2020 Marketing Trends

The new year is fast approaching and, with the hustle and bustle of the marketing industry, trends are already starting to emerge. With new technology comes new tactics so, we’re giving you a few ideas on how to ramp up your marketing skills and stay ahead of the competition in 2020:

 

 

Livestream Video

Studies show that 80% of consumers prefer watching a live video from a brand as opposed to reading a blog, and around 67% of those consumers are more likely to invest in a future event after watching a livestream of a similar event. These numbers are expected to rise in 2020, meaning now more than ever is the time to utilize this marketing tool. The chances are your brand is already active on some of the most popular livestreaming platforms – Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Periscope – so integrating this tactic into your marketing strategy should be a simple feat. Another advantage of livestreaming is that brands also have the opportunity to directly interact with their customers and receive feedback on their content in real time. Even better, livestreams can be saved and repurposed for future content needs.

 

Optimize Smart Speakers

As of January 2019, there have been more than 118 million smart speaker devices sold in the United States alone, yet it seems this fountain of opportunities for marketing have gone relatively untapped. To get ahead of this trend, companies may consider positioning a product or service in terms of a “branded skill” – A customer-centric way to directly promote to consumers. Major brands are already taking advantage of this tactic, such as:

• UBER: Set up Uber’s branded skill through your smart device – All consumers need to do is say, “Alexa, call me an Uber”. The device will recognize this action and team up with the app to get a ride on its way.
• PATRÓN: Consumers no longer need to spend their time searching for the perfect cocktail to pair with dinner – Patrón’s branded skill allows smart speakers to effortlessly provide recipes, bartending tips and fun facts about the liquor to consumers.
• TIDE: If consumers have a stain on their carpet, Tide is always there to help. The company’s branded skill allows consumers to ask their smart speaker for helpful tips and tricks to get those pesky stains out, with all recommendations reflecting the use of Tide products.

 

 

Personalize

With the rise of technology, consumers are looking to have a personalized shopping experience. In order to have that experience, access to a fair bit of consumer information is necessary. While websites can track browsing and buying behaviors, more brands are urging users to create accounts with their company. Doing so stores the consumer’s personal information to the brand’s system, and the company can then serve that consumer products based on their preferences via on-screen or email promotions. According to Shopify, 75% of consumers actually prefer retailers to use their personal data as a means to improving their shopping experience, and this trend is expected to carry through to 2020.

 

Zero Moment of Truth

The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) is the moment in the buying decision when the consumer makes the decision to research a product prior to purchasing it. This habit is ever-present, and the amount of data, reviews and product information readily available on the internet has made it a breeding ground for information overload. By understanding your consumer’s process for gathering information, marketers can tailor their overall shopping experience to ensure consumers aren’t lost in the sales funnel. Product-based conversations, whether on your website, blog pages, etc., are more vital now than ever before. Our advice? Start with your brand’s social media – Monitor your mentions and industry trends, and develop your overall marketing strategy based on your target market’s needs.

 

Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing has been on the rise in 2019 and we’re anticipating this strategy to grow in 2020. Influencers partner with brands to promote or review products, services and destinations for their audience in an effort to expand on existing marketing efforts. More specifically, micro-influencers work on a smaller scale, having a following of 1,000-100,000 users. These influencers have developed a tight-knit, trusting and responsive audience based on a niche interest. For brands looking to tap into the influencer marketplace without the fees of a celebrity presence, a micro-influencer allows brands to communicate to their target audience in exchange for a sample of your brand’s product or service.

 

 

Understanding SEO

While SEO is not a new topic in the marketing world, the evolution of technology has led to a misconception of how SEO is actually effecting your business. We’re debunking the most common SEO myths so you can start your 2020 strategy off right:

• Web security isn’t important to SEO rankings. This is a big misconception has data breaches are constantly on the rise. Consumers need to feel safe when they visit your site and interact with your brand, and having Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled – meaning that the site is secured and consumer data is being stored safely – can mean the difference between a high search ranking and a low one. Earlier this year, Google publicly announced that two websites that would be otherwise equal in search results will rank differently if one is SSL-enabled, with the more secure brand rising above. 
• More links are better than more content. While the thought is often that more links will help a company work to the top of the search ranks, quality control software analyzes the purpose of each link. This means that quality is more important than quantity in terms of SEO.
• Good user experiences not required. When the quality of a website is being considered for SEO ranking, user experience is incredible important. Google has stated that their platform is increasingly focused on providing results with quality content, including the usability of a company’s website. To enhance your company’s chances of reaching the top, make your site mobile-friendly, and enhance the page load time and bounce rate.

 

With the new year (and a new decade) on the horizon, it’s important to stay #InTheLoup on marketing trends. Whether you’re reading up on industry news, magazines or staying tuned to the LHG blog for important information, getting a jump start on industry happenings can help gain the interest of consumers and set you apart from your competitors as we break into 2020.

