The marketing industry is changing, and it’s moving fast. Predictions are that technology will change how we shop and how we consume content in the next 12 months more than it ever has before.
The good news is that many of these changes can be implemented right away to help your brand grow. The best marketers I know thrive on change, diving headfirst into new technologies, ideas and approaches with an open mind and determination to learn from each experience.
To win in the coming year, you need to be an early adopter of new trends because, for them to work for you, they have to be integrated into your marketing strategy as part of your workflow, not as a random tactic deployed here or there.
So take some time out of your busy schedule today and read through this list of experts’ predictions on the latest trends your business should get ahead on next year:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| Implementing a strong marketing strategy is pivotal for transforming any company into a successful and recognizable brand. |
| Crafting a unique value proposition and resonating with the target audience are fundamental steps in building brand identity. |
| Leveraging social media effectively can greatly contribute to enhancing brand visibility and engagement. |
| Consistent and authentic storytelling through marketing campaigns can create emotional connections with consumers. |
| Continuous analysis, adaptation, and optimization of the marketing strategy are essential for sustainable brand growth. |
Brand Thought-Leadership
Brand thought-leadership is the ability to create and share ideas that are valuable to your target audience. As a brand, you should be using this tactic to help build trust, influence, relationships with customers, and increase brand awareness.
For example, You can start by creating an informative blog post that teaches people something they didn’t know about your industry or product.
Then you can share it on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter as well as in email newsletters sent out directly through your website or mailing list subscriber base.
This will help generate more interest in what it is you’re selling while building up credibility for yourself as someone who knows worth sharing with others.
This strategy works especially well if you have some sort of unique perspective on things that makes it easy for people within your niche market space (e-commerce store owners)
Starting a social media team can greatly impact your company’s online presence. Learn valuable insights and steps to take in our guide on how to start a social media team that aligns with your brand’s goals and strategy.
Content Marketing Dominance
Content marketing is a great way to reach your target audience. It can be used to promote your products and services, as well as your brand and company.
Content marketing works because it goes beyond traditional advertising. If you want to get more traffic to your website, you must create valuable content that addresses problems that people are having right now.
The goal isn’t just about getting visitors on the page; it’s also about engaging those visitors so that they become customers or fans of the company itself!
Embrace LinkedIn And Social Influencers
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools you can use to build your brand. It’s a place where influencers and other key players in your industry are already gathering, so if you want to be seen as an expert in your field, this is a great place to start.
To find social influencers on LinkedIn, look at who is following each of your competitors’ pages and see what they’re posting (and how often). Then go through the same process with them but skip the ‘follow’ part just check out their profiles instead.
If they’re posting regularly and interacting with others in their network, then there’s a good chance that they’ll be interested in connecting with people outside their network too which means they’d make great advocates for any brand looking for exposure!
Increase Sales Through Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategy that allows you to focus on your most important accounts so that you can help them achieve their goals and grow their business.
For example, let’s say you’re a marketing manager at an ad agency and you want to increase sales by 10%.
Instead of creating one campaign that could reach 100% of your customers, which means it only has a 1% chance of working for anyone, ABM allows you to work with 10 accounts instead of 100.
That way each account has a 10% chance of success. That alone will double your chances!
Additionally, ABM allows companies to focus their efforts where they have the greatest potential for success.
This strategy can greatly improve the ROI on marketing activities because it allows marketers to spend more time targeting likely buyers rather than spending useless time trying to sell someone who isn’t interested in buying anything right now.”
Discover the power of leveraging social media in our comprehensive resource, The Ultimate Guide to Leveraging Social Media. This guide provides actionable strategies and tactics to propel your brand’s success through effective social media management.
Engagement Through Live Video
You’re probably familiar with live video, but you may not have thought of it as a marketing tool. Live video can be used to educate, entertain and inspire your audience. It also allows you to show off your personality and build trust with your audience.
Live videos are great for building relationships with customers because they allow them to engage directly with you in real-time.
Your customers can ask questions about the products or services that interest them most and get answers from their favorite brand representative immediately!
This type of interaction is extremely valuable when trying to build a loyal customer base; remember: it takes time for people to develop trust in any brand or company so be patient!
Chatbots & Artificial Intelligence
Chatbots are a great way to reach your audience. They can be used to answer questions, provide information, and provide a personal touch. They can also communicate with customers, employees, and partners.
