Since the advent of the printing press, television, and eventually the internet, there have been ongoing changes in what constitutes effective marketing. While trends often come and go, it’s important to note that some marketing principles have stayed true, even in our digital age.

Visual communication is hard-wired in the human brain and defines the way we interpret the world around us. For that reason the visual aspect of how, when and where your company is seen is still and will always be at the center of every effective marketing campaign.

However, because of ever-evolving communication technology there are new marketing trends which appear every year marketing managers can take advantage of. The Media Arts Group provides its clients with regular reports on emerging trends that they should be aware of, and we encourage our clients to inform their strategies by paying close attention to new techniques and technologies.

So, without further ado here are five trends that we think will be important to consider while planning this year’s campaigns, along with four trends which will be emerging on the marketing landscape beyond this year.

This Year’s Trends

#1 – Focus on Customer Experience

Focusing on why customers want to engage with your business offers less resistance.

While this may seem a no-brainer, it’s surprising how many businesses still don’t focus on customer experience. Yet customer experience is the heart of marketing across every sector. While it has always been a marketing focus, today’s successful marketing strategies and positive digital transformations are embracing customer-centric philosophies.

Some marketers are unsure how to implement this thinking into their campaigns, especially when they don’t know how to strategically analyze the ever-increasing volume of customer data.

Shifting your mindset and focusing on why customers want to engage with your business instead of just selling features and benefits, can offer less resistance during a campaign and gets to your customers’ core needs.

Today, customers are picky, they expect more. They want an experience, an engagement which is consistent across all marketing channels, and expect a timely response from your business if queried on social media. Gone are the days of email blasts that leave your target audience feeling like only a number. We need to not only inform our customer but engage them.

The challenge for marketers more and more is how to stay focused on enhancing the customer experience, create campaigns which generate positive conversations, and increase the number of those conversations.

#2 – Engagement Analytics

Tracking the entire customer journey through your sales funnel is crucial.

Measuring your campaign success through analytics has spurned deeper conversations of late, and for good reason. Every business needs to know their Customer Acquisition Costs, and how to bring them as low as possible. While social media sites like Facebook offer some campaign analysis, their data doesn’t tell a complete story and we have to use a more comprehensive set of tools to understand and evaluate the data which is available.

This can be a time-consuming, baffling process, especially for small businesses with limited marketing resources. But the pay-offs will impress you.

Measure, optimize, rinse and repeat! Simply reading the data-sets which arrive on your desk every month won’t be enough. Whatever the medium, tracking the entire customer journey through your sales funnel is crucial to measure and optimize your marketing campaigns.

Looking for indicators of online performance, evaluating customer feedback, even supplementing sparse data-sets with employee and contractor surveys all help hone your tactics. If they aren’t working, move on.

By ensuring effective analytics, you will find your business objectives eventually tie back to what really counts: profit, revenue, customer retention, and satisfaction.

#3 – Better & More Video Content

Well-produced videos offer a professional legitimacy to many potential customers.

Yes, content is still king, but the kind of content that rules the web has been changing. With YouTube eating up half the internet’s bandwidth, it’s no wonder many businesses have chosen the social video service as an integral part of their marketing campaigns.

Meeting customers where they are is a smart move, and in today’s fast-paced mobile environment, the easiest and most engaging way to get your message across is through video content.

Many customers will likely have a fragmented experience with your brand, engaging with you for a few minutes at a time as they move through their day. Short, compelling videos which are both socially engaging and shareable offers an organic, measurable momentum for your campaigns.

Well-produced videos offer a professional legitimacy to many potential customers, and can be reused for multiple campaigns if appropriate. For many small businesses, one high-quality video on the front page of their website can be a great conversion tool.

So, while social content, customer reviews, endorsements, blog and news articles are also important elements for a well-rounded campaign, better and more video content is arguably the best driver.

“Seeing it“ still leads to “believing it”, and it has never been more important than now. So in this evolving landscape, brands that fail to incorporate strong visual content will be left by the wayside.

#4 – Improved Social Media Marketing

Generic advertising content is getting ignored by desensitized social media users.

Many businesses are rethinking their approach to social media. Generic advertising content is getting ignored as desensitized users scroll through their feed, and impressions don’t always equate to sales.

We need to rethink our approach to social media this year by marketing less and selling more. To do this, shifting our focus and offering more personalized customer engagement through authentic relationships is a major step forward. Designing content around new, informative data-sets will also help you drill to customer core needs, and using social media for front line sales and services are all key shifts which can help conversion rates immensely.

The movement to using social media to engage, inform, and empower consumers – not just to push marketing messages – is a trend more businesses should jump on.

#5 – Team Building

Developing and tuning your team will be part of crafting your success this year.

To take advantage of these trends, your management team must be data-driven. As your business endeavors to connect email, social media, paid, owned, and earned marketing strategies you must incorporate the technologies needed to implement and support them. Developing and tuning your team will be part of crafting your success this year.

Here at MAGI we know our clients have an expanding need for a more technically comprehensive talent pool. Beyond a traditional staffing and supply chain, we connect with our global network of talented professionals who have expanded our capabilities to take full advantage of these trends. Our clients can expect an expanded focus on marketing technologists and data groups to help us update and enrich their campaigns.

We are all present to the fact that in this digital age it is now possible to work with talented professionals from around the globe. It is this very responsive, and adaptive team building strategy that we’re not only implementing ourselves, but also recommending to our clients.

Trends Beyond This Year

#1 – Personalization

As we endeavor to create individual solutions in everything from beverage cans to shoes, simple color and size options has transformed into hyper-personalization. For some enterprises, this will mean ensuring touch-points are both specific and individual. For others, it means making the purchasing process more dynamic and responsive.

#2 – Right-Time Marketing

Real-time marketing which keeps an eye on opportunities to market and score has been hot the last few years. However, we can now use data to isolate the best moment to connect with consumers, and real-time will be switching to right-time. The factor of timing in customer acquisition has never before been closer to our fingertips and it could be a game-changer for many marketing strategies.

#3 – Chatbots

Providing positive customer experience and service means leveraging the power of technology. Asking a local for advice on where to eat is good, but they don’t know what your food preferences are. Imagine a chatbot who knows your likes, dislikes and needs who can guide you on where to eat, how to travel, or where to shop. Chatbots make use of artificial intelligence, deep learning and data crumbs from across the internet to inform your interactions, and guide consumer behaviors.

#4 – Internet of Things

The Internet of Things will be moving out of its infancy soon. You can expect businesses to start leveraging the power of billions of connected devices and that provided data will become a marketers’ dream. Collecting and making this data useful will mean more opportunities to get closer to the customer.

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This year managers of all types will be bringing in more expertise in digital communications, and become more engaged in the process of showing the market and their teams that their company is transforming. To do this, they need to clearly explain how these trends in conjunction with emerging digital initiatives will affect the consumer experience, and how the company will be implementing them.

Of course leaving room for the unpredictable as our technological landscape quickly shifts, these are some of the trends we see on the horizon you should be considering as your team develops strategies for the coming year.

In the meantime, we would love to hear your marketing trend predictions for this and future years. Drop us a line!

The post Top Trends In Marketing This Year & On The Horizon appeared first on MAGI Communications.

This article is the first in a series on knowing your target market. Here we delve into generational distinctions and why those distinctions are important. In this and upcoming articles we’ll also examine how to gather quantitative and qualitative market research through market segmentation and buyer personas.

Marketers need to know their customers and prospects true problems, how they attempt to solve them and where you may fit into their solution. While grouping your market into smaller homogeneous subgroups creates efficiencies in campaigns and messaging, understanding the generational divides (and similarities) in your target market adds further definition to your sales messaging.

Karl Mannheim, one of the founding fathers of classical sociology and author of “The Problem with Generations” argues that every generation is held together by major, shared life experiences which shape their collective world-view. His study of generational distinctions has since become a major part of macro-sociology, and a significant tool in the communications and marketing industry.

Mannheim put forward the notion that all “truths” and ideas are related to and influenced by the social context from which they stem. These social constructs get slightly altered by each successive generation, who form a specific social identity around common experiences.

As one grows up, a pivotal event or disaster can define their world-view often leading to a loss of innocence. They realize that their environment isn’t stable and parents can’t solve everything.

These life-altering events influence the identity of each generation.

By exploring the characteristics, changing patterns and trends related to your target generation(s), we not only gain insights on how to market to their collective social identity, but how to better engage customers on an individual level.

To formulate an effective marketing strategy targeting a given generation, we need to define and understand each generational segment. The following is a brief introduction to each generational group.

The G.I. Generation
(Born before 1936)

The G.I. Generation which represented 9% of the population in 2010 were impacted by their parents experience in the aftermath of the First World War, the deep despair of the 1929 market crash, and the “dirty thirties”. This generation grew up in the midst of great hardships, historic unemployment, no security and very bleak prospects. The children of parents who experienced the full personal and social impact of the Great Depression, the G.I. Gens are characterized by practical frugality who typically felt that “a penny saved was a penny earned.”  But when the chips were down they were also ready to pitch in. Deeply patriotic, many men volunteered to fight in the Second World War while their women lined up to work in factories that supported the war effort. Most young couples put off having families until it was over.

The Silent Generation
(Born 1937-1945)

The Silent Generation representing 7% of the population in 2010, spent their formative years in the shadow of World War II characterized by rationing, underlying family fears and anxieties around those overseas, and many personal tragedies (25 million did not come home alive).  They were characterized by patriotism, loyalty, a level of conformity and conservatism that reflected the insecurities of wartime culture. Resigned to the many challenges they faced, they might be heard to say “This is just the way things are, can’t do much about it”.

The war ended shortly after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. The Silent Generation became the first generation to be fully aware that “mankind could be wiped out by a nuclear war”. A state of anxiety became the norm for many with the fear of a communistic threat leading many families to build bomb shelters during Cold War tensions. The perception of the “communist plague” only intensified as the Vietnam War began in 1955.

Living in the shadow of the possibility of a much talked about nuclear war, they did experience the postwar catharsis and a growing post-war economy where jobs were increasingly available. This new optimism lead to a historic boom in birthrate. This generation witnessed the advent of the suburbs, rock & roll, television and the growth of consumerism. They eventually became the richest, most free-spending retirees in history.

Leading Edge or Older Boomers
(Born 1946-1954)

Sometimes called the Flower Power Generation representing 14% of the population in 2010, this was the first generation that experienced simultaneous exposure and sharing of cultural events through coast-to-coast exposure to television. As TV became a popular medium it brought clearer defining moments to this and future generations. So as young people, “Leading-Edge Boomers” were highly impacted by the tragedies of the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They bore witness to the growth of social awareness these leaders had brought into focus. They also witnessed the great optimism that lead up to and followed the moon landing and the transformative cultural phenomena of the Beatles 1st North American tour (Beatle-Mania). The awareness of the power of mass media to create profound changes in perception was now common knowledge.

Not happy with the status quo, this generation rejected establishment institutions and wanted to rebuild them based on how they wanted the world to work. They participated in the resistance to the Vietnam War, activism for civil rights, the growth of feminism and the largest Earth Day demonstrations in history. With the advent of the birth control pill in 1964, this generation also were the pioneers of a sexual revolution which broke down many social conventions. This “love” generation has been characterized by a sense of freedom, optimism and political engagement. They demonstrate a high rate of volunteerism even in retirement.

Shadow or Younger Boomers
(Born 1955-1964)

This generation representing 20% of the population in 2010, grew up during an era of cultural cynicism where the social impact of books like Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” was being felt, and the propaganda of large corporations and institutions were being recognized and challenged. In the wake of Watergate, which shed light on the lack of integrity of political institutions, the ongoing anxieties of the Cold War, and the economic destabilization of the oil embargo, this generation became increasingly fearful, cynical and disenchanted.

