Four marketing trends for thriving in today’s always-on era

We are now entering an era which is as big as the groundbreaking dot-com revolution from the 90s, or the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. With the on-demand economy at its brink, the 22nd century is collectively giving rise to not just one, but many revolutions – in terms of:

• Emerging technologies such as AI, ML, AR, VR are driving new, innovative use cases for Industry 4.0, OTT platforms, Global Content Network (GCN), gaming, e-learning, e-health and many similar use cases.
• End users expect fast seamless digital experiences – While this has been an ever-evolving phenomenon, the Covid-19 pandemic drove massive changes in demands for digital experiences, gave rise to new behaviors and a constant need of new and meaningful content.

While traditional marketing methods of print and TV advertising, social media marketing, and events will still remain impactful, companies must adapt to this next phase of the digital economy. This calls for an evolution of marketing models to leverage new age technologies and further engage users.

Adapt hybrid event models
While virtual events and interactions will last – we must now try benefitting from best of both the worlds by combining the virtual with the physical. For example, a physical event can be presented virtually, henceforth taking advantage of physical meetings and networking wherever possible, yet making the platform available at a click of button to any person in the world, in any time zone. In fact, the model’s success is compelling marketing strategists to create events at a global scale – a virtual event without borders where it is much easier to block the global industry’s stalwarts’ calendar with ease. Moreover, this is a budget-friendly way of conducting events – you save on the airline and stay costs, provide users with an interactive platform to present questions live to the speakers and guests. Main event takes place at a chosen location, but the audience is global. It’s a pure win-win.

Embrace glocal insights
The learnings of an indigenous culture can benefit several markets, breaking the monotony which, a marketeer always tries achieving. Taking inspiration from local cultures, a global marketplace (and vice versa) can be created for a higher marketing success rate. In fact, at Ciena, our work culture functions exactly in the same way. We represent a global marketing team, rather than a local team. The learnings we apply from across various regions have given us better insights and results – making our local and global expertise a glocal marketing technique.

Leverage immersive digital technologies
When we talk about going virtual, hybrid, or global, handling large volumes of data requires intervention of AI, driven with ML to create an outstanding AR/VR experience which caters in prompting the best recommendations basis user behavior, in a matter of seconds. This tech must be enabled with lightning-fast network speeds, now made available with the help of upcoming high speed network technologies like FTTx and 5G.

Personalized communication
To engage end users, making communication personal and thoughtful can go a long way. For example, using a channel you know they prefer for communication – WhatsApp, LinkedIn or otherwise. Or remembering details about their family or personal life can help build a great relationship. For formal communication, such as e-mails, ads, the content structure should be culture and situation sensitive, so they are more open to receiving the marketing information.

We live in a fast-paced world that requires a cons­tant evolution of how we communicate with key audi­ences. By implementing new strategies that capital­ize on the desire for audi­ences to have fast digital experiences, you can succeed.