The social landscape worldwide can change in a big way every now and then. And now, the world as we’ve known it has changed. The dreaded COVID-19 global pandemic, other vices like global warming, and social and political movements have reshaped the way business is conducted. Lockdowns and other forms of physical distancing have brought digital marketing to the fore.

Whether you’re an individual marketer or part of a marketing agency, you can’t ignore the following new trends and marketing strategies.

Enhanced Cust omer Experience 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more essential to give customers the best customer experience possible. Instead of merely trying to convince people to do business with your company, marketing is also about getting them to remain loyal to your firm. Present a positive and attractive business culture that will get customers and potential clients to associate with your business.

Offer your customers something more than just information about your products or services– give them a customer experience. Customers want convenience, efficiency, hospitality, accessibility, and ease of doing business.

Other things worth considering for a top-notch customer experience include updated technology, branding, and mobile compatibility. When you adopt some of these factors to enhance your customer experience, you’ll retain your existing customers and attract new clients.

Employee Activation 

Your employees are the number one factor that can enhance or prevent a great customer experience in your business. If they’re clueless, unprofessional, and unfriendly, your employees could chase away existing and potential customers. In other words, employees are the company’s human face, so they have to be well-positioned to drive the marketing strategy of the business.

The interaction between your employees and your customers must be part of your marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond. They must be aligned to the company’s vision. To achieve this, you’ll need to have full engagement with your employees.

The best way to engage your employees is by empowering them so they become moving billboards for your business. You could achieve this through various ways, including:

• Staff training, so they’ll stay up-to-date with best practices and standard procedures.
• Employee access to company social media platforms, so they can post on behalf of the business.
• Staff involvement in the creation of marketing content such as blog posts and others.

Rethinking The Role Of The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) 

The world’s challenges over the last couple of years have undone the gradually diminishing role of the chief marketing officers in most organizations. The role had been slowly evolving into that of chief market development officers, chief digital officers, or chief experience officers.

Most companies have, nonetheless, had to find innovative ways of staying in business as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc. Marketing has taken center stage in connecting the business with its stakeholders and clients. This has led to the heightened role of the CMO.

To keep your brand alive and relevant, you might have to rethink the role of your CMO. The CMO must come up with innovative ways to retain clients as well as get new ones. The other areas that may require their attention include:

• Brand positioning
• Digital marketing
• Crisis communication
• Customer relations
• E-commerce

Marketing On E-commerce Platforms 

Due to the relentless pandemic, e-commerce platforms have somewhat replaced physical stores. As such, these platforms provide an advertising opportunity worth considering. If you have the funds to do it, why not take advantage of this changing consumer behavior and grab the opportunity to advertise your brand?

Marketing Videos

The marketing video industry is said to be growing exponentially in the last couple of years due to the surge in social media popularity. Videos can be a great way to showcase new products in this new way of life.

The ‘live’ element of the videos is said to be great for establishing a personal appeal to the marketing material. Use live medium on social media platforms to capture the attention of your social audience there.

Putting More Attention On Generation Z 

The marketing industry has been mainly focused on the Millennials over the past two decades or so. However, some Millennials were born before the technology boom and are now approaching their forties. Although they make an audience for marketers, they’re not as big as Generation Z.

Gen Z is made up of those born between 1995 and 2010. They’ve grown in a digital era, and make a great public for digital marketing material. This is the audience to pay attention to in this new normal.

 In A Nut Shell 

The global pandemics, climate change, and various rights movements have reshaped the world as we know it. Business organizations have to rely on new forms of marketing for their survival. Marking strategies, on the other hand, have been shaped by the new normal. In these times, one can’t overlook the big role that digital marketing has taken.

Personal Branding

The concept of “{personal branding}” first appeared in the United States business literature in 1997. In an article in the Fast Company publication, entitled. The Brand Called You, whose author was the American writer Tom Peters. In it, he proposed that, in the age of people, individuals should be their brand.

With the arrival of the internet, a revolution took place .In the diffusion of brands. And the relationship they began to have with consumers. Similarly, associated with economic cycles, the professional market became global, increasing the possibilities of accessing new job opportunities. People began to see themselves as a brand in constant competition with other brands.

Also read : What is Marketing Tactics? And its Uses?

What is Personal Branding?

This concept as such has always existed, understood as reputation, fame or recognition. And we all have something of it to a greater or lesser extent. Today it is something that has been systematized and is determined. By the knowledge on the part of others of what you mean or can contribute to them

How to Start Building your Brand?

A first approach is as easy as doing a search about us on Google. It is essential to do it from a browser in “private window”. Mode (Safari / Firefox) or “incognito window” (Google Chrome). The purpose is to obtain an objective search without considering anything that we have previously consulted on the internet.

