2016 Marketing Trends You Need To Get On Board With
Running a business, be it a home company or major corporation is about knowing how to present yourself on the market. You need to understand the benefits of a successful marketing campaign. Otherwise, you will not be able to earn the support of clients and customers.
The marketing industry is constantly evolving and always moving forward. You need to keep up to date with the latest trends. You must be aware that every step you take in the marketing campaign adds to or diminishes your company image.
This year there has been a greater focus on digital aspects of marketing and online promotion. That said, there are still useful forms of offline marketing that can be effective. Your main focus should always be on separating your business from the crowd of competition. Remember, with the right marketing; a small home business could become a juggernaut in the industry.
Let’s look at some of the most popular marketing trends of 2016 and examine how they could benefit your business.
Augmented Reality
Those hoping for Pokemon GO to start dying down in popularity might be happy to know reports are already coming in that downloads have stopped. It seems that the augmented reality technology the app uses is a passing trend. However, that does not mean that the hype around augmented reality is dying down.
In actuality, business owners are rightfully just starting to appreciate the power of AR. In marketing, you can use AR to show a prototype of a product, to immerse the customer and to bring your marketing campaign to life. As such, it will be key to anyone attending a trade show or to any business owner who hopes to introduce a new product to the market.
You can work with marketing agencies to use this tech to its full potential. It is invaluable to both online companies and high street stores. Just imagine a shop front coming to life in the digital world after a customer pointed their phone at it. Let’s look at another form of technology.
Apps
The dependence that customers have on their phones and tablets is only growing. Every year the average number of times that someone checks their phone throughout the day increases. Most of these times will be spent looking at apps. If your business doesn’t have an app or isn’t connected to one of these digital tools, you’re missing out on a massive marketing potential.
It is simple to get an app set up for your business. You just need to speak to an app developer. They will be able to speak to you about the app functioning and how it could be beneficial for your business. The key to a great app is to make sure that it is easy to use, fun and accessible.
If you don’t have an app, you must make sure that your business website is mobile responsive. This year, a large percentage of your customers will be visiting your website on a mobile device. If they cannot access the website, then you will use that potential sale.
Entertainment Marketing
One could argue that apps are a form of entertainment marketing. Afterall if they are designed the correct way, then they can be fun for people to use. Yet, in 2016 you need to start thinking bigger than apps. You need to begin making your customers a part of the marketing concept. There are lots of ways to do this.
If you have the funds, you may want to set up a live event for customers and clients. It is a brilliant method of gaining interest from new customers and the media. Particularly, if you know how to use social networking to your advantage. You can find more about organizing a live event online from poet.co. Once you have organized the event, you can set about making sure the widest audience knows about it.
You can invite people to attend on social media such as Facebook or Twitter. You can encourage customers to discuss what will be announced at the event with calls to action. If you don’t have the funds to hold an entertainment event, there are other forms of this marketing.
This year, we have seen live feeds grow in popularity with business owners. Live feeds give your customers a real-time interaction with you or your company. In many industries, they are used during a marketing push for a new product. You can use them at any time as long as they are interesting and connect with your target audience. Customers will interact and make the marketing entertainment a success.
Instant Purchases
You may have already started to use buy buttons for your company. Buy buttons can be set up on your website or directly into your social media feed. This is an example of instant purchases marketing. It does not give the customer a chance to consider the purchase.
Instead, they see the product; they see the buy button, and they immediately make the purchase. If you make things this easy for your customers, you will see an increase in sales this year.
Trusted Sources
What are trusted sources in marketing? Trusted sources are people who customers look to before they purchase the product or service. There was controversy recently when it was revealed Warner Brothers paid YouTubers for coverage. You can read more about this story on bbc.co.uk.
However, there are very few companies that are now not paying for some form of marketing from new media. We’re talking about bloggers, YouTubers and anyone writing reviews for products online. If you are working online, you may want to seek out a blogger who shares your target audience.
For instance, you might be selling children’s clothing. In this case, it makes sense to reach out to a parenting blog for the possibility of sponsored content. Sponsored content and paid reviews have become a powerful force in the marketing industry this year.
If you get on board with these trends, you can use them to propel your business to success before the year is out.
