Digital marketing has undergone major makeovers in the past few years. Your brand success in 2016 depends on two aspects- A. knowing the marketing trends and B. consistently applying them and creating unique consumer experiences. As a digital marketer, keeping up with ever changing trends is a job in itself. We’re here to help.
The rise of content marketing
Companies running an active blog generate 67% more leads on a monthly basis compared to those who don’t blog. Content marketing strategies will continue unabated in the upcoming months.
Blooming marketing analytics
Marketers are already using dozens of analytics tools to keep a track of engagement and business performance on digital platforms. Expenditures on marketing analytics are set to rise by over 60%. Market data will become crucial in any brand endeavor and customer acquisition tactics. Companies are all set to utilize the vast information and content pool created online by consumers. Decision making in an overload of information and content, will be led by real data and not mere instinct.
More videos
The use of videos for marketing purposes has been steadily growing. Videos are a perfect way to show how a product works. Brands have started focusing on video content more than their text-only content strategy. Videos allow for greater engagement, lower site bounce rates and also showcase product usage in multiple scenarios. Browsing through their social media timelines, consumers are more likely to get attracted to a video advert that immediately grabs attention. We do expect to see a lot more ‘how to’ or inspirational brand videos for some years. Social media driven videos whether on Facebook, Vine, or Instagram are likely to go up as well. Video traffic growth has been shared by Cisco in its reporting stating:
It would take an individual over 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2019. Every second, nearly a million minutes of video content will cross the network by 2019. Globally, consumer internet video traffic will be 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2019, 79% in 2018, and 74% in 2016 up from 64 percent in 2014.
Humanization is the new automation
The only way to make consumers interact with content, is personalization. Offering personalized content means sharing relevant and knowledge based posts to offer a solution to consumers. Companies that have been making an effort to humanize their content strategy, have been able to:
a) increase sales,
b) inspire users to stay longer on their websites &
c) foster customer satisfaction
It’s important here to note that personalization requires companies to first know their consumers well. This may well begin by drawing out buyer profiles and knowing consumer demographics, and behavioral preferences. One size definitely does not fit all!
Storytelling
How do you stand out when the entire industry is focusing on churning out relevant content? You simply ditch the conventional and try something unexpected – storytelling. Unique storytelling techniques are the most sought requirements laid down by leading brands. Perfect for driving in engagement and nurturing leads, stories help brands align consumers to the emotional core of the brand. A mix of visual and contextual storytelling inspires emotions in consumers and increases trust.
Micro targeting
Targeting niche audience sizes and making use of data led advertising tools bringing in more effective results from campaigns. Targeted campaigns are two times more effective than non-targeted one size fits all campaigns. A study suggests that retargeted display ads inspire a lot more people to search for the product. It comes as no surprise that businesses are making targeting strategies more elaborately than ever. Facebook and Instagram allow marketers to really delve deep into the various options to select the right users, definitely allowing brands to spend their dollars wisely.
Online advertisements
Internet advertising is expected to rise by 10% on a global rate. Mobile ads will grow by a whooping 45% and online ad expenditure is set to rise through the year. With organic reach on platforms like Facebook taking a nosedive, and Google ad-words consistently becoming more expensive, it comes as no surprise. Sure organic branding and growth is one way to go, but targeted paid advertising is definitely allowing firms to expand their consumer acquisition at a faster rate.
