The pandemic has changed so much of our lives. Marketers have to be attuned to these changes. Audiences have changed their behaviours and needs due to the impact of the pandemic on their lives and to stay relevant, brands have to adapt their marketing strategies.
To help you ensure your marketing strategies are aligning with the world today, let's take a look at three key trends that show the impact the pandemic has had on marketing.
Consumer behaviour has shifted dramatically due to lockdowns across the globe. Unless you were hiding under a rock for the last 18 months, this should come as no surprise to you. Your high street will have seen its brick and mortar stores shut down, restaurants having to operate under heavy restrictions and consumers shifting their interest to online shopping and food delivery services instead.
It's understandable that at the beginning of the pandemic you may have thought that this was a reversible shift. Across much of the UK, we have seen shops reopening and people returning to their offices and normal daily lives.
However, these things do not mean that consumer behaviours have reversed as well. eCommerce saw massive growth during 2020 and 2021 and that growth is set to continue to a large degree.
The expansion into eCommerce has been a gateway into new audiences for many SMBs. The pandemic opened doors for them to reach national or international audiences and move beyond their local brick and mortar stores. Without the pandemic, they likely would not have been forced to make this shift to eCommerce and now that it's here, it will continue to help them grow their businesses.
Consumer expectations are higher than ever. Your brand needs to go beyond providing a great product to also thinking about experiences. To understand the concept of how customer experience impacts a business we can look to Amazon. The product recommendations, personalized experience, and easy to navigate the site are why consumers love it so much.
A survey from Dimension Data showed that 81% of companies noted that providing a positive customer experience was the primary differentiator between retaining a customer and losing them.
A great customer experience is crucial to retaining your customers in this highly competitive world. But how do you provide that customer experience that consumers are looking for? Through technology.
For example, 57% of customers won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. This shows how powerful your website is in creating the right impression and experience for your customers. If your website isn't up to scratch, improving it should be a top priority.
You can't call yourself a marketer if you're not delving deep into big data. Big data has become essential for marketers to do their jobs efficiently through complex automation and analysis. And this doesn't just apply to enterprise businesses, SMBs can also leverage big data due to the affordability and accessibility of many Martech platforms.
However, the trend we have seen emerge from the pandemic around big data is that businesses now have to pay close attention to how customer data is being handled and protected.
A good Martech stack can wield data in a safe and protected way. By organizing and analyzing data, businesses can find actionable insights and start addressing the things that matter most to their customers.
According to CMS Wire, 42.8% of marketers reported investing in automation technology to improve customer communications in February 2021.
The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives – and our spending habits are no exception. From a larger shift to digital spending to a concern over the huge amounts of customer data that is available to brands, many of the trends we have seen come out of the pandemic that centers around marketing is focused on technology. This shows that brands that want to be successful in a post-pandemic world will need to rely on a strong Martech stack that will support their operations.
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