Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog, “How to Leverage 6 Key Marketing Trends”

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "How to Leverage 6 Key Marketing Trends" digs below the surface of awareness to uncover what is needed to leverage key marketing trends. To know something is entirely different, than incorporating that knowledge into a successful strategy for any subject matter, marketing or otherwise. Awareness without a solid, purposeful plan is, for the most part, a missed opportunity.

When it comes to successful outcomes, how one incorporates marketing trends into strategic plans can be the difference-maker. How many marketing trends spark interest but for whatever reason implementation is indefinitely shelved? It may be easier to spot a trend, but it is an entirely different situation to exploit that trend to your advantage. The following thoughts outline ways to use current trends.

The Evolving Marketing Funnel

Technological advances are altering the marketing funnel. As consumers use devices, the web, and social media platforms to share and research offerings, brands have to adapt. The evolution of the marketing funnel has resulted in marketers blasting messages via social media and emails. However, marketers are learning that niche marketing is more efficient, as those targets tend to be more responsive to personalized messages that resonate with each group.

Successful marketers know that the buyer's journey has altered. Long before the decision to buy, consumers expect and want brands to understand their needs and wishes. To do this effectively, successful marketers use big data to develop direct mail marketing strategies. By adding personalization to collateral, consumers have something that they can relate to, and that helps unify the digital marketing initiatives.

Further, marketers must think about the lifetime value of a customer, as brands move away from viewing the customer's wallets and towards understanding the individual. Otherwise, that customer may feel snubbed, or taken for granted, or not understood. When that happens, often, the consumer will terminate the funnel experience.

Mobile and SEO

For several years Google has undergone modernizing its search engine with a mobile-first indexing experience. As of July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is the default. In the past, the search engine indexed the desktop version of the content; however, with the majority of people accessing Google search with a mobile device, the Googlebot will crawl and index pages with mobile-user agents.

This means that search engines and users can expect to see the same web content on both mobile and desktop devices. An older website may not rank high in search, and you can expect Google to critique these websites for mobile-first indexing. While the desktop version may offer a higher volume of content, the mobile version must provide an equivalent of the primary content, including text, images, and videos, in crawl-able and indexable formats.

BrightEdge Research recently produced a report stating that Google search has now reached 57% mobile. To that end, Google's mobile-first indexing means that mobile-friendly sites will rank higher in the SEO world. Moreover, successful mobile-friendly websites should contain a step-by-step path that limits each section for both customers and prospects. B2B mobile paths will be dependent on the industry, the buyer targets, and how the mobile experience can make the B2B buyer journey as efficient as possible.

Time to Focus on GenZ

As marketing strategists begin to understand the complexities of Millennials, its time to look at the GenZ generation. The workforce is now enjoying GenZ entering the fray, and they have purchasing power. As marketers collect GenZ data and analyze everything from demographics to purchasing habits, a couple of points are clear. These folks are enormous fans of authentically depicted brands that demonstrate social responsibility. GenZ is also the first native digital generation, and while most marketers are of the mind that to reach GenZ targets, all marketing should be digital, that does not exactly hold true.

Here's what we know at this stage. GenZ folks like emails and social media, given their comfort in digital environments. They are also big supporters of YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat, and due to their propensity as a visual generation, videos play an essential role if you want to reach them.

However, the results of a Direct Marketing Association (DMA) data analysis from Bizo and Epsilon discovered that direct mail campaigns outpace email campaigns. The results are enlightening and show that direct mail campaigns have a 4.4% response rate versus email response rates of 0.12%. In other words, direct mail's response rates perform much higher than digital. In short, although they are digital natives, you want to keep print in the mix for GenZ.

Videos Dominate Internet Traffic

Video is a compelling marketing tool that continues to be on the rise. Researches project that 2019 will see video drive the majority of internet traffic, possibly as high as 85% of total internet traffic. YouTube and Instagram lead the way, and recently, Instagram's 65% of ad impressions are due to video content. Google and YouTube lead the world's most significant search engines, respectively. Therefore, marketers should take advantage of running as many videos as they can muster on these platforms to increase engagement.

Native Advertising Growth

As sponsored content links pop up as a result of paid search ads, promoted links, and in-feed ads, consumers are more skeptical of sponsored content. To add fuel to the fire, an infinite number of advertisements are targeting consumers, and as a result, marketers are noticing that consumers respond better to ad content that blends into posts, articles, and editorials.

Another essential aspect to consider regarding the use of blending content (native advertising) into articles is the ability to avoid ad blockers. Ad-blocking technology is growing among browser add ons and mobile device apps, with ad blockers currently installed on more than 615 million devices. However, the use of blended content (native advertising) into articles, blogs, and posts, actually circumvents ad-blocking technology, as this type of native advertising is undetectable.

Use Your Data

Collecting data is one thing, analyzing it is another, and strategically implementing the results of data analytics into a marketing initiative is the icing on the cake. There are so many instances where sources collect the data, follow-up with analysis, and subsequently parse out the findings into categories, and this can help a brand identify where the marketing investment should fall.

The more platforms and channels the brand is using, the more access the brand will have to data. In short, data and its analysis is the key to personalization, which leads to improving the customer experience.

The Net-Net

In summation, we should all be data mining hawks to gain insight into emerging markets and trends. However, that is just the beginning of the marketing journey. Developing marketing strategies based on these trends can be the key to improving your ROI, engagement and response rates. Thanks for reading "How to Leverage 6 Key Marketing Trends."

Let's have a conversation about direct mail marketing strategies, printing, transactional documents, variable digital printing, brand equity and unified marketing collateral during our next Open House. We invite you to join us on Thursday, July 25th, 2019, for an hour or two, anytime between 10:30 am to 4:30 pm. Let us show you how to improve your document processes to optimize your workflow, reduce your costs, and maximize your organization's printing, letter shop, and mailing capabilities. Dove Direct has an official USPS certified bureau located within our offices that will save you time and money. Moreover, if you bring us your files, we will create a demo file for you. For more information, call Carla Eubanks at 404-629-0122 or email Carla at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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