I don’t know my mom’s phone number. She changed it years ago, and I just saved it on my phone.
There’s no need for names like 1-800-WHAT-I-DO (or 800 numbers, unless they’re already established). We call long distance without extra charges. All we remember is the company’s name. We ask Siri to call them, and she dials for us. When was the last time you heard a jingle for a phone number? Here are a few of the major ways marketing has changed.
We Buy Online
We buy everything online, even more so since COVID-19. In addition, we control our garage door openers, lights, music, and fireplace from our devices.
We Use Mobile Devices
We are doing more shopping online, but we’re also doing more from smaller screens. As a result, smartphones have surpassed personal computers as the primary digital device for going online. As a result, U.S. adults’ daily mobile media time increased from 46 minutes in 2011 to 258 minutes in 2017![i]
What does that mean for you as a small business owner? If your website is more than a few years old, it may not be mobile responsive; it might not work right on smartphones and tablets. You could be losing many customers with short attention spans that demand instant purchasing from wherever they are.
Tip: Check your website for user experience on your phone. While you’re at it, ensure that your site is secure. The address should start with HTTPS. If there’s no s, it needs an upgrade.
Shoppers Are Informed
It is easier than ever to comparison shop. Consumers check reviews, review sites, product demos on social media, and Consumer Reports. They consult Live Chats or ask their contacts on social media what they should buy. Consumers reach out to influencers to discover what they think is best. We must reach buyers at all stages of their decision journey, which takes place in less than a day.
A shopper might:
- Ask Alexa to remind them to research computers.
- Read a tech blog.
- Check social media to find out what other designers use (or be subconsciously influenced by an Instagram model using a Mac in her bedroom with a cup of coffee, manicured nails, and perfect lighting).
- Visit a review site to check ratings.
- Sort computer search results by all the specs they think are important to them.
- Choose the one in their newsfeed the most often (while thinking they made a practical and informed decision).
24/7 Responses Expected
My grandparents owned a hardware store in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. When they decided to sell the store, this is what Grandma wrote in her memoirs, “Nothing lasts forever and times they were a changing again. Shopko moved in at the edge of town with a huge parking lot. They were open seven days a week along with evening hours. Meanwhile downtown we still had parking meters, (only open one night a week), and closed on Sundays. It was happening all over the country.”
Not only are store hours longer than they were in grandma’s day, but people also expect immediate responses by phone, social media, and live chat, regardless of the hour.
Attention Spans Have Shrunk
There is more competition for our attention than a few years ago. We have become adept at ignoring ads. Marketing is more challenging than ever. Our eyes track right around ads online and in print. We pay to skip ads on our streaming services as we consume media. Website bounce rates (when a site visitor leaves as soon as they arrive) are high. They move on if we don’t immediately capture attention and satisfy our audience’s needs.
SEO Wins
Yellow Pages ads were once the most significant part of the advertising budget for my parents’ business. Today SEO wins that spot.
You probably even know what SEO is! When I started my business, I had to explain it; I couldn’t just say “SEO.” I had to say “Search Engine Optimization” and tell people that SEO is what makes you come up first when someone Google’s your industry.
Yes, four out of five dentists use search engines to research local toothpaste. And the rest of us use search to find just about everything else.
Wi-Fi Everywhere
In “Becoming a Category of One,” Joe Calloway outlines how customers’ expectations change. There was a time when hotel rooms didn’t have ironing boards, coffee makers, and iPhone docks. Now we expect all these things. Though Wi-Fi might not be related to the product you sell, your store is expected to have it. We expect Wi-Fi in our restaurants, coffee shops, fitness clubs, and parks.
Social Media
Social media encourages transparency and invites businesses into personal lives. People share what they ate for dinner, and your grandpa just posted a picture with his new girlfriend on his motorcycle. He tagged Harley-Davidson and his kids.
What’s Stayed the Same?
The product must be of appropriate cost-to-value ratio, heard and seen by others, and word-of-mouth still reigns supreme.
What Will the Future Bring?
The way we search will continue to change. More and more search is via voice. Google will index mobile sites first as we continue to use our devices from everywhere. As a result, content that isn’t well suited for mobile reading will suffer in search.
Content will shorten and become even more skimmable and scrollable. In addition, intelligent devices will learn to handle more complex searches.
Local businesses will need to know how to leverage voice search. In addition, long-tail keyword searches (this is a specific keyphrase, instead of a short generic keyword) will grow, and we’ll need to optimize our websites for them.
Video content will continue to grow. We’ll take in less text and more video. Quality, mobile-friendly videos produced consistently will lead to more followers and better SEO. Consumers are more likely to purchase products they’ve seen in videos.
Link quality and expectations will continue to increase. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will improve at weeding out spammy, link-stuffed copy.
Custom illustrations and infographics will have a place in converting text into catchy visuals.
