Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "How Marketing Will Transform in 2022," sheds light on the degree to which strategic tools and concepts will transform marketing planning and execution in the coming year. Now is the time to examine ideas while taking a deeper look at specifics in terms of short and long-term objectives. No crystal ball can guarantee tried-and-true marketing techniques in a world under the assault of a raging pandemic and cataclysmic climate conditions around the planet. Consider the massive, record-breaking tornado ladened storm that devastated parts of 6 states. Meteorologists attribute the latest tornadoes' sheer size and wind speeds to climate change. We extend our condolences and prayers to those who lost loved ones and everyone affected by the storm. Like the storm, no one could have predicted the drastic changes we underwent in 2020—the upending of everything, including business, education, healthcare, travel, and marketing. The ability to reach prospects becomes a real test of timing, budgeting, and creativity. Some brands were successful, and others hung on; still, others exited the playing field, with the more nimble ones executing while withstanding the chaos. These factors combined with evolving human behaviors continue to drive marketing decisions now and for the foreseeable future.
Our Quote of the Day:
"Forecasts create the mirage that the future is knowable." — Peter L. Bernstein
More Focus on Humanization
Some believe that technological advancements will dictate the future of marketing, and to that point, technology will play a significant role in all sectors. Others are of the mindset that developing obstinance is underway relating to the rise of digitization, AI, and other communication automation efforts as more brands and consumers exhibit a stronger desire to infuse more humanity into the marketing model.
While the tech side of life will not abate from the marketing schema, marketing experts and brands will focus more on people versus an over-reliance on technology. That makes sense, as technology provides tools and mechanisms, but in the end, it's the people that will decide to engage or forgo tech drivers.
Marketing insiders suggest that the marketing trends that will rise to the top of class over the coming year will focus on Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Content Visualization.
More Knowledgeable Employees
For the past few years, many marketers and brands have stressed that having an excellent CX(customer experience) program is tantamount to customer retention, growth, and increasing brand equity. Improving the CX is one tactic that is known to help reduce churn, all things being equal in the product value field.
However, executing a superior CX is easier said than done when delivering that experience. Excellent customer experiences require knowledge and buy-in from employees. Forecasters predict that in 2022, 46% of consumers will abandon brands whose employees lack brand and customer knowledge.
Additionally, employees who exhibit negative, careless, or bad attitudes will be the leading factors driving consumers away from a brand. Further complicating the environment will be the historic number of people who will quit their jobs to start an entrepreneurial enterprise or who choose to remain unemployed until they believe the corporate mentality supports employees.
The employees are the outward-facing GUI that represents the brand. Therefore, employee interaction with management will merge with outward customer visibility giving employees a stake in the brand's ultimate success.
However, the key to gaining employee trust and enthusiasm requires a solid foundation between the brand and its employees. It is an environment that traditionally is difficult to achieve. The steps include
- educating employees with the brand vision,
- ensuring value statements are understood, and
- creating an attractive workplace that promotes ideas that make employees happy and engage as valued members of the brand strategy and vision.
Storytelling via Visual Content
In the book "China Megatrends, The Eight Pillars of the New Society," one of the predictions suggests that we will become a visual society. These visuals will be dominant and will lift learning and communication. That trend has grown dramatically over the past several years.
Practical marketing concepts always rely on what's happening on the ground. Take the recent ads from TikTok featuring Applebee's, The Hole in the Wall that leads to a secret apartment, or the Hand Gesture with a facial expression. These are examples of short, unforgettable stories. Storytelling, intelligent speakers, and voice search transform consumer behavior and are gaining traction.
Text and readable content are losing ground to visual communications. The creative applications that deliver exciting visuals and interaction create higher levels of engagement, and that trend will increase in 2022.
Social media platforms such as the popular Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest demonstrate that consumers prefer visual content over readable text.
Here are a few facts about the importance of visual content:
- 65% of us are visual learners
- Colored visuals increase people's desire to read content by 80%.
- People are 85% more likely to buy your product after watching a video about it.
- 93% of all communication is visual, attracting our attention and affecting our attitude.
- Posts with images produce 180% more engagement.
- Our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
It is easier to remember visual stories versus written content. Sales presentations containing text, data, and numbers are easily forgotten, whereas presenters who deliver a presentation with exciting visuals experience the highest recall. In 2022, brand recall will become one of the more critical aspects of marketing endeavors.
Personalization That Unlocks the Heart Strings
Imagine a buyer who must choose between similar products of equal value from two different brands. The brand that wins most of the time will be the one that tugs the heartstrings. For example, when two houses of equal value are on the market, the one with the best kitchen display and functionality will win over the couple or woman who will make the final decision. If you didn't know, the kitchen is the dominant nucleus of any home. If you can win the kitchen war, you can win the sale. Here's the catch; the kitchen that tells the most livable story in terms of design and staging enables the purchasers to envision themselves living in that kitchen, making for the most personalized, powerful story. A place that the buyers can call home.
Personalization today is much more than seeing a customer's name in readable text. When we add technology to the mix, digital marketing experts can uncover and review reams of data that reveal many consumer concerns. The data can identify challenges, pinpoint problems, understand what keeps customers awake at night, and ideally, alleviate what pains them.
Think of recent tactics where people walk by stores in a mall or any public place where digital displays can call their attention to products and sale prices or even push personalized notifications to their digital device. That technology is here and will grow exponentially in 2022.
The amount of marketing communications invading consumers' spaces today is practically unbearable, so much so that many are now avoiding them and tuning out.
Effective personalized communications will eradicate mundane, boring sales messages that consumers delete in record numbers. Statements that include "Want to make more money?" "Hey, don't leave before you see this next deal!" Or "You need to try this solution," and the multitude of other sales offers that flood the marketing landscape will be persona non grata.
The bottom line, according to an Epsilon survey, 80% of consumers state that they prefer to do business with brands who take the time to deliver a commendable personalized experience.
The Net-Net
More data describes the rapid and continuing transformation of marketing that will take place throughout 2022. The complexity of marketing is moving at an unprecedented rate. The future of marketing will require strategic plans that go beyond the typical to examine, embrace and deliver a model that engages and interacts intelligently. Brands that embrace this transformation will undoubtedly improve customer experience levels, increase brand equity and visibility, and boost ROI. They will also reduce churn and can gain new customers. We implore you to explore and contemplate the marketing transformations as you execute your organization's 2022 marketing plans. Thanks for reading "How Marketing Is Being Transformed for 2022!"
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