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Web Marketing in 2016
There’s a generation of marketers who have never known a time when the web and social media were not at the centre of a company’s marketing. Generation X-ers, on the other hand, have seen the phenomenon of web marketing grow from nothing to the all-encompassing leviathan we know today. The progress since the early days has been astounding.
So, what does 2016 hold?
Of course, no one can answer that question for certain but there are some big clues for us to look at.
The Trend to Mobile
In 2007, for every person accessing the web through a mobile device there were nearly three who used the desktop. In 2009 that one in three had become one in two. The two lines continued to converge until, halfway through 2013, there were as many mobile users as desktop users. By 2014, mobile users outnumbered desktop users and the gap is widening. 2016 will be very much a mobile year in web marketing terms.
Nor is it simply the number of users – research shows that the number of hours online per user per day is greater for mobile users (51% of the total) than for people on desktop and laptop devices, while time on other connected devices is negligible.
Those seeking to sell online have been slow to respond. As late as 2014, out of $50 billion spent on Internet advertising in the USA, only $13 billion targeted mobile consumers. That changed dramatically in 2015, when mobile ad spend reached 49% of the total. This should be a guide to anyone considering how to spend their marketing dollar in 2016: an ad designed primarily for laptop or desktop screen may not look good on a much smaller mobile device and web marketers need to get this right.
Not only will an ad designed with large screens in mind not necessarily transfer well to a mobile device, but SEO will also suffer because Google and the other search engines penalise sites that do not adjust well for all screen sizes.
The Growing Importance of Social Media
A 2016 buzzword is likely to be “social searching”. Facebook is restructuring its search engine to become better at matching (for a fee, the fee to be paid by the advertiser) what Facebook users are looking for with what Facebook advertisers want to sell them. We also expect to see further changes in the continuing process of revamping search engine algorithms to give social media sites the same level of importance as websites and blogs.
For anyone serious about web marketing in 2016, the message is clear: brush up your understanding of how social media works and what methods are available to increase customer contact and exposure.
Interactive Content
One thing that doesn’t change among so many that do is the overriding importance of content. If your website and your social media presence don’t contain things that attract and hold consumers’ attention, you’re going nowhere. More and more companies are outsourcing blog and website content to specialist agencies who deliver material every bit as professional as the most expensive print media, and in the coming months we expect to see a growing emphasis on interactive content and its importance in SEO. Slideshows, videos, webinars, Twitter QandAs – these are where aware marketers are placing their bets this year.
At Servistree, we have built our name on savvy web marketing and everything we know is available to help you take your business to the next level. Contact us now – online at Servistree.com or by calling us at 866-944-3244. Make this coming year your best ever!
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