How trends changed the marketing. Part 1

It’s been a year – quite a hard one – since a new decade of marketing has started. In the previous articles, we were pondering on marketing trends through decades and how they affected the general state of marketing. Today, while looking at the past of marketing, we’ll try to figure out what it is to be written in ten years on the same subject.

In other words, we want to look at what the future decade is going to bring to us. Even though the pandemic has an incredible effect on businesses and brands – some even had to close or survive in drastic circumstances – trends won’t stop from happening here and there.

Marketing moves at an amazing speed that is incredibly hard to follow. Imagine this situation: you are working with a team on a new campaign, forging up a lot of great ideas, but suddenly one of your colleagues finds out that some post on Instagram or a new technology launched elsewhere is making things completely different.

Now you have to adjust to a new trend for your marketing aspirings. Some marketers can do this easily, but for most of us it comes with consequences – you need to plan on something new, including a new marketing plan.

What is interesting, the new trends pop up not just in a year or so, when we can exhaust the previous thing. Not at all. Sometimes they would appear almost once a month. However, just keeping up with the things that are coming trendy won’t really help you.

If you are always keeping up, you’ll never really reach the top. That is why it is so vital to be one step ahead. Many nonconformists would not agree with us here. We hear you. Let’s clarify one question: Why do you need marketing trends after all?

Here’s the list:

• You’ll get to know your competitors, which is a great way to beat them and win over more clients;
• You have a better clue at understanding customers’ needs, their behavior and preferences (or at least why they have specific preferences);
• Attracting a target audience is easier since you know what they consider to be in trend;
• You won’t let the market outrun your strategies and make them too old to be workable;
• Your business is relevant to the current marketing landscape.

As you can see, your relevancy and the ability to fit the marketplace is dependent on your awareness of trends.

Inbound marketing outran outbound marketing with Covid-19 supporting hand

Yes, in-person marketing is no longer an option. Maybe it would be soon, but with the recent revolution and real waterfall of online events, many people want to use virtual space even after the pandemic is over (the date is unknown, really). Inbound marketing can be a great way to create brand awareness and educate customers by giving them more value and trust. It means that content – verbal, visual, mixed – is going to develop in the near future. This leads us to the next topic.

Content marketing is the king

So many brands get the gist today – they are focusing on content marketing more than ever. No matter what kind of business you have, having great content will eventually pay off. Why should one follow current content marketing trends? The reason is super simple: these people who are your customers or at least potential customers, won’t buy anything without having an interest in your brand. Without unique interesting content, it would be hard for them to get you.

Keep in mind that the best type of content is video. We learn that especially during a pandemic. Consumers want it to be the main medium. Great news: since it has become so popular, making videos now is not as costly as it was even a few years before.

Social media is going to evolve in the even more powerful marketing environment

Let’s do some math. Worldwide there are almost 4 million people who are using social media every day. For some of them, it is a matter of work, but definitely, all the people use social media to spend some time and look for something to buy.

In the next few years, we expect this tendency to get enlarged. Since there are multiple social media, no one can say that it is a limit. No way. More social media, more ways to market and promote.

You have to work more with influencers

The army of influencers will be even bigger now. Since social media became more complex, structured and impactful, you will have to deal with influencers even more.

So many people get to know brands only through the lens of their favorite bloggers, YouTubers or Instagrammers that you have to learn more and more about influencer marketing.

Wait for more

There are even more things to keep an eye on. And we are definitely going to cover them all. This is not the last part of our grand inquiry! Wait for the next articles to learn what we are digging into while thinking about the trends. The next part is coming right up!