The world of commerce never stands still and if your business does that for any period of time, it runs the risk of getting left behind.
There are always new trends to consider, such as using GPS tracking to improve the efficiency of your business vehicles and keep track of your assets. The same thinking applies to your marketing strategy, which constantly needs to evolve and keep up with trends, if you are going to enjoy sustained business growth.
Sorting out the fads from the trends
If you adjusted your marketing strategy to accommodate every new ploy and line of thinking, you would probably end up going nowhere as you tried to come to terms with each new strategy, which is why you need to quickly distinguish between what is a passing fad and what is definite trend.
You will know that when something is hot it can the way we do things on a permanent basis, whereas something that turns out to be a passing fad, is often quickly consigned to history and doesn’t hang around for too long.
Content marketing and even social media marketing were quickly labeled as fads when they were first introduced as a marketing strategy, but those that embraced these ways of engaging with consumers, were quickly rewarded with a return that demonstrated that this was a shift in trends rather than just a passing fad.
The question you always have to consider when looking at new ways to communicate with your customers, is what is a fad and what is going to become a new way of doing business?
Customization for the masses
The concept of mass customization is an interesting one, as it not exactly something new, more a case of something that was introduced before its time had truly come.
The idea of being able to order a product that is manufactured for the masses but customized to your own preferences, was embraced by a number of companies, but the technology and the software capability was not developed enough to meet the demands at the time.
Move forward to the present time, and you now have the ability to tap into the psyche of every potential customer by tailoring your approach to suit their particular interests and preferences. If you are able to personalize your products to a certain extent, then the combination of a targeted mass customization approach could very well offer some excellent rewards for your business.
Whether you consider mass customization to be a fad or a trend will largely depend on how you use the technology available to reach out to your customers and give them exactly what they want each time.
Emojis as a communication tool
Social media platforms are awash with emojis and when you consider that well over half of all social media content is made up of images, including emojis, you quickly realize that this is very much a part of how many of us communicate with each other.
It therefore makes sense that the use of emojis in your marketing messages has the potential to tap into the normal flow of thinking that many of your customers will have about the use of these images to convey their feelings about something.
If you take a look at how many big brands already use emojis as a matter of course in their tweets for example, it may be fair to assume that adopting the use of emojis in your social media marketing, would seem to be following a trend rather than a fad.
Engage and entertain
The use of interactivity is another interesting marketing trend that should command your attention as a possible method of engaging with and entertaining your customers, all at the same time.
If you have been to a shopping mall recently, there is a fair chance that you would have been able to witness the power of interactivity at close quarters. Digital touch screens are now a common site in these sort of venues, and they are widely used as a way of providing the user with the information they want, whilst also taking the opportunity to market a certain product to them at the same time.
There are numerous ways to incorporate interactivity into your marketing strategy and again, if you look at how a good number of global brands have already fully embraced this way of informing and entertaining in equal measure, you may well draw the conclusion that this is a trend that is with looking at to see how it can be used in your business.
If you are serious about driving your business forward it will always pay to keep any eye on the latest marketing trends available.
