Marketing Trends in 2015

Marketing Trends in 2015

Marketing For Your Business?

A Favourite - Email Marketing

Emails are definitely getting opened more these days. 19% to 21% the rate of email opening has increased. Upturns in mobile use, eCommerce and better content marketing are responsible. Email viewing on the move has increased. Because more people shop online, the email promotion has become the new shop window and customers tend to view, rather than read, content. Thus emails have become better designed and more focussed in their call to action.

An effective email template would be an intriguing subject line, good headline story, followed by a few product recommendations and plenty of pictures.

Thought Leadership

Last year it was called Content Marketing, but this year it seems to have gone up a level. Both product and service companies are positioning themselves as the market leaders or experts in their industry / niche. If you're known as the Thought Leader in such-and-such an industry, you're the go-to company when people are looking to buy.

If you recognise that people do not always need to buy your product or service right now, rather than fill your potential customers' email inboxes with rubbish on a regular basis just to keep your name in front of them - why not become the expert in your field? Give out good and useful information on aspects of your industry / niche so that you will be the go-to company when they are ready to buy. This can be done by a company newsletter, email information, regular articles on your website, good information on your social media pages.

Next Level Personalisation

Personalisation used to be when a computer algorithm matched up results with your interests, based on previous use. Next level personalisation will be "a person"! Really - a person will match up your best matches from product ranges for you. Whether this will be sustainable or not, only time will tell but it is being used at present by some firms and will undoubtedly be a hit with the customer.

It goes from personal shoppers to the online world, where a person gets in touch with the customer to discover their tastes and wardrobe requirements and can then select best matches for them. It goes well beyond the computer generated "this is what others who bought that also liked". Not suitable for all, perhaps.

Podcast Sponsorship

The use and listenership of Podcasts has dramatically increased since their inception and advertisers are now cottoning on to the fact. Advertising on a podcast is similar to advertising on a radio show. Since the host reads the script, the ad is less of an interruption to the listener than those on video or web pages.

If your company has a customer demographic that includes young, tech-savvy, affluent, trend conscious and educated people, then podcast sponsorship could be ideal for you. Podcasts are downloaded onto mobile devices or streamed online and the product / consumer fit would be great for all companies in this area.

Collaborative Sweepstakes

More companies are jumping on the current trend for lotto and bingo. Companies clubbing together to offer their customers a trip to some exotic location or a luxury car. Each company promotes the prize to their customer list which greatly increases the number of people likely to enter the contest. This gives each company the benefit of multiplying their customer base by the opt-in list and exposing their brand to new customers. Even though the opt-out rate can be greater than normal, the brand awareness has been created and an amount of new potential customers gained.

Whatever your industry and optimal demographic, I am sure that you will find a marketing technique to suit and benefit from.

Jacky Mole has a degree in Management. Now she is owner of Business Optimisation Services Hexham, internet marketing company. Her main goal is to help others move forward with new business thinking and to help business owners market on the internet. Author of business books and articles.