marketing trends Archives

In News

Marketing Trends You Should Not Ignore When Crafting Your 2023 Marketing Plan

January 31, 2023 No Comments

In an ever-changing landscape, today’s marketers are required to stay on their toes. As technologies advance and business conditions shift, so do the components that make up an effective marketing strategy. This is especially important for startup founders, who consistently need to find creative ways to market their innovative products. Despite operating on a limited budget, startups can indeed execute successful marketing strategies and campaigns by leveraging trending tactics while remaining up to date on evolving sociopolitical and legal changes that impact marketers.

As a fractional CMO at a number of growing startups, I too must stay on top of the constant evolution of the marketing space, strategies, tactics and tools to provide accurate and timely marketing guidance. Here are four of the most powerful marketing trends I have come across that you should consider when you’re developing your startup’s marketing plan in 2023.

1. Data Privacy And User Centricity

The last two years brought about major changes to the way user data is collected and used. These changes were driven by increased government legislation; consumer mistrust and an extreme level of competition in the technology industry may also have contributed. Consumers seem to be more aware and outspoken than ever about who is collecting their data, how it is being used and what rights they should have to protect it. From the death of third-party cookies to Apple making significant changes to its privacy features, the management of big data is becoming rapidly more user-centric. Companies are handing power back to the user and letting them control how much data they are willing to share. I think this trend is only going to continue through 2023.

These changes could impact your startup’s marketing strategy, as marketers must now meet consumers’ high expectations when it comes to safeguarding their data. You should cultivate trust among your customers by being transparent, such as by including easily accessible privacy policies and terms and conditions on your website. And without third-party cookies to rely on, your startup may have to target consumers differently, without using their specific data. For example, you might do so contextually. Additionally, consider incentivizing your consumers by offering them a discount or promo code in exchange for their email address or phone number, and always provide an option to opt out. This way, you are connecting with consumers who feel that they are gaining something in return for their data.

2. Podcasts And Audio Advertising

According to Statista, “the number of podcast listeners [could] surpass 160 million in 2023 after increases of around 20 million each year.” The versatility of podcasts makes them a great opportunity for marketers in that consumers can be reached anywhere at any time about virtually any topic. In the case of startups, you can use podcasts to showcase the innovations and solutions you provide, which can help position your brand as a thought leader in the industry. Consider starting your own podcast or have your startup’s founder be a guest on a podcast with an established following.

Audio advertisements in podcasts also flourished this year, and I expect this to continue into 2023. A study by Signal Hill Insights and Cumulus Podcast Network found that three out of four weekly podcast listeners say they have taken action after hearing a podcast ad. Podcast listeners can enjoy a seamless listening experience when the host integrates ads into the show instead of using prerecorded audio ads that do not fit in and disrupt the content. Podcast advertising can be an effective tactic in your startup’s marketing strategy, as it can raise awareness among your target consumers, especially if you run ads on podcasts with topics that are closely related to your product.

3. Augmented And Virtual Reality Experiences

The Covid-19 pandemic’s acceleration of all things virtual caused businesses to invest in innovative technologies that would help them weather the storm. When physical stores were forced to close, many brands developed augmented reality experiences so that consumers could get the in-store feeling at home. For example, Burberry’s Pocket Bag AR campaign in 2021 allowed consumers to design and view their own 3D handbag sculptures based on Burberry’s new campaign. In years to come, I expect that AR and VR technologies will only become more integrated into marketing campaigns as consumers signal that they want unique experiences and interactions with the brands they love.

AR and VR experiences can provide a space for startups to flex their creative muscles and do what they do best: innovate. From virtual try-ons to wearable NFTs, there are plenty of ways to incorporate augmented reality into your marketing strategy. While it can be expensive, startups may also be able to find more affordable options.

4. Purpose-Driven Marketing

While purpose-driven marketing is not a new strategy, it seems to have become more prevalent in recent years in response to consumers’ interest in social causes. Purpose-driven marketing involves centering your organization’s marketing and communications efforts around a social cause. This strategy not only humanizes businesses but can also help consumers foster a deeper connection with the brands they use and trust. There are copious examples of purpose-driven marketing from small and large brands alike, but one of the most famous is that of the footwear brand TOMS and its “One for One” model that donated a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair it sold. Supporting a social cause through your startup’s marketing strategy is a great way to build consumer trust and brand loyalty, especially when the cause is something closely related to your startup’s core values.

Staying up to date on marketing trends in your respective industry can help you understand what channels and tactics are in demand. By applying this knowledge to your marketing plan, you can ensure that it is timely and relevant and allow your marketing communications to reach their target audience exactly how and when they need to. Startups working with limited resources can start by implementing one or two of the above trending tactics to strengthen their 2023 marketing plan.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Roshni Wijayasinha

Founder of Prosh Marketing, a Fractional CMO & Marketing Agency that helps Startups & SMBs build their marketing practice and go to market. Read Roshni Wijayasinha’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

3 Questions That Will Improve Your Personal Brand

November 23, 2022 No Comments

By Zach Benson

Entrepreneurs have long been quick to adopt new marketing trends, and personal branding is no exception.

