5 Marketing Trends That Should Influence Your 2016 Strategy

Marketers have a big job trying to keep up with the ever-changing and growing landscape of trends, tools, technologies and platforms. With that in mind here are five marketing trends to include in your 2016 strategy.

Collaboration, Not Competition.

If you are in politics, be negative. Otherwise, collaboration is the key today! Collaborative rhetoric and a spirit of forward thinking accomplishment will create success for you in 2016. Top graduates from Ivy League schools are more likely to work for companies with collaborative philosophies on their websites, and Millennials are more likely to buy from companies that focus on their own improvements in society rather than the shortcomings of the competition. Are you looking to attract the top graduates and create products at the rate of a Google or an Apple? Collaboration, not competition, is the key!

Mobile First.

The desktop is officially a dinosaur, and the laptop is not far behind. Mobile phones officially took their place as the primary hub of commerce for top consumer demographics is 2016. The spending power of these consumer groups, including professional Millennials, is only going to increase over the next decade. You may have already noticed this trend without realizing it: If you see big backgrounds and weird scrolling screens on your laptop, that site was probably created for the mobile platform first. This should actually work in your favor if you are on a budget, because mobile sites are much less expensive to make than laptop/desktop sites!

Cards.

One especially important aspect of mobile marketing that has gained traction is cards, a design choice made famous by YouTube. Once the premier video sharing site began using them, everyone seemed to catch on. There is currently no better way to fit large amounts of information on a limited screen.

Instead of investing in links embedded in traditional web copy, try cards with simple vector graphics across your screen. If you want to check the effectiveness of the campaign, use the click-through rate as your main metric. You should see a sizable increase!

Simple Vector Design.

The trend towards simple, flat looking graphics should actually be a relief to the SMB market. You do not have to pay for hand drawn professional art any more:! You can easily populate your website with vector drawings that you can make yourself using Photoshop, and no one will dock you any points! As a matter of fact, you may even gain points for your authenticity, which is apparently very important to the Millennial crowd!

Superpersonalization

Everyone loves companies that get personal, right? Wrong! Your ability to scrape data from your potential customers is more robust than ever before; however, some people are freaked out by unsolicited messages that detail prior web search history and address them by name. Although the Millennial generation is very comfortable making purchases online, many of them will still shy away from this kind of marketing technique. Watch your use of superpersonalization! Part of your CRM should be determining the types of people who are turned on by this technique and directing it at them! For everyone else, you might employ a more traditional technique at first.

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