In my last two posts, I’ve talked about marketing trends that will affect the way you promote your business in 2015. Each of these marketing trends represents an opportunity to improve your customer connections, deliver better service and position your business for a bountiful year. How successful your business is depends upon how well you can recognize these opportunities and take advantage of them.
Marketing trends in 2015 that you don’t want to miss
Integrated and Automated Marketing tools When you run a business, you become aware of an incredible and growing number of marketing trends. Customer relationship management tools, web analytics tools, search engine optimization tools, email marketing tools, lead identification, vetting and retrieval tools… the list goes on. What used to take place as separate approaches is now coming together in a single, unified, automated marketing approach that manages and tweaks all of these things in concert – like a marketing robot.
Do automated marketing tools work? It’s hard to say how successful automation will be among 2015’s marketing trends, but some research shows that these products can increase conversion rates by more than 50% over rates among businesses not taking an integrated, automated approach to marketing. At the least, it’s something to consider in 2015.
Online shopping Brick and mortar businesses are taking it on the chin, and have been for years. Consumers have changed the way they look at brick-and-mortar retailers, and rely on them less than ever to make purchase decisions. Of note among marketing trends, consumers are most likely to consult about a half-dozen sources before making a purchase decision, and those sources often include competing online retailers. In many cases, traditional retailers have been relegated to showroom status, and while traditional retailers may do all the work to sell the product, having the product on hand doesn’t guarantee that the consumer will close the sale in the store.
If you haven’t considered online retailing, or it doesn’t currently comprise a large part of your business – but it could – there is no better time to develop an online store to augment your retail business. Online ordering is what consumers want, and retail businesses that don’t have an online store are taking a real risk of becoming obsolete.
Online retailing can allow you to expand into previously closed markets and succeed. It’s also a strategy that can help you survive the transition from in-person retailing to online retailing with your customer base intact. The web design work that would be required to open an online retail store is well worth the investment, especially when it can help you expand your business more rapidly and economically than opening additional physical locations.
If you would like more information about automated or integrated marketing, or online retailing as it applies to your business, please contact our Creative Director, Dave Ramsell or give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation.
Photo Credit: Cieleke, via FreeImages.com