Organic reach on social media will continue to plummet as each network ages and wants to monetize. Marketers will have to pay more and more to reach their followers. With the quantity of content ever-increasing, networks are picky about what they allow in their users’ feeds. On Facebook, your organic reach may be a percent or two of all the people who have asked to follow you. You will have to pay for more and more boosted posts or keep hopping to newer networks and hoping your followers join you.
Another social shift is in dark social. Dark social is web traffic that you can’t track, like private messaging apps. To take advantage, your content needs to be easy to share. So make your share links visible and make your content high quality.
I predict both Twitter and LinkedIn will stay particularly strong for businesses well into the future. And TikTok isn’t going anywhere.
Why You Must Be Different
Nearly everything we purchase is a commodity. There are too many choices. To stand out in a sea of options, we have to stand out. Identify why you’re different and let everyone know.
Your opinion, point of view, and vision for the future make you special. Sometimes, your difference is a flaw. I don’t mean one of those fake flaws you rattle off on job interviews. “I make other people look bad because I’m so efficient. I care too much. I’m a perfectionist.” Your brand is a belief that sets you apart from everyone else. It might not have anything to do with the product you’re selling.
Being different isn’t easy. I know what it feels like to be the only person in the room doing (or not doing) something. But not holding to your beliefs feels worse. Being different takes time and resources. Fortify yourself so as not to compromise when the pressure is the hardest. In the long term, it is worth it.
My favorite example of a different worldview is Amy Zimmerman. She founded a popcorn business to ensure that her differently-abled son would have meaningful employment. “Popcorn with a Purpose” is her mantra. Poppin’ Z’s mission is to provide a safe work environment for people of all abilities with direct supervision by people who genuinely understand each individual’s needs. Some people buy Poppin’ Z’s because the popcorn is good, but most loyal customers appreciate the more significant good Amy and her team do for the community. They’re proud to tell the world what makes their popcorn different.
Stop Trying to Be Better
Claiming that you’re faster, cheaper, or easier is not enough. Those kinds of comparisons ignore the actual value of what you have to offer. If you say, “faster than Acme Company,” your measure of success is tied to someone else. Don’t define yourself by something you’re trying to distinguish yourself from. Quit the comparison. Be the best you there is.
Create a New Category
“Becoming a Category of One” was ahead of its time. Since its writing in 2003, marketing has become even more niche. Consumer identities are more tied to brand values. No longer is wealth or status defined as someone who wears diamonds, summers in Europe, and owns a yacht. Instead, each person chooses the story they want to tell through the signals of their personal artifacts.
Lifestyle brands provide the signals. It’s shorthand to the world to let them know how we think and feel. I recently listened to Simon Sinek discuss how we quickly connect with someone displaying the same signal when we travel. We feel like we’ve found our kin if we hear a similar accent. Though they are strangers, we suddenly trust them to tell us where the best places to eat are in the foreign city. Because we have a shared point of reference, we assume we have similar values, or in this case, tastes. Lifestyle brands tell people if they’re hipsters, VSCO girls, or tech startup CEOs.
The best lifestyle brands don’t reveal who you are to the customer. Instead, they reveal themselves to themselves. They help consumers find an outlet for their identity. Show your prospects how your brand belief will change them. You’ve already seen this in the beauty, sports, travel, and food industries.
Think of all the disruptive brands that have taught us that we’re doing something wrong. Not long ago, we’d never consider a juice cleanse, testing our gut health, solo travel, or natural baby care. Undoubtedly plenty of parents wished there were gentler products for their babies with fewer chemicals, but they didn’t know they needed Honest until it came around.
If you can develop your version of the “everything we thought we knew about x was wrong. Here’s how to do it right” story, you will surely gain a loyal following. People will use your brand to show that they care about using fewer chemicals, saving the icebergs in Sweeden, or empowering female entrepreneurs in Angola.
Suppose you’re in a more conservative industry like finance, medicine, or software. In that case, you’ll be even quicker to distinguish yourself because it is so rare in your sector to take this different positioning. For example, Verve, a credit union, has way more fun than financial institutions should. Their growth proves their bright orange color and over-the-top spokesperson are working.
Know And Communicate Your Bailiwick
Identify your bailiwick. This fun word is the thing that you do supremely well. But, how do you know what it is? What do people go to you for? What do they get from you that they can’t get anywhere else?
Once you’ve identified that differentiation, make your customers the story’s hero. How does what you do make life better for them? Do your products or services make them less stressed, more productive, or happier?
Stick with your brand story for the long haul. I once heard it said that you should change your logo as often as you change your first name. Whatever the essence of your brand, stick to it. Your values should be your values, no matter what.
That being said, your business shouldn’t be stagnant. Take risks. If you see a new opportunity to carry out your vision of the world, go after it!
*This is a sneak preview of my upcoming book “Flex Your Marketing!” Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for updates.
Have a marketing question, ask Terra! Call 715-584-6773 today!
[i] Statista. 2021. U.S. daily mobile media usage time 2022 | Statista. [online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/469983/time-spent-mobile-media-type-usa/> [Accessed 2 March 2021].