With the enormous competition that exists in the digital field, which is not far from the competition in the physical world, we cannot rest on our laurels and think that simply by having a website or by having a couple of professional profiles on social networks , our business is going to succeed. This is a tremendously childish vision and far from reality.

To succeed in the online environment , to obtain a good web positioning , an adequate online presence and an impeccable online reputation , we must be aware of the need to have a series of actions and strategies in digital marketing , elaborated and carried out by a / a digital marketing professional. If you expect your child / neighbor / nephew / brother-in-law, who knows how to use Twitter, to take your company’s social networks like a professional, we are very sorry, but we know how to use scissors and that is not why we are cutting the hair of our relatives. Do you notice the fine irony?

Well, let’s start with the 2016 needs and trends in digital marketing:
– The first and obvious is the need for a digital marketing professional . Now more than ever, it is not that it is a trend, it is a necessity and the more competition you have, the more important it is to have an expert in digital marketing , for more than obvious reasons if what you want is to make your business profitable in the long term . Because the reality is that you need to invest money, and the more the better, in making your business known to your target audience, and that is the case for many gurus who come out saying that you can succeed without putting a penny, just working hard. That way all of us who are not lazy would be rich, don’t you think?

– The second is also obvious and more of a need than a trend, and is that since we carry out online marketing or digital marketing , we cannot have a website that is slow, that has errors, that is not attractive in its web design , that is not with responsive design and cross browser , etc. 

– In relation to this, if you sell online , you must take into account mCommerce , that is, eCommerce adapted to mobiles and tablets . The online store or eCommerce are consolidated as a great sales channel, direct (online sales) or indirect (see your product online and You come to your store / local to try to ask …).

– Perhaps the recommendation to have “influencers” on social networks sounds to you , especially on Twitter, well, fine, if you can count on them and they are strategic for your business, great, but you have to be aware that getting an influencerReally (not one that has 300,000 followers is an influencer automatically, far from it, it has to be for your business) but it is not about harassing and asking them to speak well of your business, or telling bloggers or youtubers that they earn a lot of money, that they speak well of your business in exchange for putting a link on your website and similar situations. In short, if you can “afford” an influencer, perfect, but being aware that you must first know what influencer you need and what budget you have. 

– Maybe, rather than focus on influencers, what you should do is pay special attention to Millennials if they belong to your target, they spend a lot of time looking for information, products, services, etc., online, they comment on forums, they create opinions … Be careful, even if they do not belong to your target, if someone you know or relative has a bad experience with a brand, they may also be outraged in forums and social networks.

– Attractive content both for your clients and for Google, and this friends, it is not easy, not only do you need to write correctly (something that is often absent and gives a very bad professional image), but you have to write with a certain frequency, in an attractive way so that your clients spend more time on your website and perceive you as a professional in your business field, and with keywords with the appropriate density , creating links, etc., etc., to please Google too. Keep in mind that here you have to deal with both parties yes or yes and the one power to the other, the more people entering your website, the more Google likes you and the more Google likes you, the more it shows you to your potential customers.

– You must be everywhere where your potential clients go to look for you: social networks, search engines, videos, directories … if a gamification strategy is suitable for your business, go ahead, that hooks people a lot.

– Digital marketing, the more personalized for each of your type of customers and the state in which they are (they have already bought something, they have only been informed, they have subscribed to a newsletter …), the better. For that, we must know how each of your users behave, encourage them to register on the website, etc. So we can send you offers, promotions, or directly the products / services in which you have shown interest, as well as related products / services. Knowing customers and potential customers is essential to streamline sales.

– Carry out digital marketing based a lot on the image and the video. Always have a professional web designer and / or graphic designer so that the results are impeccable. Video has been going very, very strong as an element to include in digital marketing, 60% of mobile traffic is video views and this trend will continue to rise, every time we have better mobile phones, better screens, faster connection speed …

– Of course, when doing video marketing , or with advertising banners, be careful with the flash. Google pauses and / or blocks flash ads.

– You have to invest more in Adwords , and is that the global investment in paid advertising in Google increases 10% annually, so the cost of PPC increases. The trend and need are that the campaigns you create are very well optimized, to make the investment cost profitable, so once again you need a professional in the creation and management of paid advertising campaigns ! As it happens in Adwords , presumably it will happen on Facebook or Twitter , for example, the more people paying, the more expensive it is for your ad to appear.  

– If you cannot afford large investments in Adwords, social networks are usually cheaper in their paid campaigns, but everything will depend on whether your audience is there or not so that investing in social networks is profitable and that you know how to make them reach your website or online store so that the sale comes close to materializing. What is profitable but requires more time, but does not fail if done well, is SEO positioning . I regret to inform you that it is not free either, but at least you should only pay the professional who performs a study on SEO positioning and applies the necessary improvements, and not also to Google.  2016 (REALISTIC) TRENDS AND DIGITAL MARKETING NEEDS YOU CAN’T IGNORE