10 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

It’s no surprise that digital market is a volatile world. Every year new technologies come forth to set up new trends, changing the way people do business in the digital world. Internet has radically changed the manner in which information is shared and internet itself is ever evolving.

Online marketing has always proven to be a significant difference in how well a business does in this competitive era. To keep ahead or even just to be in the game, it is necessary to adopt the new tools and trends and be able to adapt with them.

Here are the ten digital marketing trends, which are very likely to dominate the 2016’s digital market.

1. Content marketing will still be important.

If you have a business, you’ve got to have a blog about it, create content to the context of your business to sale out your products. Whether in written, visual or video format, the companies that maintain an active blog generate 67% more monthly sales opportunities than those who do not.

The content not only helps brands to maintain their digital positioning in the market but also attracts users to the products and services more easily. With attractive figures like that and strong results, there is no way marketers are giving up on this power of contents yet. After all, the customers love stories and who better than a marketer to tell them stories with twists and turns of events.

2. Mobiles will completely dominate desktops.

Mobiles were called the second screens and the desktops the first. The trend now has been reversed. The usage of mobile devices has surpassed the usage of desktop devices since the digital market has seen the surge of smartphones and tablets.

The number of people browsing the web on mobile passed desktop users a long time ago. This set up the trend of mobile responsive websites and mobile targeted ad campaigns. Mobile apps will also become a major player in this with increased security expected for them this year.

Taking a look around a room, you’ll find nearly everyone is fixed upon their smartphone. Now that we have witnessed all this, it won’t come to us as a surprise if some blogger told us that “Mobile will dominate desktops in 2016.” or “Digital marketing will shift to mobile from desktops in 2016.”

3. Video ads will keep on popping.

It was TV that set the trend of video advertisement, obviously. The video ads, during the TV era, generated good revenue to the business firms without any doubts. The trend has migrated to the mobile devices, which are now reaching out to more customers with personalized contents.

Big players like Facebook and Bing already offer advertisers video options and Google too has decided to incorporate video ads on their search results. Youtube, Facebook live streaming, Snapchat and Periscope are on the rise now more than ever.

These are the signs that video ads online are certainly being accepted by the customers. We can all expect to see more kinds of video ads popping up in more unanticipated places as we keep our eyes fixed on screens in 2016.

4. Wearable technology and Internet of things will see new heights.

With the talks of the wearable techs like Google Glass and Apple watches with their sophisticated AI all set to replace smartphones, we can expect them to be the new trend in the digital marketing universe.

Virtual reality and Internet of Things are big topics of talk in the tech world these days. We saw the unveiling of the Apple watch last year while other tech giants were also already working on similar technologies. We can expect to see similar wearable devices emerging out this year to leave their mark in the market.

5. Good old email will still remain in the market automation.

Now that the email has gone mobile it doesn’t seem like it will go out of trend anytime soon. The marketing departments will keep you sending the automated emails with schemes and offers in their newsletters, which will keep your inbox full this year too.

For marketers, email has always been an effective tool to reach their potential clients. This year and beyond, email will always remain in the list of every marketing strategist.

6. Digital assistants will be assisting in the new kind of business search optimization.

The rise of digital assistants like Siri and Cortana make it seem like the things we see in the Sci-Fi movies aren’t very far in the future. These digital assistants utilize traditional search engines to discover information present on the web.

Marketers have been using the strategies of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC) to boost their websites and get their sites seen by thousands of previously unknown visitors.

It would be worthwhile for the businesses to make sure that their information is easily accessible to these assistants to funnel people to their sites. So, 2016 is set to see the new kind of search optimization strategies to play along with these new players in the market.

7. Advertisements in the social networks will still remain a significant player in the arena of digital marketing.

According to recent studies, social media surpasses even entertainment as the number one online activity. This outpour clearly parallels the increase in mobile device usage. Social media is one of the top referral traffic sources for many brands.

Facebook launched an entire new array of advertising options for brands in 2015. Equally, it is a big revenue generator for many other rising social media. With all their customers hanging around in the social media, virtually, marketers need not go anywhere else to promote their products.

In 2016 and beyond, social media will continue to rule the world of internet, so marketers must align more of their focus in incorporating social media into their overall marketing strategies.

8. Ad blockers will be preying on ads.

Where there are ads, there are ad blockers. Studies show that 74% of consumers are frustrated with websites when the content on the page they browse has nothing to do with their interests.

The ads are no more than a nuisance when they pop up in the wrong place in the wrong time. Google decided to block the ad blocking apps from the Google Play Store last year. But ad blocking won’t go out of trend as long as there are ads. 2016 will be the year for ad blocker apps to find their way back into the game.

9. Big data will keep on getting bigger.

Big data analytics became a new trend since the late years of the last decade. With the new tools and platforms to analyze and track customer behaviors and patterns, reaching out to the right customer with the right service (product) has never been as easy as this before.

“Business in the cloud” is the thing that’s happening these days. The whole concept of Information System and Business Automation certainly have had its impact on the marketing trends.

This data driven effort of marketing is being practiced and is likely to be continued to the far future. Content Curation Tools, Content Recommendation, Retargeting and Effectiveness Review Tool and Personalization; we’ll be hearing about more of these data hungry tools in 2016 as well. This data driven effort of marketing is being practiced and is likely to be continued to the far future.

10. Paid Search Marketing will continue on the list of customers.

You’ve noticed that Google and other search engines return search results in two ways; one the organic results and the other the paid results. Google AdWords are the paid results that are displayed to you when you make a search relevant to them. The race of Search Engine Optimization was on when search engines like Google took on the job of finding data and information on the web.

It is always more likely that the first one on the queue will get served first. Paid search marketing will continue to be on the list of marketers in 2016, keeping the trend alive.

Featured photo credit: How To Improve Digital Marketing Efforts by Joe The Goat Farmer via flickr.com

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