2016 Digital Trends to Watch

Updated January 12, 2023

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Digital marketing (and SEO) moves at an alarming speed. There are new advances such as emerging technology, refinement of data collection, and organic search criteria… all affecting how users interact with their devices and find information. For website owners and entrepreneurs, many of 2016’s digital trends are all about catering to how your customers – or wannabe customers – access your information. Taking advantage of mobile micro moments means you’re adapting and positioning yourself as a leader, for example.

There are a lot of “tells” that give you an indication of which way your customers are heading and how to anticipate their next need. When you’re planning where your marketing time should be spent in the next year, it’s a good idea to see where the biggest advances came in the year before. Sometimes that means taking stock of which mediums produced the best conversions. Sometimes it’s simply judging where all of the big providers, like Google, are putting their advancement efforts.

2016 Digital Trends to Watch

• Video. Video content has something spectacular to offer if you haven’t been paying attention (Unbounce reported an 80% conversion rate on video content). Adding video to landing pages and advertising is not something that’s going away any time soon and the rewards are definitely worth the time and effort in implementing.

• Content. Content is always key. It always has been and it will continue to be the most important driving factor in your digital marketing campaigns. There are relatively few tricks to this – the quality needs to be high and you need to offer value to your ideal audience. Your content’s format may depend on demographic or platform. Having visual appeal as well as substance contributes to content marketing engagement.

• Linking. Marketers were worried over the death knell of linking due to the change in Google’s Algorithm. Though essentially what Google has done is to help sites with credible linking strategies prosper while black hat marketers can no longer up their organic results with less-than-ethical practices. Link building is still a stellar and pinpointed way to attract your ideal audience, as long as it’s done by following search engine guidelines.

• Mobile, Mobile, Mobile. With the AMP Project and other advances in mobile marketing, it’s quite clear that mobile usage will continue to grow. And Google has sent clear signals that websites that aren’t providing a quality mobile experience will suffer in organic search. If trends continue, mobile usage will eclipse desktop. Mobile optimization practices are no longer smart, they’re essential.

• Social Media. There are some indications that social media platforms are waning in growth, that doesn’t mean they’ve declined, it may mean they’re just peaking. What is expanding is the use of paid advertising, such as Facebook’s option to Boost posts. There are also some indications that smaller social media sites offer better reach to niche markets. Consider alternative media channels, as they be well worth your time and effort.

How Will 2016 Digital Trends Impact Your Strategy

At this point in the year, it’s likely that your marketing strategy and plan is firmly in place. Though there’s always time to make small changes and adjustments.  How will you tweak your marketing to take advantage of these trends?

photo credit top: See-ming Lee
photo credit body: opportplanet