One thing becomes clear when reading across the multitude of prognostications for 2015 marketing trends: 2015 is set to be the year of ‘humanized’ marketing. It’s about marketing efforts that are more accessible, personable, genuine, and sharable – that is, simplifying complex messaging and humanizing the brand through individualized and inherently more authentic content primed for propagation across varied media and platforms.
Over recent years, in our zeal to maximize the advantages of the latest technologies, the ‘human element’ has often been sacrificed. Ultimately, technology exists to facilitate and enhance our capabilities, but we must take care to not let it dictate purely automated interactions with buyers. At the end of the day, regardless of all the shiny new possibilities permitted by technology, fundamentally it’s still people – and the trust between us – that matter. Whether B2B or B2C, by necessity it’s all really H2H (human to human).
But don’t take our word for it – here’s a snapshot guide to the top insights for 2015:
Forbes:
CMOs will become Chief Simplifier Officers. “To optimize consumer and customer engagements, CMOs will begin to put silo busting on top of their agenda and begin to think holistically about the company’s overall value proposition, integrating messages and insights across business units, geographies, and functional groups.”
Marketing will shift from globalization to personalization. “Personalization is not a trend. It is a marketing tsunami, here to stay, which will transform how we think about and how we manage global brands. Companies will decentralizing their structure and increase regional and local influence.”
Transparency will become the most important tool of marketing. “[This] year the best brands won’t be those with the best stories, or sort of made up fictional stories, but those that will give an accurate and real time picture of what they are doing in the interest of the consumer, at any given time.”
Brands will scramble to humanize. “With the rise of social media, brands will realize that their customers are on social media channels to interact with other people, not with brands and corporate-sounding lingo.”
Read more:
11 Marketing Trends To Watch For In 2015
Top 7 Online Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2015
Hubspot:
Human-to-human marketing. “With humans so attached to their technological counterparts, businesses must find ways to reconnect with consumers on each device and each social platform they use, but in a way that enables those consumers to actually feel connected to the business on a more human level than was previously ever required.”
What are some vital qualities of a humanized brand?
They’re personal
They’re conversational
They’re empathetic
They’re inspirational
They solve problems
They’re humorous
They make mistakes
They’re authentic
They have a story
They live their story
Mashable:
Marketing will become people-focused. “In 2015, marketers will gain a deeper understanding of their brand’s audience — going beyond traditional demographics and segmentation to focus on individual people’s interests and preferences.”
The path to millennials will be individualism. “Millennials are the independent generation; a generation of wolves, not sheep. …Marketers will start tailoring content to individual cultural interests, location, price ranges and more. This approach will be the only path for marketers to inspire true brand loyalty.”
Read more: 10 predictions for content marketing in 2015
Bryan Kramer:
Personalized (Human) Marketing “Think about how much email you receive that has nothing to do with you. It’s automated…and it’s killing your conversion. [I]f we use personality trait mapping and develop right-time marketing messaging to individuals, it will make the recipient feel like making a connection with you is a real human experience.”
Read more: Top 6 Disruptive Marketing Trends for 2015
Curious what your prospective buyers think of current trends? Wondering how best you can make genuine, individualized, and human connections with them in a digital world? Use a prospect survey to gain critical insight into the specific needs, thoughts, and challenges of individual prospective buyers. Not only do such surveys provide prospect-level intelligence, but they reveal developing trends, while also generating unique and insightful content for further prospect engagement.