Seems that every conversation about marketing these days somehow raises interest in “what are the big trends in marketing?” and “what’s hot in marketing?”. While some so-called trends may be fleeting, there are a number of recent and future trends that have or will change what and how we do marketing.
Here’s a list in no particular priority or sequence of the more frequent marketing activities and trends encountered on a daily basis:
Social Media – no question that social media has a huge impact on marketing and will continue to be one of the most prevalent trends in marketing for the foreseeable future.
Marketing Automation – there is growing interest and use of marketing automation software to plan, manage, execute and track marketing campaigns in a more structured, integrated and consistent manner.
Sales 2.0 – although there are many interpretations of what Sales 2.0 means, the primary aspects of this trend are the convergence of sales, marketing and customer collaboration using internet-based technologies and tools for improved performance.
Analytics – internet-based technologies, automation systems and database capabilities have vastly improved the availability of relevant and accurate data for analysis, performance measurement and management to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing.
Metrics – there has been an explosive increase in the definition and use of standardized marketing metrics over the past several years to measure marketing performance and results in a consistent and comparable manner.
Location – while still a nascent trend and technology, location-based media and marketing to deliver relevant content specific to a user / customer / buyer’s location will become an increasingly important and effective approach for reaching target audiences.
Mobile – mobile technologies continue to play a more prevalent role in everyone’s personal and business life. As mobile capabilities continue to improve and evolve, and usage increases, marketing must reach their target audiences through mobile technologies.
Inbound Marketing – the trend from traditional ‘push’ style outbound marketing approaches such as print advertising, direct mail, trade shows, email blasts, etc. continues to shift to more effective and measurable ‘pull’ style inbound marketing methods such as search, websites, content, social media, etc.
Content – buyers and customers want information and resources to make informed buying decisions. Content marketing uses educational, informative and authoritative content delivered in multiple media formats such websites, newsletters, white papers, articles, videos, etc. for specific target audiences.
Search – is one of the most important tools and resources for marketers across all types of businesses. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has become a sophisticated marketing strategy encompassing both Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Placement methods.
Integrated Marketing – persistent campaigns and consistent messaging across multiple channels such as websites, video, online and other media advertising, content and collateral.
Adaptive Brand Marketing – the shift from traditional command-and-control and/or hub-and-spoke approaches to collaborative approaches that include new technologies and social media. See article ‘Adaptive Brand Marketing – More Than Just Four New Ps’ for more information.
Customer Loyalty – means that a customer desires to continue doing business with a company based on their positive experience and satisfaction. Marketing is increasingly charged with measuring and improving customer loyalty, providing loyalty programs, and driving customer-specific campaigns to get more sales from existing customers.
Psychographics – traditionally marketing primarily used demographics to define market and customer segmentation based on tangible characteristics. The use of psychographics to define target audiences and market segments based on aspirational, opinions and value characteristics enables improved targeting and more relevant messaging.
What do you think about this list and what you’re seeing and experiencing? Your comments are always welcome.
Copyright © 2010 The Marketing Mélange and Ingistics LLC. http://marketing.infocat.com
Marketing Trends That Matter for Every Business
Trying to get a handle on Company Psychographics?
I received several emails in response to my last post ‘Do Psychographics work in B2B Marketing & Sales?’ about developing psychographic profiles for market segments or companies to complement existing demographic data.
Given that psychographics classify prospective buyers by psychological attitudes such as aspirations, interests, attitudes, opinions, etc., how does this apply to companies when you’re in B2B marketing and sales? IMO, companies do project a psychographic image or behavior pattern that goes beyond normal demographics – take IBM as an example signaling moving to a services-oriented business earlier this decade, followed by on-demand computing services mid-decade and the current focus on sustainability. For suppliers selling to IBM, those are powerful signals of what and how to position their solutions to IBM relative to how the company views itself in the market.
One email came from an ex-colleague and business acquaintance Charlie Allieri who is co-founder of iLantern, a provider of Sales Knowledge Management services. iLantern provides a service that monitors events associated with targeted companies to produce information alerts that signal activities that can influence sales opportunities at those companies. These events include executive staff changes, executive quotes, mergers, acquisitions, product announcements, alliances, awards, sales deals, business expansion, and many others.
