To succeed in marketing, you have to be forward-thinking. That means staying on top of trends that are sure to be significant over the next 12 months.
Today’s technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Naturally, trends rely on these technologies. However, there is still opposition to digitalization and automation in the interactions between brands and consumers.
For those in a big hurry and already “in the know,” here’s a quick recap of the backbone trends:
- Marketing will rely on customer experience, employee engagement in business-to-market programs and content visualization to amplify the impact on consumers.
- Actually, the very definition of what we consider “marketing” continues to transform and expand.
- Marketing has long gone beyond branding and advertising. Marketers must work with other departments to focus on creating great customer experiences and engaging them for long-term relationships.
Customer Experience
2021 will be the year of the customer. Today, don’t invest in marketing programs that will impose products and services. There’s no point in imposing purchases; the customer is sufficiently aware of what they need.
Instead, the priority should be shifted to providing excellent customer service that will keep customers coming back for more orders. In a sense, a major trend can be articulated: entrepreneurs must focus on building a positive business culture and providing exceptional quality service, and marketers must translate business ideas into adequate marketing strategies.
Content marketing has changed consumers. The rise of useful and freely available content has given people more options. They are no longer dependent on consultants and can research the product being marketed in advance. Consumers are proactive and don’t wait for salespeople to tell them what’s best for them. Instead, they search the Internet for information, read reviews, and evaluate an offer before they buy. Technically, the modern customer relies on their “market research” to make judgments. Therefore, marketers must offer more than information.
Customer experience has long been the most popular expression in marketing circles. But do so many companies really provide fantastic customer service?
What influences the formation of the customer experience? Customer satisfaction with money spent, ease of purchase, competent and friendly service, and convenient payment methods are what people value in their experience with companies.
To achieve this, marketers need:
- Up-to-date technology that relies on data about the buying process
- Personalization of the selling proposition
- Mobile technology for rapid customer contact
- A strong brand image in consumers’ minds
- Product design that meets customer needs
In other words, the customer experience must be present in the marketing strategy. Sales must be planned with customer loyalty and the life cycle of products and services in mind.
Involve employees in marketing programs
If effective and friendly service is the cornerstone of marketing, it begs the question, “How can companies achieve this?” Obviously, a business’s staff must be actively involved in the quality service process. If the staff is poorly trained and unqualified, the customer will remain dissatisfied and unlikely to return.
What prevents staff from becoming proactive? Poor attitude toward employees by managers is the number one factor that keeps customers from doing business with a trustworthy company.
The staff is the face of the brand, so the focus should be on employee interaction with customers. This is an important factor in any marketing strategy.
The key to employee engagement is taking proactive steps to allow each employee to understand the business goals and brand values. When a manager hires a person, the person is planned to be responsible for providing quality customer service. Activities must be put in place to ensure that the staff will strive for the success of the company as responsibly as the owner.
Otherwise, employees will stop caring about customers. If they are not happy with their work and don’t believe in the way the business is run, a positive customer experience will not be achieved.
Content visualization
Modern technology allows you to use voice search and broadcast content through the speakers of devices. Nevertheless, visual content should not be neglected.
Studies have proven that people prefer visual images to dry text. The explosive growth of interest in Instagram and Tik Tok has clearly demonstrated the importance of visuals.
5 facts about visual content:
- 65% of Internet users prefer to watch instructional videos
- The desire to read an article if it has color illustrations increases by 80%
- 85% more willing to make a purchase after seeing a video about the product
- 93% of communications are through visual content
- 180% higher coverage if the post contains impactful illustrations
Visual elements are easier to remember than text. Adding data visualizations, infographics, images and videos to print text not only makes it more interesting and engaging, but also helps the message being communicated be better understood.
Personalizing the message
Lead generation and technological advances have already had a huge impact on the level of personalization that needs to be extended to consumer interactions with brands.
Today’s consumers are inundated with advertising messages from multiple communication channels at once. To unload themselves, what are they doing? Consumers are beginning to selectively turn off uninteresting channels. Therefore, traditional advertising is losing its effectiveness. Personalization of marketing messages can remedy the situation and establish a real connection between the brand and the target market.
If 10-15 years ago it was hard to imagine that emails would begin with a name call, today it is a reality. Specialized resources have learned to recognize the recipient of messages not only by name, but also by their interests and level of engagement in the transaction.
The use of artificial intelligence, combined with advanced data collection and social media analytics, has made it easy to personalize everything from content to design, including product recommendations.
Transforming strategic marketing
Every time you read an article about trends, you might get the impression that it’s easy to succeed in marketing using tips and best practices.
On the contrary, marketing is becoming more complex. Every year it becomes more difficult to develop marketing programs related to the causes of the business as a whole. Promotional goals are becoming more complex, marketing communications are layered, and the tasks facing marketers are becoming more difficult and demanding.
