15 May 2024
22 min read
Riding the crest of marketing trends: What waves of modern trends should businesses embrace to be considered one of the best by customers
Creative without strategy is called ‘art.’ Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.
For business, a well-thought-out marketing strategy is an integral part of building effective interaction with the target audience. It affects the customer’s perception and attitude. Current trends and tendencies are a guideline for marketers, as they allow them to see changes in the market and consumer preferences. Customers react to what is relevant and interesting to them. Taking trends into account helps to strengthen the connection with your target audience and shows that the company understands their needs and values. In addition, consumers increasingly prefer brands that can impress and evoke emotions; a product or service should be catchy and memorable. Therefore, adapting the marketing strategy to current trends allows the company to constantly keep in touch with customers, which contributes to increasing brand awareness and popularity. It is important for companies to adapt to new challenges and maintain a competitive advantage in the face of market globalization, changing consumer trends, international crises, or changes in the financial sector.
The SMART business team, a leading expert in innovative solutions, has researched the current marketing trends and figured out which trends require decisive and urgent implementation by businesses.
AI comes first, or why should marketing be integrated with artificial intelligence?
AI technologies are at the height of their fame today. If artificial intelligence were to become a pop star, it could surpass modern music icons, such as Billie Eilish and BTS, in all charts. According to HubSpot surveys, AI is rapidly becoming the main marketing assistant: 64% of marketers are already using it, and the remaining 38% plan to engage smart virtual assistants in the near future. According to Hootsuite, companies started using AI 3–4 times more often in 2024 than in the previous year. Artificial intelligence has literally taken over not only complex and powerful areas of human activity, such as robotics, mechanical engineering, or bioengineering, but has also started to be used to solve more mundane everyday problems. People use AI-based applications to advise them on what to wear for a walk. AI models teach languages, provide psychological support, help diagnose diseases, and become pocket travel guides. AI-based solutions are actively used in demand forecasting as they are excellent at handling unstructured data, such as video, images, audio, and texts. Thanks to machine learning technologies, modern solutions are not limited to historical data and fixed parameters. They can flexibly respond to changes in market conditions or consumer demand. Innovative forecasting tools allow you to create personalized marketing strategies faster and more efficiently. AI is becoming an indispensable assistant for analyzing data from social media, competitors’ websites, and other media. Technologies help to develop effective templates for the instant adaptation of strategies to meet specific customer needs at a particular moment. In tandem with AI, marketers create accurate, targeted advertising activities, thus staying ahead of competitors who have not yet decided to implement innovations in their business processes.
The experience of Netflix is a vivid example of a successful AI application in marketing. This popular streaming service uses artificial intelligence to collect and analyze metadata, such as movie genre, year of release, information about the director and cast, annotations, and keywords. Based on the findings, the system identifies similarities between numerous shows and generates a so-called “coincidence map”. This map highlights similarities between different types of video content. At the same time, AI analyzes the preferences of viewers from all over the world. For example, if it turns out that drama series are the most popular among Brazilian viewers, the marketing campaign for a new show will be targeted at this region. Thus, for a release in Brazil, subtitles and dubbing will be prepared earlier than for other countries.
AI for marketing is a “wormhole” that opens a shorter and more efficient path to new opportunities. The main thing is to dare to take a step forward. At the very start of getting acquainted with AI, marketers should think of it as their assistant. It can become a second internal voice that helps to discuss and generate new ideas. The virtual assistant will help to rethink or adapt already created content for a different audience, format, or channel. AI quickly creates texts, visuals, videos, translates, and writes code, for example, for your CTA buttons. Modern AI-based tools offer businesses ready-made solutions that can significantly strengthen their marketing department without hiring new specialists. For example, Microsoft has developed its intelligent assistant – Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys. The functionality allows you to quickly respond and influence the customer experience, turning interaction with your brand into an unforgettable journey. A specialist can ask an intelligent assistant a question about their customers and get a response that’s easy to understand. In other words, the system provides marketing with a comprehensive tool that allows them to engage in a dialog with complex data even without the help of data analysts and technical SQL queries. What does it do?
- Democratization of access to customer data.
- Tips for understanding, studying, and predicting customer needs.
- Insights for personalized marketing campaigns.
Interaction between Copilot and the Azure OpenAI Service platform, which provides access to advanced AI models and technologies, can significantly optimize work with the audience. The system will easily create customer segments for specific marketing activities based on your descriptions. You don’t need to have deep knowledge in data science or back-end data sources. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys allows you to increase the effectiveness of your email marketing with the help of accurate AI suggestions: from creative ideas to content creation.