Personal branding has finally become something that most entrepreneurs have accepted as a must-do. Thanks to Elon Musk, Gary Vaynerchuk, and other public-facing founders, more business owners are hopping on the personal branding train and making an effort to put a face to their companies.

The problem is most entrepreneurs are throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. If you want to build a personal brand that helps your business’s bottom line, you need to be intentional with how you show up.

And no, that doesn’t mean picking out the perfect filter for your Instagram grid or paying for thousands of fake followers to “look” important.

After helping entrepreneurs in all industries step into the spotlight and grow a personal brand people buy from, there are three non-negotiable questions you must ask yourself before getting started. (If you’ve already been trying to grow your personal brand for some time — don’t worry. Take a moment now, ask yourself these questions, and notice the gaps in your strategy that might be stalling your growth).

1. What kind of impression do you want to leave?

Modern-day personal branding is like going to an event, meeting someone new for the first time, and finding yourself talking about them a month later because something about them got etched so deeply in your brain.

When you leave the room at a party (i.e., when you finish having an interaction with an ideal client):

What do you want them to take away?
What do you hope they remember?
What do you want your target market to associate you with?
How do you want to be remembered?

These questions all fall under the same roof: defining what kind of impression you want to make on your target audience. By answering these questions, you create (or recreate) the foundation of your personal brand. Without the proper foundation, the house can’t be built.

2. How do you want to make people feel?

Continuing from question one, we’re taking it one step further. While most entrepreneurs on social media spend their time making sure their personal brand “looks” a certain way, they forget that’s not ultimately what makes someone buy.

People buy from you because of how you make them feel.

All humans make their buying decisions based on emotion. We buy with emotion and justify with logic. To grow your personal brand, you must clarify how you want to make people feel at the core. Think about your target audience and how you want them to feel after they come in contact with your personal brand.

Do you want them to feel:

Empowered?
Brave?
Confident?
Relaxed?
Energized?
Calm?

After you answer this question, you will have the creative clarity to craft a content strategy that shares one common goal: to make people feel a certain way.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a shining example of this. His personal brand’s biggest objective is to help people feel empowered and in control. Every single piece of content he puts out aims to help his target audience feel capable of creating a life they truly love.

3. Am I willing to let my audience in?

Here’s the hard truth: today’s biggest, most widely known personal brands are the ones who take their audiences behind the scenes. In other words, if you are serious about growing a personal brand that people not only love — but buy from — you need to be willing to connect with your audience on a human level consistently.

While this can be done in various ways, the easiest way is to tell your story. Instead of the company’s story — tell your story. Show your audience who you were before you were a leader. Show your audience what you overcame to build your company and bring your vision to reality. Show your audience that you’re so much more than your title, and show them that you’re a human just like them.

This doesn’t mean you need to tell all of your deepest darkest secrets. It means you need to decide what things you’re comfortable sharing with your audience from your personal life.

For example, some CEOs share everything from their quirky hobbies outside of work to their family, their kids and numerous other hats they wear. In contrast, others prefer to share only one or two different components of what makes them.

The most important thing to remember is that what works for someone else doesn’t have to be the way you do it. You get to let your audience in whichever way feels most authentic and aligned for you.

As long as you aren’t hiding behind your title, accomplishments and computer, you’re one step closer to building a personal brand that grows your business’ impact and income.

By Zach Benson

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Here’s How Top Marketers Are Planning for 2022

January 13, 2022 No Comments

By Amanda Pressner Kreuser

Co-founder and managing partner, Masthead Media@mastheadmedia

Sourced from Inc.

In News

10 Tech Executives Share Marketing Trends And Predictions For 2021

January 22, 2021 No Comments

By Kimberly A. Whitler

What’s on the horizon for marketers this year? To find out, I sought insight from the following nine tech executives .

We will see fundamental shifts in how organizations approach B2B marketing. Juliette Rizkallah, Chief Marketing Officer, SailPoint

“Standard marketing models will begin to emulate more aggressive and digitally focused B2C marketing approaches, where companies leverage a variety of digital touchpoints to target an individual buyer. B2B marketing will need to adjust the B2C approaches to handle the multi-personae account buying committee and will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to measure the progression of accounts along the top of the funnel. The second shift will surround events and the role they play in that funnel. Once largely used for high-level awareness, virtual or physical events in 2021 will instead move further down in the funnel and become more targeted to initiate engagement with accounts already active and showing commercial intent.”

