Tracking the Latest Trends

Want to stay on the forefront of marketing? MarketingProfs interviewed nearly two dozen industry leaders to learn what top executives say will be important this year. Whether you are sending direct mail, email, or mobile, these are the five trends we want to pass along to you.

1. Humanize your brand
Increasingly, consumers are looking at the personality and culture of a brand as much as (or more than) they are products and price. Engage your customers beyond the product. In your newsletters, for example, tell stories about real people using your products rather than focusing on the products themselves.

“[In 2019], marketing will focus less on promotion, propaganda, and persuasion, and more on customer experience [and] culture.” — Michael Brenner, CMO, Concured

2. Make a social contribution
Consumers are being drawn to brands that give back. Look at the meteoric rise of TOMS shoes, which gives a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. If you give back, talk about it!

3. Build brand advocates
Consumers trust one another more than they do brands, so engage customers more deeply so that they become brand advocates as well as loyal customers. Encourage and incentivize them to tweet, share, and pin their positive experiences with your products and company.

“People no longer trust your company and its ads. They only trust each other.”
—Mark Schaefer, executive director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

4. Tell a story
Brand storytelling is hot in marketing right now, and it doesn’t require words. Great images do the job, too. Nonprofits do a great job of this by printing pictures of abandoned pets or needy children on the outside of envelopes. You don’t need to read the copy to know that the organization is asking for your help.

5. Use metrics more than ever
Marketing has to prove its ROI, and incorporating metrics into your marketing gives proof of the value your efforts are creating for the organization. When possible, tie your response and conversion metrics to revenue. Response rates alone don’t cut it anymore.

“The marketing industry in 2019 will have to put up (contribution to revenue) or shut up (lose a strategic place in the organization).”
— Carlos Hidalgo, founder and CEO, VisumCX


Which of these five trends can we help you with?


Last Updated: 08 August 2019