Marketing Trends to Watch Closely

It’s easy to be excited about marketing at the beginning of each year as we recover from the holiday shopping season and look to drill down on a strategy for a new year. But as the months go on, it can be just as easy to lose that excitement and stay motivated. If it’s time to sharpen your marketing strategy for the year’s second half, below are some marketing trends and strategies we know offer ROI. 

Do Some Research

We love a good marketing trend, but not every one is good. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because your industry peers are doing it, you should too. Take the time to do your homework, look into the content and channels others are using, and consider carefully if your audience will respond. This is especially important regarding world events or social action causes.

Make Customers the Creators

You can spend every penny you have on a slick marketing campaign and plenty of paid advertising, but it won’t be as powerful as your customers telling everyone how good you are. User-generated content (UGC) is a marketing trend that brands of all sizes are taking advantage of, and it’s a smart way to cut the cost and time it takes to create content in the first place.

Don’t Set It In Stone

If we’ve learned anything about marketing in the last few years, it’s that our strategies need to remain fluid and flexible. World events, extreme weather, and global pandemics can throw an editorial calendar on its head, and your marketing needs to be agile enough to respond. It’s a great idea to know what to post, but you may have to pivot or tweak your message at a moment’s notice.

Keep Your Content Social

Consider that you can also share every piece of content you post on your website, YouTube channel, newsletters, and emails on social media. Now more than ever, your audience is on at least one social media platform (if not several), and it’s a cost-effective and popular channel to amplify your brand. Take the extra steps to optimize content with particular specifications so your audience can easily view it on all social media platforms.

Keep It Real

Keeping your marketing messages consistent is one thing, but don’t let your content become repetitive, tone-deaf, or overly promotional. Use language without technical jargon, offer behind-the-scenes looks at how your business runs, and use social media to engage and educate. Customers are savvier than ever these days and can smell inauthenticity a mile away; practice empathy in your marketing or risk them leaving for the competition.

Tailor to Each Channel

Omnichannel marketing has been a top trend for some time, but now it’s clear that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t help conversion rates. You find different demographics for each channel, and your marketing messages have to be tailored to fit each to harness each channel’s power. For example, videos may be getting tons of engagement on social media, but they’re not quite as shareable if you send them out in a monthly email newsletter.

Outsource Your Marketing

It’s not easy for business owners and entrepreneurs to keep up with the seemingly endless parade of marketing trends; frankly, they should be spending their time on more valuable work. Handing these marketing tasks over to an expert should be as seamless as handing over the books to an accountant or your contracts to a lawyer. You can still stay as hands-on as you like; a good marketing partner will customize a package to fit your level of participation and business goals.

If you’re ready to get serious about continuity, consistency, and results in your marketing, you need an experienced professional to help you build and deploy a marketing system to land your new best customers.

All of our programs include fundamentals like building or redesigning a new website. Most importantly, we also nurture and maintain your site for you with ongoing new content, technical updates, security, and SEO best practices to continuously improve your search results.

Whether you just want to look professional to prospective customers or employees who are “kicking your tires” or if you also want to gain a steady stream of new leads and phone calls generated from Google searches that lead to your website, we can help. Contact us today to get started!