The marketing world of 2016

min read

The Marketing World of 2016

The Marketing World of 2016

Thank you for choosing us as your guide to the world of marketing in 2016. We are no fortune tellers, but we do know marketing. So without further ado, let’s welcome 2016 with all the good things it will bring.

Influencer/relationship marketing will no longer be a buzzword

65 percent of marketers participate in the influencer marketing space according to a study by Tomoson. It goes on to say that businesses are making $6.50 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. With this level of ROI, we predict that in 2016 marketers will be spending even more on it, especially around holiday campaigns.

The reason why influencer marketing works is because the audience is built around transparency. For a consumer to believe in content, they need to perceive it as trustworthy. The same study (released in May 2015) revealed that 84 percent of marketing and communications professionals worldwide expected to launch an influencer campaign within the next 12 months. Today the consumers are the storytellers. Most social influencers are regular people with blogs and social media who share their personal experiences which resonate with people. The audience can identify with them and believes in their authenticity, thus allowing them to influence buying decisions. Marketers will focus on developing their relationship with influencers to harness the thrust of the influencer’s network.

Mobilegeddon will stay behind in 2015

2015 brought a lot of changes within mobile marketing mainly because of Google’s announcement that mobile traffic finally overtook desktop traffic in 10 different countries. They also released the “Mobilegeddon” algorithm update that phased out sites not optimised for mobile. Something worth noting is that you actually don’t need an optimised desktop site in addition to a mobile version—simply a mobile-only site with no desktop counterpart is perfectly acceptable to Google. So hopefully we will see the much-anticipated increase of mobile marketing.

Despite the hype around mobile marketing, most respondents to the a 2015 lead generation survey  (45%) reported that they were not sure what role mobile marketing will play in their strategies, and 18% said they weren’t interested. Only 6% said that they were already heavily engaged in mobile marketing. However, current research shows that advertisers are willing to spend more money on mobile. This money will be spent not only on optimising advertising, but on social media, content, and UX. Hence, we predict that in 2016 more brands will be coming out with their own apps, more money will be spent on mobile ads, the popularity of mobile loyalty programs will increase, and payments via mobile phones will continue to rise steadily.

An explosion of apps

Google and others now offer app indexing, but 2016 will be the year more business owners realise the advantages of a dedicated app. Our predication is that apps will begin to replace mobile-optimised websites as they offer a more intuitive, convenient and accessible experience than mobile-friendly websites. Furthermore, with more than 250M consumers now using ad-blockers it will help marketers to once again reach targeted audiences. Apps will help marketers to move their ad budgets towards more app-building, native advertising and influencer marketing, and other innovative opportunities.

The year of personalised automation

For us at Demodia, 2015 introduced us to SharpSpring. We can’t remember what marketing  was like before we got it. And it seems like in 2016 more marketers will be taking up productivity apps and automation tools. Automation means more time to create influential content for consumers, which in turn means happier and engaged audiences. It is true that in the past mass personalisation has been worked into certain marketing initiatives, but in 2016 all channels of communication and touch points will be personalized, at scale.

The new it couple: CMOs and CEOs

Marketing is constantly changing but the essentials remain the same: to deliver more qualified leads to sales. In 2016 we predict that marketing departments will take on more of the sales team’s responsibilities and increase the qualified leads they deliver. CMOs and CEOs will become more aligned. We believe that CEOs will finally start prioritising marketing and allocating more budget to make the strategy accomplish overall corporate growth. Marketers will create and deploy sales email templates, manage referral programs and their leads, create customer programs for cross-selling, and upsell to existing customers.

Data for everyone and everything

So far proving ROI has been one of the major issues for marketers. Brace yourselves, it will be easier in 2016. Advancements in technology, applications, and tracking will give us more data on demographics and individual customers than ever before. Tracking human behaviors, trends and interests will become easier with the increased use of “smart” technology.  In particular, when it comes to wearable technology additional location information will allow us to target audiences better and more accurately. The data will be used to create more personalised experiences for users. More data means improved targeting and an ability to keep better track of ROI.

Real-time, customer oriented content is here for the long run. Attention spans are shortening, and the amount of messages thrown at consumers each second is growing. Using social media, influencers, apps, and automation will be the way that marketing will deliver content and value to customers during 2016.

So, they were our predictions, what do you think will be the in trends for marketing during 2016?