In terms of digital fluency, marketers are years ahead of where anyone thought we’d be going into 2021. Alicia Tillman, Global Chief Marketing Officer at SAP

“The technology, the tactics, the flexible mindset – with these tools, disruption is no longer the showstopper it once was. As the world moves forward day by day, marketers are more prepared than ever to be agile and deliver the experiences audiences need, when they need them. Rather than months-long marketing campaigns, brand marketing will more closely mirror the way we’re living our lives as individuals. In the moment, deeply empathetic, and tuned into each other’s needs.”

We will see a stark divide in an organization’s marketing budget spend, followed by consequential impact. Jim Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer, Veeam

“With the unstable economy projected to carry into the new year, there will be a resulting stark divide in marketing budget spend. On one end, companies will look to cut back on marketing budgets because they see it as a variable cost that can be managed up or down fairly easily. On the other end, companies will increase investment in marketing because they see driving demand and building the brand as top priorities. Looking ahead, those organizations pivoting funds away from marketing will ultimately endure longer term impacts. Marketing takes quite some time to build on, and by toggling budgets up and down, past investments will begin to lose momentum. A dip in marketing spend will put these companies well behind others who continue to invest. Those who choose to navigate through this uncertainty and prepare for recovery will be far more successful in the long run.”

Verifying human engagement will be critical for marketer leaders. Dan Lowden, Chief Marketing Officer, White Ops

“In 2021, marketing leaders will be able to confidently verify engagement with real humans as they increasingly become more aware of how sophisticated bots and fraud are infiltrating their marketing spend. Marketers will partner with specialists that can help them accurately gauge if their campaigns are targeting real humans – resulting in better customer experience, ensuring higher engagement, bringing visibility to cleaner data, improving the company’s compliance position and driving stronger ROI across marketing campaigns. Marketers will be given a more critical seat at the executive table because of these insights and actions that help grow the business while ensuring every marketing dollar is effectively spent.”

Recent privacy regulations have given license for walled gardens to raise their walls even higher. Abhay Singhal, CEO, InMobi Marketing Cloud

“This is an extremely uncertain period of time, and CMOs shouldn’t have one roadmap – they should have multiple. For starters, marketing teams will need to be prepared to make the case for why consumers should opt in to data sharing within the app. On the flip side, marketers should also be prepared to potentially not have access to that data and will need to find alternative solutions or tactics to create as much of a consistent ID as possible. Without this, advertisers are at risk of presenting the same ads to consumers over and over, which compromises brand image and user experience. Having contingency plans for both scenarios will be critical, and marketers need to start setting expectations and redefining metrics as soon as possible.”

Company culture will play an even bigger role in recruiting great marketing talent. Amanda Bohne, Chief Marketing Officer at AppNeta

“Now that so many companies have proven that, for many, remote work can be as effective as in-office work, it will be hard for businesses to return to the old ways of doing things if they want to continue to recruit top talent. Top marketers will now be sought after by companies located across the country, enabling them to potentially live somewhere different or more affordable than where their current employer is located. Trying to recruit for a company where in-office work is mandated will start to meaningfully impact your candidate pool, and therefore your ability to attract the best talent.”

No matter what product you sell, what you need to market is trust. Dale Renner CEO, Co-Founder, RedPoint Global

“Consumers want trust in the product quality, trust in the organization handling your data, trust that the organization is doing what is right for the environment and social needs, trust that the organization knows and values you. Trust is ultimately driven through a series of interactions – those brands that are responsible with a consumer’s data and use it to create value for the consumer, those that provide consistent experiences, those that operate at the consumer’s cadence will build that trust. Brands unable to be trustworthy, will experience a dramatic decline in customer loyalty and brand value. ”

B2B marketers will primarily focus on strengthening relationships with existing customers. Elena Filimonova, SVP, Marketing CGS

“Marketers will evaluate their customer base to provide them with unused benefits of their service, while building out business opportunities for the future. By sharing best practices and tips for leveraging existing services with valued customers, Marketers will ensure long-term loyalty with their companies as these customers may be struggling in the current environment.”

Google and Apple have led the industry-wide clapback for transparency and data privacy. Susan Lee, Chief Product Officer, Valassis

“In the new year, it’s reasonable to assume other tech companies will put similar measures in place to further reduce user signals. Fewer precise data points from cookies and mobile device IDs means marketers will engage fewer consumers on a one-to-one or known basis. Instead, marketing teams will need to leverage advanced machine learning models and other probabilistic techniques to reach high-value audiences who look like your known customer base, maximizing scale.”

Omnipresent CX will be a game changer in defining brand loyalty. Colson Hillier, Chief Marketing Officer, Alorica Inc.

