Marketing trends year-end review
2020 is finally coming to an end! This year has presented many challenges and also opened up many new outlets and trends for reaching customers. PMG has dug through all the research and information from the past year and are here to break down the last 12 months. This year has seen a lot of unexpected challenges, the biggest of all the global pandemic and all that came with it. The Marketing and Graphic design world responded to these challenges with new ideas and ways of adapting.
With all the challenges this year presented we wanted to review 2020’s new normal. Let’s have a look at what the industry has done to adapt this year!
Brand Experience
A renewed focus on brand experience was huge in 2020, customers were very much connected to how they were treated this year. With not much else to keep their attention customers wanted to feel special in 2020. Brand experience has become an important part of long-term branding, especially when it comes to health and safety. Customers want to know how you are protecting them as a consumer, and they want to know what makes you different from the other guys doing the same thing. A brand that can adapt to the ever-changing world and offer a better brand experience than its competitor will win out. Find ways to make your brand experience the best it can be, make people want to leave a review because you went above and beyond.
Social Media, Email and Google
With the global pandemic came the stay home order, with the stay-home order came boredom. Smart brands saw this as an opportunity to connect and entertain their customers. Many people turned to their phones and social media to cut through the monotonous days to find entertainment. Many brands used this to their advantage, TicTok became a pop culture must hit, and with that other brands began creating tailored content to entertain and inform as well as sell.
Not only was social media a must-see but email marketing saw a drastic increase. Subscribers looked to their inbox for deals, experiences, and fun content. Open rates for emails soared to an increase of 20%. As people were struggling to find the correct information and getting frustrated to learn their favorite business was not open, they leaned on email and Google place pages to set them straight. In a global pandemic, the last thing people wanted to do was travel to their favorite store to find out it was temporally closed. This led to more people, than ever, researching their journeys before leaving the house, checking Google place pages, or their email for any updates. Brands that kept their customers informed thieved! This became the year of transparency and the brands that put themselves out there for the whole world did well.
Creativity
We are not trying to sound like a broken record but in 2021 you need to stand out from the crowd if you want to succeed. A creative design can make a world of difference, we saw many brands use new creative ideas to connect with their customers. McDonald’s used pop culture to sell the Travis Scott meal, uber eats used celebrities in fun creative ways to sell their food delivery. These creative ads that involve celebrities, music, and pop culture connect with Millennials and Gen Z which are fast becoming the top generations to market to. We expect to see creativity continue to expand and grow, using new outlets and ways to market to the ever-changing audience.
Digital Outlets
The year 2020 saw an interesting turn in how the world works. In just 8 weeks the world had to jump five years’ worth of information. Many people who never used digital outlets were forced to learn how to go digital. Everything became digital; shopping, doctor visits, work, and social meetings. With that, brands had to adapt to this change, if they did not provide an online way to connect, they were left in the dust. Movie releases are a prime example, theatres were closed in the majority of the U.S. so the movie industry needed to adapt. They decided to release major films not only in theatres but also have a way to stream it online for a fee or as part of your streaming package. This tread will continue to grow in the future, this year paved the way for digital outlets but also digital is now expected and if you do not provide some sort of digital outlet for your customers you will be left behind.
Community
Local marketing has become as big as ever, the support local business movement gained ground in 2020. Customers wanted to help their local communities and businesses and with that came local community marketing. Brands used many outlets including; local SEO, social media community pages and Google place pages to help connect their local customers to their brands.
Another big aspect of this is personalization, the customers want you to know who they are. If you can provide a personal touch without being too invasive that is the key, a targeted email or personalized message can make a huge difference in customer retention. If you notice you are losing email users maybe it is time to start email tests. Tests help you figure out why customers opened your emails. if more people open email test A than the email test B you can start to get an idea what your customers like to see in subject lines.
What will next year have in store for us? Only time will tell but stay tuned for our 2021 trend predictions In our next blog.
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