5 Predictions in Digital Marketing to Watch

Digital marketing is not an area where you can kick back and relax for any length of time. Well, you can, but as it moves forward at a mile a minute you will end up getting left behind.

Although things are changing on an almost weekly basis, we decided to have a look at what we expect to happen during 2016.

Predictions in Digital Marketing

The Gap Will Widen Even Further Between Mobile and Desktop

It was no real big surprise when mobile online sales overtook those made on a desktop. What we weren’t expecting was how quickly the gap would widen. It’s set to become a gulf this year as digital marketers are now aiming their campaigns at the mobile market. Desktop shouldn’t be ignored however. It’s still popular, but will never again be the No. 1 platform. When it comes to mobile commerce, the growth numbers are absolutely staggering. For example, according to Goldman Sachs, mobile commerce will be nearly half of ecommerce by 2018.

Video Advertising to Raise the Bar Even Higher

As far as digital marketing is concerned, video is king. People on a global scale are watching millions of videos on YouTube every single day. Facebook is now heavily investing in video ads and Bing is also offering video options to its advertisers. The word on the street is that Google could also be getting involved via in-SERP video ad features. This all adds up to 2016 being the year when video advertising becomes a whole new ball game. Even purists can no longer ignore video as the cutting edge marketing medium. It is now an established component within successful digital marketing campaigns across all industries.

Virtual Reality Moving Ever Closer to Mainstream

Even though all the signs were there, 2015 didn’t turn out to be the year that virtual reality became mainstream. Although we aren’t quite on the cusp of mass adoption, the indicators are all in place that 2016 will be the year it makes a massive leap forward, however.  This is one of the most exciting aspects of digital marketing due to its ability to immerse the consumer within a product or service. This experience gives them a much better idea of what that product or service can actually do for them and how they benefit from buying or using it.

Marketing Based on Location to Reach New Highs

It would be pretty dumb to ignore the massive potential that comes from location based marketing.  Beacon technology is growing quickly and those marketers who know how to use it are already doing so. This is a medium with almost endless possibilities. One of its main features is that it helps brands to plug the gap between online and in person digital marketing. In addition to beacons, a rising technology in location based marketing is called geo-fencing. This new technology allows businesses to send customers extremely targeted messages based on their location to help drive even more personalization in the world of digital marketing.

Placing More Emphasis on Relationship Marketing

Experts believe that this area hasn’t yet skyrocketed due to its actual meaning being somewhat ambiguous. The bottom line is that relationship marketing is essentially a strategy that has been designed specifically to encourage customer interaction, loyalty and engagement in the long term. This occurs through the promotion of open and ongoing communication through personalized campaigns aimed at the individual rather than a mass target.

Conclusion

All things considered, 2016 could be the most exciting year yet in terms of the progress made in digital marketing. We are certainly looking forward to seeing these predictions unfold over the next few years as well as seeing many new technologies arise.

Do you have any predictions in digital marketing you want to share?

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This article, "5 Predictions in Digital Marketing to Watch" was first published on Small Business Trends