5 Powerful Marketing Trends that Will Increase Your Revenue
Marketing helps you connect with your customers so you can increase your brand
awareness and ultimately stimulate sales, but not any marketing technique will do. In order
to be effective, you will need to use a strategy that allows you to reach the right people at
the right time in the right format. The process starts by truly understanding your customers
and how your products or services fulfill their needs – and it doesn’t end there.
At our digital marketing agency, we have found that you also need to consider current
marketing trends in order to have your marketing efforts truly drive sales growth at your
company. Here’s what you need to know about current marketing trends and how you can
apply them to your marketing strategy.
1. Branded Content
The first trend to watch is branded content. This is content that is not a sales pitch. It might
not even have a call-to-action. Instead, it tells a story. It could be about your brand, but it
could also be about your industry. The purpose is to establish trust with your audience and
help them associate your company with the types of products or services that you sell, the
needs of your industry, or the trends in your market.
Depending on where you share your branded content, you might be required to disclose
your involvement very plainly. For instance, Facebook recently updated its policies to
require that any time an influencer or publisher posts branded content that it tag the
business partner. The goal is to make it easy for users to see your involvement. You
company gets benefits too, like the ability to access analytics on each post and control as to
with whom you affiliate your brand.
2. Warm Emails
Email marketing has also been undergoing some changes. People have started to prefer
more personal and personalized attention from the brands with which they connect. Cold
emails are an increasingly sure way to fall flat. Instead, try to warm up your relationship
with a lead before you attempt to sell anything. Use your email marketing to get to know
the person and help them learn about your company, your brand, and the ways that the
products or services you sell can fill their needs better than anyone else. You could also
send content that helps establish your brand as an expert – anything to provide value and
get the ball rolling on your communications.
3. Facebook Advertising
Many companies are turning to paid Facebook advertising as well. “For brands, posting on
Facebook alone isn’t enough anymore — especially for ones just starting out,” explains
Sophia Bernazzani of HubSpot. “Sure, you can throw money at your efforts to drive people
to your Facebook Page and send them to your website, but that only works if you’re smart
about it.” Optimized ads are the solution. They let you target specific audiences so your
message reaches the right people.
The best Facebook ads share a few common characteristics. The most prominent feature is
the most successful ones have a strong visual component. In many ways, the ad itself
matters less than whether it is visually appealing. This includes the content itself as well as
how well it fits the format which your users see. You should also make sure that the content
is truly relevant to your followers. Finally, you need to be clear about why someone should
contact you. Every Facebook ad should have a call to action and offer something enticing,
like a coupon code or download.
4. Messenger Bots
Moving forward, you should be aware of messenger bots too. Also called “chatbots,” these
communication assets are taking over. “Chat bots are driven by a predefined workflow and
help drive customer engagement and facilitate faster conversions by answering questions
or offering suggestions,” explains Ro Parry in the Huffington Post. “Use of chat apps has
actually surpassed the use of social media and audiences will expect it from most
companies.” According to Gartner, somewhere around 85 percent of customer interactions
are going to be with chatbots by 2020.
Moreover, messenger bots work. Salesforce reports that the most successful marketing
teams are twice as likely to use this type of AI-powered technology than less successful
ones. Further, roughly 57 percent of marketing professionals call these technologies
“essential” in developing touch points with customers.
5. Local Search Optimization
Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, but one feature that is going to be
critical going forward is local search optimization. Somewhere around 80 percent of people
use search engines to find local businesses yet the number of small businesses that actually
have a local business listing is pretty small. There are two issues at hand.
Many small businesses neglect to list their companies in online business directories. From small
directories like local chambers of commerce to the giant Google My Business, no one can
find your company unless you list it. There is also an issue of optimization. If you want
customers to be able to find your business, the information you include in each directory
needs to be accurate, consistent, and complete.
Conclusion
While follow marketing trends will help your business to increase sales revenue, it also
takes skill and expertise. You have to put in the legwork to reach would-be customers – and
it doesn’t stop there. You also need to analyze your efforts to see which methods are
successful. We can help your company develop a strong search engine ranking and build a
brand concept that gets noticed. Contact us to learn more.
Let’s Face it. The “New Customer Funnels” that you see advertised on Social Media Daily… Don’t Freaking Work.
Learn the Honest Truth behind why you’re not getting new Customers with Facebook Ads.
Sources
Bernazzani, Sophia. “13 Of the Best Facebook Ad Examples That Actually Work (And Why).”
HubSpot Blog, 15 July 2018,
blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33319/10-examples-of-facebook-ads-that-actuall
y-work-and-why.aspx.
Bonelli, Sherry. “Local SEO in 2017: 5 Simple Ways to Dominate Local Search.” Search
Engine Land, 9 Feb. 2017,
searchengineland.com/local-seo-2017-5-simple-ways-dominate-local-search-268412.
Fennell, Kylie. “Why You Should Use Facebook Branded Content for Now!” MavSocial, 8 Dec.
2017, mavsocial.com/why-you-should-start-using-facebook-branded-content/.
Khmelkov, Vyacheslav. “5 Secrets of Brilliant Online Sales That Everyone Knows but Nobody
Uses.” Digitallagos, 26 Sept. 2017,
blog.digitallagos.tv/84213-5-secrets-of-brilliant-online-sales-that-everyone-knows-but-no
body-uses/.
Parry, Ro. “10 Marketing Trends to Think About for 2018.” The Huffington Post,
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 Aug. 2017,
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-marketing-trends-to-think-about-for-2018_us_5994b2
88e4b055243ea1357c.
Steffens, Rob. “Marketing Strategies That Will Help Increase Sales.” Bluleadz, 30 June 2017,
www.bluleadz.com/blog/marketing-strategies-that-will-help-increase-sales.
The Mission. “Why and How to Sponsor Branded Content – The Mission – Medium.” Medium,
6 Sept. 2017,
medium.com/the-mission/why-and-how-to-sponsor-branded-content-cd0e44034084.