Digital Marketing Trends to Implement in 2016

Marketing constantly adjusts and reacts.  Whether it’s due to changes in technology, attitude shifts, or emerging trends, the only constant in digital marketing seems to be change.

Over the last several years, digital marketing has undergone a substantial transformation due, in large part, to technological advances.  The technology that triggered these changes is growing at a faster pace than most can keep up with, leaving many companies behind.

The good news is you can regain a competitive edge by effectively strategizing for 2016 and looking beyond the usual channels.  Here we share several trends we believe will change the face of marketing (yet again) and offers ideas to help you leverage them.

1. Relationship Marketing

As smartphone adoption continues to rise with an estimated 2 billion consumers worldwide expected to own a smartphone by 2016, the opportunity for brands to be connected with their customers and prospects is set to be closer than ever. Enter relationship marketing.

The goal of relationship marketing is to focus on building stronger loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than on quick, short-term customer acquisition and individual sales. This helps companies develop strong, emotional customer connections to their brands that drive word-of-mouth promotions and lead generation.

Through meaningful customer relationships and conversations, companies  are able to create loyalists and brand advocates. Companies that do relationship marketing well set the bar high for other brands vying for more meaningful connections.

So, how can companies develop community and personalize their outreach efforts? Data. We now have data in easily accessible and interpretable formats through which we can develop strong relationship-marketing plans. In 2016 and beyond, personalized, data-driven marketing will become increasingly important.

Intrusive, mass-target approaches to marketing will slowly dwindle as marketers who focus on relationships grow their businesses. All solid relationships are built on trust. Transparency between customers and brands is essential, so companies must keep this in mind when mapping relationship marketing tactics.

2. Marketing Automation

As marketers today are spending at least 50 percent of their time on content, companies are coming up with more ways to automate marketing. Marketing automation alone is worth $5.5 Billion and is leading the way in lead generation and prospect nurturing.

Using a marketing automation platform makes it easier to schedule emails, segment contacts, automate social media posting, manage your content, and track the lifecycle of customers in your marketing funnel. This automation trend also highlights the growth of convergence, which allows you to stay lean, focused, and as profitable as possible without compromising on quality.

With even more focus on marketing to deliver results, marketing managers and CMOs should be taking stock of their team’s skills, noting the gaps and defining a robust automation strategy to help sales through engaging prospects, qualifying leads, and shortening the overall sales cycle.

3. Ephemeral Marketing

Snapchat is already moving into the space of a “standard marketing platform.” In the upcoming year, marketers will come to understand that Snapchat isn’t just a tool for fun marketing experiments; it’s a platform that users are flocking to in order to digest social media in real time.

In order to deliver integrated campaigns that make constituents feel connected, especially the younger generation of consumers (read: Millennials) you need to be offering exclusive content that has an expiration date. This “less is more,” or ephemeral, marketing is all about communication that’s shorter and more to the point. In a world where people have less and less time, this model works.

Snapchat is the ultimate platform for making consumers feel connected and at the same time, unique. Brands such as ESPN, Vice, and Comedy Central already use it to push their messages to voracious consumers of media. With Snapchat, the advertisement becomes the product – something that competitors won’t be able to ignore. Take advantage of this huge opportunity to connect uniquely using just a small window of your audience’s time. Be organic, speak their language, and just cut to the chase.

4. Search Past Search Engines

With Facebook already working on tests for its own search engine, it seems inevitable that search capabilities will go far beyond Google, Bing, and Yahoo. As search capabilities improve within social media, brands will get an automatic boost. In addition, when buy buttons and payment messaging appear on social in 2016, an all-in-one-type platform will manifest (more convergence).

With advanced search capabilities, integrated payment methods, and the social impact that empowers sites like Facebook and Twitter, consumers will be able to make purchases, chat with their friends about what they bought, and post the social proof of their new purchase. Advanced search will bring a more integrated social experience that expands to the e-commerce realm. If you cater your marketing efforts to this all-in-one, buy-and-share social media search, it’s clear that your brand will realize returns. Make the buying process easier, but also make it an experience.

5. The Internet of Things (IoT)

Wearable technology will see a user adoption rate of 28 percent by 2016 – even more data for marketers to mine. So, will this data be derived from people’s day-to-day habits? It looks that way. Every year from now until the foreseeable future, we’ll see the IoT become a bigger tool that marketers can use to engage with customers.

Maybe this means that ads will soon have the ability target people based on their every move. For marketers, this means that your data will have to become more behavior-driven and, although the power of devices may seem unsettling, you’ll be right on target. At the end of the day, people will what they want.