Chatbots can be used for many different purposes and we will go through some of the examples below:
- Provide useful information about products/services or related subjects
- Find out what’s on their mind or what they need help with
- Provide relevant content based on user preferences
Omnichannel Experience
The other thing that we see is the importance of omnichannel experience. You want to create a consistent experience with your customers across all channels, whether it’s in-store, online, or on mobile.
You can use data to understand the customer journey and make sure that you’re delivering value at every point in their journey with you.
It’s really important to use free marketing tools available online and thinks about placing ads on social media and various websites where your target audience is likely to be hanging out.
If you’re targeting millennials, for example, don’t forget about voice search! It’s also important for businesses to embrace virtual reality (VR) as a new way of reaching out to customers.
Explore the world’s favorite marketing strategies and uncover valuable insights in our article, The World’s 15 Favorite Marketing Strategies. Discover why these strategies are essential for businesses seeking growth and success.
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a great way to reach your target audience. Social media advertising allows you to target people who are interested in your company and its products or services.
You can also use social media ads to target people who are interested in competitors’ products and services, as long as they fit into your overall marketing strategy.
Storytelling That Builds Trust
Storytelling creates a powerful connection with your audience. It helps you build trust and make your brand more memorable, which is especially important in a world where consumers are bombarded with ads, promotions, and buzzwords.
The key to storytelling is relevance: finding the story that’s relevant to your audience and incorporating it into every touchpoint of your marketing strategy.
This could be something as simple as referencing a local event during the holidays or creating an entirely new experience for customers using augmented reality technology on their phones.
Customer-Centricity Is The New Marketing Mantra.
The new marketing mantra is “customer-centricity.” The concept of customer-centricity has been around for a few years, but its adoption has accelerated in recent months. Customer-centricity is not about putting customers first; it’s about putting their needs first.
Why does this matter? Because it means you can’t just treat customers as one big group and assume that what works for one will work for all.
Instead, you have to get inside your client’s heads and figure out how they think and why they behave the way they do before creating a brand strategy that fits those needs perfectly.
That may mean tailoring your approach depending on whether you’re talking to millennials or boomers or Gen Z’ers (if you’re an older brand).
Mobile Is Mandatory
Mobile is the future. It’s also the present and it’s going to be even more so in the future. If you aren’t thinking about mobile and how you can use it to market your brand, then you’re going to be left behind by competitors who are already doing so.
If you’re not currently using mobile for your marketing strategy at all, then that’s an even bigger problem because it means that you have no idea what kind of potential is out there waiting for your business.
What does this mean for businesses? Mobile-friendly sites play a major role in attracting new customers as well as keeping existing ones happy with their offerings.
So much so that many people now expect every site they visit to be responsive across multiple devices and platforms (including tablets).
Use More Data To Reach Your Target Audience
In the past, marketers had to rely on intuition and gut instinct to determine what type of messaging would resonate with their target audience.
Today, data is available at our fingertips, and it can help you better understand your customers and ensure that you’re reaching them in the best way possible.
The first step towards using data to reach your target audience is understanding who they are: What do they want? How do they behave? What do they think?
Knowing the answers to these questions will give you an advantage over competitors and make it much easier for you to create a marketing strategy that works!
Uncover growth opportunities in your business using smart marketing strategies with our guide on how to use marketing strategy to spot growth opportunities. Learn how to align your marketing efforts with your business goals and tap into new possibilities.
Voice Search Is The Future Of Marketing, Be Prepared For It
As voice search becomes more popular, it will become a key part of your marketing strategy. This is because the technology is so user-friendly and accessible, which means there are many more ways to reach customers than ever before.
To be prepared for this shift in how people interact with brands, here are some things to consider:
Voice search isn’t just a fad. It’s here to stay and will only get better as time goes on. Voice search is already 15 times faster than typing!
Voice search is an accurate way for customers to interact with brands when they want information about something particular or want a specific response from their device or phone. This makes it perfect for interacting with children too (and even adults!).
Video Marketing Is Here To Stay
The stats don’t lie: Video is the most engaging, shareable, and liked type of content. It’s also the most watched on mobile devices. 73% of marketers plan to increase their use of video in 2019 (HubSpot).
That’s why we made sure that our social media strategy included videos in every aspect from Facebook Live broadcasts to Instagram Stories with personalized filters (and even a cute little Snapchat filter).