Charlie’s point, within the company psychographic discussion, is that if marketing and sales were to analyze this event information more strategically, they could build a very insightful psychographic profile of their major customer and prospect companies. iLantern services primarily provide salespeople with really valuable and actionable current information and insights in their accounts, Charlie makes a good point that this information can also provide more strategic insights for marketing. Applying the information from a number of companies in a particular vertical industry or market segment can glean additional industry insights that are not reflected in any demographic data.
Another really interesting part of the iLantern service for marketing is that you can automatically associate specific marketing materials and messaging with designated events for sales to take action. So, if a particular event occurs at a company in a target market segment, the service can alert the salesperson to invite the relevant person to a webinar, or send them a white paper, or mention a specific solution, or any scenario you wish to define. The salesperson gets the alert with a predefined script and email with the designated material(s) to contact the person in question at that company.
Company psychographics can give you a competitive edge in today’s tough market by identifying company events that signal a potential opportunity or to stop wasting time and resources on companies sending the wrong type of signals.
What do you think about this type of approach for developing and using company psychographics? Your comments are always welcome.
Copyright © 2009 The Marketing Mélange and Ingistics LLC. http://marketing.infocat.com
Do Psychographics work in B2B Marketing & Sales?
B2B marketers regularly use demographic data of tangible characteristics such as company size, industry classification, number of employees, etc. to segment and target relevant markets. While B2C marketers do use demographics, they also use psychographics to really understand what interests their prospective buyers. Psychographics classifies prospective buyers by psychological attitudes such as aspirations, interests, attitudes, opinions, etc. From a marketing perspective, demographics define what buyers commonly need whereas psychographics define what specific groups of buyers want.
From what I’ve experienced and seen, B2B marketers typically make little or no use of psychographics. The supposed issue is that you’re selling to a business, so there are no psychographics. IMO, that’s wrong and B2B marketers are missing out on connecting with the real context of their prospects and customers.
I see an over-reliance by B2B marketers on industry classifications (SIC, NAICS, NACE, etc.) and company size (revenue, employee count) demographic data for market segmentation without relevant psychographic qualification. A CEO/President of a $50m company doesn’t think of his/her business as ‘small’ – they may see the company an innovative market leader in their vertical industry and market. Their solution requirements may be very different from what the ‘small’ demographic typically defines. While the standard industry classification may tell part of the story, it provides you with same analysis as your competitors and no qualitative differentiation for defining your market segments. The point here is that the product, service, solution that a group of companies really want could be quite different from what the broader pack needs.
The other aspect of psychographics in B2B marketing and selling is that your prospective buyers, influencers and decision makers are real people with psychographic profiles. The production manager may view him/herself as the de-facto COO with broader purview in the business, or the material planner may aspire to be the production manager. You need to market and sell to the views, aspirations and interests of the people who will ultimately decide whether or not to buy your stuff. Does your value proposition and solution support these views, aspirations, opinions and interests? The material planner, who is probably an influencer, will only support your solution if he/she can see it directly supporting their aspiration to be production manager.
You can’t just go out and buy psychographic data like we buy demographic data – it generally requires primary research. This is actually a good thing since the primary research will be tailored to your situation, providing valuable data and analysis to really differentiate yourself from competitors and connect more specifically with buyers in target markets. The primary research doesn’t have to be a major expense – a well constructed online survey can provide good data.
If you are a B2B marketer, do you use psychographics and if so, how do you collect the data, and how has this worked for you?
As always, your comments are welcome.
Copyright © 2009 The Marketing Mélange and Ingistics LLC. http://marketing.infocat.com
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I am fortunate to have worked in a number of roles in marketing and other areas of businesses. I have done, run and led marketing. I have worked in other functions that are impacted by marketing.
I'm a keen observer on how marketing is positioned and perceived within companies and what is expected in return for the marketing budget. The Internet, Web and technology innovations continue to change and
expand marketing approaches and possibilities. Hopefully this blog will in some small way contribute to making marketing more effective for all areas.