In Ukraine, the SMART business company has implemented global experience in marketing approaches into its own solution, SMART Marketing. This complex tool is based on the SMART CRM platform, powered by Microsoft Power Platform. The solution automates marketing campaigns and customer data analysis. SMART Marketing can personalize content, it has tools for customer base management and omnichannel communication. It is an indispensable smart assistant for marketing to optimize email campaigns, quickly and efficiently sample the target audience, analyze, and track the history of customer interaction within a single workspace. The SMART Marketing solution allows you to effectively respond to trends and tendencies and quickly adapt your marketing campaigns to them.
Privacy concerns: Rejecting cookies and looking for new targeting tools
Another trend that is gaining more and more publicity is stricter privacy policies. Cookies have a bad reputation among web users, who often refuse to provide personal information and install special “plugs” that block the ability to collect data about their activities. The GDPR data protection regulation and the CCPA consumer privacy law also contributed to this. The adopted regulations require companies to provide users with the opportunity to choose what information they allow to be shared with websites. And, as it turned out, most people want to remain incognito. Businesses realize that a global rejection of cookies could negatively affect the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. The inability to use such an effective tool makes it difficult to collect and analyze data about the target audience. This leads to less accurate targeting of advertising messages and reduces the effectiveness of marketing strategies. Google has already planned to abandon cookies in the Chrome browser in the second quarter of 2024. At the same time, Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Corporation’s Firefox browsers already have restrictions on tracking cookies.
For businesses, the new circumstances require them to look for alternative solutions. Experts offer the following options for targeting ads without using cookies:
- First-party data allows you to collect data about users on your own websites and applications. The big advantage is that this information is the most reliable and tells about the real interests of your audience. This data helps brands create more personalized marketing strategies and use unique information that is independent of third-party sources;
- Contextual advertising is when an ad offer is based on the context of the page, not on user data. For example, ads for kitchen appliances can be displayed on a website with recipes;
- Probabilistic data is a method that predicts interests and forms user portraits using special algorithms and statistical models. Such forecasting allows to identify a potential audience for advertising. At the same time, direct user identifiers are not used.
And do not forget about the aforementioned AI, which can perform contextual analysis of resources for you and automate the creation of audience segments without using their personal data. Let AI solutions study your users’ behavior and predict it for you. Nowadays, it’s important not only to have the tools and methods to collect customer data but also to use them effectively in your marketing campaigns. The SMART Marketing solution is designed to make the lives of marketers and communication with customers easy and automated. The system combines a single environment for maintaining customer databases and tools for initiating interaction with them. Popular distribution providers, such as Infobip, eSputnik, and others, are integrated into SMART Marketing making it easy to send email marketing campaigns using various channels within a single workspace. You can also add SMART Easy Bot. It helps to communicate with customers through Viber and Telegram chatbots.
The solution saves the marketing team from routine processes, allowing them to focus on the creative aspect of their work. This is possible due to the fact that SMART Marketing takes over a significant part of the work related to content, audience segmentation, automates mailings and generates analytical reports.
With the help of the solution, you can build message templates for both mass mailings and one-time messages for unique events. The system allows you to set special conditions for sending notifications: sending after placing an order, sending after purchasing a certain amount, or purchasing a product from a specific category. The message builder allows you to quickly generate content by adding visuals, videos, various attachments, and clickable buttons. At the same time, the file database is stored and administered within the solution, so you don’t need to look for what you need in different places. That’s why SMART Marketing is a versatile tool that modernizes the way marketing communicates with customers.
A brand aligns with the values of its customers, instead of imposing its own
Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
A study by Harris Poll, an American company that has been analyzing markets for more than twenty years, found that 82% of consumers look for brands that resonate with their own values. This means that people buy meanings, not things, first and foremost. The trend is that these meanings should be close to your audience. It is not enough for a brand to attract a customer with good prices, lure them with a “tasty” discount or a loyalty program with a bunch of bonuses and cashback. Of course, these are nice things, but, as it turned out, they are no longer the most important. It’s not just about the generally accepted ethical norms that the company adheres to, but about maximizing the match with the culture that their customers share. The brand can no longer afford not to keep pace with the world, not to respond to political and social events, because position and responsibility towards its audience are extremely important. The risks of possible confrontation should be studied and considered in marketing planning. A vivid example of this is the culture of canceling brands due to actions or statements by company representatives that are unacceptable to certain social groups. In the context of a full-scale war in Ukraine, international brands that have not left the Russian market or continue to cooperate with representatives of the aggressor state have been condemned by the global civilized community, boycotted by consumers, and become outsiders for millions of people.
