Top Trends Defining Digital Marketing in 2016

Led by Content Master, Sean Callahan of LinkedIn, I recently participated on a panel of agency executives talking about the trends that will help define marketing in 2016. 

Talking about big topics with agency marketing smarties like Lauren Goldstein of Babcock & Jenkins, Thad Kahlow of BusinessOnLine and Gina Michnowicz of Union + Webster was a real treat. I think you'll like the discussion as well.

Below is an excerpt of my part of the edited discussion. You can also get the full ebook filled with the best parts of the roundtable discussion involving all 4 panelists from LinkedIn here.  

What are your thoughts about where content marketing is headed in 2016?

I guess we all have to thank our friend Mark Schaefer (executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions) for coming up with that clever little phrase, “content shock.”

Even though more companies are publishing now, it doesn’t mean you can’t stand out. It doesn’t mean you can’t dominate.

It is true there is more information being created than we could ever consume in a lifetime. As the shiny object of “content marketing” starts to permeate in the majority of marketing departments, people are making so much more content, it is becoming an issue. However, even though more companies are publishing now, it doesn’t mean you can’t stand out. It doesn’t mean you can’t dominate in your industry.

A few key trends worth watching: 

• More content optimized for mobile
• More sophisticated and interactive content
• More of the sophisticated brand publishers will get into the realm of dynamic optimization and use some of the technologies that mainstream publishers are using now for dynamic A/B testing of headlines, images and page layouts.
• Sponsored content will continue to grow in popularity as marketers simply choose to buy their way into relevant audiences.

What are the trends you anticipate around mobile marketing, particularly for B2B marketers, in 2016?

It’s interesting how many B2B companies haven’t made their sites responsive yet. They haven’t gotten to the point of being present either through a mobile optimized site or a responsive site. Just getting to the game of mobile marketing is a big opportunity for a lot of B2B companies even though there’s so much momentum behind mobile overall.

What trends are you seeing around the capability to measure marketing programs’ success now and in the future in 2016? 

Senior marketing executives are definitely interested in broad level metrics, but it’s also important to make the day-to-day KPIs available to the folks who are actually making and promoting and optimizing marketing performance.

What are the trends you’re seeing around social media for marketers?

I think organic social media visibility still presents a tremendous amount of opportunity. But even more so is the data you can collect from doing experiments with organic content on social channels — and simply identifying those trending opportunities to allow you to develop a paid program.

It’s a combination of organic and paid where a lot of social media magic happens.

This is a great opportunistic approach that you can use to amplify campaigns, squeeze out extra value, squeeze out extra performance out of organic centric campaigns with paid advertising. I think it’s a combination of organic and paid where a lot of social media magic happens.

The enduring strength of SEO: What trends do you see around this enduring skill in 2016?

Having been in the SEO world since the late 90s, I’ve seen the writing on the wall as people would proclaim that SEO is dead, which has been happening for about 10 years now. And yet, there are studies and polls that reveal SEO is still high in demand. I believe SEO is foundational to a lot of digital marketing whether it's content, social media or influencer marketing.

SEO is important, but it’s not the only thing.

I think from a trend standpoint, what we’re seeing is sort of a separation within the Search Marketing industry. There are specialists or SEO mechanics as they’re often called, people who specialize in the technological aspects of optimization — everything from information architecture, making pages load faster, structured data and duplicate content and all those sorts of tweaks and refinements.

Then you also have a more horizontal approach to SEO, where it’s becoming a skill set that is cross-trained across the organization. Anybody in a role where content is being created — whether in customer service, public relations, or corporate communications, can learn what keywords are, where to use them, how to link and how to promote content to attract links. 

What trends do you see around data and marketing in 2016?

Data, obviously, is worthless unless there’s insight. You often hear people say, "It’s not big data that’s important, it’s the small data", and I definitely agree with that perspective. 

There are plenty of people getting reports right now that are very data rich, but they’re not really doing anything with it. That’s something that needs to be solved.

How is the buyer’s journey changing and how should marketers be responding to it in 2016?

There’s one thing that I find a lot of people fixating on, and that is marketers trying to singularly identify a buyer. It’s common to use an archetype, a representation of a group of potential prospects manifested as a persona. But oftentimes in B2B, it’s not one person; it’s a group or a committee that’s tasked with making some of these purchasing decisions.

The group is making different decisions; research decisions, evaluation decisions, and ultimately recommendation and purchase decisions.

B2B marketers have to be sophisticated enough to actually understand what the buying experience is really like in an organization. Is it one person? Is it a group of people? Who is actually influencing who, and what can we do to be a part of that conversation to be influential in the research and decision making process?

What spending trends do you anticipate in 2016, and are you bullish for marketing spending for next year?

I’m definitely bullish on marketing spending, especially marketing that’s truly accountable to performance. I’m more bearish on the fluff, such as content for content’s sake. I’m bullish on more spending for technology and platforms, paid amplification like social ads, retargeting, and mobile.

Check out the full Advertising Agency Roundtable ebook by clicking here. 

What are some of the key marketing trends for 2016 that you would add? What questions would you ask?

Be sure to check out my next presentation on SEO, Content or Influencer Marketing at one of these upcoming events:

• Feb 11, 2016. Friends of Search, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  Keynote: Where SEO Fits in the Digital Marketing Mix
• Feb 15-17, 2016. B2B Content2Conversion Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona.
  Solo: SEO for Content Marketers
• Feb 25, 2016. B2B InTech Marketing Conference, London, England.
  Keynote: The Power of Influence in B2B

(Disclosure: LinkedIn is a client of my agency, TopRank Marketing)