At its core, marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. Sounds simple enough, but in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, with technology reshaping the way that businesses connect with their audiences, it is important to understand the latest trends and strategies necessary to create, launch and execute an effective marketing campaign.
First things first, a business needs to ensure that it has the technological capability to take advantage of modern marketing strategies.
“One of the biggest challenges we face is that many clients have outdated marketing infrastructures,” says Rachel Durkan, president, Paradigm Marketing and Design.
She adds that when a business’s CRMs and workflows are not designed to meet the demands of modern marketing, it limits a marketing firm’s capacity to create and execute effective campaigns.
“As a result, we are unable to hit the ground running with effective marketing programs – which means we first need to take a step back and address the underlying infrastructure,” Durkan explains. “To do that, we look at the systems and processes they have in place and create an updated infrastructure that aligns with current technology and marketing best practices. These updated processes allow for more targeted and efficient campaigns, facilitating better engagement and results.”
While AI, data analytics, and personalization are driving marketing today, there are other considerations as well, such as consumer privacy concerns, a shift toward first-party data, and the integration of omnichannel marketing – as customers expect seamless experiences across digital, physical, and social platforms.
Ultimately, as technology continues to evolve, so too will the complexities of effective marketing. As a result, it is important for businesses to stay abreast of the latest digital trends, be agile in their decision making, and always stay customer focused.
Artificial Intelligence
One of the most transformative trends in modern marketing today is the increased adoption of AI. As is the case in many disciplines, AI is helping marketers get more done in less time while also providing deeper insights.
“Take data and automation, for example,” Durkan says. “Though we’ve always relied on these elements in our approach at Paradigm, AI lets us take it to a new level. With faster access to more data at a much more granular level, we can more efficiently analyze customer behavior patterns, predict trends, personalize content, and much more.”
The ability to access these deep insights about customer behavior at unprecedented speed is game changing.
“This allows us to see the entire decision-making process, track the customer journey, and identify key touchpoints like never before,” Durkan says. “For example, we use AI to conduct color audits, keyword analysis, and funnel assessments that reveal insights into how audiences interact with content at various stages in their journey. This information used to take days or weeks to analyze, but with AI, it’s nearly instantaneous.
“While AI does not replace human ingenuity and thought leadership on our team, it does serve as a powerful tool that helps us do what we do best – but with greater precision and efficiency,” Durkan says.
Data Analytics
Additionally, there is a growing emphasis on data-driven decision-making, where precise, real-time data informs every aspect of a marketing campaign.
“We leverage advanced data analytics to inform almost every decision we make,” says Nicole Chiarella, director of corporate marketing at Marketsmith Inc. “For instance, by analyzing consumer behavior and media consumption patterns, we’re able to optimize our media placements, ensuring campaigns reach the right audience at the right time.”
Chiarella says that Marketsmith has also used predictive analytics to anticipate shifts in consumer demand and execute testing in specific locations.
“In one instance, our data-driven approach helped a client boost their sales by 70%, simply by realigning campaign flighting and incorporating new tactics gradually based on real-time analytics,” she says.
“Data analytics, powered by AI, has become a cornerstone of how we guide marketing strategies at Paradigm,” Durkan says. “By analyzing patterns in clicks, time spent on pages, and conversions, we can pinpoint which messages resonate with customers. This level of insight allows us to adjust content quickly, ensuring we’re getting through to customers with the right message at the right time.”
Personalization
Both Durkan and Chiarella agree that personalization is at the heart of every successful marketing campaign.
“Whether it’s crafting unique product recommendations or tailoring messaging based on behavior or primary language spoken, our goal is to ensure that every touchpoint feels relevant to the individual consumer,” Chiarella says.
“Personalization allows us to understand where our audience is and meet them there with messaging that gets at the core of what they need as human beings,” Durkan says.
“It’s no longer enough to simply address a business need; we go beyond surface-level business pain to hit on individuals’ financial and personal pain,” she explains. “AI helps us analyze real-time data to identify these pain points and dynamically adjust our messaging to ensure it’s relevant and impactful.
“We worked with a financial services firm that was targeting executives nearing retirement,” Durkan continues. “To help them reach this audience, we created a highly personalized campaign aimed at executives from a pharmaceutical company that had just been acquired. The goal was to help these individuals decide if it was the right time to retire. Because this campaign addressed a very specific and timely need on a personal level, it was highly successful .”