It is important for anti-crisis management to collect and correctly manage up-to-date data on future, active, and completed campaigns. SMART Marketing has a comprehensive Power BI tool for analytics. This allows marketers to predict the market’s reaction and identify the advantages and disadvantages of their offers, services, and strategies in general. Power BI aggregates data from various sources and creates interactive reports and graphs. Clear visualization helps professionals quickly analyze the situation and take action to achieve key goals. SMART Marketing generates dashboards that allow you to conveniently track all current and planned activities. With the help of visual filters, you can quickly find the marketing activity that interests you. The system shows what exactly, when, and how it was sent to the client. Information about the status of your messages, such as whether they were read or opened, and click through rate, will be especially useful. These analytics provide a complete overview of your emails, including the percentage of successful and unsuccessful messages. Indeed, such features will not only boost your emails’ effectiveness but also the efficiency of your entire marketing campaign.
«Small» influencers increase the possibility of engaging your audience
Investing in influencers is still a relevant trend for marketing. According to Kantar, a market research and consulting company, 59% of marketers surveyed said they would increase their budget spent on influencer content in 2024. But it’s worth noting that the era of bloggers with huge audiences is over. Now brands prefer influencers with a narrower circle of followers. Of course, the reach of such bloggers is much smaller, but their target audience is not as vague as that of influencers with millions of followers. Collaboration with small bloggers allows a brand to attract “its” people and not waste time on random leads with other client needs. In addition, the small audience of a niche blogger is usually a close community that trusts its influencer more. By comparison, bloggers with millions of followers can have dozens of ads a day from different companies representing completely different industries. The audience is more likely to skip such ads as spam, which prevents them from getting to interesting content. The ad-heavy profiles of big bloggers tire out their subscribers, who perceive such content as fiction that has no relation to the influencer or the interests of their audience.
The desire of users to find a cozy place online with a homey atmosphere where they can meet nice and like-minded people has probably contributed to the creation of hundreds of thousands of podcasts around the world. Apple alone now has more than 1.5 million podcasts. This is the format of interaction with the audience that is trending today. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) estimates that in 2020, companies around the world spent about $800 million on podcast advertising. And in 2024, this figure will grow to $1.7 billion. An Edison Research study showed that the podcast audience is growing by 16% annually. But in addition to audience growth, there are several other reasons why marketers should invest in this type of communication with consumers:
- Full trust: the audience has a strong connection with the host and the topic of the podcast. Therefore, your ad is likely to be perceived as a sincere recommendation from a person who is trusted or considered an expert;
- Target audience: most podcasts have a clearly defined topic focused on specific interests. This way, advertisers can accurately determine their audience and be sure that the message reaches those who are really interested in it;
- Attention to detail: the podcast audience is focused on content and attentive to details. People are interested in what they are told. This factor increases the level of attention to the advertising message and makes it more effective.
But podcasts are not the only thing that keeps today’s marketing alive. Live streams, where people come to spend time with their favorite blogger, are also becoming a trend. In the third quarter of 2023 alone, live streaming generated 17% of global Internet traffic. The audience of streaming platforms is notable for its activity and engagement. For example, Ukrainian streamer Leb1ga raised UAH 8.3 million during a single Twitch live stream. The entire amount raised was used to purchase drones for the Main Directorate of Intelligence.
Live broadcasts allow marketers to integrate more creative and original solutions. Since the streamer is constantly interacting with the audience, you can include interactive elements in your advertising activities: sweepstakes, quizzes, etc. In addition, many streaming platforms provide the ability to target the audience. Live streaming for marketing is a source for learning the language of your customers. Based on the tone and manner of communication between streamers and viewers, you can determine the optimal tone of voice for your marketing campaign. And SMART Marketing will help you use this information effectively. Thanks to the user-friendly editor tool, you can customize templates for all your email campaigns within a single interface. The system allows you to adapt the tone of voice of your messages quickly and easily for different distribution channels: social networks, email, and messengers. The audience and perception of information are usually different in these channels.
Social media and visual trends
When it comes to choosing social networks for brand promotion, experts highlight the following favorites: TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. At the same time, a brand’s presence on every social network is not mandatory. Experts advise reviewing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns for each social network where the brand is present. It is better to reallocate resources to one platform that will bring the best results. For example, focus on the social network where your target audience is the largest.
