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Marketing Trends for 2014
2014 will be an exciting year for the marketing industry. Last year, we saw the emergence of new technology and social networks – and this year, we will see them put to use as effective and valuable marketing tools.
Content Marketing
In 2014, a greater emphasis will be placed on creative, high-quality as a marketing tool. Since Google’s new Hummingbird Algorithm encourages marketers to create authoritative content, brands will begin investing more time and effort into their website copy and blogs. Websites without quality content will get left behind and lose rankings. So, it is important to set yourself apart from your competition with unique and informative content with professional copywriting.
Brand Loyalty
According to Marketing Profs, 63% of companies believe that new customer acquisition is their most important marketing goal. However, loyal, returning customers drive 80% of a brand’s sales. More and more companies are beginning to see the value in encouraging brand loyalty, and 2014 will see a greater emphasis on loyalty marketing. Regular promotions, loyalty programs and coupons are all valuable tools that encourage customers to be loyal to a particular brand.
Social Media Diversification
For years, Facebook and Twitter dominated social media marketing. In 2013, we saw several other social networks emerge as valuable marketing tools – including Vine, Instagram and Pinterest. These networks allow brands to reach out to their target audience in a number of different ways, driving traffic to their websites and creating sales. In 2014, we will see a greater shift towards social networking diversification. So, now is the time to start considering how to incorporate Pinterest and Vine into your social media marketing campaigns.
Multimedia Print Ads
Towards the end of 2013, Motorola gave us a sneak preview of the innovative new direction for print marketing. The brand’s new interactive print ad allows readers to change the colour of the new Moto X smartphone. The ad not only showcases Motorola’s new phone but also boosts the company brand identity.
Check out the ad:
In 2014, we will see brands getting much more creative with their direct mail marketing and print advertisements. Motorola certainly set the bar high, and consumers will be on the lookout for innovative print ads that utilise multimedia capabilities.
This is going to be a thrilling year for marketing. Put these trends use effectively in your advertising campaigns with the help of Win Marketing. Give us a call at 01509 265890 or visit our website.
The 12 Days of Christmas: Marketing Edition
Planning your Christmas Dinner
Every family has unique traditions for their Christmas meal, each with different dishes and puddings. Like Christmas dinners around the world, each client’s marketing campaign requires different ingredients to be successful. Ensure your campaign is customised to suit your market sector and the needs of your customers. Every ingredient makes a big difference in the overall influence and reach of your campaign.
Buying Gifts
When purchasing Christmas gifts, you always want to get something that you know your friends and family will enjoy. The same level of familiarity is required when reaching out to your customers. Market research gives you a good idea of what your customers want and need, so you can customise your campaign to interest them.
Decorating your Home
Most homes have a distinct theme for Christmas. When you choose a particular colour scheme for your decorations, it looks best when it is consistent around the home. The same goes for your branding and brand strategy. Your website, logo and corporate stationary, Twitter and other social media pages and all materials associated with your brand should contain consistent colours to reflect your brand’s identity.
Writing Letters to Santa
After writing out your letters to Santa this year, keep your pen handy. You’ll need it for all of the copywriting that is required to make your marketing campaigns successful. Ensure that your web copy is tailored and relevant to the right audience, unique, authoritative and contains the appropriate keywords for your products and services.
Donning your Christmas Hats
While your friends and family are donning their Santa hats this holiday season, develop some White Hat SEO strategies. White Hat SEO focuses on your audience as individuals, highlighting the user experience. It includes creating authoritative content, thorough keyword research and quality inbound links.
Hanging Wreaths
Christmas wreaths are circular to represent eternity and the unending cycle of life. Win Marketing’s SHARE social media model resembles this symbol, as a circle to represent the ongoing cycle of social networking. It is a circular process that ensures your social media strategy continually engages your target audience.
Hanging Christmas Garlands
The best Christmas garlands are those that are strongly linked; otherwise, they will fall to pieces. Marketing is built on a similar principle. In the online world, link building is important, and it is crucial to obtain high-quality inbound links from authoritative sites in your sector. Offline, successful marketing campaigns benefit from another kind of link building: networking and word-of-mouth.
Putting up the Christmas Tree
Be sure to branch out when planning your campaigns. If your campaign is mostly focused on online marketing, consider introducing direct mail into the mix. If you mainly work with print marketing, think about implementing an SEO strategy and social media campaign. The more you diversify, the more potential customers you’ll reach.
Placing the Star on Top of Your Tree
Stars are a major symbol during the holiday season because the Star of Bethlehem led Mary, Joseph and the wise men to the scene of the nativity. At Win Marketing, our Star is the central branding and core message that your brand stands for. Each client should have one or two messages about their product or service that is expressed consistently, which helps to differentiate them from the competition. Every blog post, tweet and direct mail resource should reinforce this message, creating a consistent brand and keeping your customers informed about your mission as a company.
Hanging Lights
During the holidays, the houses that stand out most are those with the brightest, most creative light displays. When designing direct marketing and advertising, the same principle applies. Your material should be unique and eye-catching while relating to your products. Plain sheets and brochures will be ignored by potential customers; so, ensure that your direct marketing material and sales collateral stand out from the competition.
Pulling Christmas Crackers
When pulling Christmas crackers, only one side can win and you never know who will be the victor. A similar principle applies to the success of your marketing campaign. You never know how successful your campaign will be until it has been launched. As such, it is important to monitor its progress and adjust accordingly so that you can optimise the campaign to produce the best results possible.
