Gasoline Rainbows

As we usher in the New Year, there will continue to be an evolution in digital marketing. New software, evolving user behavior and a multitude of increasingly engaging online and mobile media channels have made digital marketing increasingly complex. Companies that can keep up with this ever-changing environment will have an advantage over their competition in reaching their audience and optimizing their engagement. Companies looking to claim a decided advantage for their competition should look for the following trends in 2016:

1: On-Site Personalization

Consumers prefer to do business with brands that engage with them on a more personal basis. They tend to interact and purchase more from companies that personalize their shopping experiences. Currently, companies are personalizing email and remarketing but that is expected to expand in 2016. For ecommerce, this means opportunities for personalized site navigation, recommendation engines and personal shopping assistance in a mobile environment. Companies that develop multi-channel strategies that leverage mobile marketing to drive personalization will see revenue increase substantially.

2: Wearable Technology

Consumer wearable technology will continue to grow substantially in 2016. Improvements in battery life and component technology will propel wearables into astronomical growth. Internationally, wearable technology is expected to grow 35 percent per year between 2015 and 2019, which will have a large impact on real-time marketing. The lack of ample screen size and the inability to easily navigate will drive the need for innovation in “small media”. Content will be smaller, shorter in length and use innovation like gestures to navigate. Digital marketers that take advantage of the trends toward wearables will be viewed as innovators who will appeal to the early adopters who set the tone for revenue growth.

3: Location-Based Marketing

Beacon technology exploded in 2015, so much so that it is expected to become mainstream in 2016. Beacons allow brands to detect where a customer is at any given moment within in a given location and then send them push notifications with promotions or other useful information. This technology will drive engagement for marketers trying to win micro-moments in their customer’s purchase journey.

4: Winning the Micro-Moments

As Americans continue to user the phones more frequently to check social media and email, find restaurants in their vicinity, compare products while shopping and make purchases, engagement during these “micro-moments” is critical to purchase and loyalty. According to Google (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/collections/micromoments.html), micro-moments are hundreds of real-time, intent-driven moments throughout the consumer journey augmented by the use of mobile devices. They key to winning these micro-moments is to understand intent along with demographic and location-based information. Expect ecommerce companies to optimize campaigns to take advantage of these micro-moment opportunities

5: Increased Ad Budgets

Digital marketing has grown more competitive and that will likely continue in 2016. Companies are expected to spend $10 billion more on all areas of digital marketing than they did in 2015.

Companies should begin to educate themselves on these and other trends so they can integrate them into their marketing efforts for 2016.