Digital marketing trends for 2016 - 2017 - your thoughts
In any case, I have just read another article on Smart Insights which is a bit of an eye opener.
Some of these trends they are calling Mega Trends, which really is just a catchy word as we don’t really know if they will catch up just yet. But in the interests of staying competitive and in the know it’s well worth a read of this interesting article.
Here’s the breakdown of the information.
Firstly, the first part of the article asks readers to vote on what marketing activity they think will give businesses the biggest lift in leads, after voting for Content Marketing, here are the current stats:
- Big Data - 20.53%
- Content Marketing 19.01%
- Marketing automation - 12.55%
- Mobile marketing - 9.6%
- SMM - 7.7%
- Conversion rate optimisation - 7.22%
- IoT - 4.47%
- SEO - 3.9%
- Wearables - 3.52%
- Paid search marketing - 3.23%
- Online PR - 2.28%
- Communities (branded niche or vertical communities - 2.28%
- Partnerships - 1.62%
- Display advertising - 1.05%
- Other - 1.04%
Here’s now some of the five trends in marketing that the article suggests that business should consider in 2017:
Megatrend 1 - Smartphone adoption
This probably a no rbainter but there is a massive surge in smartphone adoption making it a super trend in the coming year. Asia / Pacific has a massive increase in users making it a tremendously profitable area to focus on. While all other areas have seen a significant increase. (The article has a great table to show you the trend).
There is a big increase in the mobile time spent on apps, increase of Facebook users on mobile and also an increase in the amount of searches on mobile.
Megatrend 2 - Messaging app popularity.
Think Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, these are all popular and continue to grow.
Megatrend 3 - Using AI to engage with customers
Using artificial intelligence in apps isn’t new however this is going to increase over the coming year. Google has assisted technology and the idea of ‘helping’ consumers which personalised interactive communication is gathering momentum.
Megatrend 4 - Marketing clouds and automation
Cloud technology has been growing in popularity as people get more and more aware of the service and the possible technology integrations. Cloud technology including automation will be a continuing trend in 2017.
Megatrend 5 - Customer data platforms and predictive analytics
More automated grading based algorithms will emerge especially in the area of fraud in the financial services markets as cyber crime quickly becomes one of the biggest issues in the online world.
Megatrend 6 - Mobile marketing and cross-device optimisation
Tailoring experience for a range of devices using adaptive design.
Megatrend 7 - Content and inbound marketing
This isn’t really a surprise, the importance of content marketing continues to grow and the trend suggests we will see more growth in this area in 2017.
Megatrend 8 - Digital transformation and change management
Digital transformation and the adoption by business of mobile and digital devices will continue in 2017. Smaller business and startups will move over to this change and focus on digital marketing.
Megatrend 9 - Lifecycle marketing optimisation
This is the integrated, data-driven approach to improving interactions with customers on different devices, focusing on a multi-step, multi-channel process.
The article is well worth a read, see it here http://www.smartinsights.com/managin...nds-2016-2017/
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison