Tag Archives: trends

If You Read One Article About Marketing Trends, Read This One

marketing-trends-2016

If you haven’t done so already you are probably preparing your marketing activity for the New Year based on 2015’s marketing trends. In a once off change to our usual blog post format, we’re going to keep this post short and sweet (we hope) and in bullet point form.

We’ll have a quick look at some marketing trends that cropped up last year, then look ahead to 2016 and finish with some business resolutions to consider when planning.

Some marketing trends we noticed in 2015.

  • Blogs – nothing new really but appeared to be growing in volume, especially with B2B marketers claiming increased importance. Automated distribution was a growing feature
  • Mobile video – tools such as periscope, meerkat and vine together with channels such as Blab, Snapchat and Facebook video arose from people’s need for mobile content to share
  • Buy Now buttons – appearing on twitter and other networks started to drive social commerce
  • Messaging apps – watch this space: this is where it will all happen we believe
  • Social Media marketing – Facebook et al started to get an increased % of marketing spend
  • Digital marketing – the need for automated processes, SEM and SEO drove outsourcing
  • Content marketing – more professional approach drove the outsourcing of content creation, video production and design
  • Marketing strategy – A realisation that communications must become more professional to fight through the noise
  • Measurement – many new tools allowing the tracking and analysis of marketing results

Will these marketing trends continue to dominate in 2016?

2016- letters

As a result of the above trends, which we believe will continue,  the following will form an important part of businesses staying at the cutting edge in 2016.

  • Video – will continue to grow everywhere as part of content marketing activity, particularly if augmented reality / virtual reality experiences kick-in as expected
  • Relationship marketing – better understanding of customers will allow for increased personalisation of ads.
  • Buy buttons – there will be a proliferation of ‘buy now’ buttons which will open the door for data driven marketing
  • Ad blocking – will force businesses to be smarter about how they deliver their message
  • Storytelling – the public’s desire for authentic interactions will drive businesses to use all elements of its brand to allow customers engage with a story they want to be a part of

2016 calendar-O'C&K

Tips and Timesavers

We have 6 items for you to consider when planning for New Year resolutions for your business.

  1. A brand story – make it relevant and allow people engage with your brand essence
  2. A business plan – obtain invaluable insights from the thought process of compiling it
  3. A marketing plan – outline customer personas / audiences etc. review quarterly
  4. A digital presence – review and plan your social media and website activity monthly
  5. A revenue plan – brainstorm to discover new revenue sources / expense controls
  6. An event plan – network more to meet new clients in a most cost effective way

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else” – Yogi Berra

2016-new-year-marketing-trends

Good luck with your resolutions and best wishes for a prosperous 2016.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today” – Aidan & Jim.

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Are you using digital marketing, or still renting eyeballs and ears?

“We want to create value for you by sharing marketing tips and timesavers” – O’C&K.

Build your own audience based on relationships.

In recent days I’ve been hearing and reading that the Irish economy is bottoming out of its economic downturn. Whilst the retail sector is still struggling, many of us SMEs are starting to think about long term plans.

One of the areas we should closely examine is digital marketing because online spending is the one sector of the economy that is actually growing year on year. It does appear however that investment in this area by Irish brands have not kept pace with the extraordinary growth due in the main, I suppose, to lack of positive sentiment and the usual cutting of marketing spend by businesses in a recession. This needs to be addressed ASAP because online spending is due to grow to 7% of all expenditure in the next three years. We all need to be ready to capitalise on this growth.

Renting eyeballs and ears is so last century.

In fairness though, some SMEs have at least started the online journey. Either through their own sources or from outsourced advice, it is slowly dawning on them that instead of borrowing audiences from traditional channels, being online is enabling them to go directly to customers and prospects. The changing marketing environment means that there is not a need to just rent eyeballs and ears with TV, radio, print and promotions. Now they can work on building their own audience online (and offline), based more on direct relationships. The online element is an opportunity to expose the real  brand  story by posting timely, useful, and sharable content for their customers and prospects.

A Valeria Maltoni blog here  (from an Economist Unit report#) has some interesting trends in this regard. The chart below “shows how most companies (57%) are still relying on their website as their main communication tool, followed by e-mail (37%). Only 27% are using social media, with just 13% using mobile apps. That mix will change over the next three years. Companies in the survey say social media will become their number-one channel (43%) and their use of apps will leap fourfold.”

which-channels

In general, I think that we are moving in the right direction but the reluctance to fully embrace digital marketing here in Ireland seems to be that SMEs are not sure which horse (channel) to back from the plethora of options open to them. In addition, quite a lot of, self appointed, online gurus with no marketing background, sometimes are advising which technologies to use based on personal preference rather than what’s best for the SME. Choose your marketing partners carefully.

Tips and Timesavers.

Obviously, everyone with a smart phone and an internet presence effectively becomes a content creator, these days; however for all of us it is imperative that we adhere to the basic tenets of marketing.  – *know yourself, *know your customer, *know what they want and *know what your competitors aren’t doing – . Thereafter your brand story or marketing content should be filtered through your business objectives. That’s where a digital content strategy comes in.

Do you recognise some or all of these challenges?

  • You are engrossed in the operational side of the business not marketing.
  • Managing external agencies together with internal colleagues is not always easy.
  • Traditional mass marketing was easier – now relationship building needs different skills.
  • There is so much information available; it seems hard to know where to start.
  • Some online gurus are focused on the tools rather than the business objectives.

To conclude – I think the good news is that there are opportunities to grow your business using digital marketing. Also, it is starting to emerge that companies who embrace short and focused online campaigns as an integral part of their overall marketing activity will reap the rewards. Those that continue with big, mass market campaigns will be left behind by their own customers, who have completely changed their expectations.

If you have any other tips or timesavers please leave a reply below. If you’d like to receive similar content, just subscribe by clicking through the pink button, on this page.  Of course if you want to get in touch, leave your details and perhaps we might meet for a chat, cheers.   Jim – O’C&K