Short videos have become a major trend on social media. Users are bombarded with tons of new content every day. People prefer information that can be consumed easily and quickly. Modern content should be read instantly and easily, as if you were driving in the back seat of a car at 40 km/h and still had time to read all the signs on the roadside. Add subtitles to your videos to expand your audience and make the information even more understandable. Additionally, spice it up with something fun and funky: memes, funny trends. Because, as practice shows, people go to social media to relax and relieve themselves of heavy information. Entertaining content is a great way to engage the audience. As for the design, do not forget to add a soft peach shade of PANTONE 13-1023, called Peach Fuzz, which became the color of the year, to the color palette of your visuals. We can assure you that it is no coincidence that photos and videos of spring-summer 2024 collections in Peach Fuzz shades from popular fashion brands, such as Alaia, Patou, and Victoria Beckham, have been posted on social media. In addition to color, this year’s visual trends include natural patterns and textures, contrasting typography.
In general, social media now offers a huge number of marketing tools. Among the latest innovations, TikTok Search Ads Toggle is worth mentioning. This useful feature allows brands to display ads in search results on the TikTok platform. The social media generation is less likely to search for textual content. A study by Google has shown that young people aged 18 to 24 are more likely to search for videos, images, or photos and go to social media rather than search engines. This is a plus for marketing, as visual content can quickly establish an emotional connection between the consumer and the offer.
Social networks are inherently designed for communities, not markets. Therefore, if a brand wants to succeed on these platforms, it must harmoniously integrate into the community of its customers or initiate the creation of its own community. If the company succeeds in doing so, the community will start generating viral content itself, naturally promoting its favorite brand. At the same time, if your marketing activities are emotionally engaging, interesting in content, or smart and funny, people will pick up on such content like a viral trend.
Hyper-personalization is the key to excellent customer service!
In a world filled with news, advertising banners, the noise of big cities, and the voices of millions of brands, everyone wants to be heard. Consumers expect companies to understand their needs, predict their behavior, and provide customized services and offers. In 2024, a one-size-fits-all approach to customer communication may be perceived by the audience as depersonalizing their consumer self in the eyes of the brand. Be even more empathetic and attentive to your audience; make them feel that the offer you make is prepared specifically for them. It’s important to realize that hyper-personalization is not an artificially created trend, but a necessity caused by specific market factors:
- Competitive environment: in an extremely competitive environment, hyper-personalization becomes a key solution that helps a brand not get lost and stand out among a bunch of typical offers;
- Increased data availability: thanks to the development of technology, companies have the tools to collect detailed information about their customers. The accessibility of data enables a more accurate analysis of consumer needs and the customization of individual offers;
- Ineffectiveness of one-size-fits-all approaches: hyper-personalized marketing strategies have higher conversion rates than universal approaches because they more accurately meet the needs of narrower audience segments.
Therefore, the trend is that companies will try to segment their audiences even more accurately and thoroughly every year. Modern AI-based tools can help with this difficult task. Spotify, a favorite company of music lovers, applies its own technology of playlist personalization using AI. The service analyzes users’ music preferences and provides recommendations based on listening. The company uses not only surface data, such as artist and music style, but also takes into account the context of listening: time of day, mood, and geolocation. It is the feeling that you own an original playlist that no one else has that makes the Spotify app not just a platform offering music for everyone, but your own collection of favorite tracks where artists play and sing for you personally.
The SMART business company realized in advance the importance of personalization in the marketing industry and so considered this when developing their own SMART Marketing solution. It is a part of the SMART CRM integrated platform that helps create individualized approaches to customer service for companies. SMART Marketing is an innovative work environment for a modern marketer. The solution includes all necessary tools to create a unique experience between the brand and the customer:
- The target audience builder tool allows you to set criteria for selecting customer lists, such as age, gender, location, interests, or previous actions of consumers. Thanks to this, you can create customized audience groups for email campaigns perfectly matching your marketing goals;
- Analysis of previous results: the solution can analyze the results of previous marketing activities. Based on the analysis, it is convenient to form segments of the target audience for future campaigns. This way, you can focus your resources on the most promising audience segments;
- The dynamic personalization options of the builder tool allow you to create unique offers for each customer. For example, you can set up customized dynamic email elements: personalized greetings, product or service recommendations, discounts, and offers. This data can automatically change depending on the context of the user’s interaction with your brand.
With SMART Marketing, your company will be able to create more personalized and relevant offers. Start understanding your customers better right now, order a consultation, and the SMART business team will guarantee:
- Affordable cost of the solution with the support of the best experts
- Fast implementation within 3–4 weeks
- Ease and convenience of use
- Regular functionality updates
- Powerful capabilities of Microsoft technologies