 

from Lou Hammond Group https://louhammond.com/2019/10/30/2020-marketing-trends/
via https://louhammond.com

Marketing Terms You Should Know

As industries change with the introduction of new technologies and the inescapable impact of social media and influencers, the marketing industry is focusing more than ever on data driven results and digital marketing. While this does not mean that marketing execs are steering clear of the “Four P’s” or the four pillars of traditional marketing, it does indicate that the landscape is shifting. Today, to have a successful campaign that resonates with your target audience, you need to be aware of where people are scrolling.

To help delve into the modern marketing world, we’ve defined and unpacked seven essential marketing terms to know.

 

 

1. Digital Marketing

To start, it’s important to understand what digital marketing is and how it compares to traditional marketing. Digital marketing is simply the promotion of products and services online and through other digital channels including websites, search engines, email, social media, etc. The biggest difference between the two is that digital marketing allows for direct interaction with the customer, which then generates higher engagement levels. So digital marketing is measurable, though this does not discount the influence that traditional marketing may have on a customer. Therefore, even with a big shift towards digital marketing, traditional strategies are not lost.

 

2. Four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion

As previously mentioned, traditional marketing has evolved, but the pillars of the industry remain and the techniques that we use today still rely on the “four P’s” of marketing: product, price, place and promotion.

• Product –A product or brand can offer a tangible good or service that fulfills a need or want of a customer. It’s important that brands have a clear vision of the product in order to successfully market it to its target audience.
• Price –Once the product is established and there is a real understanding of what the product offers, we can start pricing the product or service. Price impacts profits, supply and demand and the overall marketing strategy. While the product has a certain target audience, the price then narrows or broadens this audience.
• Promotion – Promotion involves all the different ways we can present relevant information about the product or service to the customer. This information can be presented through different channels like advertising, public relations, digital marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing and more. It’s important that each effort is supported by a well-positioned brand to ultimately maximize ROI or return on investment.
• Place –Place is essential to promote a product. It’s critical that the product is promoted at the right time and place in order to convert potential customers into actual customers. Today, we encounter dozens of marketing strategies before we even step foot into work whether you walk, drive, or take the train or subway. Potential for getting hooked on a product or service can occur while scrolling on your phone or seeing physical ad space – but the important thing to know for marketers is where their potential customer is looking.

 

 

3. MMM: Media Mix Modeling

Media Mix Modeling piggybacks off the place portion of the Four P’s as it concerns having the right balance of marketing strategies over different media i.e. magazines, newspapers, social media and more. Having the right media mix creates a higher probability that a potential customer may be influenced to purchase, which then drives engagements and sales.

Essentially, MMM is an analysis technique that allows marketers to measure the impact of their marketing and advertising campaigns to determine how various efforts contribute to their overall sales goal.

 

4. Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel strategies refers to a multichannel sales approach that provides customers with a seamless and integrated shopping experience. Whether the customer is shopping on a desktop, mobile phone or from a brick-and-mortar store, the experience should be seamless because the messaging throughout is seamless.

While this sounds relatively similar to Media Mix Modeling, Omnichannel Marketing puts the customer at the center whereas MMM focuses on the channels in which the customer is reached. The goal is to ultimately build stronger relationships between the customer and the brand, which in turn increases customer retention and revenue.

 

 

5. ROI: Return on Investments

ROI is probably the most important term to understand in marketing. All marketing efforts are reduced to return on investments. It is the practice of attributing profit and revenue growth to the impact of marketing initiatives. Or more simply put – what was invested in marketing strategies and how much money did a brand generate or lose. By calculating marketing ROI, brands can measure the degree to which their marketing efforts contributed to sales and revenue growth. ROI also helps budget allocation for ongoing and future initiatives.

 

6. SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results. Or in other terms, SEO is anything done to improve the ranking of a website on search engine result pages or SERPs. The goal is to increase visibility or traffic by ranking high for terms or phrases on search engines. SEO is determined by many, many factors, but one of the biggest deciding factors is keyword research and making sure your website comes up when relevant terms to a brand are searched.

 

 

7. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses product mentions and endorsements from influencers to engage a dedicated following. This is particularly useful because successful influencers grow their followings from being authentic, which in turn creates trust and an organic platform for brands to target niche markets. Additionally, influencer marketing provides marketers with data driven analytics. Influencers can provide insights on how many followers ‘swiped up’ or took a screen shot of a story with a product mention. Because of this influencer marketing has skyrocketed over the past couple of years – especially with the introduction of shoppable Instagram, social media platforms are becoming the go-to place to shop and to get ideas about where to shop.

 

So, these are seven marketing terms you should know! Although just a snapshot of the industry, it definitely is a starting place. To continue discovering the blog, take a look at this post to learn a couple buzzwords in the PR industry.

from Lou Hammond Group https://louhammond.com/2019/10/23/marketing-terms-you-should-know/
via https://louhammond.com

Creating Lifelong Brand Ambassadors in the Travel Market

Whether searching for a solo getaway or family reunion destination, consumers are driving the bus to make travel decisions. A recent survey found that only 28 percent of consumers turn to magazines and newspapers to discover new brands while 53 percent rely on friends and family and 42 percent Google.

