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Trends in marketing and digital communication

21 Dec 2021. 11:13
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  • SME maturity
    Middle
    Topic
    1. Marketing digital y redes sociales
    Scope to digitize
    1. Commercialisation

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Entradilla

An up-to-date digital communication strategy will help you connect and build stronger relationships with your customer.

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Descripción

We live in a time when companies must continually listen to consumer needs to meet them effectively. The shift in conversation has meant that both large and small businesses have had to keep up with new trends in consumer thinking and preferences. This increase in customer awareness has led to a radical change in marketing and communication in recent years.

Communication actions have moved to the online sphere as this channel provides multiple competitive advantages.

 

Today, digitalisation has transformed most activities. It is therefore not surprising that communication actions have also moved online. Not only because it is the channel where the customer has become more accessible, but also because it provides multiple competitive advantages to companies that have boosted their digital presence.

 

Here are some of the trends that are defining the development of marketing and digital communication in 2021 and that will help you define a solid and up-to-date strategy, adapted to your client's needs.

 

  1. The consumer at the center of communication.

 

One of the main trends resulting from digitalisation is the personalisation of communication actions. Your customer wants to feel unique and special, so a generic message is not, in many cases, effective. This personalisation is possible thanks to the large amount of data that can be extracted from digital interactions. The insights (deep consumer motivations) provided by this information will help you to target your customer as they want and need, optimising the effectiveness of your campaigns. 

 

The importance of the consumer in digital communication strategies has led to the emergence of new technologies that support data analysis and campaign automation. These include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, natural language processing programmes and deep learning (algorithms inspired by the human brain that learns from large amounts of data). These new tools not only allow you to understand and interact with your customer based on their current preferences, but also to predict and anticipate future behavioural trends.  

 

  1. Messages provide value to your customer.

Companies have evolved in terms of their communication discourse in recent years. Offering information about their products is no longer enough; consumers now demand added value in order to complete the purchasing process. The customer demands that companies are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, demanding a greater commitment to society. The customer has access to a multitude of similar products on the Internet, making values and business ethics the key that will guide their purchasing decision. For this reason, your SME's messages must move away from superficiality and be aligned with your company's values, always transmitting trust and credibility. 

 

This needs to materialise values has led to an increase in collaboration with influencers in communication campaigns. Brands are increasingly focused on building long-term relationships with influencers, seeking to convey a message of engagement and authenticity. In addition, this relationship allows brands to have easier access to new social networks that may emerge in the future.  

 

 

  1. The formats and tools on the rise that enhance your communications.

According to IAB Spain's Digital trends 2021 study, some of the initiatives that are having a greater relevance in the online media are: 

 

  • Digital audio. This study states that 1 in 3 smart devices will be a speaker by the end of 2021, making digital audio a great opportunity. For this reason, a large number of companies have started to bet on podcasts and branded audio among their content. In addition, brands are beginning to give importance to the 'voice image', in order to establish homogeneous conversation spaces with their customers. 

 

  • Branded content. There is a trend towards innovation and creative development in streaming initiatives, bringing online actions that traditionally required physical presence, such as events. In this way, multi-format branded content is becoming increasingly relevant, finding support in social networks and other distribution strategies such as paid media. The key is to adapt the content to those formats that satisfy and improve the user experience.  

 

  • New technologies in data analysis. Supporting technologies that promote personalisation by exploiting data are beginning to emerge. Tools that apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to customer journeys are becoming increasingly common. In addition, they enable the content of the e-mail to be automatically personalised according to the different data collected.  Automation and the use of these new technologies will also allow you to establish more specific strategic and tactical metrics, improving the analysis of the effectiveness of actions and the identification of possible risks.  

 

  • DOOH or digital out-of-home advertising. These actions have evolved to provide interactive content and spectacular formats with the aim of attracting the consumer's attention. Moreover, they can be combined with mobile devices in an automated way, increasing their effectiveness thanks to the omnichannel nature of the actions.

 

These trends in marketing and digital communication are driven by consumer preferences. Therefore, you must continuously analyse the needs of your customers in order to meet them in the best possible way. This process is made easier thanks to the emergence of digital tools that analyse large amounts of data and automate a multitude of processes. This will allow you to increase engagement with your customers, optimise your actions in the online environment and obtain a higher return on investment.

 

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