I’m sure you’re with us on this, we are sick and tired of reading or listening to headlines describing the state in which our economy lies, but unfortunately for the moment, there really is no escaping it. It affects almost every angle of our lives. It has even gone as far as affecting branding, who’s trends have been substantially changed since the economic crisis hit all those years ago. This post will discuss the most current trends that a as a business you need to know about in order to keep your head above water and keep your business in these difficult times.
- 10 years ago, your marketing campaign merely had to have an interesting product and be catchy to be successful. Nowadays it has become increasingly difficult to influence people to part with their hard earned cash. Value is of paramount importance, and an aspect that needs to be maintained throughout any brand communication. You as a brand, need to know why you are valuable, what you offer to people and what your unique selling point is (USP). Remember at all times that it is no longer ‘why buy us?’ but ‘why buy at all?’
- If your brand can be differentiated within many a saturated market, separating itself for generic brands, you will be the one that increases sales and profits. Having a specific brand identity will be invaluable to you, making you stand out and make more money.
- In the past, you could make a claim about your project, and more often than not you wouldn’t have to explain yourself. In a way, you could tell your consumers what to think. You could say ‘this is great’ and it was, or ‘vote for Pedro’ and they would. What you say about your brand, has to ring true in the mind of your consumers. With social media currently, as an arena for free discussion of anything and everything, your brand isn’t safe, if you have lied, scathing reviews and the truth will eventually come out.
- With technological developments as rapid as they are, consumers are expecting more and more from brands than ever before. With this increased impatience, the smart marketer will attempt to meet expectations that have not yet been addressed.
- Having been let down by numerous businesses and banks, consumers are increasingly wary of contrived slogans, and commonly take them with a pinch of salt. Any banks using phrases such as “we’re in this together” will see little positive feedback from the campaign given the lack of trust for banks following their epic betrayal.
- We have social media to thank further for the era of customer care that is now upon us. Companies now thrive on feedback as customers generally trust the feedback stated by users than the messages broadcast by the company. Ebay is a prime example of a feedback-focused company, using independent recommendations to instill trust in its rapidly growing consumer base.
- Surveys have shown that 80% of internet users are unlikely to be interested when the proposition of fees comes up in exchange for online content. This can make it hard to make a profit for publishing your work online. The trend currently is to start the campaign by giving a little information for free, gaining the interest and then charging for content that people have grown to really want.
- Listing your followers on Twitter and your connections on LinkedIn can be a great way to compile a list for potential email marketing campaigns. The trend of email marketing is here to stay and these contacts are a great start to your campaign, computer literate and active social network users. When questioned 74% of businesses said they are on track to use email marketing and 86% hoped to extend their use of social media in the coming months.
- If you haven’t been using Skype as a business tool already, you are missing out on one of the newest branding trends, which is to hire the best employee for the job as opposed to the nearest. This video calling service makes interviews easier and satellite offices a more realistic solution, with constant contact to head office.
- Google can be your best friend at times, and your worst enemy at others. It can bring up all your outlets on your desired keywords, and then from somewhere it can bring up the one piece of negativity about your brand, true or not. This is why transparency is of vital importance. If you are honest about your business throughout all your communications, and have addressed all negative comments (true or not) then no secrets will be dragged up the search engine rankings and shoot you in the foot.
- One consistent brand image is a key trend for all business as often different social networking sites can leave consumers with a fragmented view. Combining all the sites into one place, whether it is a specific page of the website dedicated to the social aspect of your business or a flavoursme page, linking all the sites together.
- As well as customer feedback, recommendations are another great emerging trend to help your customers to trust you. This is where your LinkedIn profile comes in, it gives you the opportunity to connect with customers, suppliers and colleges who can then be invited sing your praises through the recommendation application.
- The recent modifications made to Google Places means that this can be similarly used for recommendation purposes, with an unbiased algorithm producing the results, and no need for a physical location, your business can be uploaded and begin to convert internet users.
- While linking your various social outlets to your business, it is important to remember that nowadays to discover more information about potential business partners or customers, a lot of employers look to personal pages for help with making decisions. Keep your page in a way you’d let your grandma see, so that you know it isn’t going to offend and be off-putting to potential business connections.
If you keep in mind these branding trends when developing your business in any way, you should keep your audience interested and most importantly spending!
Now go and vote for Pedro, he’s great!