Most people go out and pick their careers in accounting or technology, believing that they will always have a job doing the same thing.
In the sense of job security, the argument is very valid and often comes with plenty of promise in terms of growth.
On the other hand, when it comes to doing something interesting that does not bore you, the argument, unfortunately, does not hold.
While some people may be designed to prioritize their security over their interests, others are not. That is why the latter half choose marketing as their field.
Marketing and Its Eras
And anyone that knows marketing understands that it keeps changing. There is never one rule or one way to win over your customers with marketing. And if you are anywhere near as good a marketer as you think, you know you will have to keep changing.
That is what marketing has always been about. It has undergone constant changes throughout periods of history and has come out to be what it is today.
In fact, marketing has gone through several eras of evolution. These eras have defined how marketing practices and norms change over time to become what we experience as marketing today.
Altering Marketing Practices in 2020
The only reason why many today might have come to believe in the idea of marketing being constant because an alteration to present methods has been long due.
With a new global pandemic taking over the world in 2020, this gap has been cracked wide open!
That is why we bring you the adequate alterations that you need to make to your marketing practices in 2020. But these practices are not just about survival for an organization during the pandemic. They are changes that needed to be made even without the pandemic.
1. Programmatic Advertising
Artificial intelligence has long been thought to overtake the world and dominate humankind. But it seems it is going to be a very long time since such a scenario could actually take place. But what has already happened is that marketers have already adopted Artificial Intelligence.
One of its most essential implications has been in the realm of programmatic advertising.
What is that?
It relates to Search Engine Marketing and minimizes the need for human involvement in deciding the bidding for your paid ads. It was predicted that by this year programmatic advertising would be about 86.2% of digital display ads in the US.
When 86.2% of ads come from AI, one must wonder what the organization is losing by not investing in programmatic advertising. The answer is one word: plenty!
If there is anything about marketing, it is that the activity has come out to be very wasteful. Programmatic advertising is an attempt to reduce the waste that comes about as a result of the marketing efforts around the world.
Moreover, as programmatic advertisement gains more and more popularity, there are always going to be extra resources left for the organization to invest elsewhere.
Furthermore, programmatic advertising allows the marketer to focus on the quality score – which is more important – rather than the bid price for their ads.
In essence, programmatic advertising could significantly increase your sales at a lower cost than manually handling your advertisement efforts.
2. Data-Driven
Everything is about data today. No organization can afford to rely their marketing practices on a guess that the customers will act in their favor. If they are to compete with any organization in the modern-day and age, they must rely on data insights.
Why? If not for anything else, only for the simple fact that everyone else is doing it. That is all. Because if we need to explain why making data-driven marketing decisions is essential, then we’d instead not explain it at all.
Most people would see data-driven marketing as lynching the creativity out of it. On the other hand, statistics actually show that most crucial data-driven marketing objectives are basing more decisions on data analysis.
So, if not for anything else, alter your marketing in 2020 by introducing data analysis in your marketing. Gone are the times when data analysis was only for people in finance, accounts, and computer sciences. Data is everywhere today.
3. Digital and Emotional
But sooner or later, everyone must accept that we are in times of pandemic and 2020 is not showing any signs of easing up. And if organizations are even to simply survive rather than grow, there is one platform for them: digital.
With brick and mortar already at a standstill everywhere around the world, given the spread of the pandemic, every brand needs to rethink their marketing over the digital.
They must come to grips with the fact that this might be a prolonged recession in the making, and their already invested capital in fixed assets is not going to take them anywhere this time around.
But, if you believe marketing over the digital platform is just going to be the same old same old, think again! No consumer is in the mindset to spend on their wants at the present moment. Any brand that sticks to their “sales pitch” in these times of crisis is not going to be very successful.
The need to connect emotionally accentuates in times like these and rightly so. It brings several benefits other than just sales.
But there is a catch when you get too emotional messages using digital. The catch is that the emotional message must come instantly. The attention span of the modern human is less than 5 seconds! So, you better make that impact within 2.
4. Develop a New Set of Tools
Another significant feature for marketing in the 2020s realizes that the typical marketing tool pack needs to be updated. Relying on the same set of tools as before is not taking anyone ever.
Just like digital is the primary mode of communication for brands with their customers, they must establish new tools for internal communication.
An efficient marketing department with a work from home policies needs tools that it can work with. For instance, applications like zoom for virtual meetings, google sheets, drive, and Dropbox for continued team efficiency are necessary now.
These new sets of tools will prove useful even after the pandemic subsides. Why?
Because the world post-pandemic will have settled to a new normal and will need to function across those lines. This is how practices change and stay. The toolset established during these times is what will keep organizations up and running after the pandemic.
Final Thoughts
2020 would have brought in no more change to the marketing practices for firms than any other year. Apart from a few technological advancements, everything would have been the same. However, man proposes, and God disposes.
A pandemic comes in and changes everything, redefines what you know. With Corona right here in the midst of our everyday lives, there is no saying how much everything will change. But what everyone does know is that this change is staying for some time now.
If any brand is to make the most of it, it is through altering practices that have become embedded in normal practices.
