A Clear View of Marketing’s Future

How will Corona Virus change your marketing? It’s actually only going to accelerate the trends that were happening. We’re going from manual marketing to automated to AI assisted marketing.

When we wake up one morning this fall season of 2020, business and marketing will be different. Fewer customers will be in offices and instead more of us will be working from home. A new system involving talented specialist marketers will appear to train the AI marketing solutions.

And talented consultants will be aided by predictive software that helps us improve our client’s value proposition and sales strategy.

Small businesses will have access to an array of talent not tethered to big corporations. The corporations will begin to lose some of the best marketing talent.  Because talented consultants and freelancers will be in demand.  Agency generalists will be replaced by the AI software, while the talent is needed to coach and manage the AI systems.

Talent + AI is Where the Big Gains Are

NASDAQ is rocketing because investors sense that business and marketing will be centered on new AI assisted, digital  solutions and online business. It’s fueling investment in tech related business such as apps, cloud business, and online collaboration tools. AI marketing software including AI Sales and AI SEO software will grow in usage.

Let’s take a look at the likely changes and how businesses will evolve to meet the challenges of the next 6 months and in 2021.

Some may think things will soon return to the usual when the Covid 19 vaccine is delivered to billions of people. But skills, cost efficiency, and a new normal is taking place. The old face to face world of business has lost its grip. The tech people know it, and the US stock market forecasts reflect it.

What are the key Post Corona Virus Change Makers?

 

• • introduction to cost saving online tools for shopping, ecommerce, marketing and working
  • digital tools and systems being adopted
  • persistently high unemployment due to small business being uncompetitive with corps
  • much lower enrollments in state universities for high priced degrees
  • business owners investigating AI marketing leads to more adoption of AI
  • much less face to face sales and marketing for the next year
  • reduction in travel, commuting, and crowded offices
  • lost customers and suppliers leads to whole new business connections
  • fast rising taxes costs forcing the adoption of more efficient solutions
  • more Millennials leading businesses and they will adopt new tools, models and strategies
  • workers find they like remote/distance collaboration
  • workers will like working from home and surviving businesses will agree
  • rising use of remote gig workers via their homes cuts costs significantly
  • more baby boomers retire because this new business world does not suit them
  • power change – oil companies, movie theatres, gyms, retail shops, airlines, restaurants, and transportation companies will see revenues dry up

 

Change Opens up Opportunities

Any change in the status quo creates opportunities and awakens skills and strengths. Life’s like that. It breaks our losing streaks and gives us a new environment and a fresh start. Disruption is sometimes a lifesaver.

“Disruptions just wipe the slate clean and clear away the obstacles that had held the next big thing in check,” — Walker Smith, chief knowledge officer at Kantar Consulting via marketingdive webinar.

A good example is in how big corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon were gobbling business and a bigger piece of the business, marketing and advertising pie.

New Skilled Contractors Who Embrace AI

It’s tough to be a small business and stay relevant. SMB owners must be very smart today and the new AI marketing tools may help them get an edge. AI opens up a wide realm of insight for marketing consultants.  The future is efficiency, service gaps filled, and far better results.

You also need staff or contractors with specific skills and expertise in your industry whether it’s manufacturing, or software, or real estate and travel. Expertise in industry verticals will win in the years ahead. But that’s not all.

Building a laser sharp, unique brand with a clear relevant and understandable value proposition is key to small business success.

Consider the competition you’ll be facing. The only way to avoid burnout and low margins is to build a relevant, unique and personalized business brand — that resonates to your target audience.

Breaking away from the pack in a way that’s meaningful to customers could be how we can compete with these overfunded, market controlling, self-licensing corporations.

Connect With Your Best Customers Wherever They Are

In other blog posts, I spoke of being more active about long distance business development. I reasoned that there are more companies out there far away that need our talents or services. And there are better matches for our specific talents.

This requires a change in your focus and attitude about how and where you’ll be hiring and doing business in 2020, 2021, and beyond.

Marketing Agencies Expand Resource Bases

If you look at the top marketing agencies for instance, they all serve customers beyond their local area. Neil Patel and his new agency npdigital for instance, has customers all over the world. That breadth of client base creates a lot of optimism, energy, awareness , business intelligence, opportunity, as well as perfectly matched clients for their value offer. You can’t get this locally.

Paul Roetzer of pr2020.com has a similar agency with a niche, but he’s started something groundbreaking and new: marketingaiinstitute.com. It’s become the main hub for artificial intelligence marketing and all AI marketers.

Staying local and limited in the scope and range of your marketing isn’t wise. Local business has just dried up. And the advantage that big companies have is significant since they can grab up your local business. They may be more of a problem for you than the Corona Virus.

