Conquer 2019 with These 3 Marketing Strategies
The countdown begins, the ball drops, the year as we know it gets left behind and so do some of the most recognizable brands. The New Year brings new opportunities to get more people to connect to your business. So, how can you ensure that your business flourishes in 2019? We recommend 3 key marketing strategies: streamlining your creative distribution, focusing on what makes your brand human, and enhancing your customers’ experience.
1. Streamline Your Creative Distribution Strategy
Go-to media platforms evolve with consumer behavior, so it's important to adapt to how your customer purchases. In general, social media platforms will continue being the place where the most engagement happens, but it’s not enough to be on the right platform. You wouldn’t want to come out of pocket to advertise small dog kibble to dog owners if some of them own large dogs. If you're not making the most of custom audiences across platforms, you are flat out wasting media dollars. The real estate for your ads and your target audiences matter more in 2019 because fewer people are paying attention to the things that aren't directly and specifically relevant to them. Immunity to ads will increase as more people countdown with the skip button, use ad blockers, and opt-in to ad-free content. People pay attention only when the content applies directly to their current situation—not when it interrupts their entertainment.
Branded content, when done right, is a great example of effective creative marketing distribution. Consider the 2014 box office smash The LEGO Movie. In the year following its release, LEGO reported a 39% spike in sales. At no point in the movie did they say "Buy LEGOs." Instead, they told a story that embodied the imaginative nature of the brand in harmony with the product itself.
Native advertising is another strategy that allows relevant ads to blend into websites and their respective mediums within the content that’s being enjoyed. As a result, the lines blur between where the publication’s content and the ad begins, proving that sometimes the best way to stand out is to blend in. Great creative is unpredictable and unexpected—yet it meets consumers where they are and takes them where they want to be. The perception of your brand benefits most when you allow customers to welcome your brand into their life. It’s important to avoid being intrusive, and instead, provide value to their lives in a useful and creative way.
2. Focus On What Makes Your Brand Human
Don’t be afraid of user-generated content on social to further develop your brand’s authenticity. Of course, there’s value to maintaining the refined visual aesthetic of your brand. But when you supplement that with organic endorsements from your loyal customers, it shows that your brand has a soul and even a purpose beyond its own interests—and people really, really like that.
People also respond positively to simple, compelling stories of real people interacting with and benefiting from your brand, with short actionable takeaways. Marketing communication has truly evolved to leverage the power of storytelling, not buzzwords. To persuade your audience to buy, your message must resonate with the values of the customer that make them feel most human.
3. Enhance Your Customers’ Experience
The key insight into creating the right experience for the right customer is understanding that behavior adheres to anticipation. This Pavlovian cause and effect occurs every time a person’s phone buzzes. Dopamine gets released and social rewards are collected with every like and engagement. When your brand’s funny, touching, shocking or entertaining (and relevant) content is right in the middle of that neurological fireworks display, some of those positive associations roll over to your brand too.
Outside of social media, you can make your customer experience stand out by creating immersive and experienced-based marketing events that make an emotional connection or fun/entertaining experience to your audiences, wherever they gather. This high-touch, in-person strategy is perfect for attracting and engaging the ever-growing number of “conscious consumers”. These conscious consumers take interest in companies that are not just giving back but are “doing good” as their highest purpose.
In an age of lightspeed tech progress, the core drivers for effective marketing still center on emotions, beliefs, behaviors, and desires—what makes your customers uniquely human.