The general public seems more resistant than ever to traditional forms of advertising. We’re seeing people downloading ad blockers like never before, and marketers are seeing less engagement from campaigns that used to make big bucks.
So what’s happened? Well, organizations that don’t adapt and can’t innovate become stale. Without innovation, you start to lose that connection to your customers, and they no longer feel valued. Today we’ll tell you why it’s so important to get that connection back, and how you can add some innovation to your strategies this year.
Why Is Innovation So Important?
It Drives Opportunities
An innovative marketing team can work out what a consumer can’t live without before the customer themselves even realize it. You need to be doing the groundwork to find new solutions to common problems.
Take the enormous popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. These companies saw beyond what was already here and realized that convenience was something everyone wanted before they knew it.
Apply this principle to your own marketing campaigns. Really consider the kind of problems you should be solving, rather than just sending out another standard email campaign. Your customers will thank you for it.
It Helps You Understand Your Audience
A good marketing campaign shouldn’t just attempt to sell something. It should be an effort to understand your customers. How do they perceive your company? Why do they buy certain products? What resonates with them on a personal level?
Innovative ad creatives use data analysis and technology that help to apply this knowledge to provide visual experiences that have the best chance to communicate the value to customers. This helps to connect with each audience on a more human level too. Discovering the motivations of your customer base is half the fun of being a marketer, and if you’re not exploring fun ways to do this, you might want to consider a career change!
It’s Needed to Respond to a Rapidly Changing World
If the Covid-19 pandemic taught the industry anything, it’s that slow-moving businesses aren’t going to survive long term. Take those that rely on telemarketing, for example. Once lockdowns started to hit across the globe, these types of marketers were stuck with closed contact centers and no way to sell or get their message out. Those that couldn’t make the quick switch to digital alternatives floundered.
How Can the Industry Innovate?
By Adopting Emerging Technologies
The biggest advances in marketing tech have been seen in the form of AI data analysis in recent years. Companies are now providing software that can track your campaigns down to the minute details, including measuring the performance of video and banner ads and even how graphics are performing on your App Store apps.
The level of detail available to marketers now is unprecedented, and it’s created a whole new world of innovation. Planners can now set up very targeted campaigns aimed at specific segments of their audience, providing that all-important added value.
Connect With Your Customers on a Human Level
Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes should always be the very first thing you do before you start to market to them. What pain points have they experienced in the past and how does your new product solve this?
A good example of this can be seen in the increasingly popular trend for environmentally friendly products and services. With a growing concern in recent years regarding our impact on the planet, a number of companies have switched up marketing efforts to encompass sustainability. Those that sell tangible products have had to innovate new packaging technology, and aren’t shy of shouting about in marketing campaigns; those providing digital services are moving towards carbon-neutral operations.
Remember, your customers aren’t just data points on a page. They’re human beings with thoughts and feelings, and you need to respond to their changing needs.
Be Different
Getting your head around concepts like guerilla marketing can really help kick start innovative thinking. While some might not be comfortable thinking of the marketing space as an ambush-style battlefield, others see the benefits this different type of thought process can bring.
The marketing type in question is low-cost, niche, and often targeted around an event or social media posts. You can take this even further by offering content that educates, provides an interesting distraction, or is just something fun for your users to interact with.
Office morning -DepositPhotos
