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In the dynamic world of sales and marketing, embracing marketing trends is essential for entrepreneurial success. But how do you determine which trends really count for your strategy? In this article, discover practical tips for making strategic choices and optimizing your marketing and communications.
As an entrepreneur, you are regularly faced with a plethora of choices and digital trends: from retailers entering the metaverse to companies embracing chatbots. It sometimes seems like you’re in a digital candy store. But amid all these temptations, it’s crucial to stay critical and focus your sales and marketing on what really adds value to your organization.
Don't confuse marketing trends with your digital marketing strategy
It is important to understand that a marketing trend does not always belong in your digital marketing strategy. Marketing trends and digital strategies are often confused: your strategy includes your organization’s long-term vision and positioning, while trends are more about practical implementation. Although they support your strategy, trends often require a short-term approach. So, unless trends directly affect tactical choices in your marketing mix, they do not fall under your digital marketing strategy.
A STRONG DIGITAL STRATEGY ALLOWS YOU TO ASSESS IN ADVANCE THE OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF MARKETING TRENDS, AND DECIDE WHETHER THEY FIT WITH YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY.
Making Choices in Marketing Trends: Five Tips
Whether it’s smart to embrace marketing trends in your marketing and communications, or whether a more cautious approach is sometimes better, depends on several factors. Here are five tips in advance:
1. Evaluate your digital strategy and make considerations
When considering a digital trend, such as the rise of TikTok, for example, it’s important to determine whether it fits your brand or organization. Sometimes it is wise to remain conservative, especially if your brand is more traditional or if you are still building your online presence. Therefore, take the time to evaluate your e-commerce or digital lead campaigns: where can you still optimize and personalize? And which digital trends or actions can best support you in doing so?
Sometimes it is necessary to embrace a marketing trend, especially if your brand is forward-thinking or if the development fits your product or target audience exactly. It’s a balance and the decision depends on an analysis of your brand-specific circumstances.
2. Put your customers first
It’s natural to consider whether a marketing trend fits your organization. But what is even more crucial is to determine whether the marketing trend is also fully focused on your customers: Is the trend relevant and personalized to them? What impact will the trend have on your various audiences? And will the new trend serve your customer extra in some way?
A good example is the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in marketing: By using AI algorithms to analyze individual preferences, you as an organization can offer relevant products or services to your customers, leading to a higher chance of conversion and customer satisfaction.
Are you still stuck on digital customer centricity and growth? And are you finding it difficult to smoothly lead your customers to your online offerings while building a strong brand connection? In this blog, we share practical tips to help you do this, taking the digital customer experience as the foundation for your marketing.
5. Optimize touch points with marketing trend
Do you already have a strong buyer and customer journey or content strategy? Then finally, consider how a marketing trend can enhance your digital customer experience to bring in new leads. For example, implement AI chatbots on your website to improve customer service and increase your conversion rate, leading to more efficient interactions and a smoother user experience.
3. Focus on what matters for sustainable growth
While it is crucial as a business owner to stay abreast of the latest marketing trends in your industry, you must also be realistic: Will the marketing trend move your organization forward in the long run? Especially if you have limited resources, it’s smart to focus on digital trends that have real impact. For example, consider whether investing in influencer marketing outweighs optimizing your website for better conversions. While influencer marketing may be trendy, website optimization can provide sustainable growth through improved user experience and higher conversion rates.
4. Work Together
New marketing trends can affect not only your customers, sales and marketing, but also the way your team works together. For example, new high-end digital collaboration tools can improve how your employees interact, allowing them to work together more creatively and effectively. This can be a huge boost to developing new marketing strategies.
Do you still hesitate to adopt or ignore marketing trends
In a world where the pressure to be innovative is constant, it is important to take a well-thought-out approach when deploying new marketing trends. With a strong digital strategy, you can easily assess the opportunities and risks of these trends in advance and decide if they fit with your digital marketing strategy.
Find out today how you can take your organization to new heights by embracing the right marketing trends. Could you use some extra help with that? Then feel free to contact us for a digital session full of inspiration and strategy.
