The terms ‘content is king’ and ‘social media marketing’ have been some of the most widely used in the marketing industry for at least the last 5 years or so. But with the meteoric rise of video, the breakthrough success of Snapchat and the trend towards personalisation, a change in focus is undoubtedly on the cards. At Centrica, we’re seeing several new marketing trends that will create opportunities to make gains in 2017. Here are a few of our predictions.
Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2017
1. Personalised everything
Content is no longer created to reach a broad audience, but rather to engage a specific group. Everything from Coke cans to shoes are being personalised. For some businesses, this may mean ensuring your touch points are specific and individual. For others, it might be examining your segmentation strategies so that you can filter your customers in the most effective way. As the general population develops an expectation for greater personalisation, businesses that can keep up are likely to see greater success from their campaigns. This trend is not expected to disappear anytime soon.
2. Video and visual
Most brands are still hanging on to their video strategy of trying to create viral videos. What’s needed now is for marketers to build processes around the ongoing delivery of valuable content and information through video and visuals. In a nutshell, better video and visual content, and more of it. Content marketing is now less about blogging and free eBooks to generate email subscribers (though these are still crucial aspects), and more about getting creative with a visual content marketing strategy that can break through the noise. The success of Pokémon Go also indicates a future trend towards virtual and augmented reality.
3. Targeted marketing
Data driven marketing has been going from strength to strength. To make any of the trends on this list work, marketing executives must be data driven. Already on board? Great. Dig deeper. Go beyond demographics and into social behaviour, web and app activity etc. As organisations aim to connect their online, email, social media and traditional marketing strategies, they need to incorporate the data technology required to implement and support their campaigns.
4. More email newsletters
Marketers have been forecasting the death of email for the past few years, but it seems they were premature with their predictions. Email remains one of the channels with the highest return on investment. If you are considering starting an email newsletter or optimising the one you’ve got, 2017 is a great time to get this done. Remember, it doesn’t have to be all about sales. Include valuable content and great storytelling in your newsletters. Make sure you feature compelling visuals. Use this as an opportunity to develop relationships with your existing customers.
5. A social media reality check
A huge amount of marketers went ‘all in’ on social media without a proper understanding of the return on investment. Now we’re a few years in you should have some valuable metrics on the impact of your efforts. Did your investment in social help you achieve your business objectives? What about compared to your other marketing channels? Now social media marketing is by no means dead – but maybe you need to tweak your strategy. Once you’ve got your audience, show them you actually care about them. Listen to what they want and need. Bear in mind the trend towards visual storytelling and take note of how your audience reacts to your updated strategy.
We hope that our short post on the marketing trends that will dominate 2017 was helpful for you. At Centrica we are experts in direct mailing and printing. Get in touch with us today for high quality solutions in Sydney.
