Download Digital Marketing Trends

Digital
Marketing
Trends
16’
Table of
Contents
Introduction
03
Digital Display Advertising
05
Content Marketing
07
Search Marketing
12
Marketing Analytics
15
Marketing
in 2016,
How Will It
Be Different?
In the ever evolving world of digital, marketers must continuously
update their game plan. Enhancing the customer experience at
every touch point has rarely been more important so let's begin
with useful tips for a successful 2016.
Introduction
1
2
3
Have a restless nature. Effective marketers have a restless nature. They love to question, challenge
and relentlessly debate things to push the envelope. Sometimes that means tactics for a mobile ad
campaign, the latest Google updates and how it will impact local SEO, or sometimes it simply means
discussing lunch options. (Does anyone else have endless debates about lunch besides us?)
Keep it interesting. Marketing is easy, but good marketing can be tough. The only way to make good
marketing is to strategize, implement, learn, and repeat. Things become boring and stale without
constantly testing new ideas, products, concepts, and disproving outdated best practices. No one
likes boring and stale.
Reach the right person at the right time. Audiences are more fragmented than ever. Five years ago,
only crazy people talked to their watches; now people can actually buy products using an Apple
Watch. Understanding the customer’s path to purchase and matching the message to that path is
critical. Most successful campaigns include multiple messages, and a clear understanding of a
consumer journey to purchase. This isn’t a one message fits all world anymore.
“ The only way to make good marketing easier is to
strategize, implement, learn, and repeat ”
Let's dive into trends and predictions for digital display marketing, the quickly growing arena of
content marketing, the ever-changing search marketing landscape, and finally the importance of
tracking and measuring everything.
Introduction | 04
Digital
Display
Advertising
Digital Display
A Managed Approach to
Programmatic Ad Buys
Today, a growing number of businesses place digital ad buys
without even talking to a human. In fact, programmatic ad
buys attributed to 59% of digital ad spend in 2015, according
to eMarketer. What is programmatic ad buying anyway? It is
simply the process of automating the media buys on an
exchange platform. Audience target, price, and location are
input and a computer algorithm does the rest. This type of
media buying and selling comes with its share of issues, such as
poor data sources and quality. In 2016, businesses should
consider managed programmatic ad buys.
How is Managed
Programmatic Buying
Different?
Programmatic buying is similar to a plane on autopilot. Autopilot is great and seems simple, but occasionally you have to—and
should—take control. Sometimes a campaign will perform better
with a human’s touch and real-world learned information. This
blended approach is known as managed programmatic
buying. Part of a managed programmatic approach is taking
full advantage of the data. First part data, information collected by the website publisher, provides the highest quality data
and deepest understanding of consumer behavior. This tangible understanding of buyer intent that first party data provides
is fundamental to building successful ad campaigns.
Trends for 2016
A managed approach to programmatic buying will allow an
ad campaign to reach the right people at the right time more
often, preventing waste. In 2016, marketing dollars can – and
should be - spent more efficiently and effectively. The value of
first party data collection and implementation is no longer a
futuristic concept. It’s here. This year, work smarter and seek to
make the most ROI from ad dollars and reach customers in
new and better ways.
Digital Display | 06
New Year,
New Insights:
Content
Marketing
2016
Content Marketing
Content Marketing in 2015 was about getting introduced to the concept, getting buy-in from the
executives, marketers wrapping their head around what kind of content they should be producing,
and figuring out how to measure ROI.
Now that the “shiny object” of the
marketing world has had a year to
settle in, it’s time to get smarter, more
efficient and produce more results
with content marketing in 2016. Right
now, 80% of B2B organizations and
76% of B2C organizations say they
are implementing content marketing
However, only 30% of those B2B’s and
38% of those B2C’s say that it’s been
effective. Out of this group, only 44%
of marketers say they understand
what a successful content marketing
program should look like.
as part of their overall strategy.
That’s Fantastic
That’s not so good
Now that the “shiny object” of the marketing world has had a
year to sele in, it’s time to get smarter, more efficient and
produce more results with content marketing in 2016.
Knowing this, what does effective content marketing look like in 2016? And how can we move the needle
forward in terms of more marketers understanding what goes into a good content marketing program?
Content Marketing | 08
Content Marketing
Here’s a quick guide
to help businesses
navigate content
marketing in 2016.
1
Understand your audience.
Let’s face it; too much content right now is created on a hunch. Businesses can’t afford to
create things on a hunch. As marketers, we may have marvelous ideas for content that we
think will meet the needs of customers, but ideas alone don’t mean that something will work.
Backing up ideas with data is imperative. We need to show that our brilliant ideas align with
the needs of our actual target audiences.
Who is researching or buying your product or service? What kind of content have consumers
engaged with the most in the past? You should be looking at your social interactions, number
of views, time spent on the content, downloads, form fills, and most importantly, your Google
Analytics. What did people do after they read your content? That will tell you a lot about what
your content efforts are doing for you and what kind of content you should be creating.
2
Look at your buyer’s journey and stick to that funnel.
