Top Trends Transforming Digital Marketing

For the last three years, digital marketing has rated high in marketing and sales strategies and investments within transportation and logistics. This assessment is based from results from the TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study, a compilation of current marketing and sales practices with transportation (all modes) and logistics companies throughout North America.

So what are some of the emerging trends should you be aware of when developing and managing your digital and social marketing? From the evolving world of artificial intelligence to expectations of instant communications, Stacy DeBroff, CEO and founder of Influence-Central, shares her take in a recent Forbes article. Her observations on the social and digital marketing horizon are based on research and work with more than 350 national brands last year.

Buyer Resentment of Intrusive Marketing Deepens. Op-ups, banner ads, and disruptive brand messages are all falling out of favor. Today’s buyers don’t want brands aggressively pushing their way into social media feeds, whether on Facebook or LinkedIn, through promoted Tweets, or paid-for Snapchat stories. As customers seek to learn more about new products on their own time, expect continued resentment over intrusive marketing to deepen. Consumers will continue to vote with their feet … “walking” away from social platforms that inundate them with brand marketing, DeBroff notes. Similarly, the tone and content of ads needs to be geared to younger millennials: fast, smart, sassy, and relevant.

“Instant” Speeds up as the New Normal for Younger Buyers and Employees. What happens when you grow up surrounded by social media and technology? Expectations of instant communications and sources of information become inevitable. Generation Z are now becoming our employees, prospects and customers – and they gravitate to instantaneous social channels such as Snapchat and Instagram. Unfortunately there’s a downside to this. The younger generation has grown up with instant response as its baseline expectation. You can plan on at least three platforms we’ve never heard of rising to social prominence next year that embrace faster, more pictorial, and more spontaneous ways to connect with rising Gen Z.

A.I. Solutions Point to a Brave New World. Be aware of emerging trends in artificial intelligence. “This current trend with start-up brands, as well as data analytics, identifies applicable A.I. solutions as a way for consumers to navigate in an increasingly complex world,” DeBroff notes. “From advanced electronics applications, to pinpoint analytics that predict consumer needs as they arise, A.I. is on the way, in a big way." This can impact how those in the B2B marketing space like transportation and logistics can interact with their buyers and prospects.

Niche Curation Sorts Information Overload. “We find ourselves awash with more information than has ever been available to us as humans, and we simply can’t process it,” DeBroff concludes. “As a result, we’ve increasingly come to rely not just on curated information, but on the people we most trust to curate this information for us in a way that resonates with our lifestyle, interests, and values. In 2017, consumers will be on a mission to find peer specialists with niche expertise to filter recommendations that meet their needs in a customized way.”

Mobile Devices Forge On-the-Go Consumerism. DeBroff predicts we will soon see the emergence of a new “electronics evolution” with innovative technology and apps for the mobile phones we keep tethered to our sides. “As these devices offer up smarter, faster, and more intuitive information, they will become even more ingrained into our daily patterns and connected culture — and dramatically influence consumers at the point of purchase. B2B marketers are smart to look at ways to adapt their strategies to accommodate this trend.

Social Influencers Diversify, Specialize, and Grow Exponentially. “We’ve never had more on-call peers to advise us — from peer advisors to specialists and trend-spotters,” DeBroff notes. She predicts we will continue to “entrench ourselves more deeply within the social web, immersing ourselves in increasingly diverse and broadening circles of discerning opinions. These influencers will powerfully inform and guide us in our consumer decisions.”

“Top Trends in Digital Marketing” will be a topic discussed during peer-to-peer interactive roundtable discussions at the upcoming 2017 TMSA Logistics Marketing & Sales Conference, June 11-13 at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort near Jacksonville, Fla. > View more information on the upcoming conference