The year 2015 has been one of change and revolution, both in- and outside marketing. As we approach the final stretch of this turbulent year, I thought it prudent to review some of the most prevalent talking points in marketing, and why they probably shouldn’t be talking points in 2016. Not because these aspects of the industry are irrelevant. Quite the opposite, actually.
Marketers speaking in boardrooms and on conference panels around the world have waxed poetic about topics such as personalization and omnichannel marketing for years now, and this was necessary for a long time. But, just as life with a flip phone hasn’t gotten any easier, neither have the lives of marketers who fail to meet customer expectations in any of these four areas.
Here, a short list of topics that should be firmly grounding into the overall marketing strategy for many businesses.
Customer centricity
Much of the contemporary marketing discourse centers on customer experience, and its newfound import on business success. Of course, this implies that marketing hasn’t always been about the customer. True, product-oriented and mass marketing were viable, even standard approaches to marketing for many years. But customer centricity was a priority for some businesses, even during this period.
Now, with perpetual connectivity and the proliferation of social platforms, optimized customer experiences are the standard that virtually all businesses must strive for. In today’s reviews-obsessed world, businesses that do not meet customer experience expectations risk experiencing the viral wrath of well-connected consumers.
Responsive content
A year ago 64% of American adults owned a smartphone, according to Pew Research—a figure that most certainly continues to grow. Marketers have been steadily shifting priorities toward mobile for years now, and one of the most appropriate ways to do that is through responsive content.
Whether email or mobile Web, the choice of whether marketers should apply responsive code to their designs isn’t really a choice at all this close to 2016. With customers bouncing between devices at the frequency that they do—and with marketing dollars growing ever more precious—marketers cannot afford for their content to behave differently across devices.
Personalization
It’s been more than 20 years since CRM solutions began transforming the way businesses market to customers. With access to increasingly rich customer data, and the proliferation of so many solutions to help manage it all, there are few scenarios where batch-and-blast style marketing tactics remain viable.
A growing segment of consumers have come to expect at least some degree of personalization in communication from brands, especially if they’ve opted in to their favorite brand’s marketing. With customer attention coming at an increasing premium, even rudimentary personalization will prove invaluable. Besides, personalization, and adept use of customer data in general are cornerstones of…
Omnichannel marketing
The omnichannel marketing ideal has never been more within reach than now, with customer data, CRM tools, and marketing technology options as bountiful as they are. For businesses that closely monitor customer journeys, and tailor the customer experience according to customers’ context at every turn, ensuring that those journeys are integrated and customer communication is highly relevant should be as natural as a day of standard operation.
