As 2015 comes to an end, we (LSA) wanted to do our part to contribute to the 2016 prediction mania currently underway. During a webinar this week Greg Sterling, VP of strategy and insights at LSA, and Neal Polachek, board advisor at BuzzBoard, explored the validity of 12 different 2016 predictions related to the local sales, marketing and commerce spaces.

Going off some of the major trends this year – mobile search and usage, growing importance of location, on-demand tools, offline attribution, etc. – Greg and Neal provided commentary and sometimes differing views for each of the predictions which included:

• Consumer behavior and expectations will continue to evolve and companies will not be able to keep up.
• Desktop search has peaked and mobile will continue to open up a big lead.
• Online booking/chat/payments will increasingly be expected by consumers, who will also want real-time interaction with merchants
• Social media (i.e., Facebook) will become the #1 marketing platform for SMBs — after email.
• Marketers will be more focused on quality vs. quantity in marketing analytics, with offline store visits gaining momentum as a key metric.
• Nextdoor will emerge as an important channel for local business exposure.

For insight into each of these and more, check out the full recording below:

For access to all of LSA’s past webinars, visit https://bit.ly/LSAwebinars.