Media development, communication and marketing are constantly changing. It’s a field that forces practitioners to re-evaluate their strategies, techniques, and ideas continuously. The growth of digital technology has left marketing professionals scrambling to find new ways to reach audiences as old methods become less effective. With so much change occurring in this field, it can be challenging for professionals to keep up with the latest trends. The following is an overview of how the future of media, development, and communication is changing and what you need to know about it.
Change #1: Content Marketing is Becoming Even More Important
One constant in the world of marketing is the importance of content. Almost every other trend we’ll talk about here is either a direct result of a growing focus on content, or a way for marketers to enhance their content efforts. In particular, a shift from “push” to “pull” marketing. In a push strategy, marketers push content (advertising, offers, etc.) out to their audience, hoping some of them find it compelling enough to act on it. Pull marketing, on the other hand, focuses on getting people to pull your content to them by creating things people will want to consume on their own terms. This shift is driven by the fact that consumers have always been in control of what they consume and when, but digital has given them more control than ever before. People are inundated with information and advertisements, so marketers need to find ways to make their content stand out.
Change #2: Data-Based Marketing Will Become Increasingly Important
As marketers place an even greater emphasis on content marketing, data and analytics will become more important. This is especially true for certain niches and industries, such as B2B marketing. For the most part, B2B marketing has been something of a black box. There’s a misconception that marketers in the B2B space are only concerned with driving sales, but that’s not the case. Instead, they’re focused on driving measurable business outcomes (i.e., sign-ups, sales, etc.). But because B2B marketers aren’t always certain how their marketing efforts are impacting these outcomes, they aren’t sure what to optimize, what to cut back on, or how to improve overall performance. This doesn’t mean that all B2B marketers don’t have data, it just means they don’t have enough of it, or the right kind. Fortunately, with digital technology, B2B marketers can gain access to more data than ever before. Through paid user acquisition, programmatic advertising, and marketing automation, marketers can track everything from clicks to leads to sales. This will make it easier to know what’s impacting their business goals and what they need to do to improve.
Change #3: Video Content Will Be king
Video marketing has been a growing trend for years, and in the future, it will become even more important. With the rise of social media, video has become a primary way for brands and businesses to reach their audiences. There are a few reasons for this. One is that social media has made video content easy to create. Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube make it incredibly easy to create video content. In fact, many social media sites allow you to create video content without any video experience. When businesses realize how easy it is to create video content, they’ll naturally shift away from other marketing efforts like blogging and email marketing. This will cause a significant drop in the usage of these tactics, making it even harder for marketers to reach their audiences. As a result, video will be one of the only ways brands can reach their audiences.
Change #4: Marketing Automation Will Grow in Importance
As marketers shift away from blogging and email marketing and towards video content, they’ll need another way to reach their audiences. Luckily, we see marketing automation playing an important role in the future of marketing. Automation is growing in popularity for a few reasons. One is that it’s easier than ever to set up automation campaigns and track their effectiveness. With tools like Hubspot, marketers can set up automated sequences that send emails, create sequences of content, and track the effectiveness of each. This makes it easier for brands to follow up with leads, create consistent content, and stay in contact with their audiences. It also allows marketers to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on high-value activities such as creating valuable content. Because automation is such a powerful tool, we expect it to become more important as time goes on.
Change #5: B2B Marketing will be more Influenced by Consumer Behavior
While B2B marketing will become more data-driven, it will also become more consumer-driven. This is because B2B marketers are increasingly adopting techniques and strategies that are used in consumer marketing. For example, B2B marketers are increasingly aiming to build strong, emotional connections with their customers. This is driven in part by research showing that emotional connections are the strongest driver of customer loyalty. But B2B marketers are also looking at how consumer marketers do this. They’re studying the techniques and strategies that the best consumer marketers use to create these connections. And they’re using these insights to inform their B2B marketing campaigns. This means that some of the techniques that have traditionally been used in consumer marketing (like video) will become even more important in the B2B space.
Summary
As you can see, the future of media, development, and communication is changing in a number of ways. These changes have the potential to have a significant impact on the way marketers do their jobs. Fortunately, you can prepare for these changes by keeping up to date with industry news and trends.
