It's that time of year again! Time to sit back and analyze the dumpster fire year of 2016, and how we can optimize our marketing strategies going forward.
When we talk about emerging digital marketing trends, we need to identify two things.
We'll start with the trends themselves and how they affect our expectations.
We've been seeing it for a while: people tend to avoid talking to people. If we do talk to people, we prefer to stay behind the safety of a screen. But we don't want to not talk to people, either. Are you confused? I'm confused.
We want the convenience, understanding, and care that other people show us. But we also want to solve problems ourselves. That's why we love chatbots and smart automation. We feel like we're accomplishing something on our own, while receiving the intimate attention we'd usually get from people.
We're looking for connection without commitment - Human-But-Not.
You've heard of virtual reality. It's been in the works for a decade, and VR headsets look to be a major Christmas hit this year. Virtual, augmented, and mixed realities are becoming a part of everyday life. Pokémon GO gave us the first large-scale taste over the summer.
More and more, people rely on tech to enhance (or make sense of) the world around them. Digital experiences certainly impact our physical lives - "reality" and the Internet are no longer separate entities. The digital world now permeates the physical world. They're inseparable, especially for younger generations.
The melding of physical and digital means we expect real time digital updates - live content.
The speed of the Internet has done interesting things to our brains. Our attention spans are tiny, we're driven by instant gratification, and we're quick to adapt to rapidly emerging technologies. Everything is fast quick go go go.
Modern Internet users expect content to change rapidly from minute to minute. Twitter posts have a half life of maybe twenty minutes. We want
Anything else is too slow. Did you know if your website takes more than two seconds to load, you're losing half your potential audience? Fun fact: Google once implemented a 30-result search option, which increased its load speed by half a second. That alone made traffic drop by 20%.
We have connected digital and physical environments providing live content. This interconnectedness spans across all of our devices - even those you'd never expect.
Digital cameras can now upload photos to social media. Coffee makers can connect to apps. You can automatically save everything on your phone to cloud storage. Now, it's almost more shocking if a device doesn't connect to an app or website.
Voice commands, motion, online body language, GIFs, emoji, memes - modern people communicate in some odd ways. Oxford's 2015 Word of the Year was this emoji:
We're also in constant communication with someone or something (whether we know it or not):
Devices use fingerprint recognition. Phones "wake up" at the sound of your voice, or when you pick them up. We learn about people on the other side of a screen based on what they search, view, and download. Facebook serves ads based on your Amazon activity. Creepy.
New generations are more inclined to share and rent products, services, and information. Ownership is not on the priority list.
Companies like Google, Uber, Facebook, and Airbnb have been so successful because they allow access without demanding ownership. Google provides information, Uber - transportation, Facebook - communication, Airbnb - real estate.
Standard is out. Customization is in. People want to feel understood, unique, and cared for. And younger generations are willing to take the hit to their privacy to receive that special treatment. This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing - it's simply the new reality.
As with all things marketing, your approach should cater to your unique audience. How you apply the following advice will vary based on your prospects' goals, challenges, and preferences.
Reuse, transform, and optimize your content.
Silos were never a great idea. It's time to break them down to make both teams more effective.
Marketing channels do not exist in isolation. Analyze past and current data to make channels work together to increase ROI.
Video has become the medium of choice for all generations. 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others, and 75% of executives watch work-related videos at least once a week.
This year, Oxford's favorite word is "post-truth." It's become painfully obvious that we make decisions not based on facts - but on how we feel about those decisions. Creating an experience that resonates with your prospect should be top priority.
I think we can all agree on that. These shifts that affect our marketing are also affecting the economy, social constructs, global relationships, and how we engage with the people around us.
Here are some of my outlandish predictions for the next few years:
What are your predictions for 2017 and beyond?