The nature of marketing has changed considerably over the decades. In years past, marketing mostly focused on older forms of media such as television, radio and newspapers. Then, the concept of guerrilla advertising – ways to generate innate interest in brands and ideas through low-cost but attention-driving marketing efforts – became a mainstay of many firms and businesses. Content and digital marketing are the latest forms of marketing to sweep the world, but even they are subject to constant changes. In 2016, there are many different phrases and words that people do not yet recognize. We’ll discuss some of these phrases so that brands and businesses understand where the nature of digital marketing is headed.

Social Reach

This phrase has been around for a couple of years, but 2016 will be the year in which the term “social reach” makes a huge splash. To put it simply, social reach refers to the number of people who are seeing you sharing content, pinging URLs or posting multimedia. Rather than referring to sheer number of impressions or views, social reach refers to the number of unique people who have seen your content in one way or another. Facebook and other social media networks provide in-house metrics for pages and profiles in many cases that break down this number on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Influencer Marketing

Another word that has been growing in usage over the past couple of years, “influencer marketing” will be crucial in 2016 marketing vocabularies. Many people are familiar with the concept, for it has been around for ages. In essence, influencer marketing pertains to the people who have influence within their given niches and who promote or otherwise support your product. These influential brand mentions can be a great way to boost organic marketing reach in a variety of new and valuable markets and audiences, and since they are done by people who already have clout, the impressions that they make are much more influential than standard forms of marketing.

Actionable Analytics

There is little to no doubt that you have already heard of the phrase “analytics”. Analytics are often used by brands and bloggers to see whether they’re pinging URLs and sharing content that is resonating with visitors, subscribers and more. Actionable analytics is going to be a phrase that will grow in popularity this year, and means data that is useful in making better decisions and that can be acted upon. Some metrics and analytics are merely for monitoring and observation, but actionable analytics are types of data that can be useful in a much larger sense – for large and small brands alike.

Keep an Eye Out for More

2016 will definitely be a trendsetting year for marketing. These are just a few of the many new words we’ll see making waves in the world of digital marketing and content marketing. We’d love to hear from you any new phrases or terms you’ve heard in the world of marketing this year, and what existing words you think will make a bigger impact on marketing in 2016.