On the other hand, the personal brand can endanger the brand of a company or organization. For this reason, today, good professionals are sought. In companies, and they are also committed to the values that are implicit in their brands.

Define me in a Minute, the Elevator Pitch

The term elevator pitch is a short presentation of one-minute duration serving as a personal introduction to potential employers, new customers or investors. Its objective is to sell your professional service or business idea, and it is essential not to miss professional opportunities.

How to make an Elevator Pitch?

There is no set way to do the speech, but these rules can help you:

• Use plain, simple language that is easy to understand.
• Introduce yourself by name and mention:
• You must convey what you offer differentially. Include your added value or “your secret ingredient”. Which shows that you easily differentiate yourself from your competition. And that it will be what will end up convincing your interlocutor. Finally, it includes a call to action or Calls to Action. Mention. For example, what you are looking for from the interlocutor. Or request their card and comment that you will call them at a specific time.

Keep in mind that you should have your presentation prepared in advance . As well as rehearsed and ready for when an opportunity appears.

Your Digital Profile

LinkedIn is the largest global professional network and an excellent starting point for building your digital personal brand. It seems like it’s been around forever, but LinkedIn was launched in 2003 as a resource for professionals. Who wanted to connect with other professionals.

According to the latest published data, this network currently has more than 500 million registered users. Its process is based on the theory of the six degrees of separation. According to which all human beings are related, despite the large number of inhabitants that the earth has. In one way or another, we would have the possibility of “knowing each other” or at least generating a “relationship”.

Measure the Effectiveness of your Profile

Suppose your configuration has the expected results through the Social Selling Index tool that informs you of your competition. On LinkedIn based on four different factors and compares it, both with professionals in your sector with a LinkedIn profile. Whether they are inside or outside. Of your network, as with the rest of the professionals in your network.

What does this Index Measure?

The Effectiveness with which you establish your brand, your ability to find the right people. The level of interaction of your information and your ability to create relationships.

How to use the Tool?

With your LinkedIn account open, you can access it from the following address:
linkedin.com/sales/ssi

The profiles LinkedIn will eventually completely replacing the resume. Currently, it is the origin of more than 50% of passive hiring and mandatory consultation of recruiters. And solution to get in touch with the companies to which you wish to present your candidacies.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that companies must be able to make the shift from traditional marketing to digital at a moment’s notice. The pandemic resulted in companies moving their traditional marketing and event budgets online.

However, some businesses learned the hard way that they weren’t agile enough to facilitate this transition. Digital advertising costs have risen significantly this year and will for the foreseeable future as the world continues to recover from the pandemic. And companies that planned to hire a senior level CMO (chief marketing officer) realized they can’t afford a full time CMO to perform at the skill level they desire.

There are many different aspects to digital marketing, social media, email, content creation, web development, and even business analysis. As you and I know, marketing often takes center stage in your business. With digital marketing continuously changing and becoming more sophisticated, it is hard for companies to keep up on their own.

What if you don’t have a CMO?

First, don’t feel bad. Many businesses don’t have in-house senior level marketing leadership. Instead, the role is often scattered across many people. Unfortunately, the outcome is often a disjointed mess, with lost opportunities for marketing sales results and wasted investment.. Even the most agile in-house marketing team can’t be an expert in all aspects of marketing. That’s when a fractional CMO steps in.

In the simplest terms, a fractional CMO is hired as a consultant but operates as your company’s CMO on a part time basis. They help you achieve your goals and grow your business. The fractional CMO is someone with executive experience and leadership who can fully commit to your business as a partner and a key part of your marketing team. In our rapidly changing advertising Fractional CMOs are needed now more than ever.

Depending on your company’s current marketing needs, a fractional CMO’s exact roster of duties can vary. For companies without any marketing team or function in place, it is the same as hiring a full-time CMO, while for companies looking to augment or support an existing team, a fractional CMO might double down on some existing functions that are lacking.

Fractional CMOs typically deliver strategic and executional leadership and if supported by your team or their team, marketing qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline.  CMO’s real value comes from their subject-matter expertise around building and scaling your marketing.

It’s incredibly difficult for an organization’s in-house marketers to become experts in all aspects of marketing. The fractional CMO and team exists to fill in the gaps, which enables the company to leverage senior-level marketing talent, ofen for about the same cost as hiring a VP or head of marketing. Where the in house team has gaps, a fractional CMO like ours has  a talented team of marketing specialists with significant experience to help execute marketing tasks like advertising, business intelligence, copywriting, social media management and web development, all of which gives companies the freedom to leverage this talent for less investment.

