Top 5 Things to Focus on in 2016

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I don’t pretend to know the future. That’s why I try not to take part in the “my predictions for next year” type posts that run rampant in December.

However, I do know that a lot of marketers and small business owners are looking for ways to stay ahead of the pack as they go into the New Year. They need to set their budgets and outline a strategy that will give them the best chance of success.

Regardless of how you fared in 2015, here are 5 areas to put your focus into next year:

  1. The Mobile User Experience – everyone is finally starting to realize that the mobile user is a different type of user than his desktop brethren. Mobile users want and need different things. They are at a different stage of the buying cycle. It’s time we stop trying to treat everyone the same and really focus on giving the mobile user exactly what he or she is looking for in a friendly, easy to use format, both on the web and in our advertising and email campaigns.
     
  2. Market Segmentation – just like mobile users, we want to stop treating everyone in the market the same way. People are different. They have different problems that they’re looking to solve, and the same solution doesn’t work for everyone. Our ability to review data and learn about our customers should help us begin to segment them in meaningful ways. That could be based on where they live, the products they buy, when they buy, etc. The more we can segment the market and customize our marketing to each group, the better our results will be.
     
  3. Customer Service as Marketing – how can I help? Those four little words should be at the heart of how you serve the marketplace. Customer service is a more public activity than ever before. And the companies that get customer service right use it to their advantage. By going out of your way to make customers happy, you increase goodwill and build brand advocates. Rather than negative and hurtful reviews, you’ll start to see positive reviews and strong word of mouth marketing. Invest in service and you should see the rewards on the marketing side.
     
  4. Measurement and Analytics – make 2016 the year you commit real manpower to understanding your data. Technology has allowed us the ability to study and learn how our users and customers behave like never before. The companies that will succeed in the coming years are the ones that will take the time to understand how that data can help their business. Ignoring the data is no longer an option.
     
  5. Product or Service Expansion – if you really want to grow your business, you need to find the one or two things you’re not doing right now that are a natural complement to whatever you are doing. Are there related products that your customers are buying from other places you might offer? Are there other uses to your product you haven’t thought of or marketed yet? You don’t always need to find new customers to grow. It’s often easier to invest in selling more to the people you already reach.

Marketing Trends Blog Series Reviewed

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What are the top marketing trends in your industry? Are you testing new methods, new advertising channels, new ways of connecting with consumers?

As marketers, it is important we remain forward thinking without abandoning those things that got us where we are. Staying aware of new trends and strategies is critical.

The last ten weeks, we highlighted some key trends we’re paying attention to. Here is a recap of all ten posts from this series:

  1. Audience Targeting
  2. Peak Google
  3. Negative Calls to Action 
  4. Featuring Customers
  5. Remarketing
  6. Marketing Partnerships
  7. Marketing Specialists
  8. Storytelling
  9. Direct Competitor Comparisons
  10. Activity-based Marketing

Stay tuned next week for the start of a new series on Mondays.

Marketing Trends – Part 10

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Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Direct Competitor Comparisons.

Today’s Trend = Activity-based Marketing

For the longest time, one of the problems that marketers have had is not knowing when the right time was to deliver their messages.

Advertisers took guesses based on their audience when to air their commercials, where to place their ads in publications, and when to send direct mail. Even online advertisers had to run tests to figure out when to send emails or shows ads online.

The goal is always to deliver ads at a time we expect them to have maximum impact. And now, there are new tools that allow us to do that better than ever.

A popular trend that is gaining momentum in companies large and small is what I’ll refer to here as “Activity-based Marketing”.

Activity-based marketing refers to delivering marketing messages in real time based on an observed action. For example, sending an email to someone after you recognize that they visited your website. Or delivering an ad to someone when you recognize they are showing intent to buy something you offer.

There are many different forms of activity-based marketing, and many technology companies that have developed tools to help you get started. Retargeting companies, like Ebay Enterprise and Adroll, allow you to deliver ads to specific audiences, including people who visited your website, performed a search for your company online, or even your current customer list.

Advertising technology companies like Yieldbot use formulas to determine what people online are looking for without even searching and deliver ads based on their “intent”.

And most email marketing platforms will allow you to connect your emails to Google Analytics so that you can customize emails for people who visit a specific page, return to your website after a long absence, or some other key variable.

The power in all of these tools is that you are able to deliver your message at the right time, when your company is at the top of the consumer’s mind. When you can deliver the right message at the right time, you will be that much more successful in your marketing efforts.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.

Marketing Trends – Part 9

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Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Storytelling.

Today’s Trend = Direct Competitor Comparisons

It used to be somewhat taboo to mention your competition directly in any of your marketing materials. But that unwritten rule has been ripped apart in recent years as companies are getting more and more aggressive with their advertising and sales messaging.

Today, it is becoming more and more common for companies to specifically mention their competitors in their marketing materials; including but not limited to television commercials, online ads, marketing emails, sales materials, landing pages and website content.

Why? Consumers in many categories are more informed than they used to be. They have better access to the truth about how products work and how satisfied real-life customers are with them. So they are doing more research, comparing products head to head themselves.

And companies are responding by giving them side by side comparisons. By showing where your product or service is better than your competitor, you’re doing some of their research for them. And it gives you the ability to tell your story using facts and data instead of more general and colorful marketing copy.

You can and should follow suit if you have close competitors that your consumers are looking at. Start by determining what you do better. What do you do that they don’t? Why would a consumer choose you over them?

Next, think about the best place to showcase this comparison. It may be in your sales materials. It may be directly on your website. Or it may be in ads aimed at getting people to visit your site and call you. Wherever you think customers might connect with that kind of message, test it out and learn what kind of response you get.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.

Marketing Trends – Part 8

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Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Marketing Specialists.

Today’s Trend = Storytelling

Traditional advertising went like this –

  • We’re going to tell you about a problem you already have
  • We’re going to tell you how our product solves that problem
  • We might give you an added incentive to buy it right away
  • And we’ll tell you how to buy it

For the most part, that was it. It was easy. It worked.

But today, it is not as effective as it used to be. People are tired of being “sold to”. They are consciously opting out of advertising, even when it might be something they are interested in.

Instead, they are looking for reviews from real people. They want to research products and companies on their own before they buy. And they definitely don’t want to feel like that ad they saw convinced them to buy something.

So what are marketers doing to combat this negative connotation that consumers have with traditional advertising? They are engaging in storytelling.

The best way to explain storytelling is by giving what I believe is the best example of it. The company is GoPro. GoPro has built their entire brand through storytelling. And it’s paying off in a huge way.

Think about the company. They make cameras. They are specialty cameras used in very specific ways. But that’s what they do, they sell cameras. They could have run ads telling you how great their cameras are, how much fun you’ll have with them, how they’re the only cameras that let you do the things you can do with them. So go buy them.

But you wouldn’t. Because you’ve heard it all before from other camera makers.

Instead, they put the power in the hands of their customers. They used the amazing things their customers were creating with their cameras as their marketing and promotion. They made it easy for people to share their work, and put their own marketing dollars behind it’s promotion. And we all know GoPro not through a bunch of commercials and in your face advertising. We all know GoPro because we’ve seen a video someone took that we had a connection with. It wowed us.

That’s storytelling in action. Companies like Red Bull, Apple, Google, and many others have all worked to master storytelling in their marketing. And you should too.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.