Customer Experience Marketing Trends

There is a lot to consider when delving into digital marketing. We have compiled several articles to assist you with the understanding of how the customer experience trends are changing and how you can get on board with these changes to create a more effective marketing campaign.

^[1]As we’re approaching the summer, business reports of all kinds start coming in. Marketing and customer service assessments aren’t an exception. Given the chaos of last year and the sudden switch to remote work, the substitution of the real-time meetings with Zoom calls, customer behaviour was bound to change too.

How exactly has it changed, and how has it shifted the paradigm of promoting products and services and providing them to the general public in an engaging yet authentic way?

This ‘overnight’ transitioning to the overly digital realms has prompted companies to adopt new, internet-friendly strategies to run businesses and customers to adjust their shopping preferences. The latter is reported to have caused a 49% surge in online purchases compared to pre-Covid times.

With 43% of consumers confessing their willingness to spend extra on convenience in the future, it’s only normal to start planning for the change today.

Let’s look at what the ‘new normal’ holds for marketers who are flexible enough to adapt, not react, to the new customer demands.

Interactive storytelling is taking over.

We can already get a glimpse of this on Instagram and Facebook, where stories – temporary photos or videos that vanish in 24 hours – have become the new currency of social media marketing. These handy tools help brands improve reach and engagement rates and involve customers in content creation.

The concept isn’t necessarily new – companies have long included their customers to appeal to their target audience. But with the rise of social media, this practice has been brought back to the forefront of the marketing agenda filled with strategies.

These days there is no shortage of mediums through which you can connect with your customers. Podcasts, videos, and even public relations specialists can all be used to source stories and put an interactive spin on your brand’s digital presence. Enable your customers to fill in surveys, do quizzes, and participate in giveaways by incorporating this content into your medium of choice. You’re guaranteed to capture people’s interest in times when the attention span is as short as ever.

Spotify is a great case to explore when talking about data-driven storytelling. But, first, they put their data-collecting policy to work; it’s the exact reason that helped them analyze over half a million playlists labelled ‘Pride’ or ‘LGBTQ’ and come up with the most popular artists in each U.S. state on the Pride celebration day.

Budgets for influencer marketing reaches all-time highs

Speaking about social media marketing, it looks like influencers – those who endorse products and services in exchange for a fee – aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’re staying put while more and more companies begin recognizing the value these people bring to the table and allocating hefty budgets for this unbiased advertising method.

How come?

• 70% of teenagers put their trust in influencers over other celebrities
• Influencer marketing pays $6.50 for every dollar spent on social media campaigns
• Over two-thirds of marketing and communications professionals promote content via influencers

These are just some statistics that depict the power of influencer marketing in this day and age.

Authentic opinions have always been priceless, but their magnitude has risen significantly over the past few years. If anything, the pandemic has only amplified the impact of digital influencers on consumer demand due to the restricted ability to shop in-store. The trend is ongoing this summer, as consumers are still not comfortable with physical shopping.

^[2]Consumer accessibility has shifted

The customer purchase journey has now become arguably more convenient, but it also means that access to resources has changed. Even the way companies interact with their target market has seen a palpable change. For instance, getting core analytics can get members of selected demographics to share their data, provide key insight, and inform marketability. As individuals become more aware of the impact and security of sharing information, there is a need for smarter market research. Consumers have responded better to surveys via encrypted platforms and have become warier about the reliability of companies they share their information with. With shifting public sentiment and a desire for convenience, consumers seek reviewable platforms that provide shorter surveys to cater to their attention.

Currently, over 48% of transactions are done online, and over 58% say they will continue to shop online even when restrictions ease. Now, it seems that consumer sentiment demands a solid online presence. Whether for shopping goods or reaching out to customer support, customers want to establish that connection quickly and easily from remote bases.

Turnaround time and expectations have shortened due to digitization.

The past year saw a sudden acceleration in the adoption of technology. Digitization has suddenly jumped ahead from former projections, and in turn, consumers and workers alike have faced quicker expectations. As companies attempt to be more agile in meeting online consumer needs, they are faced with a public that expects faster turnaround, secure platforms, and efficient processes throughout their purchase journey.

