Online Marketing Trends And Tools That Will Help Small Business Owners Grow Their Businesses in 2016

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With 2016 just around the corner, it’s time to start planning for a new year in online marketing. For those who have never used online marketing, it is a simple way to increase revenues quickly and reach a larger audience. Before creating a marketing plan, it’s important to understand the current trends to avoid creating content no one wants to consume or making media buys that won’t help increase revenue.

According to Forbes, they project seven online marketing trends for 2016. Since social media now plays a significant part in online marketing, they offered seven social media trends for the new year too.

One of the most important events of 2015 was the shift from the amount of desktop traffic compared to the amount of mobile traffic. Google reported that mobile traffic overtook desktop traffic in 10 different countries. The search engine algorithm for Google was changed to give companies who offered mobile optimized versions of their sites higher rankings than sites that weren’t optimized for mobile. The increase in mobile traffic combined with five times as many cellphones as desktop and laptop computers means that mobile traffic will become a priority.

YouTube, a Google property, began offering video ads to video creators to help them promote and get traffic faster by placing the ads at the top of the search results on YouTube. As reported by Inquisitr, Facebook began offering revenue sharing to select companies on its website. YouTube already shares revenue with its video creators through Google Adsense. Since sites like Facebook, Bing, and YouTube are already offering video advertising options to advertisers, Google is getting on board with its version of video ads. This change allows online marketers a new option to grow, and video ads will explode in 2016.

With the proliferation of cellphones and tablets as a convenient way to access the internet, online marketing will grow as search engines, particularly Google, continue to index apps into its search engines. There will be an explosion of app creation as online marketers use apps as a new way to push their content to consumers. Eventually, apps may replace websites as a way to access content as they are more intuitive and easier to use although this feature is years away. For now, the number of apps is projected to grow through 2016.

Buy buttons are set to take over as Pinterest and Facebook allowed online marketers to add them to their content so consumers may buy products directly from within posts. Instagram is looking for ways to add this feature to its site. By the end of 2016, most major brands will use buy buttons in their advertising as part of their online marketing campaigns.

Facebook began increasing its in-app features as well as creating new content types with Instant Articles allowing for new publication options for users. Twitter’s soon to be unveiled Project Lightning puts content creation into the hands of its users. With the push to keep sites competitive, new ways to present content and allowing users to add more types of content will keep consumers on these sites and in the apps longer.

Before plunging into the latest online marketing trends though, it’s a good idea to take a look at the old school methods that may help in building an effective online marketing plan. Many of these old school methods are making resurgences as in the case of podcasts.

As reported by Business 2 Community, blogs are still a popular way for consumers to access content, and so are ebooks, podcasts and live streaming video. Each offers consumers a different way to consume content based on user preference.

New tools that make it easier to market online include Creator’s Log, which crosses Angel.co with an online diary and allows users to make their projects known. Treatings is an iOS app that offers an alternative to Linkedin and allows users to grow their followings, build a reputation, and widen their network through online marketing.