Yet because Leading-Edge Boomers had seen economic prosperity, “Shadow Boomers” had even higher expectations during a decade which featured a recession that yielded fewer resources. Sometimes called “Generation Jones”, they were seen to be “jonesing” after prosperity, if not a little bitter about their prospects. Less altruistic than Older Boomers, Younger Boomers might say “It’s OK to spend money on yourself.” Seen as a little more selfish, Shadow Boomers were characterized as the “Me Generation” of the  1980’s, and became the so-called Yuppies who embraced consumerism.

Generation X
(Born 1965-1976)

Sometimes called a lost generation, Gen X represented 19% of our population in 2010 and were children during a time of shifting societal values. Sometimes called the “Latchkey Generation” due to reduced adult supervision compared to previous generations, Gen X often felt isolated by divorced or career-driven parents. They grew up at a time prior to widespread availability of childcare options outside of the home. As young adults, they were called the “MTV Generation” as they became saturated with popular culture on television.

This generation also experienced the failings of our blind faith in technology with the Challenger disaster, nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. They witnessed the assassination of John Lennon and the attempted assassination of President Regan on live television.

Often feeling abandoned and misunderstood, Gen Xers can be short on loyalty, late to marry and wary of commitment. This generation has been deemed by some to be self-absorbed, into labels and brand names. They are also known for impulse shopping with credit cards.

In spite of these challenges, in midlife research describes Gen X adults as active, happy, and achieving a work-life balance. They are also known to be very individualistic and entrepreneurial.

Millennials or Gen Y
(Born 1977-1995)

Millennials are currently the fastest growing segment. Sometimes called “Echo Boomers” they are generally the children of Baby Boom parents. They were at 30 % of our population in 2010 at a time when combined Boomers represented 34%. Boomers now number 74.9 million in the US while Millennials took over the largest generation spot in 2015, numbering 75.4 million.

Not only have Millennials edged out Boomers as the largest group of customers in the marketplace, but they also bring the greatest lifetime value with decades of untapped market potential.

This generation is known for its increased use of digital technologies and a more liberal approach to politics and economics. The Great Recession had a major impact on this generation causing historically high levels of unemployment among young people, which in turn is leading to an increased level of entrepreneurship.

Millennials exhibit different attitudes toward employment, sales and marketing, which are challenging many conventional strategies and approaches. As the Baby Boomer philosophy to parenting was “We want it to be easier for our kids than it was for us”, it’s not surprising that Millennials have been perceived with a sense of entitlement, perhaps leaving some Millennials with a need to be more competitive.

iGen, Gen Z or Centennials
(Born 1996-2007)

As defined by the work of Karl Mannheim, the end of the Millennials and start of the iGen is closely tied to September 11, 2001. That day marks the #1 generation-defining moment for Millennials. Members of the iGen generation may not grasp the significance of 9/11, as it’s always been a part of history for them. While other generations express concerns over the loss of personal freedoms in the post 9/11 world, iGens seem to accept more invasive security measures, with its resulting loss of liberty and privacy.

A significant characteristic of this generation is the widespread use of the internet from a young age. Generation Z is very comfortable with technology, and are interacting on social media platforms for a significant portion of their socializing. Some have suggested that growing up through the Great Recession has left this segment feeling unsettled and insecure.

This new generation is making big waves in all the ways a generation possibly could—including parenting, education, employment, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, politics, religion and more.

Generational Targeting

Having defined the generations and considered them separate market segments, how do you define a segmentation strategy?

There are several options available, and deciding whether to focus solely on a market segment or expanding your toolbox by developing a buyer persona is up to you. Keep in mind that buyer personas offer a detailed profile representing a typical buyer in a particular segment, and both tools used in tandem can paint a more comprehensive picture of your customers.

We recommend the following in your segmentation strategy focus:

-Identify the problems your target segment face and how they use a product
-Create buyer persona profiles of your target generation
-Include traditional criteria such as industry or geography
-Consider market feedback and evaluate the challenges your customers face
-For each challenge, evaluate how they and your competitors attempt to solve the problem

For your segmentation strategy add as much detail as possible (the more detail, the better). The goal is to position your company to own some of the mindshare of your generational target market.

