“You are competing for every piece of content ever made for every person’s attention. You need to be entertaining. Don’t outsmart. Out entertain.” -Dolf van den Brink, President and CEO of Heineken USA
If I could pick my superpower, I would choose to see the future. Having this ability would make my job a whole lot easier, and my target market would be a whole heck of lot happier. By knowing what they want, before they want gives a marketer the ability to focus on the customer experience rather than spending time trying to understand the customer.
Back to the Future day has recently passed, and it seems as if Marty Mcfly and Doc are the only two people who have mastered the art of time travel. So as marketers, we are given the responsibility of planning for the future, based on the past.
Luckily, there are trends that marketers can follow to win big with their target markets.
- Data is still king. There is a wealth of consumer information in the market, so making data-driven decisions is no longer an option, it is now a necessity. In the past, marketing campaigns were made with gut instinct and few case studies. Now there are marketing analytics software programs to ensure a companies marketing campaign is firing on all cylinders. Using data-driven content can help marketers understand what’s working, and what isn’t.
- Make it personal. Consumers don’t hate advertising; they hate bad advertising. According to the results of the 2013 Online Personal Experience study released today by Janrain, nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content that has nothing to do with their interests. The boilerplate template approach isn’t cutting it anymore. Part of the fun in marketing is discovering your market and identifying new opportunities. Making it personal does not mean regurgitating personal information back to your customers, and making them feel like your peeking in their window at night, it means creating a user experience that replicates their past inclinations, buying behaviors, and predicting what they want before they do. By using data and specific content, a company can tailor a message to your ideal customer.
- Relevant content = opportunities. Getting the word out about your brand is essential for success, but ensuring that the created material is relevant is crucial. Marketers need to understand that creating content is like writing a story. Don’t just write about the product or service, think about how the target market will align with the content story. By making the content relevant to the buyer, it will add value to the conversation and leverage insight into the consumers needs.
I can’t predict the future. It’s obvious that consumer taste is constantly evolving, and the future of a marketing campaign is often unknown. But as marketers, we should always be thinking about what’s next but should always stay true to basic marketing principles.
