The Top 5 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

Digital marketing keeps evolving at a very fast pace, and has slowly become mainstream. There is little to no clear distinction between offline and online marketing anymore, as we now live in a constantly connected world. With each coming year, we witness new software, new hardware, new user preferences and a number of new innovations that dominate the market.

Those who adopt new changes have the opportunity of becoming industry leaders and building their reputation to the extent that exceeds their greatest expectations. On the other hand, those who fail to adapt miss out on many business opportunities, and they get lost in the sea of marketers who seem to have nothing but a dream of success.

If you want to always stay ahead of the competition and ensure your business truly stands out, you need to follow the latest digital marketing trends. Staying up-to-date with these latest industry developments will enable you to create the best digital marketing strategy for your business.

They can help you become the next big thing on the market, so it is crucial that you make sure you don’t fall behind and miss out on a number of opportunities they offer. Let’s take a look at the top digital marketing trends that are becoming more popular as we speak, and are certain to dominate 2016.

The Rise of Video Marketing

Although video marketing is not a new trend, it is one that will definitely dominate 2016. Since 2015 was the year of video marketing, it is certain that this year will embrace a more integrated digital strategy and videos will be the key to successful online marketing. YouTube is still the leading platform that hosts billions of videos, but Google is completely changing the game today by including video content in its search engine algorithm.

With this adaptation of in-SERP advertising, we will be seeing video ads pretty much everywhere. It is actually quite an effective marketing tool, as businesses become more and more successful by implementing video ads in their digital marketing campaign. Let’s not forget that Google actually owns YouTube, so companies have endless possibilities when it comes to advertising.

Almost 80% of business owners say that incorporating videos in their marketing campaign was the key to their success and has helped them generate a lot more revenue. It’s a digital world, so it’s no wonder videos are the best marketing tools dominating the market.

Apart from Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is now also being used for video marketing. What’s interesting is that businesses are beginning to use Snapchat as a marketing medium as well, because they are hooked by the expiration date of advertisements and the time limit.

You can easily create teasers for new products that will exist only for a few seconds, thus creating an integrated marketing campaign that offers exclusive content. This mostly appeals to younger generations. It provides a great opportunity of reaching them, since accomplishing that is a lot more difficult than reaching an adult audience.

Live video streaming is also becoming more and more popular and businesses are embracing it in an effort to include their customers in their digital marketing campaign in the best possible way, providing them with the opportunity to be a part of the brand experience. It is the perfect way of grabbing their attention and engaging them for a while longer.

The Outbreak of Apps

Since Google has integrated app indexing and started using information from indexed apps in its search engine algorithm, businesses across the world have begun realizing the importance of having dedicated apps. Although more and more websites are becoming mobile-friendly, which is absolutely great and useful, mobile apps will definitely take over the market this year.

The main reason behind that is that apps are more intuitive and accessible than websites, and they will certainly change a lot of business owner’s perspectives. There is a continued increase in mobile use and businesses are starting to use that to their advantage by developing apps that will aid their marketing campaign and help them reach quite a large number of people.

Mobile apps, such as Facebook Messenger, for instance, are becoming more and more present in the world of e-commerce as well. Businesses can now very easily interact with their customers via messaging apps and provide them with all the information about a particular product they want to purchase.

Consumers can now get order notifications, without having to visit the e-commerce website they want to order from. Mobile use continues to grow and it will make mobile marketing one of the most crucial trends to follow in 2016.

Content Marketing Is Still King

This is yet another digital marketing trend that is not new, but continues to be popular and extremely important in 2016, as well. Each and every marketer should create valuable and relevant content that will be able to speak directly to the right audience.

They need to provide their target audience with personalized content that will capture their attention and engage them in all the right ways. Businesses should create content that is optimized for every channel and distributed in many different formats, so that they can provide their audience with the ultimate brand experience.

It is bad for business to provide content only on one channel, since you cannot force your audience to use that channel solely. So, you should track their interests and behavior in order to meet their needs, wherever they are.

Business owners must understand the crucial importance of providing their target audience with quality content and use that knowledge to develop the best content marketing strategies. There are plenty of great content marketing services that can help them with that.

Most importantly, they need to track the outcomes of their audience’s engagement in order for them to get some insight into the success of their marketing campaign. It is essential that business owners always work on improving content personalization, which could not be possible without tracking the outcomes. It is vital to know in which direction your content marketing is going, so that you can know which steps to take next to engage your audience even more.

By providing your audience with top-quality content, you will be on the path to successfully turning them into your customers. Without proper engagement, they will only go to your competitors. When creating your content, it is important not to focus only on text, but also on implementing graphics, images and videos to make it more attractive and engaging.

Content marketing goes hand in hand with video marketing, since visuals speak a lot louder than words. Providing great online content drives a lot more leads than traditional outbound content marketing, so it is a trend that you definitely must follow, and and not just this year. It is a trend that should always be on your list of top priorities when it comes to marketing your business online.

The Emerging of Wearable Technology

When the Apple Watch hit the market last year, it paved the way for other major corporations to start developing their own smartwatches and other wearables to make sure they adapt to the new tech innovations as well. Wearable technology is a game changer for online marketers, as it will significantly impact content strategies.

That is because the screens on these wearable devices are very small, so app and web content needs to be shorter to fit the needs of the people who use those devices. That is why online marketers should create shorter content in addition to their more extensive material, and find an ideal way of providing their audience with on-the-go information. Furthermore, they should provide them with content that is easily searchable using voice commands.

Wearable technology is the future, and the future is definitely here, so be sure to follow this trend as well, to ensure your business has its place among the most influential ones out there.

New and Improved Optimization Strategy

Up until now, businesses have relied mainly on search engine optimization to improve their rankings and ensure they expand their brands. They have also relied on pay-per-click advertisements for accomplishing their digital marketing goals. Today, everything has changed with the coming of new optimization strategies.

Those refer to digital assistants that will take digital marketing to a whole new level. Digital assistants, such as Siri and Cortana, enable business owners to optimize them to meet their customers’ needs and answer any of their questions. Every business should ensure the content they provide can be very easily accessed by digital assistants, instead of continuing to rely solely on SEO and PPC.

If you want to improve your digital marketing strategies and ensure you stand out in the vast sea of competitors, you need to make sure you follow these trends that are certain to leave a mark in the digital world. They will surely dominate 2016, but it is very likely that they will continue to rise in popularity for years to come.