“In today’s ‘continuously-connected’ way of life, it’s not enough that brands respond to customers through multiple channels. Consumers crave effortless CX—being able to alternate quickly from different platforms, but for these channels to also be personalized, persistent and effective in solving pain points in the user experience. In 2021, you’ll see more companies stay one step (or maybe even five!) ahead of customers’ wants through advanced analytics and embedded intelligence, which in turn creates more contextual and meaningful interactions that allow brands to market, sell and serve their customers better and faster. When brands proactively ‘push’ tailored experiences rather than rely on customers to ‘pull’ from services after they’ve had a problem, that changes the nature of the relationship, offering insights for marketing teams to better evaluate evolving consumer preferences. The convergence of always-connected consumers, new platforms for service delivery and permissioned data provides the insights, context and channels that ultimately redefine brand loyalty.”

Feature Image Credit: Rainbow Bridge / Getty

By Kimberly A. Whitler

As a former General Manager and CMO, who worked for nearly 20 years before getting a PhD and working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, I conduct research that focuses on helping the C-suite (and aspiring C-level marketers) better understand, develop, and lead marketing excellence.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

5 B2B Marketing Trends During Lockdowns And Outlook Post-Covid

June 10, 2020 No Comments

By Parul Singh

A sharp rise in screen time on smartphones
The right time to invest in paid digital advertising and automation platforms
Virtual on-demand events and content will grow significantly

Coming out sturdier from a crisis marks the ones slated for success. Last 10 years have been the golden decade for marketing with technology and automation increasing numbers.

Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event none of us have experienced in the past. It is grand, all-encompassing, has affected over 200 countries at once and has necessitated that the price of doing the same old thing in the new normal can be detrimental. Therefore, now is the time to slow down and take stock of what went wrong first, then what went right for marketing in the past decade.

With social distancing and remote work being normalized to base our future course of actions on, consumer patterns will change significantly in the post-Covid world.

Reduced Marketing Budgets Can Be A Blessing In Disguise

As per HBR research, 17% of companies did not survive the last recession in 2008.

With a sharp cut in marketing budgets across the board, the usual discretionary spends are not welcome anymore. A PGA Labs survey report, released as lockdowns started in India, said 53% of startups already cut discretionary marketing spends in March 2020.

From a long-term perspective, things will permanently change on the marketing front as far as budgets are concerned, putting a high focus on top-funnel marketing and converging marketing and communications.

This may put off a lot of marketers aiming for revenues from the bottom-funnel but till things clear up, as a mark of respect for clients and businesses, these times warrant us to soften the sales pitches and hard call to actions.

In the more intricate B2B environment where the percentage of the marketing budget is already skewed towards training and analytics and building a robust and experienced talent team internally, new paradigms of engaging the top-funnel will gain focus.

Not undermining the scope of generating revenue, events, webinars, and ebooks will gain momentum in a post-Covid world. On the talent side, steep technology adoption, human resilience, and professional experience will be of the utmost value for brands in a ‘frugal new normal.’

What Changes For B2B Marketing Post-Covid

Putting your old strategy on a back-burner and creating a fresh one can be taxing. A sudden work from home mandate has left most of us in limbo from a networking perspective. Sharing the top 5 trends which can help marketers reaccelerate the business and create brand equity in a ‘with and post-Covid world:

On-Demand Niche Video Content

If you have been dilly-dallying, this is the time to commit to video. Agile times require agile methods and given recent cancellations of on-ground activities; it is time to create quality content IPs with revenue generation opportunities as you:

Budget for experienced video professionals, and editing and automation software
Align your operations, fulfilment teams with marketing to create insightful niche topic-led video content that is crisp and sharp
Leverage brand equity to reflect specific services aligned to trending topics

Organic Vs Paid Marketing

As we focus on top-funnel marketing, organic is usually the go-to method for B2B businesses. A spike in web traffic on short formats, videos, and news and entertainment content lays focus on CONTENT and using it wisely to generate revenues. However, on the other side, this is also the right time to start testing lead generation digital advertising for firms only using their budgets on digital this year. As per a recent report from PGA Labs, India’s digital ad penetration is expected to reach 32% by 2022, this percentage will multiply further in a post-Covid scenario. Due to decreased competition for bids, ads have also become cheaper and ROI has increased.

Email Marketing

Being the direct link with your clients and prospect network, upgrading audience and email limits on the mailbox is a good idea. Investing in email marketing platforms can be helpful as content becomes a hook for most audience and your timely response to the crisis will be a key differentiator for the brand. A keen focus on sharing insights, videos, tutorials, and educational content can save the day for B2B businesses. However, exercise caution to not overwhelm the audience with more than 2-3 well-paced quality communications in a month with softer CTAs.

E-Networking

All conferences and events have been cancelled until further notice. Getting the arsenal on board virtually is the need of the hour. Do not let the lockdowns stop you from organizing the event you had scheduled. In the current scenario, chances are people will not pay the registration fees, therefore balancing this by saving logistics and reaching out to a wider audience will be the way to go.