While these statistics may seem grim for PR professionals, it’s actually great news.

As an agency representing 20-plus destinations spanning cities, states, counties and countries across the globe, LHG is an industry leader in destination marketing and has a steady finger on the pulse of what makes travelers tick.

 

 

Bloomberg recently reported that Warren Buffett is “pessimistic on the newspaper industry at a time when public relations specialists are increasingly outnumbering journalists.” I can’t say I’m surprised. The six-to-one ratio of publicists to reporters is startling, creating a need for a specialist PR professional to break through the clutter.

The above spotlights both a challenge and an opportunity for independent hotels longing for quality media coverage and for the overabundance of PR professionals tasked with securing it.

Instead of considering media coverage the end-all-be-all of public relations success, smart marketers focus on creating lifelong brand ambassadors who will evangelize a destination via word of mouth and social media. This approach requires a shift in the way PR professionals tackle media relations, but, when done correctly, pays big dividends.

To begin, destinations should take a hard look at their content marketing strategy and diversify efforts across earned, paid, shared and owned media to ensure each spoke of the marketing wheel complements the others. Think of this wheel as the framework for a successful campaign and content as the fuel that powers the wheel.

Here are four ways to create lifelong brand ambassadors through a successful content marketing plan:

 

 

Start with the traveler and work back

Before proactively pushing out content to potential visitors, destinations must first define their audience through robust customer personas. To do this, start with your ideal lifelong brand ambassador and work backward. What are they reading? Who are they following? How do they consume information? Americans spend an average of 5.4 hours each day on their smart devices, so practitioners must pinpoint the best ways to get in front of their primary audience to get a piece of the pie. Monitoring age, gender, household income and geographic locations through Google Analytics is a great place to start. From there, you can also view referral traffic to see who is coming from news outlets versus social media or what key words people are searching to find your brand. Breaking down this demographic information is the first step to narrowing down the primary channels of communication and will direct your strategy moving forward.

 

Create valuable content

If content is the fuel that powers the marketing wheel, PR specialists must pay careful attention to the type of fuel they are infusing into their strategies. Just as gassing up a car with the wrong fuel type can cause serious damage, destinations must only create and disseminate content that is both relevant and valuable to the customer.

Now that you know your audience front and back, you must create targeted messaging that will resonate. Because today’s consumer is inundated with brand messages, yours must be able to neatly communicate your destination’s unique value proposition. What can you say that no one else can? What are the leading highlights that set you apart from other destinations or attractions? Your destination’s unique value proposition will serve as the tent poles for your content strategy, so it’s imperative that you nail down both the target audience and key messages. From there, ensure that these key messages come across loud and clear in your content — whether it’s a blog, social, email or interview with a journalist.

An increase in fans, followers and web traffic is a good indication that steps one and and two have been successful. Once this is established, it’s time to move from discovery mode to conversion mode.

 

 

Rise through the Google ranks

Now that you’ve reached your target audience with relevant and valuable content through traditional or social media, you must now make it easy for them to find your website. Since we know that 42 percent of consumers turn to Google to discover brands, a high search engine ranking is paramount. Google’s algorithm is changing more and more every day, but we do know a few key things about what types of websites it prioritizes. The secret to a high-ranking site is — you guessed it — good content!

Websites that regularly publish original, relevant and valuable content will rise through the search engine ranks. If Google sees that website visitors are leaving your pages quickly (as seen through a high bounce rate), you’ll be dinged. If Google sees that you are not refreshing your web content, you’ll also be dinged. Google prioritizes content by how fresh it is and how long a site keeps visitors before they bounce, so moving up in search engine rankings is a top way to determine success in this step.

 

 

Exceed expectations

Once a customer makes a purchasing decision, brands are one step closer to creating lifelong ambassadors. The only thing standing between a purchase and brand loyalty is a delightful experience. This experience must validate all the expectations that a consumer has made during the discovery and conversion phases. As such, a company must train all guest-facing employees to be the face and voice of the company. Our agency utilizes a tool called a “message house” to ensure key messages are communicated during guest interactions. Once a visitor leaves your destination, smart brands use content to stay engaged through email and social media, providing a two-way dialogue to ensure feedback is heard and laying the groundwork for a future visit.

While converting a passive explorer into a lifelong brand ambassador is no easy feat, it can be done through captivating content deployed across earned, paid, shared and owned media. From discovery to conversion to engagement, PR pros must infuse strong content at every point in the marketing funnel. And after some 35 years in this industry, I’m proud to report that good content is still king.

 

from Lou Hammond Group https://louhammond.com/2019/10/11/creating-lifelong-brand-ambassadors-in-the-travel-market/
via https://louhammond.com