Today, we are excited to be reporting in from the floor of the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit! We’re nearly half way through the day, but have already picked up a ton of best practices and tips for modern marketing from industry experts.
One of our favorite presentations came first thing in the morning from Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava), best-selling author of Likeonomics and CEO of Influential Marketing Group, who shared several very practical tips for marketers to follow this year. In his presentation, “7 Marketing Trends Changing Business in 2014”, Bhargava pointed out that spotting trends is not finding the needle in the haystack, but rather placing the needle where it needs to be placed after assessing the entire situation. He also defined trends by stating that “trends are high impact, but not yet visible”.
Here are the seven marketing trends changing business in 2014 according to Bhargava:
1. Desperate Detox – with the abundance of technology and an ability to constantly stay connected, consumers are searching for ways to disconnect
What can marketers do about it?
• Create more mute buttons
• Respect sacred times
• Declare your own detox
2. Obsessive productivity – becoming more productive has become the ultimate obsession
What can marketers do about it?
• Fix your inefficiencies
• Promise and deliver speed
• Innovate for productivity
3. Collaborative Economy – consumers and brands are able to connect and collaborate to find new ways to buy and sell
What can marketers do about it?
• Hire the crowd
• Disrupt your business model
• Embrace learning opportunities
4. Branded Utility – brands are finding new ways to bring real value to consumers’ lives
What can marketers do about it?
• Address the bigger problems
• Build an app
• Answer unexpected questions
5. Lovable Imperfection – consumers seek authenticity and personality from brands
What can marketers do about it?
• Add personality
• Admit to your mistakes
• Obsess over the details
6. Curated Sensationalism – headlines are written intentionally sensational to drive millions of views
What can marketers do about it?
• Learn (or hire) better copy writing
• Beware of learned skepticism
• Share predictably viral content
7. Distributed Expertise – the idea of expertise is becoming more inclusive, less academic and more widely available
What can marketers do about it?
• Share your experts
• Let people think outside their job description
• Fund new forms of learning
Check back with us for more updates from the conference floor. Or for up-to-the-minute updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @marketingtoday2.
For more trends or to get more insight on the seven tips shared here, be sure to check out the full report.
