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Written by: Jamie Lin
Live from Inbound17
If you own a business, you know that you should invest in marketing. That’s how growth happens. But unless you’re a marketer, chances are that the intricacies of different marketing methodologies are not very interesting to you. If I had a penny for every time I’ve seen someone’s eyes glaze over when I explain the inherent benefits of CPI versus CPC and the suggested value attributions for each… you get the idea.
That’s part of my challenge as a digital marketer: taking the numbers and turning it into something that non-marketers care about. So, when I say “Inbound17,” that may mean nothing to you. Allow me to explain: it’s a conference where digital marketing specialists get to discuss the changes they’re seeing and the challenges that they are facing to figure out how we’re going to adjust our methodologies for a better solution.
And it’s happening right now. The question now is: how do your current marketing efforts stack up? Is your strategy as efficient as it can be, or is it becoming outdated in the rapidly changing world of marketing? That’s what FiComm is here to find out.
This year, our team was invited to attend a preview day for Inbound17 where we got a first-hand look at what we can expect for the rest of the week. These are the trends we’ve noted during our preview and are excited to explore during the week.
Related: Speaking Digital with Google Analytics
Facebook is (no surprise) changing us all
You may know that Facebook is the biggest – and one of the oldest — social media platforms in existence. When even your grandmother knows how to find and friend you, you know it’s ubiquitous.
If you’re even a little social media marketing savvy, you know that Facebook has one of the most comprehensive data aggregation systems around.
What you may not know is that because it is ubiquitous, popular marketing strategies and platforms will change to meet the Facebook mold. The social media giant unleashed its algorithm update late last year, and we are now seeing a shift in the consumption of ads, articles, video, you name it.
How to use this information: While many advisors worry about how Facebook communications affect compliance, you need to know what’s going on with it to know how it affects your organization’s marketing process. How are the platforms you currently use going to evolve in the next 6 months?
Messaging is becoming increasingly essential
Isn’t it better to get ahold of a real person than to interact with some faceless bot? Of course it is. Which is why messaging apps are on the rise. Messenger apps function similar to SMS texting, only it doesn’t incur the traditional SMS fee, which is a big deal if you communicate with people internationally. For businesses, that means that your consumer can research your brand and online presence while also communicating with you in a more direct way than email.
How to use this information: There is a whole new avenue of customer outreach communication that you could be missing. It may be worth researching how many of your current clients would be interested in communicating via messaging.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is the new buzzword
With more data than ever, targeting ideal audiences is only getting more refined. Some marketers have taken this a step further; they’ve taken that data to create campaigns that feel so targeted, that it seems like they were created for one person. The secret: they are. Ad agencies are now rolling out entire campaigns based on one person they have selected as their contact of choice. The result: bigger accounts, more loyal customers, and a lower relative cost per acquisition.
How to use this information: there are more minute ways of taking advantage of your marketing data, if you’ve got the tenacity.