What is a mega-trend? It’s the opposite of a flash in the pan. A mega-trend is a big, broad shift – a new way of thinking or doing things.
Right now, three such shifts are transforming marketing. These shifts represent
a tremendous opportunity for smart, success-minded business owners and professionals.
Marketing is a vast discipline; you could spend your entire career mastering a single corner of it. You don’t have time for that, of course. But if you don’t continually expand your knowledge of the latest developments in marketing methodology
and opportunities, make no mistake: your organization will be left behind.
And all the money and staff time your organization pours into marketing could be completely wasted.
Your GIANT opportunity
Whether you’re a business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a professional who handles marketing as part of your job, you need to be aware of these changes.
These are the kinds of shifts where early adopters get the advantage of extra capacities and those who don’t adapt are hamstrung. (Imagine if you were still working with a typewriter instead of a computer.)
Here are the three marketing mega-trends you need to understand for business success in 2015
#1. Inbound marketing
What is it?
Traditional marketing takes a “push” approach; you pay to push your ads in front of people and hope they find it compelling enough to take action. Inbound marketing could be termed a “pull” approach. You invest in creating materials (like infographics, blog posts, ebooks and webinars) that your target audience will seek out and share. In other words, inbound marketing brings potential customers to you. At Giant Voices, we’ve found that a combination of traditional and inbound marketing drives powerful results.
Pitfalls:
Action tips:
#2. Personalization
Personalization benefits:
Higher conversion rates. Increased sales. A survey from Infosys found that personalized offers make 78% of consumers more likely to become repeat customers.
Pitfalls:
Personalization requires a “smart” database, some technical skills, and strategic data collection and deployment.
Action tips:
Study up on personalization (or engage an expert who can deploy their skill for you). Implement progressive profiling to collect information from customers and leads if you don’t already.
#3. Testing
What is it?
Benefits of testing:
Increase your leads. Get hard data on what messages resonate with your customers. Keep up with the competition. (Data-driven marketing is quickly becoming a standard business practice.) Optimize your sales and revenue.
Pitfalls:
Requires time and know-how – either your own or someone else’s.
Action tips:
Identify three digital actions people take that are relevant to your bottom line. For example, signing up for your business’s e-newsletter, downloading a product brochure, and making a purchase via your website. Choose one of those actions and spend 3-6 months testing different ways to increase the number of people who complete that action.
While you may need to invest time and money to leverage these trends for your business, the potential payoffs are worth it.
Here’s to your giant success!
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