Businesses need marketing now more than ever –and statistics indicate they are aware of this. The annual marketing spend globally is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 7%. It’s predicted that the annual spending on marketing activities will hit $4.7 trillion by 2025 from $3.6 trillion in 2021.
Consumers today have a different approach to purchase decisions than they did a decade ago. Mobile phone and internet penetration rates are over 60% globally – up from 30% in 2010. In first world countries, it’s over 90%. Consumers today do not rely on just ads and sales pitches before making purchasing decisions. More than 80% of smartphone users search for credible and unbiased information before making purchase decisions. This is influencing marketing spend trends.
Customer-Centric Marketing
Consumers actively searching for information creates an opportunity for companies to grow their ROI on marketing spend. It’s the reason why marketing budgets are growing worldwide.
Significant portions of marketing budgets are going towards improving customer experiences. For instance, companies are sending out branded merchandise to clients on their birthdays to cultivate loyalty. Another example is improved customer support services via shortened wait times on queues and phone lines, introducing live chat support on websites and apps, and using social listening tools to respond to complaints or join worthy causes.
Content marketing continues to grow in importance as customers seek valuable information instead of just ads. Consistently published, high-quality content gives your brand traction, thus growing a following. It also builds customers’ trust in the brand as an authority in each sphere. Brands are investing heavily in written content, videos, infographics, and other forms of high-quality content.
Marketing Is Shaping Culture
Companies are aligning their brand cultures with customers’ values. There is no longer a divide between companies’ branding efforts and their corporate culture – they need to be congruent. For instance, Apple customers believe that their company produces the highest quality items in the various product categories they sell. The company hardly needs to say this through advertising, but it’s clear in their new product line-ups every year.
Similarly, part of your marketing budget needs to go to branding activities that tell your company’s story. The marketing strategy needs to blend with the overall organizational strategic goals for the messaging to be authentic.
Innovation Needs Marketing
In a world where new industries are built at a rapid pace due to IoT, AI, and blockchain, go-to-market strategies are just as important as innovations themselves. Companies need to spend to match products with the right customers. Proper marketing allows technically inferior products to get better traction than superior products. Through marketing, businesses educate customers and break mental barriers by demonstrating how a product is a solution.
Optimizing Your Marketing Spend
Traditional advertising is not dead. In fact, spending on advertising will surpass $1 trillion by 2026. However, companies can do more with their marketing budget to complement advertising efforts. Proper customer experiences make people more receptive to advertising messages. Similarly, content marketing builds trust in a brand. If your organization is seeking to optimize its marketing spend during campaigns, reach out to us for a free consultative meeting. We help brands plan and implement brand strategies and marketing strategies.