The evolution of digital marketing trends. What will we be doing with the 2nd half of 2015 and into 2016. In bite-size sections:
Cx (customer experience)
-With new emphasis on Cx, we’re starting to realize the following:
1) Purchase funnel model is dying
2) Sales and Marketing departments need to be revamped and educated in the new digital reality
3) CRM mentality is dead: the customer now manages the relationship
4) Big data integration will continue, with help from machine-learning agents
5) Cx = every interaction over time as the experience
Collaborative Content
– Content and social media needs to be created and engaged by multiple individuals in different departments to improve a Company’s digital footprint. Individual employees should maintain their LinkedIn, twitter and Instagram and be accessible brand-advocates of the company. Social networking is a collaborative experience after all.
Mobile as Default
- Channels need to be “mobile-first”, since a majority of the audience is nowaccessing from a mobile device. Responsive design preference due to Google’s mobile friendly search policies.
Mandatory Automation in Place
– A marketing automation platform needs to be implemented. Hybrid human/AI systems add value.
Automation that Enhance Cx
– Machine-learning algorithms must be in place to maximize personalization and recommend products and services for repeat buying.
Brand Humanization
– Engaging human emotions through Corporations giving back to the community. Humans are most human, in videos! No kidding.
Wearbles Link us to Internet of Things
– Personalization via wearable devices and greater smart-cart and smart-home IoT brand connections.
Geo-sensors
– iBeacons will become more popular and better targeted to existing customers
Virtualized Landscape: New Media
- Augmented-Virtual reality will give new visual realms for brands to enter
Smart Ecommerce
- Ecommerce paired with local search will get smarter, improved mobile apps.
Rewarding Content Smart Advocates
- Improved targeting of influencers, social advocates and popular user-generated content creators + more rewards and incentives for them.
Real-Time Marketing
- Customer is reached in real-time with offers predictive by behavioural data at the right time of day and day of week on a one-to-one level.
QS (Quantified Self).
- $5B market by 2017. Look it up. Self-tracking applications. Health, diet, exercise, vital signs. FitBit, Apple Watch, yay!
Hyper Content Productivity
-Marketers need to optimize creation of content, asset management, marketing supply chain, and improve content creation, curation and cultivation.
Social Advocacy Marketing Evolution
-Social marketing and advocacy-influencer-loyalty marketing continue to pair up.
Brand Interface Humanization
- This means to have every brand interaction feel more unique and special and tailored to you. With greater analytics should come greater intimacy of the outreach to customers.
Customer Marketing
- More smart customer referral programs, and benefits if you refer someone. Free credits for social-sharing, email to a friend – more incentives to be pro-active with brands.
Contests that inspire user-generated-content. Social campaigns that amount to free brand exposure.
Interactive Content
-Think animated surveys and quizzes, multi-media experiences of products, virtual reality where you can interact with products.
Social Proofing
-Reviews on Yelp, rewarding influencers, having a five-star rating on facebook, segment testimonials to similar personas, creating social authority, creating visual story-telling adds on Instagram, brand awareness campaigns by helping the local community.
Authenticity Influencing
-Brands crave fresh authenticity, influencers and brand advocates are key. Influences get a lot of views on social media. It’s not just about the brand, it’s about having spokespeople of the brand who viewers resonate with. Don’t think celebrity, think role-models, peer idols, break-out artists. The other cornerstone of brand authenticity is philanthropy and altruism, what is the company doing for the world?
Your company created a rainbow dance routine to celebrate gay-marriage in all states? Now that’s something worth sharing.
