years past is that Google has jumped on the video advertising bandwagon and plans to have them popping up everywhere – even in your search results. So what does that mean for you and marketers alike?
Google using its search engine to expose the public to video advertising means it will become more mainstream and more accepted. This means it will probably start popping up everywhere else as well and there will be an onslaught of video marketing.
But before you freak out about being overrun by video advertisements remember, Google is notoriously bad at setting “release” dates of new functions and often tests them gradually first. This could take weeks, months or even years to catch on, but be ready for it when it does because you’ll probably want to hop on this train.
But, Good Content Will Continue It’s Reign
If you’re a marketer or business that relies on content marketing for your business to succeed, don’t start worrying! Even with the rise of video advertising, content will continue to reign supreme and it will be more important than ever to really connect with your clients and customers.
A big trend we’ve seen in the past few years has been total automation. We now have access to programs that can do almost all of our Social Media Marketing for us, and that can sometimes make our campaigns stark, cold and unappealing to consumers.
But, with all these advances in automation, it makes it easier for marketers to create killer content. You can use the extra time to personalize and keep the humanity in your content and on your social media channels. Optimizing your content for each channel is a great way for your customers to have a truly pleasurable brand experience. Throw in your exceptional response times and communication and you have a campaign that’s hard to beat.
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There Will Be A Rise of Digital Assistants
You probably already know how handy Siri and Cortana can be when you’re in a bind. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve asked Siri “who that guy was in that movie that was about karate” while trying to stumble through a brain block. But did you know that they’re there for doing more than reminding you that the movie you were thinking of is Rush Hour?
Think about that scenario for a second. What if your website dealt directly with movie information – wouldn’t you want Siri to direct people to your site for the answers? Well, that’s actually possible and you can and will be able to optimize your site for these types of searches.
The trick to your website being used and seen by Siri and the like is making your info accessible. This means optimizing your site for Voice-Based searches and Geographic relevance. While this isn’t something that needs your immediate attention, it’s a good thing to keep in the back of your mind for when digital assistants start to take over.
And There Will Be A Mobile Takeover
This past year, Google was finally able to say that Mobile traffic overtook Desktop traffic in 10 countries which included the US and Japan. Google even released an algorithm the same year named “Mobilegeddon“, which clearly speaks for itself.
Last year, Google added “mobile-friendliness” to its search engine rankings making it more essential than ever to have a mobile version of your original desktop site. Google has even gone as far as to state that businesses don’t necessarily need to have an optimized desktop site and that an outstanding mobile site is more than enough.
Since mobile usage is supposed to completely overtake desktop usage this coming year, it’s a pretty safe bet to say you want to get on top of optimizing your mobile site. This means making it super accessible for both smartphones and tablets and creating multiple types of ads (including video, obviously) to appeal to a multitude of demographics.
i can really see how videos are dominating. especially with apps like instagram which just increased their videos to sixty seconds and snapchat
Indeed, Videos are everything put together images, music, sounds, ads, that’s why they have so much reach, im sure eventually we’ll have 24/7 video blogin’.
I have seen more video ads…boo. My website is mobile friendly, but I really don’t like how it shows up on the phone.
Mobile friendly can be tricky to get right Michelle, but luckily these days any blog templates come with optimized mobile versions built in!
Thanks for the info, plan on using Instagram and make a few more movies this year!
Awesome Heather! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
There is no doubt about all of these. You can see that they are slowly taking over the market! Videos are everywhere especially in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
I know Elizabeth! Instagram always scares me when they start auto-playing haha
I want to start getting into video and live feeds but they intimidate me!
They can definitely be a hard area to break into especially with the equipment being so expensive to create a high quality video!
Very informative post, technology is everything these days! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you Emma! Glad you enojoyed it 🙂
I love the idea of the Siri search optimization. I definitely need to add that to my “todo” list.
I know isn’t that interesting Athena? I would have never considered optimizing for Siri if I hadn’t read about it!
I need to get my video game up for my website. I would also like to figure out how to do the voice search engine!
Well now I know what we will be seeing more of on your blog Lawrence 😉 haha
This is such great information! If only I could get over my fear and jump into making videos, haha.
I think a lot of us have that fear Christine! I’m definitely not into being in front of a camera everyday! haha
I really need to work on the mobile version of my site because it looks slightly different to the desktop version. Those stats do not surprise me.
I was a bit surprised to see that mobile was outranking desktop just because I don’t tend to surf the web on my phone! I guess lots of other people do 😉
I need to use my Instagram account more. Just started using Snapchat and plan to start doing videos in the near future!
Sounds like a perfect plan Michelle! 🙂
This are all good trends. I might try to pull one of them soon. Thanks for sharing.
No problem Ronnie! Hope you find one that works out well for you!
So glad to realize that I am on the right track then. Everything here is where I am sending over my people.
Fantastic Kathy! That means we’re on the right track too 😉
Videos are on hype already.
Absolutely Jen and it’s only going to intensify!
This is very good information!
I will have to get more involved with videos!
I totally agree about everything you said! I think that one of the most common jobs now are virtual assisting. Everyone is using their phones now to get connected! Figures, right?
Great post! As an Internet marketer myself I can say you’ve done your research on this one! People will always prefer to watch a video over reading long posts. I have been a content creator for about 6 years now and I’m finally taking the jump into my own blog because I enjoy it so much! It’s great to see other businesses take the same jump and utilize their blogs as a way to drive traffic. I still see the majority of traffic coming in from Pinterest, then Google and then Facebook.
This is very interesting. Video seems to be the big thing now, with all of the social media sites out there. Video and live streaming is huge.
i do think content marketing plays a bigger role than what most businesses think. Digital Marketing is rising and companies should take action. Thank you for sharing this information! Good Read!
I like this post, enjoyed this 1 appreciate it for putting up.
Excellent! Thanks for reading!