It’s that time of the year again when anyone and everyone involved with marketing is talking about and doing research to try and determine what the trends in marketing will be for the upcoming year. Why is this? Because marketers and business owners need to be able to plan ahead and jump on trends before their competitors do. In fact, staying a step ahead of everyone else can make you a trend setter, which can convert into additional sales for your products and services – customers and potential customers will turn to you to find out what’s new and to stay on top of what’s going on in the given industry.
So what appears to be in store for digital marketing in 2017? What will the trends be? Will there be new trends? Will trends in 2016 continue into 2017? Let’s find out…
Video Content and Live Video Streaming
It’s certainly no secret that the use of videos has been a growing marketing trend for some time now. In fact, YouTube is considered to be one of the largest search engines. How is that? When a search is performed in Google, YouTube videos display in the search results, which leads to more visits to YouTube and in turn more YouTube searches. In addition, some people will go straight to YouTube to perform a search if they prefer to view a video related to their search topic instead of reading content.
Thanks to continuously improving technology, the quality of cameras on mobile devices is just as good as a video camera these days, allowing videos to be made quickly and easily, and in a more cost-effective manner. This is a big reason why live video streaming is becoming so popular and will continue to grow in the new year. Facebook introduced live video streaming in 2016, and it has become an effective method for boosting reach and engagement on Facebook pages, which can be converted into more traffic to your web site. As the live video stream trend continues, video content will become even better and more relative. Why? Businesses are using live video streaming to stream company events, make announcements, promote products and services, perform live product demos, and conduct live interviews.
Mobile Devices and User Experience
Going into the new year, it is imperative that your web site be mobile responsive so visitors to your web site can have a positive user experience. Not only that but because the majority of Google searches are now performed on mobile devices, Google’s indexing algorithm has been making a shift towards mobile devices, and this trend will continue in the new year. What exactly does this mean? Basically, you need to have a web site that looks good and works on mobile devices or Google will lower your ranking in its search results. When designing web sites, marketers and web site designers should consider doing mobile campaigns and taking into account smaller screens when designing these campaigns and web sites.
In addition, Google favors web sites that are fast and easy to navigate, and that’s what visitors to web sites want as well. For businesses, this can also mean a lower bounce rate and a higher average amount of time spent on your web site.
Unique High Quality Content
Search engines are tired of numerous web sites having basically the same content, with just a few words being different. As a result, search engines do not see this content as being of very high value to readers. A new trend for the upcoming year will be the concept of “dense content” – search engines will be looking at the “per word value” of content (how valuable is each word within the content). Search engines see this as a method for providing more value for audiences, even if the content is shorter because value is being placed on the quality of each word, not the length of the overall content.
Changing Search and Social Media Algorithms
This is pretty much a given, as algorithms for search engines and social media are constantly changing and will continue to change. While many algorithm changes are relatively minor and do not have much effect on your search engine rankings or your social media reach, it is still important to stay current because major changes, such as the algorithm change Google is making regarding mobile responsive web sites, can potentially have a large effect on attracting new customers and your future sales.
To learn about how you can take advantage of these trends in the new year, visit www.jvinnovations.com, or contact us at (732) 851-3137.
