To be honest, not much has really changed! Sure, if you look at the real cutting-edge developments you’ll find plenty of high tech solutions that will revolutionize digital marketing. As these are generally only affordable by fat corporations, they’ll take years to filter down to small businesses so I’ll worry about them down the line. However, for those of us on a modest plan, there’s still an exhaustive list of trends to keep up with.
Content Marketing really came to prominence in driven primarily by Google. Changes to Google search algorithms meant an increased ability to search on more complex key phases and, therefore, the opportunity to provide answers in our content. Creating online articles that address the needs of your target addressees has become a key driver for most marketing strategies.
As we all get to grips with co-creation the challenge is getting noticed in this vast sea of information. Given the degree of content being published every day the trend is towards less and more niche content. Seems we all have the attention span of an ant, so shorter articles of more niche content is required to keep us engaged.
Social Media in its various forms has been making the New Year’s trend predictions for some years as networks come, go and evolve. There are many benefits to how we use the technology, yet more and more often social makes the headlines for its negative aspects.
For some years now marketers have been told they must have a social strategy, and for some businesses, social media has worked well. Yet for many more, there is limited evidence of ROI. For the first time in the time of marketing trend predictions suggest that this is now recognized.
There’s no suggestion that society should be ignored, but, it’s about making it part of an omnichannel strategy. You’ll need to keep abreast of the constant growth and fashion and understand who is using what. Make sure you know which apps are relevant to your target audience and which are not.
Omnichannel is another buzzword that’s been bounced around in 2016. It’s about creating a seamless customer experience, regardless of the marketing channel or mechanism. As the accent on customer experience grows, this is likely to be a term we continue hearing for some years to come. And, of course, as technology develops the greater the number of channels that necessitate being co-ordinated.
As opposed to multi-channel marketing, omnichannel puts the customer at the heart of the strategy. so it’s important to allow flexibility across devices and recognize how customers use technology.