With the dawn of each new year, comes the interest and speculation surrounding the preceding year’s trends, and subsequently, what we can expect for the year to come.
From the most liked photo on Instagram (congrats Kendall Jenner) to Triple J’s hottest 100 countdown or the best cat videos of 2015 (hey, whatever takes your fancy) – everyone loves a list. And more importantly, it’s about what you can learn from said lists that help you shape strategy in the year to come.
And of course, it’s no different for the marketing industry. Content marketing, marketing automation and big data – the top three rated (in order from highest ranking) digital marketing techniques for 2015 according to Smart Insights. But how will that change in 2016 and what does it mean for your business?
We recently took part in a conversation on the topic hosted by Smart Insight’s Dave Chaffey and thought you might appreciate an insight into what went down.
The top marketing and digital media trends & predictions for 2016
Trend #1 – Marketing automation
20.1% of a global audience surveyed by Smart Insights suggests that marketing automation is the number one technique that will most increase their commercial returns in 2016. However, surprisingly, only 7% suggest they were doing what was necessary to get the most out of their marketing automation tools.
Sound familiar? If so, take heart in that you’re not alone. But let’s look at why that happens.
Well, success = people, process & tools. And for more than 50% of those surveyed, people factors such as encouraging the adoption of sales and marketing automation tools is the number one hurdle.
So how can you get around this in 2016? Rather than simply paying for a new solution and hoping that’s all there is to it, it’s really about ensuring you’ve got the most effective processes in place and the right people on board to implement them too.
Trend #2 – Content marketing
Did you know? 71% of businesses were creating more content in 2015 than 2014? Good content has the ability to drive leads and sales and with more people buying in, more content is being created.
But…
That being said, 50% of articles only receive 8 shares online or less. As such, Smart Insights predicted the year to come would see greater discussion of content shock (i.e. did you know that only 50% of articles get 8 shares or less? Kind of shocking, right?) Why? The amount of content produced often creates an increase in the difficulty for brands to have their content found, let alone read or shared – i.e. the ability to cut through the noise.
And when considering content creation from an SEO perspective, it’s still an incredibly powerful tool, however it does still rely on having the right kind of content, external links etc. To help you find better value for your content marketing strategy, including its use to drive SEO, you might also like to read about 5 content marketing myths, busted!
So while marketing automation and content marketing might have switched positions on the trends’ poll from 2015 to 2016, they still remain the top two key areas expected to have the greatest commercial impact this year. Of course, the list continues with:
- Big data
- Mobile marketing or “mobilegeddon” – your website MUST be mobile friendly in 2016. ‘Nuff said.
- CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation
- Social media marketing
- SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
- Wearables
- Online PR
- Paid search marketing
Of course, if we can help you develop better marketing and digital media strategies for your business in the year to come, we’d love to chat! You can always give us a call on (02) 9994 8005 or drop us a note.
