Timely, Relevant, Trending

Staying ahead of trends can be tricky for your business. How do you decide which trends are worth following? Which ones are relevant to your business? Which one will your competition take advantage of? How can you adapt while still remaining true to your mission? These are all questions that Rhett Power, head coach at Power Coaching & Consulting, examined in a recent article, “How to Capitalize on Today’s Top Marketing Trends.” We’ve pulled out some of our favorite advice below. 

Steal the Spotlight

The social media landscape presents plenty of opportunities to join trending conversations to draw positive attention to your brand. Better yet, drive the conversation yourself. For example, IHOP had everyone buzzing this summer when it announced it was changing its name to IHOb – days before explaining the B would stand for burgers. When IHOP clarified that it was all part  of their temporary burger promotion, many other brands responded and #IHOb morphed into an industry competition for the spotlight. Restaurants like Wendy’s and Burger King joined in with quips and name-change spoofs of their own, and even Chiquita found a way to insert itself into the conversation with a little banana humor. How can your business capitalize on these conversations to steal a bit of the spotlight?

Provide An Experience Worth Talking About

It’s important to consider how people search for and purchase products now – this is always changing. For example, Google has turned images into searchable queries and plans to enhance its search function for visual content. Smartphones already give most people the ability to search for things by voice. ComScore predicts that by 2020, more than half of all searches will be done by voice. When consumers audibly ask their phones to search for something instead of typing it in, the language is more natural, and the query is usually more specific. To be included in search results, you’ll need to create content and promote it in ways that match the trend or get muted by the voices of the brands that do.  Capturing consumer attention spans is a game at which only the most creative brands can excel. By focusing on these three trends, you’ll have an advantage to give your brand a savvy marketing edge.

Meet Consumers Where They Are

If you provide consumers with an engaging experience, the conversation will start itself. According to the Trade Show News Network, 91% of out-performing companies significantly invest in event marketing. Not every event has to be as grand as a haunted house. For example, NYC’s Museum of Ice Cream features pop-up shops that provide an Instagram-worthy experience. “Pop-ups open up channels for additional revenue, customer acquisition, and provide an opportunity to capture content to fuel social channels,” says Scott Schoeneberger, managing partner at experiential marketing agency Bluewater Technologies. “Best of all, they create unique experiences for customers to consume – something today’s customers are all searching for.”