Understanding the Trends Shaping Today’s Marketing Landscape
Welcome to our future of marketing series.
As marketers in this new era, we are no longer selling products and services on a few superficial features, rather we focus on communicating the value of our products in the modern world.
In this four-part series, we’re going to be looking at the outlooks, technology, and some crucial techniques that will shape the way we market to tomorrow’s customer.
From customer outreach to fulfillment, MarTech to data and trends, let’s take a look at what that means for the future of marketing.
Pop the Bubble
With our noses to the grindstone, sometimes we forget to look up.
It’s important to keep tabs on the latest MarTech trends, including:
- Blending traditional and digital tactics
- Hyper-personalization
- Minimalist efficiency
- Artificial intelligence
- Advanced access to data
Re-Think “Trend”
More importantly, we must shift our thinking about them. There are two ways to think of “trends”.
It’s tempting to use “trend”, as in something that occupies the cultural climate now but will soon fade into obscurity once the surface-level interest is gone. This sort of subconscious dismissal of new tech is damaging.
A better use of “trend” is the way statisticians use it — to describe a pattern or trajectory. We not only need to embrace trends in our businesses (when it makes sense for us) but make consistent efforts to inform ourselves about them. Think of trends as markers indicative of what may come next.
Identify and Embrace Evolution
Marketing fads used to come and go.
In the past, someone would have an idea, it would gain steam, but once the superficial sheen wore off, it would reveal itself as an empty marketing tactic and fade back into obscurity.
Today, most marketing tactics are heavily vetted by the industries they target — one can be relatively certain that most widely embraced marketing tactics have at least some pith to them.
Despite this, most marketing tactics have a limited shelf life. Why is that?
We’ve shifted towards evolution-based marketing, where techniques and strategies are overtaken consistently by more dominate strategies.
It’s important we look at the waning return as indicative of more powerful tactics when it comes to our marketing. It’s even more important that we seek out those tactics and embrace them as quickly as possible if we want to stay competitive.
And remember: We’re evolving faster than ever.
MarTech
Arguably the greatest success in contemporary marketing is operational efficiency. When your Marketing Director is forced to micro-manage, minutia ends up distracting from more profitable, big-picture thinking.
MarTech developments have automated many of these tedious processes through:
- Marketing automation platforms
- Social media platforms
- Collaboration tools
All of these (and many others) work as great tools to help your team streamline the day-to-day functions that create drag for your business.
Customers and Personalization
Three things we know about customers and personalization:
- Every customer is different
- Every customer wants to feel different
- Marketing is becoming more segmented and granular
Customers have always wanted this attention to detail. The only thing that has changed is our ability to deliver on that reality and desire. When we couple this desire with ease of execution, personalization now (more than ever before), should be at the crux of your marketing campaign.
The Era of Now
The above are just a few of the things we’ll touch on as the series continues.
The Era of Now is an exciting time, and we’re extremely lucky—right now. We’re collectively witnessing an evolution so remarkable, it will likely prove to be a singular event in the history of marketing.
Our thoughts are bigger than ever, and for the first time, we have the technologies to support them. Contact us today to learn more.
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