Help Others Selflessly

Navigating a crisis can seem scary. In this extraordinary time where everyone is affected in one way or the other, it is important to think about marketing as a ‘person to person’ effort rather than a ‘business to business’ approach. Marketing and Communications need to work in tandems like the brain and the heart as we move ahead. How we connect back to the roots as individuals and businesses, and compassionately give back, will define our way forward.

This is the time to hand-hold customers, clients, and employees into the new normal. To do this, as a brand we launched the #ReAcceleratewithPraxis series in March to help our clients and businesses at large, proactively sharing our team’s experience from the previous recessions and proprietary knowledge IP for wading through the tough waters.

As we go forward, TRUST becomes the new currency to survive in a work from home economy, and marketing can open new doors to build trust and credibility and minimize the adverse effects on business due to Covid.

By Parul Singh

Sourced from Inc42

In News

Global digital video viewership and marketing trends advertisers should know in 2020

April 17, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from Business Insider.

As global internet usage increases and bandwidth improves, digital video viewership is quickly replacing traditional TV viewership as the preferred method of media consumption around the world — and digital ad spending continues to grow accordingly.

T10538 — Digital video viewership trends by region Copyright © 2020 eMarketer Inc.

Between social video apps like TikTok and Snapchat, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, connected TVs, over-the-top (OTT) streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu, and live videogame streaming services like Twitch, the digital video landscape has never been so expansive.

But each country is facing its own technological, competitive and regulatory hurdles, resulting in a fractured global digital video landscape. With more marketing dollars going towards digital video ads than ever before, it’s crucial to know whether they’re being put to good use.

To help navigate the broad scope of the industry, eMarketer has published the Global Digital Video report, a comprehensive analysis covering both trends touching the entire global digital video ecosystem, as well as those occurring within specific regions throughout the world.

No matter which major video market you are looking at, these are the global digital video trends to pay attention to:

Digital Video Trends in 2020

Rising Viewership Across All Devices and Platforms
Growing Monetization of Video — including Ad Spending & Subscriptions
Traditional TV Ad Viewing and Ad Spending Decreasing
Video Platforms to Suit All Needs Available in Most Countries
Video Streaming Services Investing Heavily in Original Content

More to Learn

If you are looking to take advantage of the growing digital video marketing landscape, you need to be equipped with the right knowledge. Understanding the why behind these trends will help you adjust to the quickly evolving industry and make smarter decisions for your business.

Get a more comprehensive look at the industry with the Global Digital Video report, covering topics like digital video vs. mobile phone viewers across different platforms, digital video monetization strategies and trends, FAQs, and analysis by country.

Interested in the full report and getting more content like this each day? eMarketer PRO features in-depth analyst reports, proprietary forecasts, customizable charts, and more.

Click here to inquire about access, or check to see if your company already subscribes to eMarketer PRO.

Sourced from Business Insider

In News

Three Social Media Marketing Trends To Watch In 2020

February 6, 2020 No Comments

By Stephanie Wells.

With the new year here, it’s time for marketers to solidify their strategies for more productive, effective results. The marketing landscape is constantly changing and evolving, and if businesses don’t keep up, they’ll see a drop in conversions and revenue.

For social media, this is especially true. Users continue to interact in different ways and use social platforms to engage with brands they do business with. In 2019, 79% of the U.S. population had a social networking profile.

Imagine a business that doesn’t know the first thing about how to use social media to engage their customers. You may have a large following, but if you don’t utilize your platform, you won’t see positive results.

It’s important to keep up with the upcoming social media marketing trends so you and your team create a strategy that’s effective and fruitful. Here are a few trends to watch in 2020 that you can apply to your social media marketing strategy.

Building Online Communities

What keeps users coming back on social media time and time again? When you get tired of the memes, acquaintances’ life updates and baby photos, what entices people to continue using social platforms in their leisure time?

Social media provides a stable platform of connectivity between people who otherwise wouldn’t coexist as easily. People lead busy lives, and even those you’re close to can become estranged when there’s so much going on. Perhaps a more significant reason people continue using social media is to be part of a bigger community where they feel valued, respected and loved.

In 2020, social media marketers should put more emphasis on building online communities to grow their customer base. There will be more focus on responding to users, cultivating conversations and building authentic brand-consumer relationships. All of these elements will encourage repeat customers and increased engagement.

Humanizing Your Brand

Brands are constantly fighting to grab their audience’s attention and persuade them to look their way. There are so many marketing messages pushed on consumers day in and day out that it takes extra effort to reel them in. How can you intrigue your customers when you have so many competitive forces standing in your way? You humanize your brand.

In the upcoming year, marketers will put more focus on adding human elements to their social marketing messages. There’s no room for robotic, traditional advertising that makes it difficult to produce results. If you want to connect with consumers, then you need to humanize your brand and create relationships beyond your products and services.

Brands are already leveraging the use of memes, slang and pop culture to relate to their customers and build long-lasting customer relationships. I predict this trend will continue to rise in the new year as consumers demand more personalization from the businesses they invest in.

