Marketing Strategies for 2016

from Forbes.com Zine 05 Feb 16 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz

With each new year, businesses look for great techniques to add to their marketing strategies. Each year brings new trends. To remain competitive, business owners know they should pay close attention to what savvy marketers are doing. As you build your 2016 marketing strategy, here are ten things to consider adding to your campaigns.

1. Onsite Content. You’ve likely worked hard to perfect your content marketing efforts through writing for external sites and adding content to your own Blog. But many businesses have neglected their on-site SEO. This includes making sure your titles, tags, & META descriptions are optimized, as well as using Google Sitelinks to boost your search rankings.

2. Customer Experience. If you aren’t seeing your marketing efforts through your customer’s eyes, your competitors likely are. Customer experience has been labeled the future of marketing, with brands investing in customer experience experts to help them improve their marketing efforts. Through tools like marketing segmentation & customer feedback, you can improve your own campaigns.

3. Data Analytics. If you aren’t already using analytics to inform your marketing efforts, 2016 is the year to start. When you monitor how each social media post, article, & white papers affects click-thru’s & sales, you have the information you need to redirect your efforts – if they aren’t working. You can also learn what does work and use that information in developing future campaigns.

4. Advertising. Savvy marketers know it’s no longer sufficient to deploy a generic campaign and wait for results. Using what you’ve learned from analytics & current events around you, you can constantly tweak your campaign as you go, creating a feeling of immediacy. Real-time marketing is current & ever-changing – connecting with consumers in a way traditional marketing can’t.

5. Personas. Even if you know your customer base well, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking of them as a group rather than personalizing your efforts. With marketing personas, you paint a picture of your target customer, adding details like what they do for a living and how they spend their free time.

6. Communities. The only thing better than inter-acting with your customers is having them share their enthusiasm for your product with each other. If your product fits, consider creating a Facebook group for customers to share tips. If a related community already exists, joining in the conversation can be a great way to introduce your own product to interested customers.

7. Video Content is not only growing in popularity, but also marketers are finding inventive ways to use it to reach customers. In 2016, experts believe video will play a role in every part of a customer’s sales & marketing journey, including testimonials, product demonstrations, & event videos.

8. Thought Leadership. When someone searches online for products or services related to what you do, what do they find? If your name isn’t out there, 2016 should be the year you find a way to boost your reputation as a thought leader. Create insightful content and post it on your Blog – as well as on external websites & business Blogs. Start personally branding yourself as the business owner. Once you’ve posted that content, link to it on social media and encourage colleagues to help you by sharing it across their social networks.

9. Mobile Optimization. Mobile use now exceeds PC use, in a variety of areas, including web searches. In 2016, it’s important that all of your content is optimized for mobile, including the display of your websites, as well as the ranking of your content in mobile search engines. Try searching for your business name and related search terms using SmartPhones & Tablets on a regular basis to see if your efforts need to be adjusted.

10. Content Amplification. From social media updates to Blog posts, your great content can’t be effective unless people actually see it. Content amplification uses paid advertising to blast that content to complete strangers who fit your target demographic. In 2016, marketers will grow more comfortable with this feature and small businesses will begin to use it more extensively.

11. New Techniques. In 2016, your marketing campaigns can benefit from a few new techniques. By simply measuring your efforts and creating content that reaches your target demographic, you can turn a standard marketing campaign into one that brings real results. Businesses should also carefully watch what successful businesses do, to connect with customers and try to implement some of those strategies into their own campaigns.

Comments: If there are any Marketing Strategies you think are great, please share.