These game-changing trends should be essential elements in your 2016 marketing plans. By 2017, we’ll have a whole new bag of tricks to share with you – but for now, get ahead, keep thinking ahead, and see how things evolve from there!

To discuss ways you can integrate these elements into your 2016 marketing plan and strategy, please contact CMarie Consulting.

5 Marketing Changes Small Businesses Need to Make in 2016

Whether your marketing is thriving or in maintenance mode, this is the time of year to perform a marketing audit of 2015 to see what’s working and what’s not.  Don’t just put what’s working into overdrive for the New Year, implement these techniques into your 2016 marketing plan!

The upcoming year promises to be a game changer for small business marketing, especially those who have largely skated by with the help of social-media marketing and a decent referral network in place. Indeed, there are a number of immediate changes small businesses can and should make if they want to see skyrocketing growth and success in 2016.

Here are five ways to get started:

1. Focus on relationship marketing.

Forging ongoing, personal relationships with consumers is nothing new. But how that evolves in 2016 goes beyond just being helpful to customers, staying in touch and offering exemplary service. Relationship marketing will see explosive growth in 2016, especially as more consumers turn to their smartphones for shopping reviews and advice.

Focusing on short term wins won’t work in a world where consumers are shifting their focus to ongoing service and relationships with brands and are looking to their peers to see which companies offer the best buying experience.

Take Starbucks, for example. The coffee giant has been quietly mastering the ins and outs of relationship marketing for years, so much so that it’s now a seamless part of their marketing plan. Stores frequently offer afternoon discounts or free cups when you bring in your same-day morning receipt, change up their seasonal drinks and treats based on customer feedback, and offer their online subscribers rare, small-lot Starbucks Reserve coffee delivered fresh to their door.

Your business may not be able to ship free goods to all of its customers, but it’s the thought process here that matters. How can you go above and beyond in the relationships you’ve built with your clientele?

2. Get on board with mobile.

Exploding smartphone usage will impact relationship marketing in 2016. There are officially more searches on mobile than desktops or other devices, and Google has responded accordingly. The search engine now penalizes sites that aren’t optimized for mobile by giving more weight and relevance to those who do.

It may sound harsh, but in reality, Google is simply responding to what consumers actually want. Google knows that mobile now serves as a primary touch point for customers on the path to purchasing. That type of direct feedback and clarity works to the advantage of small businesses. Start thinking like an on-the-go and mobile consumer instead of relying on the same tactics that have been working online for years.

3. Embrace content marketing.

Content marketing has gone from being an emerging trend and buzzword to the mainstream norm. But that doesn’t mean everyone is doing it right. Content marketing should incorporate the philosophies of relationship marketing and mobile in order to succeed. It also requires more robust content than simply throwing together a blog post and adding some links. More businesses now offer video content and free, in-depth white papers and infographics to compete.

Other companies have discovered the hard way what happens when you cut corners.

Back in 2011, the New York Times found that JC Penney paid to have thousands of links point back to the retailer’s website, and incurred a Google penalty as a result. Overstock was also penalized for offering schools and students discounts in exchange for inbound links. Companies may have wised up to paying and inflating their inbound links, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying to take short cuts. Google is working to identify and penalize sneaky mobile redirects that trick consumers into landing on specific content.

Don’t get caught unprepared.

4. Create geo-precise marketing.

Small businesses can officially stop worrying about how to reach every consumer that could possibly want their goods and services: Geo-precise marketing and precision targeting is now leading the pack in consumer marketing. Businesses can use their analytics and purchasing data to identify zip codes that are extra active when it comes to purchasing — or even use IP targeting to narrow down their focus to individual households.

Tools like Google Adwords, Facebook ads and just about any other serious advertising platform offer robust geo-targeting services that help businesses find the perfect consumer — either around the corner or across the globe — based on exactly where your buying power is coming from. By fine tuning their targeting, small businesses can increase their conversions by focusing their landing pages or content marketing campaigns to the geographic norms and preferences in the areas where their consumers are coming from.

5. Keep testing.

The importance of continued testing and experimentation will never change for large corporations and small businesses alike. Make regularly studying your analytics, tweaking your marketing campaign, and testing the results a major part of your evolving marketing plan. The huge time commitment involved in testing may feel out of balance in comparison to actually executing your marketing plan. But failing to test and adjust your plan accordingly is fumbling around in the dark and expecting to find success.

Now that you are aware of the changes small businesses need to make in order to succeed and grow in 2016, let’s discuss how to implement them!  Contact CMarie Consulting to schedule a time to review your marketing plan and strategize for 2016.