Social Purchasing

Marketers aim to please their customers and provide them with smooth experiences. This includes sharpening website design, improving navigation and offering superior customer support. It also means providing additional convenience wherever possible so businesses have a higher chance of converting customers and generating sales.

That’s why I expect purchasing through social media to continue to grow as a trend for the upcoming year. Companies already bombard users with ad after ad based on their previous searches. Users are used to seeing products they want when they log into social media. More businesses will use this to their advantage by enabling shopping directly through social platforms.

Providing convenience is one of the key ways to drive sales and persuade users to click through. If your brand offers a positive user experience (UX) for customers, you’re sure to see an increase in conversions and engagement.

If you want to boost your social media marketing efforts for the upcoming year, then it’s crucial to pay attention to the trends. You can expect a bigger emphasis on building authentic relationships, social purchasing and humanization to bring audiences and businesses together.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Stephanie Wells

Steph is the founder of Formidable Forms, a drag + drop form builder for WordPress that empowers freelancers to create form-based solutions.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

The 6 Marketing Trends That Will Drive Innovation in 2020

January 23, 2020 No Comments

By Heide Palermo.

Top marketing innovators across industries share their predictions

Innovation never stops. But a new year—and a new decade—gives us a chance to pause, reflect and get excited about the possibilities. So we asked top marketing innovators from brands including Google, HBO, Hulu, Visa, Sony and Chipotle one question: What’s happening in marketing right now that you’re most excited about?

We’ve rounded up their answers, along with key trends that surfaced in 2019 and will continue to shape the industry, from emerging technologies to experiential to the impact of culture.

1. The Democratization of Content Creation

“2020 will be the year that we see the democratization of celebrity at scale. With new platforms in streaming and social media, we will see attention shift away from traditional media allowing new voices to be heard.” Nick Tran, vp of brand and culture marketing, Hulu

“The democratization of creative tools … has resulted in a marketplace full of talented content creators. In addition to external agency partners, [we have] an in-house creative team as well as a hybrid team made up of agency and in-house talent. We are also making content with influencers, media partners and content distributors of all kinds.” Brynn Bardacke, vp for North America content and creative excellence, The Coca-Cola Company

“I am most excited about the shift in content consumption behavior, which is creating opportunities and forcing businesses to rethink how and where they go to for ideas and content. Brands can no longer thrive by going to the same places they’ve always gone. If the business of content has completely changed, why hasn’t the way we go about making it? The industry needs to innovate and I say, ‘bring on the challenge.’” Tina Walsh, chief brand officer, Tongal

“Capturing content is now easier than ever. But VSCO users have taught us that providing tools for creation isn’t enough. They need safe spaces where they can express their own unique voice free of judgment. Creative democratization is best realized within supportive communities that are based on freedom of expression.” Tesa Aragones, chief marketing officer, VSCO

“Content creation has quickly moved beyond marketing and is now influencing product design in unique ways. With the right tools, consumer communities can now be given the keys to the products and experiences they love, which in turn changes their engagement with brands. It’s really exciting to see this beginning to take shape—it’s a whole new model of consumer ownership when you think about products that are designed and created in part by the community.” Jodie Antypas, vp of consumer insights and UX research, EA

2. Voice Technology and 5G

“Advancements in voice technology and ubiquitous computing will bring new levels of humanity to technology, simplifying how we use it and ironically helping us detach for it. Speaking is one of the most natural ways of interacting and will create whole new challenges and opportunities for brands, eventually redefining what ‘brand’ means in the future.” Marvin Chow, vp of global marketing, Google and one of Adweek’s 2019 Brand Genius honorees

“Voice technology is something that we’ve been working on for the past couple of years, and we were excited to partner with Pandora on understanding how consumers are interacting with voice technology while they’re in their daily routines. Conversational AI is certainly something that’s evolving and advancing every day.” Orchid Bertelsen, head of digital innovation, Nestlé USA

“Right now, I’m excited about what 5G will bring to the future of live entertainment. A faster, more powerful connection unlocks a more social, frictionless and immersive fan experience while presenting a powerful opportunity for deeper engagement between fans, artists and brands.” Kevin Chernett, evp of global partnerships and content distribution, Live Nation

3. The Impact and Influence of Culture

“We have a tremendous responsibility not only to our brands but also to our consumers. … We have the ability to bring people together, diminish divisiveness, and celebrate inclusion. And by amplifying those messages, we are in the driver’s seat to influence a culture that is truly about inclusiveness and connectedness.” Lizette Williams, head of U.S. cultural engagement and experiences, McDonald’s

“I get excited when I see brands willing to stand for something relevant and meaningful in the marketplace, even if it’s not universally accepted. … Brand marketing should be about more than providing products and services—it should be about changing our culture.” Karla Davis, senior director of integrated marketing and media, Ulta Beauty