This applies all the way from the UI of a business’s landing page or the user-friendliness of an app, all the way to their payment options and checkout process. This also translates into the marketing side of things, as consumers respond more to digital advertising than traditional forms. In turn, this has led to a huge demand for learned and qualified professionals in the field. Higher education institutions have increased their offerings of online degrees in marketing to keep up with this thriving industry, which is now designed to focus more on digital trends, like interactive marketing. Digital marketing skills are consistently listed as in-demand skills from various job analysts in Forbes, HubSpot, and even the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given that marketing is a crucial part of the customer’s journey, businesses need to strategize how it fits their customer’s experience.

It seems the biggest concerns have been fuss-free processes and data privacy, so companies have had to get a better grasp of consumers’ preferences based on the various interactions they have with brands, minus any pain points that mar online data gathering. As marketers have relied heavily on automation, smarter keywords, video research, and apps in the past year, we saw results in traffic as platforms as Zoom boomed with 1.7 million users at its peak.

New limitations on customer interactions have sparked a need for business adaptability.

Many of the changes mentioned have also come with new limitations. Priorities have been reevaluated, and consumers don’t take the time for companies that seemingly don’t have their best interests at heart anymore. The new consumer is heavily informed by the connection (or lack thereof) that they have with a brand. Some 96% of consumers even say that they are more likely to support a business that values their experiences. This means that instead of in-person customer experience executions, brands are relying on their online personas instead. Creating an online platform is not just about creating a resource for information but also for the community.

Constraints on location and accessible executions also mean that brand perception has largely been based on digital presence, online feedback, and viral news over the past year. Because of this, consumers have become more likely to cater to brands that have provided a good story or have a significant amount of genuine feedback to back them up.

Seeing that most experts predict that more changes in digitalization, CX, and market research will come hand-in-hand over the next few years, proactive planning and action will be pillars in the future-proofing our industries.

^[3]Search Ad Spending Significantly Increasing

If there’s any greater indication of the supremacy of digital marketing versus traditional marketing, it’s where the ad spend is going.

Back in 2019, digital ad spends surpassed traditional marketing for the first time, and since then has gone from strength to strength.

Since 2012, traditional advertising in the US has seen a net increase in spend during any six-month period just once (+0.6%, Feb 2017).

Digital ad spends, meanwhile, has consistently been growing year-over-year anywhere between 8.2% and 15.1%.

Over the course of the last year, despite initial hesitancy in investment after the onset of the pandemic, digital ad spends increased by 14.3% between June 2020 and February 2021, one of the highest six-month increases yet.

What does this tell us? First, it effectively confirms what we already know—digital advertisements will be the primary means of marketing for businesses of all sizes going forward, with traditional ads still having a place, declining in relevance.

What to consider: What’s your digital ad strategy? Are you increasing investment in it or still relying on traditional methods? What do you think your future strategy should be?

Data Maturity Is Key to Competitiveness

Big data today plays a large role in business, not just for complex automation and analysis functions in large corporations but also for thousands of SMBs thanks to the affordability of modern tech solutions—for them, this brings both opportunity and challenges.

For challenges, SMBs have to pay close attention to how customer data is being handled and protected to avoid catastrophe should they become the victim of a cyberattack.

For opportunities, large data sets mean more information about customers and prospects—their pain points, needs, and more.

This means that organizations who have adopted a good marketing technology stack can wield this data by aggregating and analyzing it, allowing them to put it into actionable use by directly addressing the things that matter most to your customers—ultimately improving your CX, lead gen, and sales.

Conclusion:

Don’t be overwhelmed with the constant changes in digital marketing. Instead, get interactive with your clients, and you will see a significant upswing in your campaign effectiveness.

Article compiled by hughesagency.ca

Article Reference Links:

1. https://digitalmarketingtrends.in/marketing-trends-that-are-changing-customer-experience-post-pandemic/ ↑
2. https://www.greenbook.org/mr/market-research-trends/3-ways-the-customer-journey-is-changing-post-pandemic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-ways-the-customer-journey-is-changing-post-pandemic ↑
3. https://www.impactmybiz.com/blog/pandemic-marketing-changes-digital/ ↑