Marketing today doesn’t look anything like marketing did even as recently as a decade ago. Although many of the founding principles are intact, the execution of them has morphed into something completely different in order to stay relevant.
Why all of the changes to the way products are marketed to customers?
Technology.
Tech has completely altered the way we get our information ranging from our news to information about our favorite products, which has meant that marketing professionals have had to adapt and find new ways to reach us regarding new products. The industry has completely revolutionized. Today’s marketers are tech savvy and working to reach demographics that were previously thought of as totally out of reach using traditional methods.
Developing Businesses Strategies
Advancements in technology have had a substantial impact on how marketing professionals determine their next move. In fact, technology has become so intertwined with marketing that technology skills are now a key component of a marketing executive’s makeup. This ranges broadly from developing email advertising schemes, monitoring company social media activities, to using predictive analytics to determine the next move.
Predictive analytics in particular is an extremely powerful change to hit the marketing world in recent years. The technology allows professionals to monitor long-term trends in sales within certain demographics, locations, or products and use this information to statistically project into the future. This can help determine if more of less manpower and funding should be put into certain advertising schemes among other things.
Targeting the Right Audience
Technology has also made it far more possible for marketing professionals experiment with their targeted audience. In fact, it has made it possible to both expand the product advertisements far beyond a typical audience and shrink them into a customizable form for a specific audience. The idea of it has enabled marketers to more broadly understand which demographics are interested in certain products and then hone in on them, which ultimately saves a lot of money.
For example, up until recently women were hardly targeted in sports marketing at all even though they make up nearly half of the sports fan base. By using technological analysis, sports marketers discovered that, contrary to popular belief, women actually made up a considerable untapped market. Recently, significant efforts have been being made to address this substantial gaps – you may have noticed more female-oriented commercials during major sporting events in recent years.
Broadcasting Successes
Finally, technology has made it far simpler for companies to broadcast their successes to customers and use them to bolster marketing strategies. Social media has been a primary avenue for this type of strategy, which has meant that companies have had to learn how to best reach their customers using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and others.
For example, nowadays, if a company does something special or makes a policy change that is socially conscious the story will make it onto their social media account. Regular and potential customers are able to view the change and weigh in on it. Furthermore, marketing professionals can use data about who is responding positively to the change in order to fuel new marketing approaches and strategies that can help increase the number of loyal brand followers.
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Without technology, marketing as we know it today would not exist. And we can certainly count on the industry continuing to change over the next few years. Tech advancements have enabled marketers to develop a deeper understanding of their customer base, predict trends out into the future with greater accuracy, explore new target audiences, hone in on already loyal customers, and broadcast their successes readily.
What other ways has technology impacted the world of marketing?