How well businesses embrace new and emerging marketing trends, depends on their openness to more efficient ways to connect with their audience. Embracing the future of marketing year after year means studying how your consumers like to be communicated to. Plus, you need to know which platforms and strategies best allow you to do this.
Businesses should always be on the lookout for new and emerging marketing trends. They’re directly connected to growing your internal and external business structures.
Let’s look at new and emerging trends in marketing and how businesses can leverage these trends effectively.
New and Emerging Marketing Trends
Marketing is most important to the longevity of any brand, hence the pressure on constantly implementing new ways to effectively connect with your brand audience, including potential and current customers. Here are seven new and emerging marketing trends you should consider today:
Empathy will be more important than ever
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact all of us personally and professionally. It’s shifting our buying patterns, day-to-day interactions, and values. It’s changed the way we communicate with each other, but also the way businesses communicate with their current and potential customers. Empathy-centered communication and messaging is an important trend to take note of.
Consumers are responding positively to businesses that show an understanding for and empathy toward their current circumstances. You should ensure you’re putting empathy at the forefront of every communication you send out. Communicate that you’re listening to consumers by providing solutions to their right-now needs.
A clear focus on better engagement
Most businesses defaulted to digital ways of engaging with their audience as in-person gatherings, large events, and retail venues shut down across the country. Some of those ways were more effective than others and businesses found that it was most important to approach digital engagement with a clear strategy.
One way to help with digital engagement is to personalize everything. The more you’re able to tailor your message to your consumer, the more likely they are to engage with your brand. As we navigate this new normal, this trend will make or break your online marketing presence.
Whether in-person or virtual, events will make a comeback
Many businesses decided to take some of their biggest in-person events and shift them to digital platforms. Others decided to scrap events altogether and wait for health officials to give them the go-ahead when it’s safe to host gatherings again.
You can look forward to in-person events making a comeback, as well as for virtual events to be used more effectively. Be aware of virtual event burnout and get creative in the way you host events online. Also, consider hosting intimate, small events more frequently when you’re able to have them in-person again, as consumers will likely want to keep their health and safety at the forefront of the events they attend.
Consumers want to know what businesses stand for
We’re seeing a shift in consumers supporting businesses that more closely align with their personal values. They’re priding themselves on knowing more about the depth of a business and the people behind the brand. Businesses will be required to be transparent about the values, beliefs, and behaviors they stand for.
You should have clear political, environmental, and social values that are communicated well and often to your target audience and customers. Business owners should employ marketing strategies that highlight their shared values with consumers and use them as a base for relationship development.
Leveraging AI and automation in content marketing
Artificial intelligence and automation are being used more and more by businesses to streamline their marketing efforts. Content marketing is seeing major advantages of AI and automation in regards to audience analysis, content ideation, content personalization, and content analytics. Pretty much every other trend in content marketing involves AI in some form or another.
If you’re not already using content marketing to connect with your customers, be sure to explore this opportunity as it continues to rise in popularity across all industries. Use AI and content automation to analyze the behavior patterns of your audience, create personalized content, and come up with targeted content ideas that better serve your audience.
The rebirth of email marketing
At one point, email marketing was said to be dying, but the pandemic pushed most businesses back into the arms of standard digital marketing channels. As businesses adapt to the new values and needs of consumers, they’ll rely heavily on this old-but-faithful digital marketing strategy.
You should explore revamping your email marketing strategy. Maybe even supercharge your email design. Email has proven itself an effective way to communicate and build a relationship with consumers. Its importance and popularity are trending upward as consumers engage via digital channels more often.
Rebranding, especially in the digital space, will continue
The past year gave business leaders an opportunity to see where they need improvement, but they also found out how hard it is to let go of old ways and embrace change. Many of these leaders embraced a complete rebrand, and that optimized their digital influence as well as their traditional ways of bonding with their audience.
Expect an uptick in rebranding efforts across multiple businesses. There will be more of a focus on rebranding in the future of marketing as we settle into this new normal. Experiment with new colors, logos, and content to successfully update your business’s image.
Conclusion
Embracing the future of marketing will benefit the financial growth of your business as well as your efforts to build brand awareness and customer relationships. The future of marketing is rooted in optimizing the use of appropriate channels, understanding the new values and needs of your audience, and constantly adapting your marketing strategies, platforms, and techniques.
For more great tips, tricks and how-tos, subscribe to the Divvy blog today!