5 Marketing Trends You Must Not Ignore In 2016

Originally published on Linkedin.com on January 1, 2016 By Michael Devlin

It’s that time of year when “marketing trends” for the year ahead become HOT topic. However, it still amazes me how many online business owners ignore gold dust TIPS from professional marketers and TOP resources such as FORBES.
My advice is “pay attention” to the following marketing tips and if you have an online presence of any kind, then I strongly urge you to begin implementing the following trends into your business.
#1 Most of you may have heard that one of the most underrepresented subjects online is how to succeed on Amazon as a retailer. There here are relatively few experts, and even less helpful content. The good news is that’s all set to change in 2016 with the launch of Profitsengine.com which is set to provide detailed education of a Seven figure fast track to selling on Amazon complete with analytical tools to help take your sales to the next level.
Why it’s important: In my experience, you can significantly increase margins, sales and volume by focusing on three primary areas. Getting honest product reviews, switching to Seller Central or FBA, and using Amazon’s internal search marketing tools.
Advice: If you’re selling a product on Amazon, either hire an expert or learn how to become an Amazon expert yourself. The payoff is enormous.
If you’d like to learn how to become an expert on Amazon then ProfitsEngine.com is about to become one of the industries leading resources for education and analytical tools to help you dominate Amazon.
#2 Use Kickstarter and Indiegogo to test the market and raise money for new products
Most people believe crowdfunding is for new companies with new product ideas. Yet they’re missing an important source of revenue and customers. One of my clients, recently launched their second product in the market with Indiegogo successfully raising $274,944.
They launched with Indiegogo because the platform gives them exposure to a lot of new customers while raising money from pre-orders (pledges) for their next generation product. If the campaign fell flat, they would have re-tooled the device and gone back to market to test it. This is a no-lose method to test out new product ideas.
Why it’s important: Marketers that want to test products and services prior to launching them with an expensive marketing campaign and public relations blitz will find that by launching on Kickstarter or Indiegogo will give them a user base ready and willing to buy their product. If the results are disappointing, then it’s far less expensive to fix the issue prior to building a product or launching a service.
#3 The best influencer marketing campaigns are on YouTube
Research shows that YouTube has the best ROI pound for pound above any other social platform.  As the second largest search engine on the planet, people are constantly turning to YouTube influencers to discover helpful tips, find reputable products, and honest reviews. So if you are not represented there, you’re missing a big part of the market. And it’s incredibly affordable if done right.
Why it’s important: Unlike with other forms of advertising, sponsoring a video with YouTube influencers gives you three things that move the needle. First, if you’ve chosen the right influencer, you’ll have access to a massive subscribed audience of fans that are emailed and notified of the influencer’s videos.
Second, you can place clickable links in the video and in the comments for immediate calls to action (e.g. get more information, buy this product, subscribe to my newsletter, etc.).
Third, because it’s the world’s second largest search engine and Google search results are increasingly surfacing videos, the value of the video lives has a long shelf life. Some of our influencer videos are still paying off after three years on YouTube.
Advice: Finding the right YouTube influencers is the most challenging step. We like to test 5 – 10 influencers first to understand their ability to move product or generate leads. But once you find the right influencers on YouTube, you will find them to have a far better ROI than any other form of marketing or advertising.
Expect to pay between $0.10 and $0.15 per average video view for a dedicated video, less if you work with an influencer agency (due to renegotiated rates) or sponsor a review segment within a video.
#4 Advocate Marketing will turn your company’s best customers into a referral and review machine
Research shows most purchase decisions are more informed than ever before.  Buyers are not waiting for a company to give them the information they need, they’re conducting extensive, personalized research before speaking to any sales professional. Brand advocates can influence those decisions, cultivating brand loyalty, and generating an abundance of qualified leads through social engagement.
Why it’s important: Referrals from current customers are the best marketing method to obtaining customers at the lowest cost. The next highest ROI comes from authentic and visible testimonials on 3rd party sites like Amazon. Advocate marketing taps into both methods to significantly increase revenue with relatively low effort.
#5 Facebook FB -1.92% video ads are dominating social media advertising conversions
Facebook video ads are dominating conversion rates for our clients. Because Facebook allows you to upload a current customer or lead list to create “lookalike” audiences that are constantly self-optimising, these video ads quickly educate the right target audience with the right message. Then, when they visit your web page (from a conversion event on Facebook) you create a bigger “look-a-like” audience because Facebook understands the type of person that is converting and then looks for more people like them.
Why it’s important: I’ve been critical of banner ads in the past, in my own experience they don’t convert well. But Facebook, has taken ads to a new level, inserted them into our daily streams and made them relevant. Facebook video ads, if done well, are among the best of the best.
Advice: If you’re looking for targeted conversions, start here. Take the time to create videos that educate and lead to a conversion event on your website or an email registration landing page. Moreover, because Instagram is being integrated with Facebook advertising, you’ll have multiple channels to show your video and Instagram still holds the attention graph for millennials.
For a list of the top Facebook videos ads, click here.