Five Marketing Trends
to Grow Your Business
By Rick McNeely...
Look It's a Marketing Trends Countdown!
Welcome to our review of Marketing Trends as we move through the remainder of 2019. While our selections are totally subjective, we believe these business marketing trends provide a nice taste of where marketing is going. So, let’s move forward with our countdown of Five Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business.
Marketing Trend #5: Going Mobile
Is your website responsive? Meaning, when I look at your website on my phone or tablet is it smart enough to respond to my device and present your site in the proper size for my smaller screen? You’d be surprised how many companies still have a one-size-fits-all website. In fact, BrightEdge research shows that well over half the visitors to most sites, 62%, come from mobile devices and the number is growing each month.
Consider these facts about mobile (thanks to VPN Mentor for the below graphics):
Marketing Trend #4: It’s a Spear Not a Net - Account Based Marketing
Many companies are generating leads and refining their generation funnel with technology and nurturing strategy to gather more leads, convert those leads to clients and do it all at a lower cost. When comparing Account Based Marketing (ABM) to lead generation, the example of fishing with a spear as opposed to a net is often used. With Account Based Marketing you know your potential clients exceptionally well and you are targeting specific accounts. Marketers and sales staff regard accounts as groups of individual personas to be marketed to (think buying committee).
Looking for more information? Check out the podcast at DemandGen Radio. It is a wealth of information.
Marketing Trend #3. Reach More Friends With Social Media Advertising
If you’re relying on your organic audience to convert your social media presence to leads or sales, you might want to think again and try social media advertising. For example, have you noticed how many people your Facebook post actually reaches? The average reach of Facebook posts has been dropping with each algorithm update. A We Are Social report found that in 2018, the average organic reach is only 6.4% of its Page Likes. Considering the capabilities of Facebook or Instagram to target your specific audience, paid advertisements or promoted posts are worth a try.
Marketing Trend #2. Getting Personal With Analytics and Data Driven Marketing
How do you employ your marketing efforts to build better relationships? Use the data your marketing platforms generate to personalize your marketing pieces. Considering the money you’ve invested in marketing systems, it’s time to take advantage of the goldmine of data these platforms provide and create a data strategy. Not only can you improve your marketing toward generating leads with personalization, you can also create more meaningful communications with your existing customers.
Learn more at How Marketers Can Reach Peak Personalization in 2019
Marketing Trend #1.
Who is the King? Content Marketing
Our number one trend is Content Marketing. Simply stated, Content is still king. Content is the fuel that drives much of your efforts. Consider the following:
- If you’ve got the best marketing automation platform, but your content is garbage – your results will likely be garbage.
- If you try to accelerate, nurture and move leads through your demand generation funnel with marketing assets that aren’t targeted toward your buyers. Your results will be poor.
- Your competition has impactful and high-quality content and you don’t. You won’t be competitive
Answer the questions your buyers have on their journey to becoming a customer with quality content that is focused on the right personas at the right time. Excellent content allows you to establish your self as a subject matter expert, while providing the answers your prospects are looking for.
Recommendations
It’s always a good time to sit down with your Marketing Operations, Creative and Sales teams and talk about marketing.
Come to an agreement on definitions (what defines a lead, what defines a marketing qualified lead, what defines a sales qualified lead, when does a lead get kicked out of the funnel and when do you bring it back in?)
Do a review of your marketing technology stack. Are you using the technology and do you have processes in place to provide desired and consistent results?
Dial your marketing in and reap the rewards of more revenue and happier business!