What the Future of Marketing Means for Your Business By staying attuned to the cultural moment, as well as on top of your data, you can master the marketing methods you'll need to keep your company profitable and growing.
By John Boitnott Edited by Jessica Thomas
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Our present is constantly changing, and the future can be formidably difficult to predict. To successfully market your product or service in today's world, you need to use all of the tools at your disposal in order to gather information about the current moment. The best marketing strategies are ones that leverage information and use it to propel your company into the future.
With a quickly changing world and new ways of reaching your target audience, you need to act now to get ahead of the curve. Here are items to consider:
Related: Tips for Developing a Marketing System
Measure everything
The first step in implementing a forward-thinking marketing strategy is understanding exactly what your current realities are. To discern who your content is reaching and how they engage with your content, measure everything you can. Gather as much information as possible about who's seeing your content, when they're seeing it and how long they're looking at it. These statistics are invaluable in successfully developing your marketing techniques.
Today you can gather information that several years ago would have been unimaginable (or at least not widely available). Social platforms let you easily gather information about impressions, but you might be surprised how much information you can gather about your audience using old-school marketing methods, like billboards and taxis.
For example, some advertising firms now use facial recognition to let you know who's viewing your content in the back seat of a taxi.
Pay special attention to how long people spend engaging with your content. It matters how long someone looks at your page, and whether their interaction leads to more demonstrable success, such as checking out your company's Instagram page. Measuring how long someone spends with your marketing content is key, and where algorithms are moving towards today.
If you are not gathering detailed information from your marketing channels, heavily scrutinize whether you should continue advertising content through any particular avenue. Data is king and should be your top priority. Reconsider any marketing channels that aren't providing you with quantifiable feedback.
Related: 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Franchise Local Marketing Right Now
Mitigate risks
Your marketing strategy should not be completely dependent on one channel. For example, if you are 100% dependent on Facebook ads, what happens if your audience stops using that platform (or Facebook cuts you off in some way)?
Relying too heavily on one platform is risky and you may end up wasting time playing catch-up when you could have been experimenting with new advertising channels all along.
Always be experimenting to try and find multiple ways of reaching your target audience. A combination of digital and analog advertising is a good place to start. Once you've tackled those streams, get more creative and think out of the box about what the future of advertising for your company might look like.
Explore the potential of VR or look into metaverse ad space. It's hard to know what the future will look like, but staying in tune with the current moment and experimenting with multiple strategies will at least ensure you are better positioned to succeed in the future.
Related: How Automation Will Redefine The Future
Start now
Effort compounds over time, so don't put off an exploration into the future of your company's marketing strategy.
If you spend a couple of hours each week getting better acquainted with TikTok, then after a year or two, you'll become more of an expert on that service. Understanding how to be native on any platform you try is a good skill, but it requires some level of deep immersion in the cultural moment.
Take early Instagram influencers, for example. Many of the first pioneers are still reaping the benefits of dominating the platform long after it has peaked as a medium. For ultimate success, you should grow along with a platform. Make yourself comfortable in any new up-and-coming marketing space, and you will thank yourself later.
Related: Get Attention and Grow Your Business Without Actually Talking About It
Think beyond sales
Attention is the new currency. It is a finite and valuable resource, particularly in today's crowded and noisy environment, and should be held in high regard. It is hard to overstate the value of capturing attention, and any forward-thinking marketing strategy should quantify precisely how much attention your content is garnering.
Data is another extremely powerful resource in today's world. The more data you have about your audience, the more leverage you have, allowing you to ensure growth in the future.
In sum, success should not be measured in sales alone. If you capture attention or learn something new about your audience, consider it a win. These tools will provide you with priceless leverage to boost sales exponentially in the future.
Pay attention
While getting micro-level statistics on your marketing content is essential, it is also important to take a step back and think about the big picture. Keep your finger on the cultural pulse. Take it off for one second and you could spend decades catching up.
Take Pride Month for example. Company leaders who were in tune enough to market their legitimate appreciation or connection to Pride before it became massively popular reaped benefits. Any companies that were slow to act or get it wrong now have to dig themselves out of an expensive hole to earn back customers' trust. There are large advantages to being a legit, early mover and if you can take advantage, you may see large returns.
Related: How To Avoid Rainbow-Washing In Your Pride Marketing Efforts
Know the moment
A successful and forward-thinking entrepreneur gathers detailed information while keeping an eye on cultural trends. You should value impressions, attention and data and use this information to take calculated risks on new marketing channels. The more information you have about the present, the more likely you will succeed in the future.
