Whatever the situation in the world, marketing remains a constantly evolving field. New technologies and communication tools are constantly emerging, and companies have no choice but to adapt. They must therefore pay attention to current marketing trends and define a strategy to keep their audience interested.
Today’s potential customers increasingly expect companies to treat them as people and not just transactions. In other words, customers want companies to have human qualities that manifest themselves in the transparency and consistency of their convictions, the consistency of their actions, and the authenticity of their intentions.
The customer is the priority and must be at the center of an effective marketing strategy. To do so, companies can leverage their marketing investments to ensure that their mission is relevant and important to the customer.
Here is a brief overview of the 7 current marketing trends that we recommend you follow to implement your strategy:
1. Inclusive marketing: one of the major current marketing trends to follow
This year, marketing is more inclusive. As a result, it’s time for companies to transform the way they approach their relationships with their customers. Indeed, if you make the effort to become a company that truly takes into account the needs and values of its customers, chances are that you will gain the trust and loyalty of your target audience.
Authenticity to increase customer confidence
Your customers want you to tell them the truth and be transparent. When you have an honest and genuine relationship with your customers, they feel understood and are more likely to choose your company over another. To reach your customers, your company will be committed to being authentic in everything it does.
Inclusive marketing in practice
And concretely, how does it work? It all depends on the direction you wish to give to the values of your business. You should probably look at how to make your company’s services more accessible without distorting what they are. Some of the adjustments to be made include, for example, changing the visual representation of the company. It may also be an opportunity to change its marketing approach by updating the company’s discourse so that it better corresponds to the moral values of its customers.
2. The development of chatbots
Another trend in digital marketing that has been increasing lately is the chatbot.
Perhaps you have noticed an instant chat window when you were browsing some websites? Much appreciated by visitors, chatbot is a real-time messaging solution that allows you to build engagement by assisting your customers and prospects. The latter can thus get a quick answer to their questions. This marketing approach is a godsend to convert customers.
Having become essential in the world of conversational marketing, chatbot provides many benefits to businesses, including saving time and money. Chatbot has become a new way to provide remote customer service.
It’s a great opportunity to optimize the customer relationship by offering personalized and empathetic answers.
3. The User Generated Content
User Generated Content (UGC) is a great way to differentiate yourself and enhance your brand image with relevant and authentic content.
It requires a certain amount of creativity on the part of the company and a minimum of time to manage and publish efficient and timely content produced by your customers.
By publishing its content on social networks or other channels, the customer feels valued, and the company maintains its community. You create an attachment to your business without an advertising budget. In addition, this strategy increases the confidence of other customers.
Your company needs to multiply interactions with customers in order to increase their loyalty and thus obtain more visibility.
4. Image and video SEO
If you want your company to be among the first positions on search engines, you will have to invest in an optimization of images and videos. It is not enough to produce a video in a few minutes or to add simple images to the articles on your website.
Indeed, it is now an established fact: video, like images, is at the heart of a digital marketing strategy. It has become an essential tool for generating traffic and attracting new customers.
Quality SEO means optimizing your digital content to both seduce Google and reach your targets. It can be a title, a description, keywords or links that are added to it. All this information will play in favor of the ranking of your video. Don’t forget to make your video attractive so that your visitors will want to watch it!
5. The video format has been gaining ground in recent years
As we have just mentioned the video above, we take this opportunity to insist on the fact that video remains a safe trend in internet marketing. Today more than ever, its use and integration in the communication strategy of any company is indispensable.
To use video content properly, it is essential to research, plan and build a solid web strategy in your industry.
Integrating video seamlessly into your marketing plan means having a medium that responds to the habits and issues of your buyer persona. It’s also a good way to stand out from your competitors and develop your notoriety.
6. Sustainable marketing: another current marketing trend to follow
Sustainable marketing is not just a buzzword. In today’s world, preserving the environment concerns us all.
As far as customers are concerned, they want to make sure that the companies they buy products or services from are committed to preserving the planet. As for companies, they need to communicate their commitment to this cause through their marketing content and image. Doing sustainable marketing can generate awareness and encourage your customer’s purchasing process.
7. Voice search on the rise
Always faster, always more practical. More and more people are following voice research, convinced of the effectiveness of this method.
Therefore, companies should not neglect voice search in their overall marketing strategy. It is important to note that voice searches are conducted in natural language. This new practice therefore has consequences on natural referencing. It is then necessary to rethink its content marketing on the Web so that it targets a word or an expression, but also an answer given to a question asked.
Voice search appears to be one of the main marketing trends to follow. If we look at its evolution over the last few years, there is a strong indication that voice search will increase. Search engines are likely to make major changes to adapt to the needs of users.
It’s in the best interest of companies to take into account current marketing trends to keep up with the latest trends and adapt to the behavior of their customers.
What do you think of the above trends? Do you use them in your marketing strategy?