First-party data—if you’re not already reading about it, you soon will. As technology evolves to meet growing expectations regarding online privacy, first-party data will be an important factor in how successfully organizations can target their marketing messages. Unfortunately, many marketers aren’t prioritizing or directing the right resources to collecting first-party data.
2020 has been a year of massive disruption. We’ve seen our routines changed beyond our control and formed new habits ourselves, too. Marketers have had to keep up with fluid changes in consumer behavior, leading to innovative new techniques and technologies. Here are some things that are important to understand about trends in consumer behavior and the implications for digital marketing tactics in 2020:
There is no global playbook to manage a situation like we’re experiencing now with the COVID-19 pandemic. While every business is different and is dealing with unique implications and repercussions, we are all facing some common challenges. There are certain things that every business needs to consider and address during a time like this. We’ve put together a few recommendations that we hope you find helpful as they may apply to your organization.
It’s long been said that one of the most effective words you can use in an ad is “free.” The idea is that people love getting stuff for free, so offering them something for free will get a big response. It’s a rule a lot of companies still follow. How many TV ads do see that say “buy one, get one free” or offer something like a “free credit report”? How many online ads say “download our free white paper” or “get your free sample” just for giving them your email? And that’s the problem – these days it seems like virtually everyone is offering something for free, so “free” isn’t considered as powerful as it once was.
If you make a product that solves a problem, you need to advertise to reach the people who have that problem and make them aware of your solution. But what if it’s a problem that people don’t like to talk – or hear – about? This has always been an issue for companies that make such products. A century ago, when advertising was done in newspapers and magazines, mixed among the ads for new shoes and automobiles would be discreet ads for products that cured embarrassing medical problems, all very serious and discreet.
The whole point of advertising is to get noticed. If your ads don’t get noticed, then no one gets your message, so what’s the point? But how do you get noticed? One surefire way is to be controversial. The thing is, if you court controversy, you must be prepared to deal with the consequences. Let’s look at two examples of small businesses that ran controversial ads, one on purpose and one by mistake, and what happened as a result.