Eating the Christmas Pudding
An age-old Christmas tradition rewards one person at the dinner table with a lucky coin once everyone digs into their puddings. The holiday season and Christmas dinner culminates with this tradition, which always ends with someone receiving a prize. When it comes to marketing, each campaign will potentially culminate with a reward. If you’ve planned an effective, well-rounded campaign, your efforts will pay off in the end.
Win Marketing Spreading Christmas Cheer at Rainbows Hospice
At Win Marketing, we really get into the Christmas spirit. This week, we accompanied our client, Escape Mobility, on a special Santa visit to Rainbows Children’s Hospice in Loughborough, where we took part in a Christmas sing-along and handed out presents to the children.
Our client was a great sport, as Escape Mobility’s Business Manager donned a Santa Claus costume and the Sales Manager dressed up as an elf. The Win Marketing team was decked out in holiday jumpers and Santa hats, and everyone was certainly in high Christmas spirits.
It was an almost magical experience, as we entered Rainbows during a holiday sing-along. The children had no idea that Santa would be joining them while they sang Christmas carols, and they were shocked when he entered the room with a sack full of presents in tow. As Santa and his elves handed out gifts, Rainbows’ staff and the Win Marketing team joined in the carol singing.
The visit was a huge success. Not only did we increase awareness of our client’s latest products and campaigns; we also helped to brighten up the holidays for the children at Rainbows Hospice. It was a wonderful experience, and we hope to host a similar event next year.
Rainbows Children’s Hospice is the only facility of its kind in the East Midlands area. The hospice provides a wide range of valuable services to life-limited patients under the age of 30. Palliative care, therapy, family support and emergency care are just a few of the many valuable services offered by the dedicated Rainbows team.
For more information on our Public Relations services and projects, call a Win Marketing team member at: 01509 265 890.
The First Steps Of Our Latest Market Research Project
Win Marketing is currently working on a market research project in a really interesting industry, the aerospace and defence industry.
Looking to gain insight into product testing in this sector for the UK market, the project has been a enlightening for our team. In addition to teaching us more about the aerospace industry, the project has seen us put to use some tried and tested strategies for effectively researching niche markets to gain results.
The first obstacle that many companies often encounter is getting in touch with the correct individuals. This research project has very specific scope, so many of the companies that we contact may not be suitable for interviews, and without speaking to the right person, it can be difficult to know whether the company is relevant or not.
To get around this, one tactic is to conduct short ‘qualifying survey’, inquiring whether or not each company’s services and products are relevant, and if the company does indeed work in the aerospace or defence industry.
Once this has been qualified, the short question of who the best person to speak to would be, often can save a lot of time later in the market research process with ‘getting past the gatekeeper’.
Often with this type of research, people find they come across a mixed bag of results. It is no surprise that some manufacturers in these industries are quite secretive about their products, to the point where several companies operate under a ‘no market research’ policy to protect their products and services.
Another area that can be a struggle is the negative connotations and confusion between a research phone call and a sales phone call. As is the case with any successful market research project, it is important to be friendly and professional – without giving across the incorrect impression that you are conducting a sales call.
One tip we would suggest is to use the term ‘market research’ sparingly and be sure to take a more academic interest in your interviews. Contacts are likely to be more receptive and provide more insightful answers.
There is still more work to do, and we are looking forward to spending more time on this stimulating project! If you work in the aerospace of defence industry and you would like to help us
(and our client) out, please get in touch with us at research@winmarketing.co.uk
How Will Google Hummingbird Affect Your Online Marketing Efforts?
Google has updated to its new search algorithm, Hummingbird.
Named as such because it is ‘fast and precise’, Google Hummingbird now focuses on conversational search queries rather than individual keywords. As a shift away from traditional keyword search queries, Hummingbird will mostly effect content creation.
This is the first time that Google has completely replaced its algorithm. Past updates, such as Panda and Penguin, only changed parts of the algorithm to improve search results. Google’s 2010 Caffeine update was considered significant because it changed the way Google indexed sites, but the search algorithm was not completely overhauled.
This time, the algorithm has been rewritten to cater to way that users search. Rather than focusing on specific keywords of search queries, Google will now take the entire query into consideration. This conforms to the more ‘conversational’ approach to searching that users have adopted.
Example 1:
Keyword Focused: ‘Google, Hummingbird, SEO‘
Conversational: ‘How will Google Hummingbird Affect SEO?’
Example 2:
Keyword-focused: ‘Restaurant, Sushi, Loughborough‘
Conversational: ‘Where is the best place to eat sushi in Loughborough?‘
The new update will really only affect your content strategy.
Bloggers should continue to write authoritative and unique content, while considering how their pieces will correspond to conversational search queries.
Keywords are still important, but writers should focus on how these terms fit into conversational searches when they create content.
Important to note:
Changing existing content may compromise your SEO ranking, so focus on tweaking your future content.
Adding FAQs and ‘How To’ content are just a few ways to take advantage to Hummingbird’s new algorithm.
As is the case with most Google updates, some online marketing firms are concerned that Hummingbird has brought about the ‘Death of SEO’. This is most certainly not the case. Link building and keyword optimisation are still key components of any successful online marketing campaign.
Just be sure to tweak your content strategy to accommodate more conversational searches in Google.
