The goals of digital marketing may stay the same, but not the how-to, forcing marketers to stay on top of the latest tactical trends to maximize customer connection.
“If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me” wasn’t written by a Millennial, but the song might as well have been. In its own, unique and perhaps unintentional way, that generation has taught us there are more effective ways to communicate and connect. So it is with digital marketing, which with its benefits of wider reach, hyperlocal penetration, easier personalization and targeting, better customer connection and higher conversions, has quite a nice ring to it.
The centrality of digital marketing in modern-day business for promoting products and services may not change much, but the practical trends for maximizing a company’s online efforts do. According to Data Science Central (DSC), “if businesses can pay attention to [the following] trends and curate marketing practices to align with them, they will have better opportunities to boost their growth and generate promising leads.”
Top Tools
Let’s face it: making your customers or would-be ones wait for a response or do an often times frustrating search on their own for actionable info is not the way to encourage them to proceed through your marketing-sales funnel. That’s why chatbot use on business websites will continue to grow in popularity as a marketing tactic. Chatbots increase customer engagement, convenience and that sense of reliability, which is a key part of customer loyalty.
And why should bottom line growth stop at the border? Some businesses may cite the language barrier as a reason, but increasingly machine translators on international brand websites are allowing customers to access information from any location in the world, a rising trend according to DSC.
Third & Zero Parties
As we’ve said before in this space, influencer marketing will continue to grow, helping build trust and authenticity with consumers. After all, whom do you trust more about a product or service – a stranger posting on Twitter, a TV advertisement or an established authority on the matter? Influencer marketing aims to leverage influencers, whether creators, subject matter experts, industry pros or others, to that effect.
From the influence of third parties to the data collection of none: “zero-party data” methods, such as form building, are ways brands can better understand their customers by the latter’s intentional sharing of personal information so that companies can then tailor their marketing practices.
Application Elevation
Email marketing, a core competency in any successful digital marketing platform, will see a boost this year, according to DSC. To connect with consumers in a fresh, personal and special way for product launches, remember the e-marketing importance of customer behavior tracking and proper audience segmentation.
On that timely, targeted theme, real-time messaging is becoming an advantageous way for brands to connect with customers. Conveniently and cost-effectively informing and empowering them with promo updates, product news and more is becoming more and more popular with businesses, DSC asserts.
Also, marketing applications are increasingly helping brands advertise products and services. It’s simple, efficient and gets brands in front of new audience segments.
“We need to remember a consequence of this digital marketing age is the decline in consumer patience,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP, Business Development. “A critical question then follows: how do we as brands react to that reaction? We can help with brand gratification methods to keep customers positively engaged during those times when their expectations might not be met.”
