6 Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2016

Time really flies and as we come close to the end of the first month in 2016, it’s time to give a thought to the key emerging trends in marketing to watch out for in 2016. While marketers around the world will be spending huge amount of time, energy and budgets on these initiatives, how can you be left far behind? Make sure that you have these as an integral part of your marketing plans and budgets.

1. Video Marketing

2015 saw the rise in visual marketing. 2016 is likely to be recognized as the year in which things really begin to take off on the visual front and by 2019, it has been predicted that 80 percent of all Internet traffic will be to videos. Videos have very high potential to get visitors engaged to your website, or any other content channels. Good content in the form of short videos will have them coming back for more.

Nowadays companies are creating variety of videos, corporate overview, product demos, and testimonials. Video content once done and hosted on channels like YouTube or Vimeo can easily be promoted across various means including digital, social as well as IM and Whatsapp like conversations.

2. Marketing assets

Digital assets provide brand value and improve engagements. 2015 marked the importance of digital assets.

Digital content assets – The most important digital asset you have control over is your website. A good website is always alive, evolving and keeps bringing visitors back to your site and view. Creating engaging content in form of videos, infographics, blogs, case studies, brochures, white papers, etc. and using your website as a content hub is going to prove an effective strategy to pull and engage visitors on your website.

Social media assets – While content remains the foundation, growing your social infrastructure is vital for your business. The people you are already connected with and future connects on social media are your prime promotion means. Building relationship with them and continuous engagement gives you a chance to be seen as an expert in your field. [irp]

3. Content remains the king

Content marketing gives you the opportunity to be known as a thought leader in your field. As they say, you can never win by just meeting your customer’s current requirements. If you can show them what the future looks like and make them believe that you know how to get them there, there will build a significant following.

Content marketing is effective, but it’s becoming oversaturated because all the brands are scrambling for visibility ending up giving a content shock to the reader. Marketers need to developing content that reflects how their customers want to interact with brands across different channels.

Crowd sourcing relevant content from thought leaders and building a relationship with them, provides you the opportunity to publish industry leading thought leadership content, while at the same time, getting you closer to the thought leaders themselves and opening up business opportunities. You might also want to read What is good marketing content.. depends on what you want it to achieve?

4. Social Media presence & promotion

The number of users and businesses on social media are increasing at a phenomenal rate across all channels like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat etc. There have been a lot of businesses that have stayed away for a long while, but are realizing that they cannot do so any longer. How should you create a strategy for social media engagement is more the discussion topic rather than ‘Should I do social media’

The viral nature of social media provides immense opportunities. However the community orientation of social media also poses limitation. How do you create the right mix, where you do not blatantly self promote, while still give significant visibility to your brand?

5. Micro-targeting and personalization through analytics

Micro-targeting is another concept that has been generating a lot of conversation in the B2B marketing world. This trend is about drawing from data and analytics to better understand your target audience and responding in real-time with targeted messaging and content that is personalized to their specific needs at the exact time of need. You might also want to read Watching your analytics in email marketing

In B2B marketing, this means adopting a much more individualized approach to your content and building relationships. 2016 will see a push for more comprehensive and meaningful personas, leading to more “micro” targeted marketing activities with an eye to increased relevancy and effectiveness.

As a marketer moving into 2016, your priority should be to provide the best possible content to your audience, not to publish junk content in hopes that it’ll land you on page one. Trust me, when you create truly engaging, valuable, and relevant content crafted to serve members of your audience and what they’re looking for, you’ll earn that sweet spot at the top of the results page.

6. Smarter Marketing automation and lead scoring

As you engage with your prospect through a variety of initiatives, it is important to have the right technology in place that can help you identify the people who would be keen to do business with you. Through the right marketing automation tool and lead scoring mechanisms, you will be able to track activity of your prospects across your digital properties and make sure that you are continuing to build a bond with you prospect.

Tools that are able to automate most of your reach-outs and help make your interactions more responsive (in terms of auto-mail backs and other actions) are very useful. The lead scoring configurations can be managed in such a way that the prospect starts ranking higher in terms of scores for more relevant content.

What are the other emerging trends in marketing that you are looking at. Your comments and feedback is welcome