“One trend I find interesting is how customers today have increased expectations of how and where brands show up and what they stand for. … The role brands play in culture is at an interesting point in time, and I expect we’ll start to see great brands emerge from the pack through remarkable storytelling, cultural relevance and more contextually relevant creative.” Lauren Weinberg, global head of marketing, Square

4. Increased Personalization

“We are able to develop a deeper relationship with consumers because we have access to real-time data, allowing personalization at scale. This is motivation to raise the bar for the communications we put into the world. Marketers who understand the power of insights and data use it as an accelerator to create value for consumers through their work.” Mary Yee, vp of global marketing for PlayStation, Sony Interactive Entertainment

“I am excited about our newfound ability to leverage customer data for building brand, and not just for driving sales. What defines you as a person goes deeper than how much you spend: It’s your values, tastes, friends, personal features and overall identity. These are the data points you want to create an emotional connection with your customers.” Benjamin Lord, marketing consultant (formerly executive director at NARS Cosmetics)

“A customer now expects you to know who they are, where they are in the world and what they value, and then orchestrate the service experience around them. … Through emerging tech like AI and near field communication (NFC), we can make the transaction totally frictionless and, more importantly, we can recognize you, greet you and provide an individualized service experience. That is the future of marketing.” Mark Berinato, vp of digital experience, Panera Bread

5. The Value of Experiential

“Young people respond to meaningful connections that support their values. I see an exciting movement in the experiential marketing space where authentic and innovative IRL consumer experiences are driving brand love.” Ivan Heredia, vp of marketing, The Walt Disney Company

“The move from the age of the customer to the age of trust. The sooner companies realize that in reality, it’s the customers who are the heroes and begin catering to their solicited and unsolicited needs with seamless experiences, the better chance they have at building a brand that creates a lasting and sustainable impact. After all, experience is the new product, and time is the new price.” Hussein Dajani, general manager of digital and CX transformation, Nissan Motor Co.

“For two years in a row at SXSW, we bucked the digital trend and developed experiential events. Similarly, earlier this year for Game of Thrones, we brought Westeros to Austin and gave fans the chance to step into the world of the show. We always have an eye on what’s next, but sometimes innovation means going left when everyone else is going right.” Zach Enterlin, evp of program marketing, HBO

“In the world of experiential, it’s been exciting to see brands streamline their teams and agency partners to work together on initiatives as opposed to the separate silos we’ve become accustomed to seeing. We’re happy to see more cross-functional planning where marketing, media, comms and experiential all have a seat at the table together so we can curate and execute really dynamic experiences.” Andrew Steinthal, co-founder and CRO, The Infatuation. CRO, Zagat

6. The Power of Data

“I am fascinated by the changing dynamic in the media and content landscape, and how consumers are starting to recognize that ‘free’ services come with a price tag—perhaps your data becomes a currency you are not entirely comfortable with. … These still embryonic shifts in perception combined with emerging regulation will, in my view, gradually reshape the landscape.” Adrian Farina, head of marketing for Europe, Visa

“Retention will be king. As data provides access to a deeper understanding of the customer’s experience and preferences, marketers will focus as much on retention as acquisition. I am really excited about the opportunity that CRM provides to engage with customers where they are at in their relationship with the brand.” Tressie Lieberman, vp of digital and off-premise, Chipotle

“There is a huge pendulum swing around these walled gardens of data—the Googles, the Facebooks, the Amazons—right now. I think the pendulum will swing back to where consumers have more autonomy and control over what brands collect, use and for how long they’re able to use it, more than ever before.” Jonathan Lacoste, president and co-founder, Jebbit

Feature Image Credit: We asked 21 executives across a range of industries what they see as the emerging trends of 2020. Julian Gamboa

By Heide Palermo

Sourced from ADWEEK

In News

Infographic – Top B2B Influencer Marketing Trends for 2020 and Beyond

August 12, 2019 No Comments

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

While there are some who think the expression “influencer” is an expired term, the role of influence on B2B buying decisions is irrefutable.

According to the World Federation of Advertisers, 65% of multinational brands will increase influencer marketing spending in the next 12 months and there’s good reason for increased confidence: The 2019 Content Preferences Survey from DGR reports 95% of respondents favor credible content from industry influencers as a top preference, a 30% increase compared year over year.

Not only is influencer marketing one of the fastest growing areas of our marketing agency, it’s one of the disciplines where we are seeing trend setting marketing performance.

For companies operating in the B2B space, here are 7 influencer marketing trends worth digging in to for 2020 and beyond:

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

In News

How Disruptive Marketing Trends Can Help Restricted Brands Reach a Wider Social Audience

July 30, 2019 No Comments

By Jonathan Crowl

Social media is the cornerstone of most branded marketing strategies. But for certain companies and industries that don’t have the luxury of using the full slate of social promotion channels now available, putting to use disruptive marketing trends becomes a means for survival.

