A bumpy road was one of the major responses coming out of the 11th annual Business Leaders Outlook survey of more than a thousand executives from mid-market U.S. companies ($20 million to $500 million annual revenues) conducted from November to December 2020. In spite of that, most also felt cautiously optimistic about the economic outlook in 2021.
When social media was set up, it was intended for fast, two-way communication between friends and family, but when marketers realized its power, they jumped right in. An earlier article identified the most popular platforms, demographics, and what consumers wanted to see from brands that were pitching them.
The pandemic ended up changing many things, especially when it comes to consumers and their habits. With everyone being restricted to their homes, worried about their health, and numerous lockdowns and restrictions, people and businesses increasingly turned towards the digital world, which meant a lot of online shopping.
When fashion designer Laura Ashley said,” We don’t want to push our ideas on to customers. We simply want to make what they want,” she certainly wasn’t addressing strategy to her marketing people. CMOs know that push notifications aren’t just essential. Push works, and push matters.
Many different industries have been undergoing difficult times due to the pandemic, especially those in the services industry, such as travel or leisure. In fact, according to some recent surveys, over 20% of business owners will be shutting down their businesses if things don’t start to improve soon. However, no matter the niche, the service industry has to acquire different revenue streams to lessen the financial risk in the current economy.
When it comes to influencer marketing, it can usually go in two directions – either the campaign will have a glowing success with excellent returns, or the campaign can fail. It can take the company several months or even years to recover from it. Both of these situations are relatively common in the digital marketing space. With research reporting that brands and corporations plan to spend a considerable amount of their marketing budgets on Instagram influencers in the coming months, the mentioned outcomes can be a bit worrying.
Who would have known? A year after Facebook launched in 2005, just 5% of Americans had jumped aboard social media. According to Pew Research, fast forward to 2019, where the percentage of American adults using social media had risen to 72%. What began as a nice gathering place for people to meet and get to know one another soon drew the attention of marketers who saw the huge potential so that today, social media is the favorite of many brands.
Successful marketers know the marketplace is constantly evolving and that they, too, must adapt to it. The pandemic threw an additional curve because it was neither expected nor anything any CMO had faced before. That was what global marketing services firm MATERIAL+ wanted to discover in a recent poll of experts. Some of the responses may be helpful. Competition is expected to get tougher, and CMOs may wish to rethink what they believe they know about their customers. Some brands that responded to the pandemic with quick strategies to attract consumers are returning to strategies involving longer-term brand-building.
Apple has been training its target audience to be interested in its events and reveals from the very beginning – these people are always interested in the mysterious new products the company is revealing each year, they hold their breath in anticipation, and then critique both the products or their features, as well as the presentations themselves.
There is a high price to pay when making a bad first impression, and everyone has been in that position. Whether it was a weak handshake that tends to convey a lack of confidence or a wrinkled outfit that demonstrates a lack of care, laziness, or even no attention to details. There are plenty of ways that a meeting can go wrong from the get-go. Fortunately, there are several steps that anyone can take beforehand to ensure a smooth start and smooth sailings later on.