If you have an impulse right now, or even a thought about opening up your business to new directions and markets, using talented specialists, a little more confidence and strategy might help you take you to a very successful level.

This isn’t to suggest it’s easy. The challenges ahead of you require more intelligence, but you can build intelligence. The first step is opening your mind.

New Customers Are Waiting for You to Show Up

I mention value propositions and marketing for a reason. Typically, marketing and advertising companies offer standard promotional services via the common traditional channels such as TV, Radio, outdoor, and transit. Yet consumer’s lives have changed. They’re online more, searching, engaging in social media while watching less transit ads and TV ads.

The imagery, slogans, and copy that you used previously might not appeal anymore. Your new customer is a new profile.

Client companies need help with their branding, value propositions, and generating more value for customers. Marketing consultants are increasingly being used, yet given the gaps in skills and resources, and low budgets, they’re being asked to do more with less.

Those new gaps are invitations to new opportunities.  Some consultants can help you solve your human resource challenges. They’re talented and they’ll be using AI.

Those who add value in leads and impact will enjoy the most demand. It isn’t enough to have one service or skill anymore. For instance, I can deliver a boatload of traffic to client’s website, but that might not be enough to create sales and revenue.  Further marketing skills are needed.

The Future is AI Marketing

This means in this post-Corona Virus Era, client companies will demand additional skills. I think AI marketing skills will be the number one asset they want. AI could help optimize the complete customer journey and grow their sales conversions and revenue significantly. From real time engagement to better customer experience to optimizing the conversion funnel to insights from powerful testing and analytics, Marketing AI is a value proposition in itself.

Artificial intelligence systems won’t replace human creativity however. About all AI can do is enhance and inform your strategy and creative and optimize your execution. So what it could do is give creative and talented providers an unfair advantage.

AI makes the best better, and allows us to reach out further into the global marketplace. AI can be especially valuable to small businesses and small marketing agencies who don’t have the people, skill or financial resources.

Online marketing is all about generating the best customer experience. AI can help you better understand what kind of content they want, what will create shares on social media, and will rank at the top of Google’s search results.

In my most recent book on SEO and Content Strategy, I cover how to combine content strategy with SEO as each powers the other higher. You have to be that good today to differentiate yourself from the mundane and be number one.

That better marketing content adds value to costly ad campaigns too.

How is Marketing Done Now?

• • riding the status quo of current local client
  • being conservative and not taking chances and starting something new
  • not taking the effort to find outstanding marketing specialists from outside their city
  • not taking the time to stay current on technology nor using what’s available
  • creating lots of mediocre content
  • developing significant expertise in their disciplines
  • not producing industry leading content their customers can’t live without
  • relying on Google and Facebook advertising for leads and sales
  • not testing out and using new assets such as Google AMP and video
  • presenting their brand as comparable (competitive) to other brands
  • not creating a powerful differentiation in their services, products and brand

What Smart Marketers Will Do

If success is about creating the best customer experience, winning companies will:

• • put a big emphasis on new, unique, original content that either replaces face to face experiences or enhances the few infrequent meetings that take place
  • put an emphasis on SEO and maintaining visibility to customers
  • create more comprehensive content strategies for paid ad campaigns on Facebook or Twitter
  • create more podcasts, live video seminar events where they deliver an educational experience to audiences
  • begin adopting AI marketing tools as they’re able to
  • moving marketing funds into content creation and AI software subscriptions
  • will demand leading edge quality from contractors and pay a lot more for the good providers
  • content topics, messages and creative will be more sensitive and less promotional
  • being more cost/value sensitive means using marketing specialists rather than in house teams

The new AI marketing driven culture will let small business compete. The question is in how you’ll be able to keep up affordably.  Select your contractors well, and get more value, expertise, and more gaps covered.

AI Marketers provides unique content, SEO, social media, PPC, and funnel optimization services for software companies, manufacturers, hotels, recruiters, moving companies, publishers, mountain bike manufacturers, sports equipment retailers, building supplies companies, window and door companies, Realtors, investment companies, IT companies, clean energy, consumer products, branding consultants and many more.

Begin your market leader journey with a digital marketing performance review.

AI Marketing |  SEO Services | AI SEO Software | AI Marketing Analytics | SEO Software Platforms | AI Sales Software | AI Predictive Analytics | Housing Market Forecast | Marketing Services Toronto | Marketing Services Boston | Marketing Services Los Angeles | Marketing Agency in Bay Area | Marketing Service San Diego | Why Use AI Software?  | What is AI Marketing? | AI Stock Forecasting | Mountain Bike Resort | Mountain Bike Marketing | Hotel SEO Specialist | Travel Marketing