Filling the Empty Seat

Regardless of the age or size of your business, your budget often can’t be adjusted to accommodate another C-suite executive. Fractional CMOs bridge that gap and take the guesswork out of some of marketing’s most frustrating tasks.

Perspective continues to be one of the pandemic’s little gifts to businesses everywhere. We are so used to doing what works, the saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” comes to mind. What happens when it does break, or you need to scale faster? When you’re in the middle of keeping the business running, it is difficult to be able to shift to find a new way of doing things.. Knowing that as a fractional CMO, I can shift the perspective and create a positive impact for the business, brings me immense joy.

About Sheila Kloefkorn and KEO Marketing:

KEO Marketing, an award-winning B2B marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona, develops marketing strategies and systems that help clients generate more leads and sales. Sheila Kloefkorn, as Fractional CMO, enables select companies to leverage senior-level marketing talent and highly trained specialists, to save time and reduce stress for business owners and their companies. President and CEO Sheila Kloefkorn brings 25 years leading in-house marketing departments and large boutique agencies.

In the old form of marketing and advertising, we can say that things were hard and were somewhat easier as well. By hard, we mean that the advertising and promotion of any business were done using print media such as posters, newspapers, flyers which used to put a lot of cost on the pocket of marketers and eventually business owners, and by easier we mean that it was not too difficult to attract people.

In modern times, the techniques of marketing and advertising have become much easier than in the past and it also demands less cost or sometimes you can market your business for free if you have access to certain tools and have skills.

The King: Keep up with the trends

For marketers, the Internet has become a powerful source, providing extraordinary access to and information about potential customers, as well as many ways to engage target customers.

Today, marketing entails more than just printing ads, mailing pamphlets, and displaying images; it also entails

• Addressing customers’ needs and desires
• How well you communicate with them
• How effectively you approach them
• Building trust relationships

And The Trends Are

Now businesses can promote themselves and attract a huge line of customers while sticking to their limited budget. Here are several marketing trends all businesses should adopt to stay in the competition.

Deliver A Memorable Message

A strong message is one of the most crucial aspects of marketing. Without the right message, you cannot connect your customers with your brand’s products and services. A good message is not easy to deliver because you are in tough competition and many other brands are competing with you to attract a target audience.

Try to deliver a message about your business that is to the point, engaging, and most importantly something memorable. You can also spread your message with the help of short video clips which are one of the popular ways to attract an audience. There are some options you can pick to promote your business through videos:

• Introductory videos
• Addressing needs videos
• Telling what you do videos

Create A Website

In today’s competitive world, every business needs to be online. An online presence has a massive impact on the success of your business. Your competitors are online, your target audience is online, so what’s the point in staying offline?

When someone hears about you, he will surely try to reach you on the website and if you didn’t show up, there is a high chance that he will never approach you again. So you must have a website where you can share your profile, what you offer, your stories in blogs, ways for your customers to contact you, and so on. Create an attractive website with catchy content to boost your business.

Use Google AdWords

Google appears to be the first thing that comes to mind whenever you try to search for something or some information. But Google just doesn’t do this one thing, it’s an advertising machine as well. You can use the google ads platform to boost your business.

You may have heard about pay-per-click advertising in which the advertiser pays the publisher (Google) whenever a person clicks on the ad and reaches the website. Whether you a big or small business, with the help of Google AdWords, you can drive a large number of consumers to your website at a very small cost

Do SEO

SEO is a term that generally tosses around whenever someone is talking about marketing a business. Everyone now uses search engines whenever they are looking for something.

You have made a website but when your website doesn’t appear in the search results when people are looking for something related to your business, it means you don’t exist. This is what SEO is about. It helps customers to find your website whenever they search for something relevant on google. But it is not as simple as it sounds.

Doing the right SEO is what takes your business to the next level. You have to use the right keywords that you think consumers are going to use when they look for the products you offer, you have to build strong links to your site and most importantly you have to make sure that you publish unique and high-quality content and lots of content. You can approach SEO content marketing services for this task since they are experts in generating unique content and know how to do the right SEO for your website.

Collaborate With Influencers

Collaborating with influencers is one of the best ways to reach a large audience and it’s one of the most effective forms of marketing. Since those influencers have millions of followers. Whenever they mention your product in their videos, there are millions of people there to watch and eventually know about your business.

Leverage Social Media

Everyone is on social media these days. If you haven’t used any of the social platforms for promoting your business, then do it right now. With the help of posts on Instagram, Facebook, and other social accounts, you can share your business and let people know about you.

Make sure you stay competitive and share catchy content because people keep scrolling through the post until they see something interesting or something that forces them to stop and watch. If used in the right way, social media can be your best business partner in promoting your business.