Mid 2016 review — 6 digital marketing trends you cannot ignore

• The use of live content
• Instantly loading websites and content on social media
• Personalisation of UX
• Intent over identity. Micro-moments marketing
• Pinterest advertising
• Interactive content

1. The use of live video content

Brands using live videos on their social channels will own the priority real estate within social feeds and will receive higher engagement from fans and followers. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat has already rolled out live video capabilities for everyone and hinted that it will be priority content within their feeds.

Live video streaming apps like Meerkat & Periscope are growing rapidly and giving an opportunity to brands and audiences to live stream videos from their mobiles and share them with social communities.

Marketers can use these apps for New Product Releases, Live Q & A, a Celebrity Takeover, promoting company culture or a behind the scene look.

2. Instantly loading websites and content on social media

Optimisation and speed are touching new heights.Instant Articlesfrom Facebook andAccelerated Mobile Pages(AMP Project) from Google are improving the entire mobile content ecosystem that prioritises speed to provide a faster experience for users.

Download – 6 Digital Marketing Trends You Cannot Ignore

Download

To compete in 2016, your marketing content should load super fast and be easy to explore. Slight delays in your content load times and web performance will leave you with 58% more bounce rate.

3. Personalisation of UX

eCommerce industry today is using personalisation is a big way and it is directly impacting the sales and conversion rates. Through personalised UX, brands can speak directly to a customer’s habits and interests which make them feel special and reinforces a sense of connectedness. UX personalisation can be done by reading the past visits of a customer to the site and tailoring future visits based on his behaviours. Creating an experience unique to each user’s needs will yield several business benefits, such as higher conversion rates and user retention. We can also expect to see more and more marketers and retail stores taking this personalized UX to a mobile platform through the use of beacons, which re-engages an in-store visitor via social media.

4. Intent over identity. Micro-moments marketing

AGoogle reportfinds that we check our phones 150 times per day, which adds up to approximately 177 minutes per day of phone use. Today’s smart consumer turns to his/her mobile device to find information on an immediate basis to arrive at a decision. For instance, you are in a busy marketplace and you want to find the nearest Chinese restaurant that suits your budget. Reflexively, you turn to your smartphone to make the search. Such moments are calledmicro-momentsthat capture intent, context, and immediacy. In these moments, users look for the most relevant and quick information rather than relying on a specific brand.

Brands have to stay ahead of the competition and put themselves right in front of users in these micro-moments in real time. Targeting users simply on the basis of demographic data will not suffice; rather, their intent in the moment has to be captured to send an alert or push notification. Marketing is no longer just getting in front of the right people; instead, it is getting in front of the right people at the right time.

5. Pinterest advertising

Pinterest is poised to become the new digital marketing trend this year. With promoted pins, marketers are already advertising their products and services in beautiful and easy-to-view images on Pinterest.

Moving further in strengthening its advertising platform, Pinterest is alsotesting out promoted video pins. In the past six months,93 percentof Pinterest users have shopped online. This indicates that the platform is dominated by online shoppers. This year, marketers on Pinterest will prepare their pins for successful marketing on the platform.

6. Interactive content

In coming months, the focus of marketers will heavily be on creating high quality, interactive and shareable content. We will witness the diversification of content as brands seek new ways of attracting visitors.

An increasing number of businesses will move towards creating distinctive, authoritative and interactive content. The most creative organizations are also broadening the scope of what content marketing includes. Today new types of content include simple quizzes, calculators, HTML5 infographics, clickable whitepapers, and more. A content arms race has begun, one which places a strong emphasis on audience engagement, participation, and emotional investment rather than views alone.

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