What will marketing look like in 2014, a Chicago perspective.

Although I haven’t lived in the city of big shoulders for a few years I have lots and lots of friends and ex-colleagues that still do, and often our conversations lead to work. Recently while on a trip through Chicago I met with a couple friends, our discussion turned to the status of marketing in Chicago and overall in the US. With traditional media budgets tanking and the rise of social media and user-generate content, I wondered how they were handling this ever-changing environment. 
There was three main topics that came out of this conversation; big data, customer feedback, and content creation. All of which, live in an intertwined ecosystem that is the newest trends in marketing. 

#1 Big data

By now we should all know something about big data, one thing we most certainly know is that it’s both expensive to collect and even more expensive to analyse usefully. Both of these expenses are coming down, thanks to smart services and more tech savvy marketing planners, but the cost is still going to be there. But what about the gains? Well, if you focus your big data planning you can change customers to subscribers, which is a good thing! Focusing on a key few things, such as gathering data about customers check-ins and getting contact info during their preferred channels, will make someone who occasionally buys something from you to someone who chooses just your service or product. A simplified example of this could be as follows, a customer goes to eat at a restaurant, checking-in using their favorite social media. You as the restaurant owner have hired a service that tracks these type of interactions and this customer is immediately sent a digital coupon for a free side dish which they can use now if they subscribe to your mailing list, which sends them weekly specials, more coupons, even other digital content (we’ll get to that later). You have now created a subscriber, someone who will more likely take you up on those deals and regularly use your product or service. 

#2 Customer feedback 

No this is a tricky one, as we’ve found out, not many people take surveys, unless they have some time to kill (sitting on the EL to work) and even then they have so much more content at their hands that they probably won’t sit there and fill out your survey. Customers have so much more power now when not satisfied with your brand, they can slam you on twitter, they can create a vlog on their youtube channel they can even start a group on Facebook boycotting your service or product. Something that is as easy as a few taps on a smartphone or strokes on a keyboard. So how are marketers going to do research to keep these immediate-gratification needy consumers happy if they refuse to sit down and take surveys? Rethink surveys, that’s how. Simplified and specific feedback, take a look at the newest version of Foursquare, when you check in they often follow it up with a question, with only 3 answers. Simple! Checked into the Macy’s on State St.? They will follow it up with ”Would you say that Macy’s in is the Loop?” Yes, maybe, no. They can also opt-out, which of course isn’t what you as a marketer wants, but it allows them to decide, a big deal when you are trying to appease and live in a world of social media mavens! Another simple example, at Midway airport, right after the TSA screening they had a simple push-button stand with a smiley face or a sad face and the question, ”How did we do today?” Dead simple, but gathering dead simple data like this and lowering the time commitment and thus the user threshold can do big things for your business and it’s marketing. 

#3 Content creation 

Content is King! that expression is getting a little long in the tooth, but it still holds true, even more than ever that more and more marketers are surging to social media as they way to contact consumers directly. Yes, content is still king, and will be for quite some time, but distribution is equally important. If you distribute your marketing material through several different channels, lets take the top two, email and online video, you first need to decide which social media to use them on. Have a consumer base that is in their late 20’s to late 30’s? Facebook it is then. Your customers are in their teens to early 20’s? Twitter (and Vine). This mapping and social media strategy isn’t that difficult to figure out but it will take some research in the first two points; Big data and Custiomer feedback to create a successful strategy. Now that you have a plan, you have to deliver. Creating content base three main hurdles, time, engagement and budget. Well, unless you have a realistic strategy in place you most likely won’t have the budget planned for content creation. This is changing, more and more brands marketing budget is being guided towards digital and social, a trend that will only continue. Now, time and engagement are two more issues that need addressing and the current trend is to use freelance, hire some specialist. When you get that budget to create some content you need it done fast and good! Paying someone more who is a specialist in your clients specific arena is a way to cut your time down and provide the best engaging content you can get. 

As I said earlier, these three trends are an ecosystem, you can’t choose one or the other, you have to have all three and they have to work together. Starting your marketing with a strategy that includes these three trends will get you on track to a successful marketing campaign for 2014. Don’t have an idea how to create that marketing strategy plan? Look to point 3!