Marketing Trends & Predictions for 2016

In 2015, what marketers did right and where they missed the mark: 

In 2015, marketers understood the importance of mobile. We also observed increased use of videos and images too this year. 

It's said that by 2020, there will be over 5 billion internet users, with over half of them accessing the internet over handheld tablet devices and 80 billion connected devices worldwide! 

With increasing internet users & connected devices worldwide, marketers will push more content to their audience. While some marketers are already overdoing content, good quality content will triumph quantity.

"Storytelling" as a jargon has been used quite a bit  by marketers in 2015. However, not many have mastered the art of storytelling just as yet. Marketers must first understand their audience and what kind of stories they are likely to respond to. It's imperative to build the story in a brand's DNA, amongst its employees, content and finally in the marketing efforts.  

Time & budgets likely to be spent by marketers in 2016

According to Gartner. marketing budgets in 2016 are set to increase on an average to 11% of total company revenue. 

As we saw increased focus of marketers towards mobile and video, it's expected that marketers in 2016 will be $pending heavily on mobile and video. WithGoogle pushing video "micro moments", it will be interesting to see how brands will capitalize on videos. The purchase journey of a consumer has been fragmented into hundreds of micro-moments.

It's important for brands to be present in those moments with relevant, useful videos to establish brand equity and connect with their consumers. 

A study by Web Video Marketing Council says that 96% of B2B marketers are now using video marketing. 

Needless to say, content marketing is set to rise in 2016! As per the Content Marketing Institute (@CMIContent), 51% of B2B companies plan to increase spending in content marketing in the coming year. 

It's the age of data and it makes every spend accountable and measurable which implies analytics will be big in 2016. According to @brandanewco, expenditures on marketing analytics are set to rise by 60%. 

Smart Marketers will also reserve some $$ for organic/earned & engagement! 

Wearable technology & smart devices expected to gain more traction in 2016

As more people strap technology to their wrists, wearable devices are set to become powerful platforms for customer engagement. Wearable devices will give marketers an opportunity to analyse habits, attitudes & behaviour patterns to better serve consumers. 

Healthcare industry will be one of biggest beneficiary of wearables in my opinion. 

A report by @McKinseyDigital states that wearables are set to become $11 trillion market!  

Evolution of Paid v/s Organic 

Convergence of earned, paid and owned media will remain the sweet spot for marketers. Smart marketers will find the right balance between the three that will work for their customers. 

While it is said that paid is taking over organic growth, I believe in the long term organic growth helps build trust and loyalty with the customers and eventually lead to sales. A paid campaign can get you more eyeballs, but organic still has a long tail!  

So, what are your marketing trends and predictions for 2016? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Note: This topic was discussed during the #SocialPowWow Twitter chat and the full transcript can be read here: https://goo.gl/ef1mhx