Coming Soon…

Knowing Your Market – The Key Generations

In the next article in this series “Knowing Your Market”, we’ll shed important light on the changing trends in generational media use, and how that may shape your marketing efforts moving forward.

We’ll also put heavy focus on the two largest and arguably most important generation market segments – Baby Boomers and Millennials. Stay tuned!

The post Knowing Your Market: Targeting Generations appeared first on MAGI Communications.

Large, small or somewhere in-between, your business must be determined to implement a promotional strategy that’s both creative and compelling, reaching predetermined goals along the way.

Every promotional campaign is different and strategies should be tailored to fit the needs of your business, though there are some common basics which are universal.

The following are a list of 8 universal promotional strategies every launch needs to start off on the right foot, though it’s important to mention that these are simply starting points from which to expand and grow your campaign in complexity and ultimately success.

#1 – Build A Website

Building your website is like painting a masterpiece.

Your website is the cornerstone of your business. Whether you’re launching your brand on its inaugural run or introducing a new product or service, customers need a place to be ‘driven’ to.

Once on your website customers can follow call-to-actions, make a purchase, contact you, develop brand loyalty, educate themselves, share with friends … the list goes on. A website is critical, despite the urge by some to rely solely on social media to interact with customers. A website offers legitimacy crucial for successful growth.

Building your website is like painting a masterpiece, though luckily you don’t have to build it yourself. Many talented and affordable craftsmen are available to do the heavy lifting – your role can simply be to infuse the site with your brand identity and message.

#2 – Implement Basic Website SEO Practices

SEO can help drive your site to the first page of search results.

Search Engine Optimization can be an intimidating topic, as some businesses don’t have the help of an experienced SEO consultant or in-house web developers. In those cases SEO often doesn’t get implemented at all.

The problem gets compounded when business owners research SEO themselves only to find conflicting information, complicated settings in SEO tools designed for technical users, and inevitably give up out of frustration.

The rules of SEO are in constant flux, and with Google guiding roughly 90% of search engine traffic on the web, it’s their rulebook we must follow. As it’s in Google’s best interest to shield their proprietary algorithms closely, those implementing your businesses SEO strategy must ensure they’re up-to-speed on the latest news and parse fact from falsehood.

While a very loaded and complicated topic, there are SEO basics you can implement to help drive your website to the first page of search engine results. Bear in mind that changes in Google’s algorithms may make any of these inclusions more or less important down the road. Ultimately an SEO consultant on retainer is the ideal approach for lasting positive results.

To learn more about one services analysis of 1 million Google search results, and what they’ve learned about important SEO factors, click here.

#3 – Embrace Social Media Platforms

Driving customers through your sales funnel is the ultimate goal.

Everyone knows about social media, but do you know the ideal social platform(s) to promote your business?

While it may be tempting to register an account with any and all social media platforms and continually post updates in hopes that something will catch the zeitgeist, your brand might fall into a particular niche which won’t perform well on certain social channels, causing you to waste valuable time and energy.

Knowing where your customers are, meeting them there and interacting constructively which drives them through your sales funnel is the ultimate goal.

An early indicator of where your attention should be focused comes from successful direct competitors. Which social media platforms do they use? How many followers do they have, and how frequently do they post updates? Are customers responding favorably, and what volume of their content is marketing material?

If you have no direct competitors as you’re blazing a trail in your category, plus have no customer data to draw from, you may find posting to the most popular social media sites a great way to test the waters and determine successful traction.

Many businesses are now utilizing social media editorial calendars and posting tools which allow you to not only post regularly, but post to multiple social media channels from one unified account.

To learn more about social media management applications, and how to use these tools to promote content and manage engagement, click here.

#4 – Develop Multimedia Content

Allow customers to easily digest complex messages which are vital.

Your website and social media accounts need content, and arguably the most effective is visual. Well-crafted images and video content can help get a message across effectively and with the least amount of resistance, as it requires only a passive engagement from customers.

Additionally, some popular social media sites your business may best perform on are driven by visual content. A strategically placed video on the front page of your website allows customers to easily digest complex messages you feel are vital, especially if the rest of your website is mostly text-based.

