Top 5 Marketing Trends to Look Out for in the New Generation!

"Business has only two functions - Marketing and Innovation" - Milan Kundera

As the businesses as well as customers are getting used to digital brands, it's essential for brands to stay on top of the competition. This is possible only if your business is acquainted with new-age marketing and branding practices.

Marketing Mania has compiled a list of 5 top trends that we think shall be the game-changers for organizations.

1. Voice Search Optimization - the Future of SEO

"Hi Google! Which is the nearest petrol bunk for me?"

"Alexa, what are the different places to visit in Bangalore?"

"Hey Siri, how old is Taj Mahal?"

We have all done a voice search before, and while voice search might seem like a distant thought when it comes to your digital marketing plan, it definitely shouldn’t be.

As more and more users are getting familiar with Voice Search and having access to devices like Smartphones, Amazon Echo, and Google Home; it makes a lot of sense to optimize for the voice search.

Optimizing for voice search means optimizing for the lightening speed at which your niche operates. People don’t have the time or the desire to type everything into Google.

Imagine you are getting ready in the morning and it is raining more than usual, so you need to know if traffic is worse than your typical morning commute.

You’re in a hurry, naturally, and don’t have time to pick up your phone and check the traffic. What do you do?

You ask your phone or home speaker system, “what’s today’s weather?“

Now, the question is how to optimize for the voice search, here are some of the tips to Optimize for Voice Search:

• Keyword Research – include question phrases, long-tail keywords, and relevant words such as “near me, best, in, with, how-to”

• Analyze, Rethink, and Restructure Your Content – look for holes you can fill so it’s built for voice searches. Including a FAQ for:

- Product pages

- Services pages

- About Us page

- Blog Posts

• Structure Your Website Content – voice search is less formal and more conversational so this is the likely tone your audience will use when conducting a voice search. Ask yourself how your ideal user would ask the question about your business.

• Optimize Your Website Speed – when we think of voice search, we think of speed. If your website is not optimized for speed, you won’t be the first piece of content that is pulled to answer a voice search question. This includes mobile speed as well.

• Capitalize on Long-tail keywords – Think about your long-tail keywords and focus on these keywords as if they were a question. Remember, voice searches are almost always in a question format. This includes structuring subheadings in blogs to reflect a question.

• Activate your Google My Business, Bing, & Local directory listings for local voice searches – with 58% of people using voice search to find local business information, you need to set up your Google My Business, Bing, and other local directory listings. (Data as per Statistica Research)

2. Non-Linear Customer Journey

Gone are the days when all the customers had a similar journey with the brand in terms of engagement and actions. In modern Marketing, we cannot rely on traditional sales funnels which used to put every customer through the same funnel.

In the modern-day scenario, the customers might jump from awareness to purchase stage directly with no need for other traditional stages, so we have to be ready-to-market in all the stages.

With increased channels of engagement and ease of access to your target users, one person’s experience with purchasing a product or using a service will be different than their neighbor's.

In traditional marketing tactics, huge budgets were spent upon brand awareness and creating interest, and then the lead was forwarded to the sales team.

However, in new-age; brands need to focus on providing delight to the prospect at each and every stage of the buying cycle, and even after (s)he becomes our customer as engagement brings you more business at minimal additional cost.

3. AI Chatbot Marketing

Chatbots are not new to anyone, as they were an integral part of engagement in the previous years. We expect Chatbots to dominate as there's still a lot of scope for adoption amidst global industries and we've seen significant adoption from buyer's point of view already.

Most of us would prefer an Artificial Intelligence equipped Chatbot that can solve our queries within a few minutes. It's because this is a quick and efficient way and involves minimum human touch.

There are a number of brands who back the power of AI Chatbot and it helps them save humungous amounts of time and money as these chatbots get the basic job of engagement and query handling done just right.

Chatbots also help brands have a similar customer experience for each and every user at the initial stage of communication and this helps them create a lasting impression.

You might have experienced the same on your favorite food delivery app or online shopping app. The brands have all the basic questions answered so your query handling time reduces significantly, creating a win-win situation for both the business and customers.

4. Hyper-Personalized Brand Messaging is the Way to Go

Doesn't it feel great to grab a coffee from Starbucks with your name on the cup? Well, that's the power of personalization!

For years now, we have all been bombarded with targeted ads and messaging from brands. Be it through an email marketing campaign to keep a brand on top of your mind or an abandoned cart email to remind you of all the late-night shopping you were doing the other day.

We have seen it all, and while we admit on occasion these personalized messages excite us, there are just so many that often you just skip right past them.

Why? Because sometimes it’s just not what you want or care about at that exact moment. That’s where hyper-personalization comes in.

"Hyper-personalization is a robust combination of both behavior and real-time data collected from multiple channels. This enables you to tailor your messaging to the Target audience to produce relevance and higher conversion potential."

Sounds interesting right?

Now you might be wondering how do we hyper-personalize the messaging, and here is how you will be doing it:

• Start by collecting data – at first we need to understand exactly what message our audience wants to see. Send out surveys, conduct polls, and quizzes, and get your audience excited about telling you what they want to see.

• Utilize advanced technology – tools such as AI and machine learning will help you offer the types of products your target audience actually wants.

• Deliver a customized offer – understand your audience’s previous buying behavior and then generate offers that are specific to exactly what they want.

• Use various channels to spread your message – this isn’t just for social media, so use hyper-personalization for all of your communication channels, including email campaigns, social media, on your website, and anywhere else your audience might interact with your messages.

• Always perform A/B testing – your first attempt at hyper-personalization probably won’t be your last, so always A/B test your messages. See which message has a higher rate of interaction and continue to test and tailor your messages across your audiences.

5. Increased Demand for Transparency by the Customers

As we step into the new era of digital marketing, on a hopeful note that things will be better; customers are much more cautious now while making their buying decisions. The global lockdown has imbibed rational decision-making to a great extent and customers now demand a greater amount of transparency from the businesses.

No more shady deals or companies profiting off from false promises as today’s consumers won’t have it, and if you aren’t being 100% transparent in all that you do, you will suffer in the new-age.

Why Business Transparency is Important?

It’s important to remember that transparency will always equal trust between the brand and the consumers. Brands should focus on:

• Always being honest with your audience.

• Sharing the truth about various company operations.

• Sharing relative information about performance, sourcing, pricing, and business value.

• Owning up to past mistakes and ways how you will create change.

• Always being open with your customers – they are the reason you are a business.

We live in a time when being called out can happen to any business, whether big or small. Social media platforms provide a space for ANYONE to talk about their negative experience with a brand.

With the increased demand for social transparency, if your brand is not taking to social media and content to show you are ethical, you might lose out on valuable customers.

How Can Businesses Become More Transparent?

• Solidify core values and make them part of your message.

• Be transparent in every aspect of your business by sharing information with your employees and your customers.

• Don’t manipulate your price, just be honest.

• Don’t beat around the bush – let people know what’s going on and get straight to the point.

• Be candid about your experiences.

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Ready to Do Marketing for the new generation?

We hope these trends will help you achieve your marketing and branding goals more effectively. If you're looking out for any help with branding or marketing for making your brand stand out from the crowd, feel free to reach out to us!

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