It is that time of the year again; marketers, business owners, and other professionals are reviewing their business efforts for the year, profits maybe, and planning for 2016. A frequent topic is certainly online marketing trends for 2016, since marking trends tend to change.
Whether it is Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Content, or Paid Advertising, marketing trends change with new technologies, search engine algorithm changes, target audience movements, and many other factors.
The question often asked by companies and entrepreneurs is what online marketing trends for 2016 will remain relevant. In short, what will still work moving forward and what methods and tactics need adjustments for 2016.
Content Continues to Lead
It is not much of a surprise that content continues to lead online marketing. Most professionals know this already. Creating regular, unique, relevant, company and brand empowering quality content strengthens the online presence and search rankings of a business. Content develops trust and loyalty, helps the brand become an authority in their niche, and adds credibility. 90% of customers find custom content useful and 78% believe that companies with custom content are interested in building positive relationships with customers and audience. Furthermore, content marketing costs less than traditional marketing, over 60% less per lead.
Video Marketing is Second
Most people and companies do not know that YouTube is the second largest search engines after Google. Video marketing has been growing faster than any other marketing method online. The number of searches on YouTube alone is larger than Bing, Ask.com, Yahoo, and AOL combined. Videos can be easily shared, used in Social Media Marketing (SMM) campaigns, as well as SEO campaigns. Videos are in high demand by consumers too. They love product video reviews and customer reviews in video format. Video marketing will only continue to grow in importance.
Search Engine Optimization is Third
SEO continues to be a cornerstone online marketing strategy of most companies and industries. Search engines are such as critical part of online marketing and SEO is still the best method to gain search engine rankings via organic methods, not by paying for it. With the tremendous amount of long-term benefits and being one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics, SEO remains as relevant in 2016 as it has been in the past.
Fourth is Responsive Design
If a website is not mobile-friendly these days, it is long overdue to upgrade to Responsive Design, which is mobile-friendly website design. Websites that are developed with HTML5 and CSS3 technology are mobile-friendly. They work across all major devices such as smart phones, tablets, and computers. Over 60% of people access the Internet over mobile devices these days. Loosing out on such as high percentage can be devastating to a company.
Ephemeral Marketing is Fifth
For 2016 ephemeral marketing will become much more relevant than ever. Snapchat is one of the leading with ephemeral marketing. It is a great platform to drive promotions, discounts, or any other specific marketing action. It can be very useful to create excitement around a new product or feature. It has a younger generation of user-base, which many companies have capitalized on.
