In recent years, marketing has experienced a radical transformation. However, in recent months this transformation has reached a level where the effectiveness of Account Based Marketing is now questionable. Email marketing campaigns and ABM are less effective and acquiring new customers is much more difficult than it was a few months ago. We explore the 9 major changes in digital marketing within the last 6 months.
Indeed, digital marketing is changing radically. You may not realize. The effervescence of everyday life does not allow us to notice the little things that are happening around us every day. However, if we put it in perspective we discover that transformation is here and it is moving fast.
The man character role of digital marketing is no longer news. Neither is the impact of technology on marketing and the progression from traditional marketing to a new, more digitized and immersive marketing. However, in recent years new marketing trends have emerged that are positioning themselves as key strategies for companies:
These changes are partly happening because of the advances in the field of marketing technology or martech as well as the new role of today's customers.
However, beyond the impact of digitalization, marketing is also evolving towards an increasingly customer-centric perspective. That is, marketing strategies are becoming more customer-centric and the consumer has a more central role and greater decision-making power.
Today's customers are no longer satisfied with good customer service. They demand that companies build a real bond with them, that they talk to them one-on-one, and that they provide them with an optimal, seamless and, if possible, personalized customer experience.
Obviously, data plays a key role in all of this. However, companies should stop focusing on the quantity of customer data and start giving more importance to its quality and the processes they use to transform data into customer insights.
Digital marketing is advancing faster and faster and companies must now more than ever, be aware of these changes in order not to be left behind and turn change into an opportunity.
Here is a list of what, according to our experts, are the major changes in digital marketing in the last 6 months.
The 9 major challenges of digital marketing in the last 6 months
1. From PPC marketing to remarketing
PPC Marketing, also called "Pay Per Click Marketing" is an advertising strategy that involves the publication of ads in digital spaces by companies that pay based on the number of clicks that the ad gets. That is, companies pay per click or entry in the ad with the intention of capturing leads. The giants of this type of advertising are, without a doubt, Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
However, in the last months PPC Marketing is losing power. SEO already offers 20 times more traffic opportunities than PPC. At the same time, the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) has increased by more than 60% in less than five years. In other words, it seems that Account Based Marketing is no longer working and acquiring new customers is becoming more difficult and more expensive. Even to the point that many companies are losing money for every customer they acquire.
All this is, in part, because of an unexpected increasement in competition and the obsolescence of some of the advertising and marketing strategies that, after being overused, are no longer efficient.
In this context, organizations are now moving towards remarketing —formerly called retargeting—, which consists of the development of personalized advertising campaigns aimed at users who have previously visited our website or one of our profiles on social networks.
This strategic shift proves that now it is more profitable to build customer loyalty than to acquire new customers.
2. Content marketing is more important than ever
In this blog we have previously talked about the growing importance of content marketing, as well as we have commented on the disastrous consequences of publishing irrelevant marketing content for our customers.
Beyond being based on the creation of interesting, quality content that provides value and is properly focused on our potential customers, a content marketing strategy must also consider search engines. In other words, in content marketing, SEO is still of vital importance. Cheating does not work. Most of the benefits of content marketing are achieved through organic search. That is, users who search for something on Google and arrive at your website because it is well positioned.
On the other hand, in the last two years, video has become the new preferred format by users.
3. The power of a good story
El marketing de contenidos se basa en historias bien contadas y la preferencia de los clientes por los casos de éxito o use cases en inglés lo confirma.
Never underestimate the power of a good story. While in the previous section we commented on the importance of SEO and creating content with Google positioning in mind, the story we tell is just as relevant.
Customers are smart. No matter how well positioned a content is on the Internet, if it does not tell a good story, you will probably get a click, but nothing else.
Content marketing is based on well-told stories and customers' preference for use cases confirms it.
4. SEO or Paid positioning?
As mentioned above, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) continues to be of paramount importance to businesses, especially as content marketing becomes more popular. In 2022, 61% of marketers say that improving their SEO strategy is their top priority.
The bad news is that in recent years competition in terms of SEO has also increased a lot. The big problem is that this is not organic competition, but rather a type of competition that is paying to rank better than you.
Today, the amount of paid content reaches almost half of the total amount of content ranked in Google. This further complicates SEO efforts by marketers.
5. That is why you need a copywriter
You need good stories, you need a good SEO strategy, you need to communicate with the customer in a personalized way... In short, you need a copywriter.
The demand from companies for copywriters or copywriters specialized in the creation of marketing content continues to grow. According to the latest studies, the copywriting job market is expected to grow by 7.6% until 2026.
6. Marketing Automationandy Email Marketing: a happy marriage
Email marketing is still very important and one of the most effective communication channels for companies. However, getting results is becoming increasingly complicated and, in the case of email marketing, requires more content in less time.
Organizations need to send more, more personalized and shorter emails. Because of this, email marketing automation is extremely necessary and combining automated emails with manual emails is the process that has proved to work best.
7. From selling to building audiences
Everything discussed so far leads to a phenomenon that summarizes marketing's transformation lately: if marketers used to spend most of their time selling products and/or services, now they spend most of their time creating and nurturing audiences.
It is no longer about promoting our products or services. Now it is all about providing the right information to the right group of people who might benefit from our product.
For the creation of audiences, technologies such as a Single Customer View and the Customer Data Platform (CDP) are gaining relevance.
8. TikTok, the new sensation for communication and branding
Despite being just over five years old, TikTok has become the new favorite social media for younger audiences and, over time, a new essential communication channel for companies.
The younger audience is no longer on Facebook, but they are on TikTok. Therefore, those brands that have this segment of the population as a target customer cannot not be present on TikTok.
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that on TikTok, conventional advertising does not work. Companies cannot sell their products or services as they would on another channel; they must adapt to the platform and speak the language of the people who are there.
9. Content, Recurrency and CRO
New marketing strategies are now being divided in three parts:
1. Content creation
2. Recurrency strategies
3. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Today, a marketing team needs these three professional profiles to achieve optimal results. First, someone to create the right content for each customer segment.
Secondly, someone who is in charge of generating recurrence. That is, getting our existing customers to continue interacting with our content and our brand with the aim of getting them to buy a product or service again.
Finally, someone who deals with Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO. Conversion Rate Optimization is another focal point of Inbound Marketing. It is about defining strategies so that users become leads and end up performing the action we want.
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