Marketing in the digital age is constantly changing.
We predict an influx of marketing strategies seeking to create lasting connections with the right audience this year.
Influencer Marketing
Small storefronts and multi-million dollar operations alike are seeing the importance of building relationships with their customers. Whether it be posting daily on TikTok or on Instagram Stories, business owners are showing their faces to their audience to keep them engaged and influence them to buy.
Companies with larger budgets are heading to popular social platforms and paying a pretty penny to endorse industry spokespersons to represent their brand. The “Influencer Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $16.4 billion in 2022” (influencermarketinghub.com, 2022). Affiliate links and discount codes are a great way to boost sales, but they’re also great tools to incentivize a team of social-savvy people to sell your product.
Influencer marketing is an opportunity to use the Instagram algorithm to your advantage. Your target audience is already consuming content made by more of your target audience. Influencer marketing is an impactful tool to infiltrate that relationship.
This practice is utilized extensively in the beauty and fashion industry, fitness industry, and hunting and sports industries, as well as the automotive and travel industry. However, business owners wanting to be more intentional with their marketing can find great results in being the face of their own brand online.
Personalization for Online Stores
Oftentimes, an online order from a favorite retailer is treated as a gift, whether that be to themselves or someone they love.
For this reason, consumers are craving an experience more than just a brown box arriving at their doorstep. Consumers want to feel like this was all orchestrated uniquely for them.
“Just for You” marketing is the tactic that companies like Stitch Fix, CareOf, and Giftbox Love Co. use to customize their selling strategy. These companies and similar ones often require a special form to be submitted before consumers can receive their quiz results and product recommendations. This interaction is called a Lead Form and is designed to gather valuable information about your audience. “50% of marketers say that inbound marketing strategies, like lead forms, are their chief ways of acquiring leads” (notifyvisitors.com, 2021).
While the consumer’s email address is really what they’re after, common data points tracked include:
- Age
- Location
- Interests
- Needs
Lead forms carve a pathway for your customer with a definitive route. Creating this system allows your audience to feel heard and served while you can collect data, perfect your product offerings, and create retargeting strategies to gain your audience’s attention.
Stealth Content
Millennial audiences spend an average of three hours on their phones consuming social media content every day. It’s no wonder they are getting good at dissecting it. When they are scrolling, they are looking for connection and inspiration. Their phones know them very well and only show them the content that they would find engaging. For this reason, cold sales messages on business social media accounts are going to the bottom of the feed.
Be mindful when creating social media content for your business. Is it serving your audience by adding value? Does your audience want to save it, share it, or take action?
This is an opportunity to dive deep into your brand and define what problem you’re trying to solve and for what reason. Once you can define the meaning in your messaging, the business social media pages should look more like your brand’s personality in action.
Niche Audiences
It has always been an industry recommendation to very specifically define your ideal audience. Age, gender, location, and socioeconomic status were really the only defining characteristics until recently. With the ability to now hyper-define your audience using cookies, social media data, and other digital services, you can zero in on who is really interested in buying your product or service.
Often, business owners are afraid to narrow down their potential audience because the number of “available” buyers has decreased. However, that is simply not the case. The world’s population still has access to buy your product—you're just abundantly selling to the smaller percentage of the world that aligns with your company values and offerings. “According to Mark W. Schaefer, 3–4 personas usually account for over 90% of a company’s sales” (protocol80.com, 2021). Creating ideal customer personas and tailoring ads to them is imperative for not wasting advertising dollars on those who simply aren't interested.
Podcasting
Podcasts are the new craze for consumable media in 2022. In fact, U.S. consumers listened to nearly 15 billion hours of podcasts in 2021, up 25% from 2020 (Forbes, 2022). Podcasts are much easier to consume than their audiovisual counterparts. Not requiring eyes on the screen to comprehend the messaging allows busy adults and working professionals to consume media they love while on the go with their daily routines.
Creating your own podcast is no easy feat, but the opportunity for brand awareness is too valuable to ignore. Listeners absorbing your message have the time to ponder on the topic and while their minds are open, your product can be framed as the solution.
Although podcasts are not typically a sales tool, they offer a great platform to speak about your business's mission.
In her role as a project manager, Mariah provides support and implements strategies to help our clients achieve their full potential.
