Ask The Experts: New Year’s Marketing Resolutions by Gillian Ingram
As January draws to a close and we look to the year ahead, we asked our expert partners to name their “New Year’s Marketing Resolutions”, to find out what marketers should be looking out for, and focussing on, in 2017.
Simon Heyes, Director of Social, 8 Million Stories
“The ground-breaking political changes of 2016 had a profound impact on content and social media, which led to hundreds of users leaving Facebook and Twitter, and the topic of fake news drifting ominously into 2017. So a New Year’s Resolution for the industry? Become more authentic. People interact with people, so brands need to become more human, and make people care about their brand and their content. Within authenticity and personability we’ll also see the growth of influencer marketing, with audiences looking to their blogger and vlogger peers for recommendations and advice. Lastly, with the increasing accessibility of new technology such as drones, 360 degree cameras and VR headsets, expect a shift towards more interactive forms of content. Maybe a 2017 New Year’s Resolution is to finally wave goodbye to flat, static content.”
Christine MacKay, CEO, Salamandra Design & Digital Ltd
New Year, new you: “It shouldn’t only be your target market that influences the way you convey your brand. Your company ethos and attitude needs to impact your voice too. Relationships with brands are built on shared values, so what better way to show who you are than visually? That’s why we suggest you follow the trends and incorporate visuals and videos in your marketing this year. There is no better outlet to get your voice heard and understood than social media. So get social. And once you have distilled your essence into visual and video over social media, you need to sweat those assets.”
Doug Conely, Chief Strategy Officer, Exponential
“In 2017 we will continue to champion machine learning, and we believe it will address a number of key industry challenges, including effective retargeting and ad blocking. It will lead the way for the next stage of programmatic. The majority of ad blocking has been the result of consumers feeling mistreated due to either poor accessibility or poor user experience. With this in mind, we want to ensure 2017 is the year we continue placing the user experience at the centre of campaigns to ensure audiences are receiving relevant content and advertising experiences.”
Joe Friedlein, MD, Browser Media
“All my new year’s marketing resolutions revolve around the need to consider the needs and interests of your customer, above all else. Yes, I want to use video more in 2017 and yes, I want to explore new ways of using data to inform our marketing strategies but there is a real risk that new technologies / tactics can get in the way of putting your customer at the centre of everything that you do. I also fear that over-hyped technology can stifle creativity and I would love 2017 to be the year that raw creative genius is celebrated once again.”
Neil Collard, Managing Director, e3
“2016 saw a seismic shift for the entire world, and that change was felt within the digital marketing industry. Consumer behaviour has seen a drastic shake-up as millennials redefine sectors with their demand for ‘experiences’ over ‘things’. It was the year where Artificial Intelligence stopped being a sci-fi myth and started becoming non-fiction. At e3 we’re cutting ‘one size fits all’ digital from our diet and helping our clients e-focus on more personalised, sincere and relevant experiences for the changing practical consumer. Our new hobby is going to be finding and mining data for reusable purposes and expanding the future through innovative practice with AI and chatbots.”
Danielle Haley, Co-director, FSE Online Ltd
“In 2017 we’ll be making greater use of web data and user behaviour analysis to develop a more focused content strategy that targets more specific market segments. The aim here will be to increase media relevancy and engagement to better satisfy customers’ needs (and deliver a better overall ROI). We’ll also be heavily promoting the importance of investing in onsite technical SEO. Due to the ways in which Google’s algorithms are involving, onsite factors are playing a much more prominent role in determining which websites deserve to occupy those all-important first page organic positions. Making key improvements to the website from a structural or coding perspective will also often enhance the overall user experience, so the benefits to this are two-fold.”
Roy Jugessur, Vice President, UK and Northern Europe, Selligent
Think Consumer-First not channel first: “With increasing opt-out rates and lower engagement across the board, traditional marketing models need to change from being channel-centric to consumer-centric. In 2017, marketers need to enhance every customer-brand interaction by looking beyond individual touchpoints, to create a seamless and holistic journey that focusses on the critical moments that play a huge part in adding depth and meaning to consumer relationships. From birthdays to changes in the weather, if marketers can capture the attention of consumers by being contextual and relevant, we can reach new levels of engagement, conversion and loyalty.”
Andy Tabberer, Senior Project Manager, Reckless
“We need to adopt a more agile mind-set across the agency. This means we seek the truth, accept and respect others, show humility, be patient, revel in self-discipline and sow commitment. Building on this will be adopting more of a product focus with our clients, promoting smaller, ongoing releases rather than the big bang. Finally, everything we do works towards a better shared understanding with clients. This will create stronger relationships and ensure greater consistency across our delivery.”