It's all the more difficult to make yourself heard in a very noisy business environment in Romania. Every company shouts out its offers and excellence using more and more channels. That is why it is essential to know well all the relevant and effective methods to deliver your company’s message. It will help you to differentiate your business. To this end, it is useful to know the main five trends in marketing strategy.

1. Multichannel marketing

The best way of advertising or marketing available on the market now does not guarantee that it will always be the most convenient option for all companies and for all consumers. What gives rise to the need to diversify and be able to convey the same message, appropriately declined on several channels. The Intranet allows consumers to access the products, services, and brand of a company anywhere and whenever they need, with a similar experience. This plays an important role in converting the audience interest of a company into repeated buying actions.

2. Back to business planning

The marketing strategy is like the facade of the house: looks good and attracts the attention of others, but is useless without a proper foundation. No matter how good it looks, no one will be able to use it. And so when it comes to marketing. It is important for a company to have time to come up with a solid business plan, so when the marketing strategy is implemented, consumers can fully benefit from the company's products and services. No matter how innovative the future is, the 4P in the marketing mix – product, price, placement, promotion – prevails in any strategy.

3. New SEO rules

The marketing strategy results in visibility and Google is the main "supplier" in this regard. Paid advertising is a safe way for a company's product, service or brand to come to the eyes and the ears of the most interested people. This year Google made major changes to the Google Adwords algorithm. Thus, Google has integrated a number of processes to ensure that users make full use of their marketing efforts. Maintaining up-to-date SEO tactics is required to achieve results.

4. Focus on visuals

This trend continues to wake in 2019. An analysis of social media trends continues to reveal that we are a visual society. Facebook and Instagram platforms dominate visual content when it comes to target audience and engagement. These platforms are focused on images, videos, and personal stories. Even with changing the demographic profile of users to the elderly, these platforms continue to have an important share in marketing efficiency.

5. Marketing automation

Automated marketing seems to be the way to go when it comes to customer service. Companies continue to expand, and the need to provide 24x7 information and assistance continues to grow. Consumers want to have access to information and support at times and in places that are not always during the program from 9 am to 6 pm. Given the ability to program and automate customer support, any company has the chance not only to better convert but also to loyalty to existing customers.

Practical recommendations for companies:

1. When choosing any marketing tool evaluate its relevance to the specific needs of the company, beyond some fashionable features.
2. Look for growth shortcuts, but do not compromise the user experience.
3. It's easy to program a sequence of automated emails, but make sure to invest in copywriting.
4. Do not use chatbots as emergency help to mask the lack of proper UX of your website.
5. Use tagged contacts lists on topics of interest, and do not send mass blast emails.
6. Communicating on more and more channels becomes expensive. Invest in the company brand through: advertising, thought leadership, PR, events, community building.

Author: Angela Călina, Executive Director, Mind Shop      

About Mind Shop

Mind Shop is the advertising agency where ideas are born and become reality. We are a team of experienced professionals with a special passion for innovation and creative thinking. We started our journey in 2001, and over the past 18 years, we have run over 10,000 projects at local, national and European level. We have an integrated approach, offering high-quality services. We are proud of the very close collaboration we have with our customers – often, wework together as one team. We are serious, trustworthy, creative, and we are very enthusiastic about what we do. Find out more about us on: www.mindshop.ro