Top 6 Technology Trends Shaping Up Digital Marketing In 2016
Technology has always been a guardian angel to marketing activities and the contemporary digital marketing scene itself is a cutting edge by-product of technological advancements in the modern era. From website developments to realization of mobile apps to dominance of search engines over the web world- several technological aspects have shaped up the avenue of digital marketing over time. The year 2016 dawned with the arrival of further technological advancements and trends which are playing quite a role in the contemporary digital marketing activities. Here goes a sneak-peek into the technological trends that are dominating online marketing this year.
Rising importance of Big data analytics
With almost everybody taking to the web for almost every activity, ranging from communication to shopping to education to watching movies to tuning into favorite tracks, the online space is overwhelmed with Big Data. No wonder, the smart digital marketers are increasingly taking to Big Data analytics to gather information about target niche that help them to predict the actions and expectations of their potential audience. The reliance on Big Data for digital marketing gained momentum last year and 2016 is only furthering the trend for better. The development of new and smarter search filters that remove content clutter on web has even refined the process of Big Data analysis for virtual marketing activities. Around 65% of digital marketers today have agreed on the importance of this analytics in ensuring a competitive edge across the market.
Mobile optimization of websites
In the words of Ehab Heikal, the owner of leading Egyptian web development company Elmotaheda - "with mobile traffic overtaking desktop traffic on a large scale, we advise all our clients to go for responsive websites so that their business platforms can be viewed easily from the small screened devices as well." The whole online world is increasingly getting "smart" where people are taking to browsing activities even while on the go which only makes it mandatory to optimize websites for mobile devices. Google has already announced that the mobile traffic has finally scored over the desktop traffic niche in 10 countries.
Dedicated app adoption
This point is in close connection with the point mentioned above. Yes, the trend of responsive websites has started to gain momentum but 2016 also shows increasing inclination to dedicated apps for individual businesses, keeping in mind the growth of "smartphone" crowd. And why not? After all, the apps are able to do everything viable with websites and that too in more convenient, intuitive & accessible ways. No, apps have not completely replaced the big websites but the businesses are developing the app versions alongside websites to ensure an easier reach to the masses. The whole idea of marketing is to assure a faster and effective reach to the target niche and apps are a great channel here.
Virtual reality gaining ground
Virtual Reality is certainly one of the most important buzzword in 2016 tech scene, especially given the release of Oculus Rift and VR is playing an important role in contemporary digital marketing sphere as well. It has led to the evolution of a new channel of digital advertising, with its integration to major social networking portals, video channels as well as direct messaging. The bottom-line of any marketing campaign is to make the channel engaging and pulling for the users and Virtual Reality is a refreshing take on that.
Podcast ads
With around 46 million Americans listening to podcasts a month, the podcast series programs have come up as a potential ground for digital marketing, assuring a wider exposure for the companies given such a huge audience. Big shots like Casper and Squarespace have already taken to podcast ads to promote their marketing messages and many other companies are following suit.
Optimization for digital assistants
"Yes, SEO is always important but given the rise of digital assistants such as Siri or Cortana, today I am suggesting my clients to optimize websites for digital assistants", remarked Victor Smushkevich, the CEO of Los Angeles SEO company Smart Street Media. The smartphone users are constantly taking to these digital assistants for information while browsing online from their phones and hence the businesses are readily optimizing their data for these digital assistants so that they can stay visible to the great chunk of mobile traffic.
2016 has already reached to its mid quarter and we can expect a steady continuation of these trends in digital marketing for the following half as well.
