7 Marketing Trends That Will Likely Dominate 2015 by @MUmar_Khan

by Umar Khan

It goes without saying that the fundamentals of marketing will always remain the same, though the landscape seems to be changing at a near-blinding pace, thanks to how technology continues to evolve . Smart marketers know how to make use of these fundamentals at the right time. They also need to have a keen and almost immaculate ability to see ahead of the trends and anticipate the big developments.

One way or another, you need to keep your head afloat in competitive waters. We bring you seven likely trends that may very well change the face of marketing in 2015.

The Globalization to Personalization Shift

Even though the world’s generally connected better due to technological advances, consumers are quick to resist homogenization, as marketing continues to become more individualized, localized and regionalized.

This marketing tsunami is here to stay and long-term effects might include how we look at managing global brands. This will compel companies to increase local and regional influence as well as decentralize their structure.

Internal Communications Will be Key

Companies are going to lay heavy emphasis on internal communications and see it as a formidable marketing asset. In addition, it will also be a key challenge and create opportunities to hatch more brand ambassadors.

Vendors and employees will “live” the brand, as well as the strategy and vision of the business.

Media Agencies on the Frontlines

Media agencies essentially operate in a way so as to explicitly keep media recommendations narrow. Today, the ‘currency’ of good media placement is creativity. Agencies will eventually move their stance from media-facing to a consumer facing one.

They are uniquely positioned at the crossroads where the consumer and technology meet, and have the potential to be a prominent strategic partner to their clients, perhaps to a greater extent than creative agencies – technology and big data meshed together make the “math equation makers” a most fruitful asset for marketers.

Procurement to be a Powerful Tool

Organizations are definitely going to continue to keep their guard up financially, and marketing procurement will be among the heavy weights, as it always has been, driving greater transparency and accountability.

Procurement will work closely with the CTO, CFO and CMO to keep internal impasses at bay. Additionally, there’s going to be more focus on boosting efficiencies and keeping a closer eye on agency operations.

Agility Marketing Prowess

The advent of social media led to a rather elusive consumer who had a short-sighted mindset. Marketers today are hungry for shares, likes and tweets , click-through rates, and other immediately visible, though pointless metrics.

The most avid of marketers will find ways to gather more consumer data on the spot, adapt faster, cut down lead times and work with an always-on, live marketing approach. There’s not going to be a next month or next week, rather what goes down in the next hour. The fastest to embrace this, will edge ahead in the field.

Marketing Technologists as an Emerging Force

There are far too many businesses that see the whole picture from a digital marketing standpoint. Instead, it should be looked at from a ‘marketing in a digital world’ perspective.

The most adept marketers in a digital world can be termed as “marketing technologists”; marketing vets who have digital and technological shrewdness running deep in their DNA. They shall seamlessly integrate within marketing groups and play a vital role in how strategies are conceived and put to use.

Transparency will be King

At the center of power and influence, is the consumer. Radical transparency is something most brands shy away from, while some actively resist it.

This year, the most sought-after brands are not going to be the one with the most inspiring stories to tell, but those that will be quick to give an upfront, accurate and ‘live’ picture of how hard they’re working to benefit their customers.

How do you feel 2015 is going to shape up as far as digital marketing trends go? Share your thoughts in the comments section 🙂

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Umar Khan Digital Marketing Manager at SocialCubix. I’m Google Analtyics, Adwords & Hubspot’s Inbound Certified, obsessed with SEO, Content Marketing, PPC and Social Media.

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