Micro Business Marketing Trends For 2016

2016 will be an extra exciting year for all the marketers out there who thrive on new updates

The latest marketing trends are important because they showcase the best new tricks that you can employ through online tools. In the second part of this guide to the changing marketing landscape we will outline what you need to look out for in 2016.

Smart marketers will research and get ahead with the trends, ensuring that their marketing plan is current, up to date and on board with all the latest advancements that software has to offer. Otherwise they will fall behind and will be left with basic developments only, lacking in the exciting cutting edge of current advancements.

The online marketing industry is exciting for anyone who stays on point with the latest trends, so here's what to expect:

With digital ad revenue to reach new heights in 2016, a lot of money will be spent on display advertising. Consideration will be paid to ad blocking, ad viewability and what the future may hold for inappropriately placed ads. New technology is now available for publishers to hide content from those who block ads. Google has announced its aiming for 100 per cent viewable pixels and has changed CPM campaigns so that advertisers will not have to pay for ads not viewed a page.

Correspondingly, Facebook has announced that they will only charge for 100 per cent viewability and will use a third party verification service for video ads. Relating to the future for inappropriately placed ads, look out for Pixalate, a data platform "built specifically to bring transparency to programmatic ad buying", according to Econsultancy.

(2) Digital strategies

Smart insights have predicted that 2016 will be the year people-based marketing options give advisers flexibility and control. Media buyers are being urged to shift as much as 50 per cent of their budgets to fully addressable media options, and brands will also demand people-based marketing options which will substitute cookies/devices with real people to tie in their campaigns.

Another prediction is that marketers will raise technology standards to close the mobile gap. In 2016, you should expect to see marketers explore new ideas using different technology solutions to keep up to date with their connected customers. This is because they previously found it difficult to connect with customers via mobile devices due to things such as cookie-based technologies that didn't work well within the mobile environment. For more information on digital strategies for 2016 take a look at this Smart insights infographic.

Another prediction is that marketers will raise technology standards to close the mobile gap. In 2016, you should expect to see marketers explore new ideas using different technology solutions to keep up to date with their connected customers. This is because they previously found it difficult to connect with customers via mobile devices due to things such as cookie-based technologies that didn't work well within the mobile environment. For more information on digital strategies for 2016 take a look at this Smart insights infographic.

(3) Marketing as a whole

Video ads will continue to dominate. Social channels and YouTube are the obvious platforms for brands to engage with using video. In response to this, Google is beginning to work with in-SERP video advertising.  This will result in more brands using video ad pop-ups in more unexpected places.

App indexing is the next big thing. Although Google has offered this before, due to the complexity of apps increasing as we enter 2016, business owners will now be able to realize the online visibility advantages of a dedicated app. This will soon result in a new explosion of apps, which will in some cases end up replacing websites in the long run.

Finally, "mobile will completely dominate desktop", according to Forbes. Since Google released the "Mobilegeddon" algorithm update in 2015, you no longer need an optimised desktop site in addition to a mobile site.

So as you can see, 2015 offered up some great trends that helped improve the marketing world impeccably, but 2016 will be an extra exciting year for all the marketers out there who thrive on new updates. So look around and do some research – the marketing industry is always exploding with new trends for you to try!

In case you missed the first instalment in this series, which covered changes over the last 12 months, you can catch up here.

If you're after more predictions for the year ahead, discover what serial entrepreneur Hermann Hauser thinks 2016 has in store for innovators.

Source: Micro Business Marketing Trends For 2016