Emerging Trends in Digital Marketing

In marketing we’re always looking ahead, and while that is crucial to do, it’s also important to look back. This is a great time of year to look at what was hot in 2015 and what is trending to continue to be hot in 2016. The past year was a great year in terms of digital marketing advancements, and new opportunities to expand digitally.

Here are my top five emerging digital marketing trends that will shape 2016.

1. Live-streaming video for the masses

New digital platforms like Meerkat, Periscope, and Blab are changing the way marketing happens. It’s now–live-streamed in real time. You may argue that Google Hangouts have been around for some time, and webinars can do some similar things too. However, these newest live-streaming apps have made the process seamless and easy to engage, share content and promote brands.

Blab, especially, has proven to be a great tool for multiple people to use live-streaming together to promote each other. Blab will likely continue to increase in relevance, and expand its audiences in 2016. Periscope will likely expand (based on the fact that it’s owned by Twitter), while Meerkat may fade to the background (again only based on who owns the platform).

2. Social ads get visual

It was big news when Pinterest and Instagram announced advertising options to the public. It’s no secret that social media posts with visual content get far more engagement than posts of simple text, so when the two most visual social media platforms brought on a advertising platform, it’s a clear win. Retailers are able to bridge the gap between social media and the “check out” screen, bringing greater ROI to social media in their digital marketing strategy. Not only that,

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