Marketing and advertising have never been static realms in which the landscape never changes. In the past, marketing trends might change more slowly over the course of time, adjusting to the changing behaviors of different generations. However, The 21st century is an entirely different beast. With technology rapidly changing added into the mixture of ever-changing consumer behaviors, it is important to re-evaluate strategy each year. As 2019 slowly winds to a close, it’s time to think about marketing tactics that hit the mark and those that missed.
Hit: Content Marketing
Content marketing remains a tried-and-true marketing option because it delivers value to the consumer. Blogging is one of the primary examples of content marketing. How much blogging should be done by a brand remains open for debate, but the point of blogging isn’t to generate conversions or make direct connections with the consumer. Blogging is useful in showcasing the insight and knowledge your brand has in its niche and can also help solve consumer pain points without requiring outreach. For example, how-to blog posts including videos help customers solve simple, common issues quickly and on their own timeline. That’s a win-win for the reputation of your brand in the mind of the consumer. In fact, 78% of B2B brands use content marketing in 2019.
Read More: Understanding the Power of Content Marketing
Hit: Chatbots
Another great adjustment brands have made in 2019 marketing is the integration of chatbots into website designs and social media platforms. Chatbots make it quick and easy for consumers to contact the brand and get simple answers. This frees up resources for the company, avoids clogging up call center support with lesser questions and concerns, and enables quicker responses for the consumer. In the end, chatbots make your brand seem fast and responsive to the needs of consumers, and that is a major benefit in shaping the opinion of a brand. This trend isn’t going anywhere either as 80% of businesses plan to use chatbots by 2020.
Read More: Can You Benefit From Chatbots?
Hit: Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization has been an ongoing effort in the marketing world for several years now. Cisco found that mobile traffic will grow twice as fast as fixed IP traffic over the 2017-2020 period of time. Mobile optimization of your web presence doesn’t just make it easier for your consumers to browse and interact on the device of their choice, it shows the responsiveness of the brand in that it cares about changing consumer behaviors.
Read More: How to Optimize Content for Mobile Marketing
Miss: Facebook Ads
This 2019 marketing miss has less to do with Facebook’s privacy concerns and the growing backlash that has created, and more to do with the dwindling effectiveness of its paid ads. While it is still valuable to be involved on Facebook, its ads platform is seen by marketers to be delivering a lower ROI than other marketing options.
What can you learn from this? – It is always a good idea to analyze the data you get from any advertising platform. Take a closer look at the metrics on your Facebook ads and see if that money might be better spent on the trends mentioned above or other successful marketing tactics.
Miss: Social Media
Before starting on this point, it is worth noting that for each of these three marketing misses of 2019, many brands are planning to scale back these activities rather than quit them altogether. A scaled-back social media campaign stems from both sides of the consumer-brand relationship. Brands that post too frequently on social media clog up the consumer newsfeed and can be seen as more of an annoyance than a value. For the brand, relying too heavily on social media misses other opportunities to connect with consumers.
What can you learn from this? The answer is clear here: balance. Make sure your marketing efforts are balanced across all verticals. If you’re going to skew toward one marketing trend, make sure your own analytics back up the value of doing so.
Miss: Cold Outreach
Finally, cold outreach remains a huge miss in 2019. Consumers simply don’t want to be bothered by brands, whether that is on the phone or via email marketing they didn’t sign up for. The rising number of spam phone calls have led to increased caution on the part of the American consumer in even answering the phone for fear of being drawn into a sales-pitch conversation.
What can you learn from this? – Get the consumer to call you! Use Pay Per Call marketing to put forth the value of your brand and product to the consumer. Entice them with useful information and make sure your business number is front-and-center so they contact you with questions. It saves your brand both time and money!