Marketing predictions for 2021: Will your business sink or swim?

2020 burned hot, with global upheaval from every angle, culminating in an ongoing health crisis that halted the world, challenged communities, and strained economies. The economic future looks perilous, with 2020 expecting to set records for the highest number of retail bankruptcies and individual store closures in a single year. Holiday spending, typically a reliable boost for retail businesses, is expected to be down some 22 to 25% and total U.S. retail sales may see a 10.5%...

15 January 2021 | Best Practice

Brands need to utilise user-generated content – but only with a safe, scalable process in place

Just how much user-generated content (UGC) is out there right now? As of May 2019, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute; more than a billion hours of all those videos get watched every day. Facebook has more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, the vast majority of whom post and share family pics, jokes and memes.

There’s probably no way to measure all the content going up every second of every day on Amazon reviews, question-answer databases,...

8 January 2021 | Commerce

Digital customer experience in 2021: Paving the way to your customer’s heart in the era of hyperpersonalisation

2020 has been a testing year for all of us. While several industries struggled for business, a few of them thrived. In the midst of this, customer experience fast tracked several technology and business imperatives. With social distancing measures in place and eCommerce becoming the primary sales opportunity for many brands, organisations have had to quickly innovate and leverage technology for customer interactions.

Next year is an opportunity for brands to build upon this...

7 January 2021 | Advertising Technology

MarketingTech 2020 review: Covid-19, CMO strategy, and compassion

How tough was 2020 for marketers amid a global pandemic? In many ways, it depended on your industry. But navigating Covid-19 was a struggle for all.

It was okay to not be okay at times, with the knowledge that 2021 will - all being well - improve, and the knowledge of the marketing best practices which emerged over 2020. As Scott Brinker put it to this publication in December: "This is stressful, but you're not alone. Everyone's in the same boat, so that makes it a little bit...

4 January 2021 | Best Practice

How to make the most of email marketing over the holidays – and best practices for 2021

With such an unpredictable year coming to a close, one thing is certain: this year’s festive season will pose an extremely unique set of challenges for marketers. Depending on where you are in the world retailers are certainly readying themselves for a busy few weeks; however, a large majority of shoppers are still expected to do their Christmas shopping online as opposed to in store, especially in areas that have been deemed as’ higher risk’.

This Christmas, more than ever...

17 December 2020 | Best Practice

John Mellor, CSO, Domo: The lesson learned from Adobe CEO Narayen which shaped my thinking on strategy

John Mellor, chief strategy officer at cloud business intelligence (BI) platform provider Domo, learned a valuable piece of advice on strategy from his former CEO at Adobe, Shantanu Narayen. The tip has stayed with him ever since.

"We were doing a strategy presentation one year and I had these beautiful slides I was so proud of," Mellor tells MarketingTech. "It was a good half hour, 45 minute conversation, everybody was engaged, and we got to the end and [Narayen] said 'okay, so...

16 December 2020 | Attribution

Assessing the 2021 landscape: Commerce aligned with social set to rocket as brands truly digitise

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that massive disruptions can happen overnight across industries, with customer communication responsibilities from marketing to care often falling to the social media marketing team. The trends we at Socialbakers have seen take shape this year -- from increased usage of social messaging to recruiting niche influencers to help expand social reach -- are likely to grow in the coming year as more and more customer interactions happen...

14 December 2020 | Advertising

Why social media is the fuel to boost your eCommerce business

Sponsored Social media has proven itself to be a great way of generating brand awareness, customer loyalty and satisfaction, and increasing website traffic as means of reaching new customers. With an increasing number of users making their purchases online, social media has also become an important channel for eCommerce. According to Statista, 30% of users report having purchased something through social media. 

And that’s not all. 70% of consumers read reviews of...

30 November 2020 | Commerce

Understanding changing consumer behaviours this holiday season – and how marketers can gain confidence into 2021

Arriving in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, this holiday season will undoubtedly turn out different than most. The crisis has widened consumer appetite for choice and introduced unexpected shifts in consumer behaviour. Our 2020 Holiday Season research revealed that safety and uncertainty remain dominant features of daily life, and this is altering both how consumers shop and what they plan to buy. Instead of door-busting crowds, 2020’s holiday shoppers will turn to apps and websites...

24 November 2020 | Commerce

In a year of Covid chaos, consistency and compatibility are the key watchwords for marketers

Session If you're reading this and not having a great day for whatever reason, then one surefire way to feel better is to look at 2020 prediction articles issued at the start of this year. MarketingTech's is a good example. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never in the field of marketing predictions was so much gotten wrong by so many.

Okay, it is unfair to expect marketing executives to predict a global pandemic. In one way, of course, their forecasts were right around...

11 November 2020 | Campaigns