The marketing landscape doesn’t remain the same for too long. A strategy that worked for a brand 10 years ago might not work today. The evolution of marketing trends is making way for new strategies in 2019. If you want your brand to soar high, we have some surefire suggestions for you.
- Stress on big data analysis:
If you followed last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, you must be aware of the term big data analytics. If you are running an eCommerce platform, big data can enhance your business in a variety of ways. When it comes to predicting trends in the market, there’s nothing more effective than big data analytics. We all know that Barack Obama won the 2012 US presidential election. Did you know that big data had a huge role to play in that election?
With big data analytics, you can now predict and recommend the products and services that your customers want. Not just that, big data analysis can also help you predict market trends, manage your inventory, and boost conversion rates. Moreover, you can offer competitive prices for your products/services and deliver personalised user experience with the help of big data.
- Clearly define your target market:
Incorporating big data analytics with your marketing mix will help you to stay several steps ahead of your competitors. However, your efforts may go in vain if you fail to identify the target market. Before your brand rolls out a new service or product, it is important to do thorough market research. Unless you know which market to cater to, you won’t be able to prepare an effective marketing strategy.
Define the buyer persona first. Ask these specific questions regarding your product/service:
- What is the age bracket of the customers you want to sell your product or service to?
- Does the product/service serve both genders, or is it for either men or women?
- People from which financial background will be comfortable using your product/service?
- Is the product meant for individual use, or is it for the whole family?
Answering these aforementioned questions can give you a better image of your ideal buyer and the target market. You can then personalise your marketing efforts to penetrate the market.
- Use content marketing to your advantage:
It’s been quite some time since content marketing has proven its worth in boosting businesses. And as per the trends, it will continue to boost conversion rates for years to come. While 9 out of 10 businesses are already using content marketing, what new can you do to stay ahead of the curve? The answer is by staying relevant.
A major portion of the content marketing activities is powered by search engines such as Google and Bing. Now, Google keeps updating the algorithms all the time, which makes certain content marketing efforts ineffective after a particular interval. So, keep yourself updated with Google’s algorithm changes and use that knowledge to your advantage.
- Make the most of social media platforms:
With the availability of cheap smartphones and better connectivity, the popularity of social media is skyrocketing. And for the past few years, businesses have been using social media platforms to expand their reach to a whole new level. If you want to boost your reach and conversion rates, you may need to invest more time and energy on social media.
Facebook has been the no.1 choice for social media marketing for most businesses. However, Instagram (which is also owned by Facebook) is slowly catching up with Facebook in terms of effectiveness. If your product or service has some visual appeal to it, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook should be your ideal choice. Besides, the live broadcast on these social media platforms receives a lot of engagement these days.
- Optimise your landing page for mobiles:
There’s hard to find a person who does not use a mobile phone these days. In fact, mobile phones accounted for 49.7 per cent of global internet usage as of February 2017. So, it is quite evident that half of everything you post on the internet is consumed by users via mobile phones. Needless to say, you need to optimise your website and every other online post for mobile phones.
If the users click on a link to your web page and find out the page does not fit their mobile screens, they won’t hesitate to hit the back button. Besides, Google’s mobile-first indexing gives a better ranking to those pages that are optimised for mobile uses. If you wish your marketing efforts to be fruitful, you need better ranks in the search engine. Mobile optimisation is one of the major factors that can make it happen.
- Don’t give up on email marketing:
With the introduction of strict regulations like the GDPR, email marketing may have taken a hit, but it is still quite useful. In fact, email marketing remains to be one of the most effective strategies to boost customer engagement. It is cost-effective and measurable. Most importantly, it can be used to attract, convert, close, and delight the customers.
However, you need a proper strategy to run a successful email marketing campaign. You need to learn when is the right time to send emails to your potential and existing customers. Timing is the essence of email marketing. You need to personalise the email content to engage individual customers. Also, you need to take several measures such as putting impressive subject lines, optimising the mail for mobiles, and adding visual elements to boost the open rates of the emails.
- Try something unique:
Ever heard of Guerrilla marketing? It is a popular marketing strategy that helps you grab the attention of the customers by doing something unusual. Over the years, plenty of businesses (SMEs and large enterprises alike) have employed this marketing strategy and benefitted from the same. Since it is cost-effective, you won’t have an issue employing this technique for your marketing efforts.
You can take inspiration from a few of the best guerilla marketing activities performed by brands. However, blindly copying the already tried ideas may not work for you. So, brainstorm and think about some innovative ideas that no one has tried before. The element of surprise is what makes guerilla marketing so effective. And since these campaigns don’t cost much, it is the go-to strategy for small businesses.
- Improve your online reputation:
Do you know that 95 per cent of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision? A report from Spiegel Research Center revealed this in 2017. So, if there are negative reviews about products or services on any public platform, it can affect your sales negatively.
If a customer is unsatisfied with your service or product, you need to address the issue and fix it as soon as possible. If the issue persists, the number of negative reviews will only grow in numbers. Once the issue is resolved, get in touch with the reviewer and make sure his/her problems are resolved as well. Finally, ask him/her to remove the negative review from the internet. This will not just help you to develop better relationships with the customers but also project your brand as a reliable one.
- Rope in influencers:
Consumers tend to rely on products and services that are recommended by someone they know. Word-of-mouth works a lot better than advertising on any given day. However, it is not possible to convince everyone to recommend your services or products to their friends and family. This is why brands rely on public figures to recommend their services or products to common people.
According to Influencermarketinghub.com, influencer marketing is the fastest growing online customer acquisition method. If your company has the budget to hire a global celebrity, you can use his popularity to boost your reach and conversion rate. However, if you are running a small business, you can rope in social media influencers who have a significant number of followers. If done right, this can boost your revenue and take your business to another level.
- Offer freebies and attractive deals:
Everyone loves free stuff. Even if people don’t recognise your brand name, no one is going to refuse your offer of free subscription. If you’re just starting out, try to engage more people by offering freebies, discounts and exciting deals. Every brand is into this common practice, including assignment help services.
If you have been in the industry for long, offering deals and discounts to the customers can improve the customer retention rate. You can even attract old customers who don’t avail your services anymore. Welcome them back by offering freebies. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you must make the right calculations while offering deals and discounts. If your brand ends up spending more money than earning, it may force the brand to shut down forever.
To conclude,
Every successful brand reads the latest marketing trends to gain an edge in a highly competitive market. Success comes to the brand that is able to predict the trends correctly and adopt new strategies before the competitors. Some of the tips mentioned above may require access to a certain level of resources. However, they are still very much applicable to all kinds of businesses.
Author bio: Natalie Gracia is a senior marketer at one of the reputed MNCs in Australia. She is serving in the field of marketing for the past 11 years. She is also associated with Myassignmenthelp as an expert who delivers assignment help to law students.
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