360-Degree Videos Will Soon Replace Regular Videos
360-degree videos are a great way to engage your audience and give them a great view of the product you are selling. These videos can be used to show how the product works and also how it is used.
One of the most popular uses of 360-degree video is in real estate. The 360 camera technology has been used extensively by real estate agents who shot their homes with this technology, then uploaded them online for potential buyers to see what they’re buying before they buy it.
This idea has now been taken up by many other industries such as retail, hotel, travel, and tourism among others.
Because it has proven so successful in real estate where home buyers would like nothing more than being able to see exactly what their potential new home looks like without having to walk through every inch and nook of it first hand!
Virtual Reality Can Help Marketers Tell Better Stories To Their Users
The virtual reality (VR) industry is still in its early days, but that doesn’t mean marketers should ignore it. With the potential to offer a more immersive experience than traditional channels, VR can help you create new ways to target and engage your audience.
The key for marketers is to look beyond the current limitations of VR technology and start thinking about how they can use it effectively today and where there’s room for improvement as the medium evolves.
When we surveyed marketing professionals about their plans for VR over the next 12 months, a whopping 65% said they planned on creating content specifically designed for this new medium.*
Embrace Advanced Analytics For Personalized Experiences
The second step of the framework is to use advanced analytics for personalized experiences that can drive sales.
- Understand your customers and their buying habits.
- Know your marketing channels, competitors, product, and marketing campaigns.
- Understand how they all fit together to form a complete customer journey through the funnel and where you need to focus your efforts to grow sales.
Be Prepared For New Trends In The Marketing Industry And Don’t Be Afraid To Use Them
You must be prepared for new trends in the marketing industry and not be afraid to use them. The reason why? It’s because people are always looking for the next best thing, so if you’re not trying to innovate your marketing strategy, then you’re going to be left behind.
Here are some examples of current trends that are working well for businesses:
Live streaming video – this is one of the most effective ways to reach out to customers and build a brand, especially if you’re selling physical products or services that cannot be easily shipped anywhere in the world (such as restaurants).
Influencer marketing – I’m sure you’ve heard about influencers before, but did you know that they can also help promote your brand?
You just need to find someone who has a large following on social media and pay them off with free products or money so they can promote it on their channels. If done right, this can have a huge impact on sales!
Maximize your business potential by seizing opportunities, generating revenue, and saving time with a well-crafted marketing strategy. Learn more in our article, Marketing Strategy: Seizing Opportunities, Making Money, Saving Time, and gain insights on how to make strategic decisions for your brand’s success.
Conclusion
In a competitive market that is constantly evolving and changing, the need for brands to stand out from the crowd is becoming more and more important. Consumer expectations are constantly rising.
This can be attributed to the fact that many consumers have grown accustomed to getting what they want right away with little effort on their part, thanks to technology and automation in society today.
In this article, we explored how brands should approach marketing efforts differently than ever before if they want any chance of survival.”
Further Reading
Explore these additional resources to deepen your understanding of marketing strategy and brand success:
Mayple’s Insights on Crafting Effective Marketing Strategies: Gain valuable insights into creating and implementing marketing strategies that resonate with your audience and drive business growth.
Global Marketing and International Business: A HubSpot Perspective: Discover how global marketing strategies play a crucial role in expanding businesses internationally, as explained through HubSpot’s perspective.
The Full Story of Brand Marketing: Dive into the comprehensive story of brand marketing and its impact on building successful brands that resonate with consumers.
FAQs
How can I create an effective marketing strategy?
Crafting an effective marketing strategy involves understanding your target audience, setting clear goals, conducting market research, and choosing appropriate channels to reach your audience.
What is the significance of global marketing in international business?
Global marketing is essential for businesses seeking to expand internationally. It involves tailoring marketing strategies to diverse cultural and geographical contexts to reach a wider audience and achieve business growth.
How does brand marketing contribute to business success?
Brand marketing enhances brand recognition, customer loyalty, and perceived value. It creates a strong brand identity that resonates with consumers, ultimately driving business success.
What are the key components of a successful marketing strategy?
A successful marketing strategy includes defining your unique value proposition, identifying target audiences, choosing the right marketing channels, setting clear objectives, and regularly analyzing and adjusting your approach based on data and results.
How can I ensure my marketing strategy resonates with my audience?
Understanding your audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points is crucial. Conduct market research, engage in conversations, gather feedback, and create tailored content that addresses your audience’s specific challenges and interests.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.