Depending on your needs, you may find a short, simple explainer video ideal, though it should be high-quality and exude professionalism. Many businesses rely on original, professionally-produced photos and video to populate their website, which is not only visually appealing but acts as a buttress for written content. These visual elements often last for months or even years on website pages, as they’ve been proven effective in sales conversion.

Social media lends itself to more ‘gritty’ content that’s rough around the edges. It can be a mix of throw-away ephemera shot with a phone camera to highlight activity around the office, through deliberately crafted marketing material which has some production value.

A strong recommendation is to avoid designing graphic elements in-house, unless you or your team has a graphic design background. Poorly crafted graphics (despite the pride and opinions of the designer) can damage the reputation of your brand, and leave customers questioning your professionalism. Consistency is key in marketing campaigns, and consistently great is always better.

#5 – Promote Locally & Beyond With SEM

Paid search listings get you seen via organic search despite SEO.

If you’re unfamiliar with SEM (search engine marketing), it’s a way to promote your website by increasing its visibility in search engine result pages through contextual advertising and paid placements.

You’ve likely seen SEM in action while searching for something on Google, as paid placements show up at the top of the results page with an icon indicating advertisement status.

While earning traffic through unpaid free listings optimized by SEO is always ideal, paid search listings can offer a great benefit to ensure you’re being seen via organic search regardless your SEO prowess.

By many measures, Google Adwords is the most popular paid search platform followed by Bing Ads, which also serves ads on Yahoo. Beyond that, there are numerous 2nd tier PPC (pay-per-click) platforms available serving the major social networks which can be tapped into.

#6 – Create A Press Release

Press releases can secure a magazine feature or television interview.

Your new business, product or website is ready to launch and you want to inform loyal customers, other stakeholders and the press alike. An essential element in any public relations strategy is to create a press release.

While they help publicize newsworthy information about your business and offer you some control over where that information lands, great press releases can also secure a magazine feature or television interview – offering even more visibility to new customers.

While creating your press release, ensure to follow these tips designed to help it stand out from the pack. Journalists are flooded with potential stories, and making your release stand out is crucial:

• Tell a compelling story
• Grab attention with a strong headline
• Get right to the point in the first paragraph
• Make it grammatically flawless
• Include hard numbers
• Include quotes whenever possible
• Include your contact information
• Provide access to more information
• One page is best — and two is the maximum

#7 – Create Great Content

Increase expectations for marketing ROI with lasting content.

Investing in great content for your website and marketing materials may seem like a given for most, but it’s an important inclusion as the focus of many companies has been turning to social media.

The thinking goes that if they’re just tweeting or posting on social media accounts like Facebook, they don’t need to create anything longer or more substantive.

Our years of experience has shown that while social media channels are invaluable to stay connected with customers and potential prospects, we’ve yet to hear of any senior executives making multi-million dollar bets based on an intriguing or clever tweet.

Indeed, high-quality content is more important than ever. It not only showcases your brands’ professionalism but also informs customers without confusing them, lowers bounce rates on your website, improves overall SEO scores, and increases your odds of getting new business.

By evaluating your content and stripping it of weak, extraneous material, and having a professional editor tighten and enhance the writing, your business will be well on its way to increased expectations for marketing ROI with lasting content.

#8 – List With Online Directories

4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find local businesses.

For small and medium sized businesses, it’s crucial these days to list themselves prominently in multiple online directories. Considering that 4 out of 5 consumers in the U.S. now use search engines to find a local business or service, making sure your brand is found with relevant consumer information is a must.

Based on Google’s own research regarding consumer search behavior, customers frequently seek company hours, business location, product information, and directions. They also put great stock in online reviews, with the vast majority trusting those reviews as much as personal recommendations.

There are numerous directories online to list your business, and knowing where your customers are, meeting them there and offering them the right information is key to successful promotion. Google My Business, Bing Places for Business, Yahoo Local Listing, Yelp, and the Yellow Pages are great places to start your listing journey.

The post 8 Promotional Strategies For Every Launch appeared first on MAGI Communications.