The new year has fast approached and like your setting of New Year’s Resolutions, businesses too must assess their KPIs and develop new and effective strategies to navigate the ever changing business world. More so than ever, businesses need to pay close attention to marketing trends in order to remain relevant and navigate the evolving global market environment.
Take a second and ask yourself if the following issues often arise in your business discussions:
- Your business growth has been stagnant and the team is finding it difficult to reach wider and more diverse markets;
- Your business’s key messages are not resonating with our target demographic
- Your business is finding it difficult to set itself apart from its competitors.
Are you ready to change those recurring discussions and step your business’s marketing game up? Here are 3 marketing trends that your business should consider implementing this year:-
1. Whatsapp Marketing
Most people, old and young, use WhatsApp to communicate. According to Statista, WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users and is one of the most popular mobile messaging apps worldwide with at least 60 billion messages being sent every day. Your business’s accounting department will surely love this perk; Whatsapp is a free platform so you do not have to worry about breaking the bank to implement and maintain.
To show how effective Whatsapp may be for your business, consider this example. Popular subscriber-only publication, The Financial Times, integrated WhatsApp into their 2019 plan whereby they would share a free daily article in their public Whatsapp Group. This tactic was introduced with the purpose of encouraging greater brand awareness, increasing traffic to their platform and building a more engaged audience. According to Digiday, “people who clicked a Financial Times link on WhatsApp were 40% more likely to return to the site within three days than those who clicked their links on other channels.” The Financial Times’ Audience Engagement Editor, Alana Coates, explained, “ people like the convenience of having news come through to their phone, without having to go to our site.” She further highlighted “Because it’s a chat app, it feels personal, people use emojis for visual cues, so we do the same. It’s a shortcut for people to understand what’s happening, and it seems to work in this context.”
The Financial Times, a publication which has been around since 1888, managed to seamlessly and effectively adapt to current trends and succeed on a platform that people would not typically attach to their brand.
Are you still skeptical about implementing a WhatsApp Marketing plan for your business? Here are some reasons why you should reconsider.
Whatsapp has helped businesses to:-
- Avoid data misuse, as it is a secure platform for communication and requires businesses to validate their accounts when setting up;
- Generate a wider audience reach and increase brand awareness through its broadcast feature;
- Strengthen relationships with existing customers through engaging with them directly and responding to queries in real time;
- Establish a fleshed out business profile with information such as your business location with a map, business description,business hours and up to two website links etc.
- Track message statistics;
- Not worry when you are away from your work phone as you can set your phone up for auto replies
2. Geofencing:
Geofencing is a type of location–based marketing which looks at using someone’s geographic location to deliver targeted messaging with strong call to actions. These messages can be delivered through a social media ad, in-app notification or text message. According to SalesForce, 53% of shoppers visited a retailer after receiving a location-based message.
Many businesses use geofencing to inform their customers of the products they have in stock or of any flash sales; with the objective of swaying customers to make purchases they did not directly seek out. Taco Bell is one such business that uses geofencing to inspire customers and boost sales. How Taco Bell puts geofencing to work for them is that a push notification will be sent to customers once they are located near one of their stores. This is used to stimulate their appetite and encourage them to purchase food. Geofencing has helped the fast food chain to increase their sales by 6%.
Businesses should consider implementing geofencing as it:-
- Engages potential customers;
- Provides customers with messaging that is timely and relevant;
- Helps businesses effectively target those who are more likely to spend than on those who most likely will not;
- Improves the accuracy of measuring data such as traffic patterns, engagement and store location performance
3. User-Generated Content
What marketing strategy do you think would resonate with you most? Real people sharing their personal experiences with a product or service? Or, a business solely promoting what their product or service can do for you? It is more than likely that you would choose the former. People pay more attention to content that is authentic, engaging and trust-worthy. Having someone represent a brand that is relatable is key to your business’s marketing strategy and success. Popular snack brand, Doritos, launched a platform, “Doritos Legion of Creators”, allowing Dorito lovers to create and share content and compete in challenges that the company would share as content to their social media accounts. This has helped Doritos increase engagement on their platforms as they are able to offer fresh content, produced by real people. Doritos has provided enthusiastic consumers with the opportunity to feel more connected to the brand and this in turn has induced more people to support the brand so that they too can be a part of the Dorito narrative.
Here’s why User-Generated content would be beneficial to your business:-
- Helps build greater brand awareness;
- Boosts the amounts of views, web traffic, likes, shares, comments, and retweets on social platforms;
- Forms a deeper connection with the brand’s audience and builds brand loyalty as consumers are allowed to be a part of the brand’s storytelling;
- Establishes greater credibility as content is being produced by actual paying consumers;
- Generates key consumer insights for free; you are better able to access the type of content your target audience enjoys based on social media metrics
With every new year, it’s good to make an impact and introduce new and fresh ideas that will inspire and appeal to your market. Marketing does not have to be expensive; it just has to be focused and once the research is done, your business can make a great impact without having to break the bank. Aim to create a seamless experience for your target market and provide them with well-executed opportunities to become more aligned with your brand. Just like The Financial Times, Taco Bell, and Doritos; find creative ways to market your brand, raise awareness, and build greater brand loyalty. These three companies have implemented different marketing strategies that have worked best for them. After all, we live in a tech-savvy world, your business does not have to stick to traditional marketing streams like billboards and flyers to be seen and heard.