While any company can start its own Facebook Business Page, a number of regulated industries are barred from paying to advertise on social media. In other cases, social networks have their own restrictions on advertisers, independent from what federal and state law says. And some businesses and industries, while allowed to advertise on social media, must grapple with restrictions on targeting, messaging, and other criteria.

As a result, disruptive marketing trends can be a restricted company’s best friend when working around these paid advertising limitations on social media. Companies in the alcohol, pharmaceutical, cryptocurrency, cannabis, direct selling, tobacco, nutritional supplement, and gambling industries are just some of the victims of these social media restrictions—but that doesn’t mean marketers in these industries have to forgo a social strategy.

Here are some of the ways brands can work around all this red tape and use social media marketing as a means to generate ROI.

Harness the Power of Strategic Content Partnerships

Forming relationships with influencers and other companies can help your brand expand its social reach, without breaking the rules of any particular social network.

These strategic content partnerships could include collaborating on posts or articles, which are then shared by brands with more developed social networks. Or your team could work with influencers to generate brand awareness and visibility in a way that might function as paid advertising, but without directly violating a social platform’s marketing rules.

Influencer marketing has become a big boon for brands whose paid advertising is banned or restricted on social networks. According to Vox, pharmaceutical brands have been able to make a big splash with influencer marketing. They explain that brands creating prescription medications that treat conditions such as pregnancy nausea and psoriasis have been utilizing these partnerships to their advantage. Influencer-sponsored content like this can be a great way to get around advertising restrictions on social platforms without getting into hot water.

Also consider working with other brands to utilize non-social marketing channels, such as email and original published content, which can be used to promote your social accounts and build an organic following. Even though paid social ads may be off the table, there’s still value in building your social following, and leveraging the audiences of other brands is a great way to make that happen.

Employ Community-Centric Strategies

While hashtags aren’t exactly a new innovation in social media marketing, they remain a critical pillar of disruptive marketing strategies because of their potential to circumvent industry-specific restrictions on social ad content. These hashtags can be applied in two ways: To strengthen relationships with existing customers, advocates, and partners; and to expand a brand’s reach to a new audience.

In the first use case, brands can create their own hashtags that relate to a branded campaign, or they can simply create a social structure for their audience to easily engage with the company, its products, and its other followers. This has become a top point of emphasis for multi-level marketing companies, which are banned or restricted from paid advertising products on most social networks. As Jason Lee HQ points out, network marketing operations use branded hashtags not only to promote their products and support social selling efforts, but also to recruit new brand representatives and improve networking among existing reps and sales associates.

At the same time, brands can leverage existing community-based hashtags that insert their brand into reels of social content unified around a common interest or theme. Cannabis brands in the United States, for example, can use hashtags like #cannabiscommunity to extend their brand’s reach to a new audience, even though federal law—which social networks tend to follow in their policymaking, as opposed to state-specific regulations—bans the advertisement of cannabis and cannabis-related products.

Brands also shouldn’t overlook the value of creating or joining Facebook Groups related to their area of business. As The Verge reports, Facebook’s redesign is shifting the user experience focus away from newsfeeds and toward Groups. These Groups are fair game for brands that want to extend their social reach but don’t have the luxury of paying for social ad exposure.

Backchannel Engagement and Chatbots

For brands shut out of the more conventional social ad strategies, dark social engagement needs to become a priority. One of the most valuable disruptive marketing trends is the rise of new tools to drive better backchannel engagement with an audience, particularly with private messaging channels on social media.

Green Entrepreneur points out that, even though social media advertising isn’t allowed, cannabis brands can use their social channels to drive organic means like influencer marketing and by creating brand ambassadors. Meanwhile, as Adweek reports, direct messaging on Instagram and through the Facebook Messenger app has become a hotbed of interaction for cannabis brands looking to reach prospective customers. In many cases, these brands have their Messenger chat box programmed to automatically pop up when visitors reach their business page through a desktop device. Chatbots are being used to automate responses and initial interactions with users, creating personalized interactions and engaging with an audience at scale.

The ability to use social media to start a dialogue can be very valuable for certain brands and industries, especially in cases where consumers are seeking more information and familiarity. Cannabis, as well as cryptocurrency, telehealth, and other emerging industries where social ad policies haven’t caught up to innovation, are well-positioned to use this backchannel engagement to increase awareness for their products, build a relationship with new customers, and activate a mainstream audience—even as paid social advertising remains out of reach.

While social media can be an excellent path to audiences, paid advertising there shouldn’t be the end-all and be-all in your marketing strategy. By employing a little disruption and some creative thinking, restricted brands can still use social platforms to promote their products and captivate audiences—no matter what stage of development they’re in.

For more stories like this, subscribe to the Content Standard newsletter.

By Jonathan Crowl

Sourced from Skyward