The pandemic forced a major shift in how marketers connect with their audiences. The work-from-home reality, lack of in-person client meetings, and cancellation of networking events – all necessitated new creativity in getting your message across. Even as the world returns to some semblance of pre-pandemic days, we are seeing many of these marketing trends persisting. Here are a few that will continue, according to Entrepreneur magazine.
- Focus on digital Our clients pivoted their marketing efforts towards digital to connect with target audiences and gain leads, as well as nurture relationships with existing customers. We were asked to support them with tools such as brand videos, online presentations, social media assets, and website redesigns. This pre-eminence of digital marketing shows no signs of abating.
- Technology adoption The pandemic necessarily brought new urgency to meeting corporate digital-transformation goals. In the last 2 years, many companies had to fundamentally change how they operate in order to continue to deliver value to customers, largely helped by the use of new technologies. Whether workflow automation, optimized automated systems, cloud-based work, improved CRM, agile teams, data analytics or artificial intelligence, a renewed focus on digital tools meant companies were able to adapt quickly.
- Increased marketing spend People needed to feel something good during the pandemic. They responded to brands that touched them, made their lives easier or happier, or made work possible in a new way. As companies prioritized direct-to-consumer marketing, they needed to communicate better and provide exceptional customer experiences in order to keep customers. As a result, marketing spend rose by 76.6% during the pandemic among B2B services companies, reports the CMO Survey (Feb 2021).
- Respond to new needs Many of our clients are consulting firms, and these were increasingly sought-after during the pandemic to help their clients with leadership and people strategies, health and safety policies, governance, e-commerce, and supply-chain management, for example. Design agencies like Pixels & Pencils play a key role in helping them market these services to key audiences – in a way that clearly communicated their value proposition.
There’s no question that the pandemic hit businesses hard, but it also taught us a lot about agility in looking for new and exciting ways of marketing to stakeholders. Those that don’t match the pace of change are left behind.