The year of 2016, ushered in more changes in the digital platform, what with the introduction of video content, social media advertising and mobile app engagement strategies used by digital marketers to communicate with their target audience whether they were old or new.

Progressive Digital Technologies have changed the consumer shopping behaviour and the strategies used by marketers to reach their audiences tremendously. This year will continue to see growth in the use of mobile devices, with higher demand for mobile apps as the industry moves towards a mobile-centric world. People will use their mobile devices to connect to brands they love, companies they follow and want to know about and connect to service providers online, anywhere anytime.

Consumers are adjusting to new tech quickly, with brand marketers trying to keep up with their pace. The challenge digital marketers face will be to stay a step ahead in 2017.

Here are some Digital Trends that are set to dominate 2017

Video Ads on the rise: Video ads saw a tremendous response in 2016 and the ad spends this year are set to grow by 20 percent across the globe. The number of video views rose 360 percent between the years 2013 and 2015. Viewership on YouTube increased by 40 percent since 2014 while the number of channels that earned in 6 figures rose by fifty percent each year.

Videos account for half the traffic online, which makes it one of the fastest growing channels among digital categories today. With Google entering the social media industry with their new SERP based video advertising; and consumers using their smartphones to access live streaming websites like Facebook and demand different experiences, you can expect to see an increase in live video ads.

Growing importance of Mobile optimisation: Ads online will focus on mobile-first users in 2017 as mobile devices are becoming smarter and essential today. Google’s search trends for the UK revealed that more than 50% of all searches in the UK are done through mobiles, which clearly means that a mobile-first strategy will be used increasingly this year. Google’s new AdWords update had no ride side ads making sure that consumer experience will be consistent on all devices. Now that Google favours sites with lighter mobile pages, most brands have been forced to change their strategies and you can expect more along the same lines in 2017.

Snapchat to raise consumer expectations: From Snapchat to Snap with more than 100 million active users every day, Snapchat has changed completely. The rising popularity of this app among the millennials is quite apparent when you realise that more than 70 percent of their active users are under 35 years of age. With its new features, Snap is encouraging the demand for immediate communication and live content among its audience. Forbes says, Snap will become a favourite among marketers in 2017 and you can expect to find more rewarding marketing opportunities from this trend.

Automated Email marketing: Like most marketers, if you felt email marketing was no longer viable, then you will be surprised to know that it has advanced. You can use emails to market your products and services effectively -where you can promote your content, get customers to take an action and even capture data from customers both existing and new.

A recent study by Campaign Monitor suggests that those marketers who use email automation have seen nearly 50 percent conversion rates while their email open rate was close to 70.5 percent. The click-through rate was 1.5 times higher than other business marketing messages. You can quantify and easily measure email response using this tool. You can expect better results if your messages are personalised and geared to offer better interactions while delivering more value.

Schematic mark-up: Google’s ever changing search trends and changing consumer behaviour have made an easily understandable code a must. A Schematic mark-up is a code that is written on your website to tell search engines more about your website. With machine learning gaining importance, making your website easy to interpret will become important in 2017 and a schematic mark-up can help you do that easily.

AI to become a part of the plan: Robots are no longer just for movies, they have now become an integral part of our lives through digital media. 2017 is all set to become the year when marketing becomes extremely personal, where our interactions with brands will be done through chatbots and computer-generated assistants. Including AI into marketing strategies will help companies serve more consumers at no additional cost.

AI will quickly advance and help brands provide a more personalised experience to their target taking their likes and personality into consideration. Robots will slowly become the first point of contact for marketers soon. Don’t be too surprised when you find ads that seem to speak to you directly!

Relevant and Personal Content: Unique and personal content are set to become one of the most important trends in digital marketing in 2017. Most brands will learn to use their data better to market their products to highly customised audiences. If you look at Spotify’s recent ads, you will notice their ads are specifically targeted and different in each country and city to showcase their products effectively.
You can expect to see other retail and traditional brands following Spotify’s example and create highly personalised campaigns to connect with consumers.

The Web on TV: Google’s popular Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV have made it easier for people to watch videos from the web on their big screen TV’s. More brands both big and small will be able to use this trend to their advantage. Facebook and Twitter have apps that allow their users to stream videos from their news feed on to the TV, especially Twitter’s Live NFL games.

This trend will catch-up in the UK in 2017 what with new shoppable videos on Apple TV and Facebook experimenting with publishing their targeted ads on streaming devices like Roku and others.

2017 will be an exciting year for most digital marketing trends and strategies must evolve to stay in the minds of the consumer and popular search engines. To stay more than one step ahead, follow market trends and use the best digital practices in the UK today.

Check out my Previous Blog on emoji

Emoji’s –Why Use Them in Social Media Marketing