{"id":3672,"date":"2020-12-07T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liminal.pt\/martech-magazine\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2021-08-10T17:19:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T16:19:07","slug":"marketing-trends-2021-the-year-of-humanization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liminal.pt\/martech-magazine\/en\/marketing-trends-2021-the-year-of-humanization\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Trends 2021: The Year of Humanization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The year 2020 is about to end. Looking back, it was a year of much transformation in the business world, with the need – almost forced – to transition to digital and eCommerce, due to the worldwide pandemic caused by the new coronavirus. While the 2020 trends highlighted the need for increased flexibility in organizations and the emphasis on the importance of the customer experience, over the course of the year all of these points were accelerated. According to Deloitte<\/a>‘s “2021 Global Marketing Trends<\/a>” report, in 2021 the focus will be on human experience and relationships. Discover below the main conclusions of this study and which are the main Marketing trends for 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 Marketing Trends for 2021<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1 \u2013 Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Organizations that know why they exist and who they were created for are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the post-pandemic world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crisis generated by Covid-19, has made many consumers pay more attention to the contribution each company has made to support its customers, employees, and community. In fact, according to the study, 79% of consumers memorized brands that played this active role during the pandemic, from financial institutions that deferred loan payments, to shoe companies that donated thousands of pairs of shoes to the hospital community, or even decades-old companies that changed their internal policies and processes to ensure the safety of their employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"tend\u00eancias<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When an organization’s responses to crisis are guided by a holistic purpose – connecting the company’s role in society to its long-term value – there is a clear alignment between its brand identity and a sustained commitment to all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers and the community, as well as shareholders. It is these “purpose-driven” companies that will have increasing prominence and growth in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 \u2013 Agility<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The time is right for marketers to choose the relevant digital tools and create an organizational roadmap to make agile marketing a reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2020 did not give much of a chance to organizations that had not yet faced the digital transformation: they had to do it in an accelerated way and often without any preparation for it. This is because consumers, too, have been forced to embrace the digital world – many people have experienced shopping through eCommerce stores for the first time, for example. According to Deloitte, the pandemic has caused more than half of consumers (66%) to place more importance on user-friendly technologies, and 63% say they will continue to use digital media after the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"tend\u00eancias<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On the business side, rapid and forced adaptation has also occurred. In another Deloitte study, 41% of managers said that the main result they hoped to achieve by implementing more digital technologies and platforms was to react more quickly to customer needs. For marketers this represents a defining moment. Given the rapid changes being made by customers, who increasingly value and rely on digital, it is more important than ever to accelerate – rather than strangle – investments that enable organizations to respond quickly and relevantly to customer requests. Deloitte identifies 3 trends that help make agile marketing a reality:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Have a clear picture of the market with a CRM<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The basis of agile marketing lies in the ability to have a 360\u00ba view of the customer. This requires a technological system such as CRM – Customer Relationship Management<\/a>, which aggregates all customer-related data in one place, helps map the customer journey, and can provide analytics that give a clear picture of the market and customers. To be able to draw this picture, all channels need to be integrated with the CRM – from the website and eCommerce store, to the social media and email marketing platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, let’s imagine a company that produces goods for sale to the consumer. Before implementing a CRM<\/a>, they had customer data spread across 8 different Excel tables, which were updated weekly and gathered information on various channels. By mapping the customer journey with CRM, the company was able to consolidate in one place all data regarding website interactions, app, SMS, call center and in-store transactions. It is thus able to profile each user and segment and deliver relevant messages across the entire journey to over 50 million customers – as their needs revealed themselves in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Anticipate the conversation<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By combining CRM<\/a> with “predictive detection” technology, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, it becomes possible to analyze and predict which consumers are about to do something – whether it’s buy a product or ask to speak to a sales person. Understanding these behaviors is crucial to making the moment of sale and the entire customer experience positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Ensuring that CRM has Social CRM capabilities<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In response to the pandemic, 67% of managers reported increasing their brands’ social media presence. Thus, it is increasingly important that CRM is integrated with social networks and allows to understand how customers are interacting with brand social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"tend\u00eancias<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

3 \u2013 Human Experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Organizations must see themselves as human entities that reflect – and support – the values of those they were created to serve.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to efficiency or humanizing the experience, the two worlds must be combined. If this doesn’t happen, it could be the case, for example, of sending a communication to the wrong audience, or in an unpersonalized way. However, in the rush to become more efficient in their digital solutions, many organizations have left the human experience in the background. Meanwhile, Covid-19 appeared all over the world and technology became the main channel of interaction during confinement. It was at this time that people most craved human connections. As a result, consumers focused on companies that had human-centered experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, on the business side, many companies are just looking to survive, and according to the study, many managers’ priority during the pandemic focused on productivity and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CRM,<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To solve this problem, a middle ground must be found between efficiency and human experience. Organizations must reassess and reflect on their own values to meet the needs of their customers, employees, and stakeholders. Organizations need to reinvent themselves and now is the right time to do it – rethink values, operations, and infrastructure. It is an opportunity to innovate and rebuild the human experience in a way that meets our collective needs, whether it is through solutions that benefit the whole through their value or by recreating infrastructure that meets the needs of society. To begin this reflection, you can start by answering these three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n