As your customers move from the awareness phase, to consideration, to conversion and then
finally to advocacy, what information is important for them to read, see, or hear to keep them
moving through that funnel? Know what those messages need to be and craft content that is
addressing each step of that journey.
Content Marketing | 09
Content Marketing
3
Document your plan and strategy.
Statistics tells us that most marketers don’t typically have a documented strategy. In fact, only
32% of B2B marketers and 37% of B2C marketers have their content marketing strategy
documented.
The rest are just winging it.
Those who have a documented content marketing strategy yield better results from their
content marketing tactics, social media platforms and paid methods of distribution. Your plan
doesn’t have to be fancy, but it has to be created and documented, even a few months at a
time. As Ben Franklin famously said, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” Wise words, Ben.
Don’t be that marketer.
4
Meet regularly about your content marketing efforts.
“But we have the plan documented and we know what we are going to do already, do we
really need to meet more?”
Yes, yes you do.
Effectiveness of content marketing programs is greater among teams that meet more
frequently. 61% of the most effective B2B marketers and 55% of the most effective B2C
marketers meet daily or weekly. It can be just a quick touch point in person, a phone call or
even a video conference. This will help keep everyone on the same page, figure out what is
or isn’t working, and give the team opportunities to optimize current campaigns.
Not sure where to start? See point number one.
5
Re-evaluate, revamp and test your distribution tactics.
So you’ve written some brilliant content pieces. Kudos…but that’s only half the battle. How are
you actually planning to get people to the content? Are you utilizing social media platforms?
Search engine marketing tactics? Native advertising? Your content distribution should include
both organic and paid tactics.
To determine where and how you’re going to distribute your content, make sure you understand where your customers consume their content. Is it Instagram? Email? YouTube? One of
the biggest issues content marketers run into is that they try to be all things to all people in all
places. Hone in on your sweet spot, do testing on different platforms, and understand where
your customers like to engage with you.
Content Marketing | 10
Content Marketing
6
Implement video.
This isn’t simply a suggestion; it’s a demand from your consumers.
As it stands now, 78% of people watch videos online every week and 55% of people watch
videos online every day.
What does this mean for businesses? People want to engage with video almost more than any
other type of content. For example, using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open
rates by 19%. It increases click-thru rates by 65%. And perhaps the biggest one of all… sites that
include video have on average an extra two-minute dwell time compared to sites that don’t.
Those aren’t stats that you can ignore.
No matter if the video is extremely high quality or a super low-res, real-time video, consumers’
appetite for watching something visual is undeniable.
7
Engage influencers to help with your content marketing efforts.
Consumers today are overwhelmed with information from all different angles. Choices
between services and products are endless; it can be hard for businesses to cut through all the
noise and really speak to their desired consumer. When making buying decisions, consumers
(either consciously or subconsciously) often look to people they recognize and trust to help
guide them in the right direction.
Because of this, it’s so important for marketers to partner with influencers in their industry to
help create credibility and brand stickiness with consumers. Influencers can help build
relationships with a brand, create great content and increase the reach of a business’ content.
Not sure where to start? Ask an influencer to create a guest blog for your company, interview
them on relevant topic in your industry, ask them for quotes, or partner with an influencer for a
video series.
Content Marketing | 11
8 Trends
in Search
Marketing That
Will Shape 2016
Landscape
Search marketing, the process of gaining visibility from search
engines through both paid and unpaid efforts, is staged for tremendous growth and evolution in 2016. According to eMarketer, spending on paid search is projected to increase more than 10% from
2015 meaning that businesses and marketers will spend 28.4 million
dollars in paid search advertising. The primary reason this medium
continues to demand its share of advertising dollars is because of its
ever evolving capabilities. Looking forward to 2016, here are 8
trends that will impact this evolution
Search Marketing
Mobile First
More searches are happening on mobile devices than they are on desktops and because of this
many advertisers have already adopted a
mobile first strategy. A mobile first strategy turns
a greater ROI since mobile users are further
along in the buying cycle and more likely to
convert. The 2016 spend forecast for search is
28.43 million, 17.87 million of that is mob ile
search. This same mobile first strategy is equally
important as it relates to SEO. Just recently
Video Content
With Google’s purchase of TrueView and their
experimentation of video search results, the
presence of video content on a site will be
increasingly important in an overall search
strategy. In 2016 video is predicted to outpace
written content as it relates to reach, effectiveness, engagement and overall ROI.
Google announced that a desk-top specific site
isn’t necessary and that mobile optimization will
increasingly become more important.
Digital Assistants
Cortona, Siri and Google Now speak our
language. But the way that people search with
28.43m
digital assistants is very different than text
search. In 2016, long-tail keyword queries that
are similar to how people actually speak will
place an integral part in a sound search strategy.
WEB SEARCH
Micro Moments
17.87m
Because mobile has fundamentally changed the
way we seek information in real-time, intent
driven micro-moments allow brands to shape
consumer decisions and behaviors. Consumers
expect brands to deliver exactly what they are
MOBILE SEARCH
searching for in that moment. Advertisers that
adapt and create a strategy around these
The 2016 spend forecast for search is 28.43
million, and 62% of that is mobile search
micro-moments stand to shorten the path to
conversion and win the consumer in the moment.
