Six marketing predictions for the last six months of 2016

Director of strategy at Blackpool-based Happy Creative full-service agency in Blackpool, Simon Brooke, gives his advice to businesses looking to bolster their marketing mettle in the last six months of the year.

We are already six months into 2016 and with half the year ahead of us it's about time we had some helpful tips on what your business should be doing in terms of marketing.

There is no need to look back at the first six months and if there is it's just to look at what went right and capitalise on it, forget the wrongs. Well, never forget, just don't repeat them!

No time capsule needed here though, just a good old list of six things that I think any marketer should be taking seriously moving into the remainder of 2016.

1. DataIt’s been with us for ever, but the proliferation and usage of data, particularly well-developed customer data is going to be more crucial than ever before. In 2016 great marketing campaigns will be a partnership of well analysed customer data and great creative.

2. Personalisation

The days of “Dear Sir” on emails passed years ago, but a new movement is rebelling against the overuse of personalisation, not only in use of names but using habits, searches, likes and even conversation content to personalise offers/pages/emails and browsing results. For marketers the trick in 2016 has been to find that pleasant balance between enough personalisation to engage without pushing into creepy digital stalker mode.

3. Email Systems

If you are still pushing the send button on Outlook distribution lists to all your sales contact with a PDF attached you are frankly an idiot. Don’t even make this a cost issue, the amount of real and influential data you can gain from using marketing email systems is immense, not to mention the servers and bandwidth you’ll be saving versus those huge pdf attachments. These marketing email systems are essential.

4. Responsive Websites

Mobile traffic went stratospheric in 2015 and that trend isn’t stopping in 2016. It is therefore even more crucial that your website looks good and works well across a range of devices/orientations. However, the responsive tools themselves are not enough. A well planned user journey allied to testing and regular review will ensure your key sales tool not only looks good but it also converts sales whatever device your customer uses.

5. Immersive Marketing

I’m not talking marketing campaigns under the sea, or even on an 3D Imax screen whilst your chair rocks to each laser hit. Immersive marketing is integrated marketing for the new generations. It’s no longer ok for marketers to base their marketing around one or two elements. 2016 has seen the growth in immersive campaigns where brands big and small will create campaigns that utilise a large range of above and below the line mediums to deliver content to customers.

6. Direct Mail / Text Campaigns2016 has seen the return of two much maligned marketing methods. Direct Mail and Text campaigns reached the point of destruction through overuse and frankly terrible execution, and both will still suffer from this. However, new and cost-effective analytical data gathering techniques as well as increasingly innovative print developments now make high impact Direct Mail and Text message marketing a viable and high conversion method of acquiring customers/customer service tools. However, creative will remain the key to unlocking the real impact that has lain dormant in these tools for the last few years.