Previously, in a small business each head of the company was “his own” marketer, but today more and more entrepreneurs are turning to experts for practical advice. Modern business is difficult to imagine without specific goals and a program of clear marketing communications. Marketing planning itself has become an integral part of doing business.
Strategic marketing is based on the initial data about the target market, using digital technologies, building relationships with clients, and strengthening its presence on the Internet. This transformation helps small businesses improve customer experience, brand awareness and reputation. As a result, strategic marketing increases revenue and profits.
A marketing plan captures goals and defines tactics to market the business, which will rely on content marketing, SEO, Email marketing, social media, contextual advertising and offline marketing. The working paper should clearly outline how each part of marketing communications will work for business interests.
Transforming strategic marketing changes the way each employee thinks about the bottom line. The company’s reputation, relationships with clients, the level of their service are no longer the exclusive responsibility of the marketer. Each employee must understand that the success of the company depends on the performance of their duties. One bad and untimely word from the rank-and-file performer, and the business will receive a cloud of negative feedback.
Zero position in search engine rankings
SEO will continue to be an important aspect of digital marketing, but now we’re seeing one of the most significant changes in the SEO industry in the last decade. With the rise of mobile and voice search, people are changing the way they use search engines like Yandex and Google. Now being first in search is no longer an end in itself.
You’ve probably noticed for yourself that your own search and browsing mode has changed over the past few years. Now the web user is looking for the most up-to-date information. Highlighted snippets and other information “in the output” means that we don’t have to go to a website to get the answer to our query. The answer may be right there on the search results page.
This information from the search engine results may appear in different places, but the most sought after position is right at the top of the page, before the SERP listing. This position has been called “ground zero.” Because it is often the only information a user can view, it is highly coveted. More than 60% of search results are now null position results (according to Google).
Brands are still trying to figure out how to achieve a null position in search results because it requires different SEO techniques than those used for regular SERP listings. If you can be the first in your industry, you will have a huge advantage over your competitors. So expect to see more SEO companies offering this service over the next year, and look out for best practices for optimizing your content.
Voice Search
It’s hard to agree with the claim that 50% of searches this year will be conducted by voice (currently about 20%, according to Google). But the trend is clear. The smart speaker business is booming.
Voice search shows no signs of slowing down, and it will continue to have a significant impact on how leading brands create content and position themselves online.
According to PwC’s global research, consumers expect greater use of voice search in the near future. 61% of those aged 25-64 already use a voice device intend to use it more often.
Even if a company isn’t ready for smart advertising just yet, it’s important that its content is optimized for voice search. Voice searchers use search differently. They operate on longer queries (as in regular conversations), so optimizing content for long-tail keywords can help make it more visible to voice search. It’s important that the content contains a direct answer to the question posed.
Automating marketing with artificial intelligence
There have been major developments in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years. Progress in this area has been picked up by many companies, and they have begun to use AI-based technology to automate and enhance their marketing programs. Smart chatbots, contextual ad management, and voice search are examples of AI implementations we are seeing more and more often.
Big-data analytics helps companies learn more about their target audience and customers. It enables hyper-personalization of marketing messages on a large scale. Big brands are leveraging AI technology to strengthen their market position, free up resources and focus on the customer experience by tweaking their marketing strategy.
To keep up, small businesses need to move to automate routine marketing processes and increase their productivity.
Focus on customer retention and loyalty building
Regular customers are more valuable than new customers. Studies have shown that it is five times more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain a loyal one. That’s why it makes economic sense to provide high quality service and build a great customer experience.
Companies’ efforts should be distributed in such a way that they are not only constantly looking for new customers, but on a regular basis prove their need for regular customers.
For their part, loyal customers contribute to brand reputation and recognition, because they will talk about your company to their environment. Satisfied customers become advocates for the company and are willing to make recommendations regarding their choice of service provider.
Live broadcasts
The live video industry is booming. Live streamers are incredibly popular with consumers, and people spend three times as much time watching this content as they do watching a pre-cut video. It has the effect of co-participation in an interesting and important event.
This promotional technique has become the most popular way for consumers to learn about a company’s product. Such content is the most attractive because the audience is a part of the process and can partially influence it, moving from passive viewing to active action.
Live broadcasts are primarily in demand on social networks. The audience develops a FOMO effect (foregone benefit syndrome) if they realize that live broadcasts give them the opportunity to be the first to hear the latest news, or the video will contain information they can’t get anywhere else.
To summarize.
Many companies will pay attention to implementing progressive technology. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that marketing relies on human relations in society. Therefore, marketers’ attention should be redistributed towards living people, their behavior and their reaction to marketing activities.
Now is a good time to start implementing your marketing strategies for the current year. Align your promotional goals with a clear plan of action.
Obviously, digital marketing will dominate this year as well. To be successful, you need to have quality content for all marketing channels to communicate with consumers. Make sure your content plan takes into account the impact of new trends.