It’s hard to think of any business discipline that has undergone as many changes as marketing. If you had told a 1950’s Madison Avenue marketing executive that one day, people would carry a device in their pocket serving modern-day billboard whenever they scroll their social media pages, or that advertising can be adapted depending on the profile of the given person accessing said advertisement, well, they would be speechless.
But business is hardly done innovating just because we’re in 2021, and in that light, marketing is still progressing as quickly as ever. The disciplines that hold the most water still work, but these principles become adapted to new norms and efforts that we all need to keep on top of if we hope to make the best of them.
This can serve as an interesting thought experiment, one we can use to challenge our own biases and better regard how to market our firm, or what attendant services we use to achieve those goals. Let’s try and consider that, now:
Modern & Evolving Devices
Marketing has evolved right alongside the delivery systems it uses in order to present such material. Social media timelines are perhaps the hottest new place to target and develop marketing that will get seen, but we also see SEO tactics helping us make the most of search engines, and many legacy advertising techniques still used, too. It can be good to think about the delivery systems of tomorrow, and what that might entail.
For instance, Over The Top TV advertising processes helps you advertise on smart televisions using streaming services or devices in order to access television and competent media platforms, such as Roku. This way, you need not worry about consumers losing access to your marketing, you can develop it and renew it for the modern person.
Social Consciousness
It’s true that the world is changing, both politically and culturally. It’s important, then, for marketing to reflect this. That doesn’t mean you need to publish a manifesto every single time you try to sell a product. It doesn’t even mean you have to speak on behalf of others, or make your stance known on every issue. However, it does imply that an active interest in the zeitgeist and how you can avoid fanning flames, or being insensitive can be tremendously important.
This is especially true of going overboard with your social consciousness as a brand. Many people, quite rightly, can tell the difference between a company that cares about issues, and a company that is using them to gain some kind of social leverage. Deftly working through this is how marketing campaigns of the future can be effective and also ‘know their place’ going forward.
Avoiding Voluntary Skips
It’s important to adapt our marketing content to the trends of today, not only how our end users will see us. For instance, avoiding voluntary skips that are often given to people using social media or video hosting platforms, such as YouTube, is important. After five seconds, many advertisements are permitted to be skipped by an end-user, provided they actively choose to do it. This means that adjusting our content to be as interesting and explanative as we can in the first five seconds is important. It means ensuring our content is snappy, that our longer video materials are also condensed into bitesize alternatives. In other words – more than ever our marketing material must respect the time of those we intend to show it to.
Heightened Competition
Heightened competition is often the name of the game when it comes to marketing right now. It means that not only do you have so many other businesses to compete with, but that every inch of screen space and legacy marketing platform potential should be considered well-oiled by the competition. For that reason, it’s important to realize just how important investing in excellent marketing is. Using the best videography firms, or taking some time to curate an excellent landing page with a website, or incentivizing clicks through to your web presence by offering promotions and discounts – this can all make a marketing campaign worthwhile. Some brands are even using extra avenues, such as using influencers or sponsorships to pay for a trusted voice to promote a brand already, particularly if that person already has a trusted audience listening to them. As you can see, marketing has changed, but the opportunities are always out there despite the competition.
With this advice, you’re sure to prepare for and excel at the marketing requirements of the future.