Search Marketing | 13
Search Marketing
Audience Integration
Previous methods of PPC targeting were limited
to intent and geographic location only. But late in
Conversion Tracking
2015 Google introduced “customer match” and
that has been a game changer. This capability
Conversion rate is the optimal indicator of
allows advertisers to target a specific audience
success for marketers, advertisers and content
based on audience profile information. When
creators. This metric, when applied to search,
you layer audience targeting with intent and
can provide more insight into a campaigns
geography, ads become more relevant resulting
performance. Although click through rates are
in better campaign performance.
still important, they do not tell the whole story.
With Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
and all of the resources available to track
Social Media Content
conversions, success by campaign and channel
is now easier to track than it ever has been.
Conversion tracking will be an integral part of
Social media content will be more readily
search marketing strategies in 2016.
indexed having a big impact on page rank.
When search engines look for relevant content
as it relates to a search query, social media
results, because of its recency and relevancy,
will be given as much consideration as a web
Due to its ever-evolving
page. In 2016 more social media platforms will
become indexed.
capabilities and position towards
end of the buying cycle, search
will continue to sustain growth
RLSA
and results throughout 2016. The
more
audience
sophisticated
targeting,
that
mobile
Remarketing lists for search ads is a feature
usage, and social media integra-
that allows advertisers to customize ads from
tion become, the more crucial it is
their search campaign to the people that
to have a sound search strategy.
have previously visited their site. RLSA is very
effective and will continue to gain popularity
in 2016 as part of comprehensive search
campaigns.
Search Marketing | 14
Marketing
Analytics
Measuring Your
There is an old saying in business, “Half of my advertising is working.
Marketing.
tions is figuring out if and the effectiveness of marketing spend. In
I just don’t know which half.” The big challenge for most organiza2016, all of the tools needed to properly track and measure marketing initiative are readily available. Better understanding of ad
performance will prevent wasted time, effort, and money, and
provide insight into how to reach more customers and convert them
to your customers.
When to Measure
Any type of digital marketing should be tracked all the way through
to conversion. What is a conversion? This varies from business to
business, and advertising campaign to advertising campaign.
Essentially, a conversion is an action or end goal. Every dollar spent
on advertising should be attached to some kind of goal. Figuring
out the goal isn’t the hard part, deciding how to measure that goal
can be challenging.
Beyond SEO | 15
Marketing Analytics
Website
traffic
Conversion
How to track
Revenue
Website analytics, such as Google Analytics, is the best way to track
the customer path. Google Analytics is essentially a map of how
users browse a website. It can provide basic information about site
traffic such as, where they are coming from geographically, what
browser they use, what device, what time of day they get there,
which search engine or website brought them and what they did on
the pages of the website, just to name a few.
Google Analytics is the most used tracking platform. Tracking user
behavior will provide a deeper understanding of what website
conversion success looks like and useful insights into communication
touchpoints with customers on and offline.
So, tracking is important.
Tracking user website activity should not be optional but mandato-
Now what?
are all trackable. There are even ways to track users who come into
ry. Display ads, pay-per-click ads, organic clicks, social media clicks,
the store and tie them back to digital advertising efforts. It is impossible to explain all the tools and methods in a single blog post, but
knowing it is possible is the first step.
But let’s face it, not everyone has time to truly master this and most
business owners don’t. If this is the case, hope is not lost. Consider
hiring an internal marketing specialist who understands the necessity of measurement or hire a company who makes smart marketing
and accountability a habit and priority. Both of these will cost
dollars, but any business that invests in smarter, more efficient
marketing will save time and money in the long run. Google hosts
helpful video tutorials to help you get started. So, install those pixels
and start tracking.
Beyond SEO | 16
You
Should
About us
Alabama Media Group is a digitally-focused
marketing, news and information company who
operates AL.com, one of the country’s largest local
websites, produces television and digital video
programming, and publishes Alabama's three most
prominent newspapers: The Birmingham News, The
Huntsville Times and Mobile's Press-Register.
Use these guidelines to
direct your marketing efforts
We also own Birmingham magazine, The Mississippi
in 2016 and you’ll
digital marketing solutions – including audience
Press and gulflive.com; and offer advertising and
be on your way to creating
targeting, search engine marketing and social
successful campaigns.
analytics and event sponsorships. As a digital
As with anything in the
mine who their target audience is, what message is
media optimization; plus creative services, data
marketing partner we help our advertisers deter-
marketing realm, the
most important to them, and when their audience
world of digital marketing
demographic, psychographic and behavioral data
is dynamic and always
wants or needs to see it. We uncover their customers’
turning it into actionable intelligence.
changing…and it’s only
going to keep moving faster.
Alabama Media Group is part of Advance Local, a
leading media company comprised of 12 local
affiliated news and information websites that rank
Interested in learning more?
#1 among local media in their respective markets
and more than 30 affiliated newspapers known for
Let us know – we’d love to
their award-winning journalism. Advance Local is
collaborate with you.
Nast and American City Business Journals.
part of Advance Publications, along with Condé
[email protected] | 800.283.4048
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