Gartner expects changing customer behaviors to drive brands to embrace newer engagement models.
At the annual Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo concluded recently, Jennifer Polk, vice president analyst for Gartner’s Marketing practice, said marketers must reinvent how they interact and engage with customers online and offline to create rich and immersive experiences.
B2B buyer expectations have evolved over the past few months, and marketers need to reassess how to respond to that change. Andrew Frank, vice president at Gartner’s Marketing practice, believes “Organizations’ appetite for risk will be a critical factor in reshaping brands in the years to come.â€
Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2021
Trend #1: 30% of large organizations will invest in content moderation for user-generated content
With social media and retailer platforms relying on user-generated content to build engaged communities, fraudulent reviews, malicious listings, and false content have emerged as key concerns for the C-suite.
An increasing number of content moderation service and solution providers are coming up with technologies to help enterprises automate moderation and deploy it at scale across all digital customer touchpoints.
Trend #2: Organizations will spend 1/3rd of their crisis communication budget to respond to disgruntled employees
The pandemic and societal changes have empowered employees to speak out against their employers and working conditions. From workplace safety to racial discrimination, employees have been more vocal about their concerns, and executives are taking note. According to Gartner’s research, 36% of employees reported speaking out either for or against their employer in the past year.
Also read: 4 Marketing Trends That Died Quietly in 2020
As employee activism becomes a C-suite concern, organizations need to combat negative perceptions and manage their reputation more closely than ever before. Gartner predicts that marketing leaders will need to allocate dedicated resources to address negative employee commentary and stay abreast of discrepancies between what marketers are saying and what employees are experiencing.
Trend #3: 25% of organizations will unify marketing, sales, and CX into a single function by 2025
77% of marketing leaders report that they have struggled to keep pace with their customers’ changing needs, and 87% expect shifts in customer needs to become even more common over the next few years.
Organizations may combine CX, marketing, and sales as a long-term solution to foster a culture of accountability and drive growth.
Trend #4: 60% of businesses will integrate real-time/real-space experiential elements into marketing experiences
The pandemic is proof that customer behaviors can change rapidly if there is sufficient technological infrastructure available. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, B2C and B2B customers are not moving from in-person events to virtual events; they are moving away from binary event format towards hybrid/blended experiences.
Also read: Six Overseas Marketing Trends You Should Copy
Brands have already started integrating more experiential elements into their events strategy. These elements combine the best of in-person events while offering the flexibility and safety that virtual events afford.
Trend #5: 20% of B2C revenue will come from recurring revenue models by 2025
Gartner predicts that the significant increase in subscription revenue in 2020 signals new times as consumers gravitate towards solutions and arrangements that offer convenience over costs. However, rapid commoditization of subscription-based models is likely to increase competition in an already tight market. Successful subscription brands must anticipate customer needs in advance and tailor their offerings to match their preferences.
Ultimately, it is going to come down to experience. That is incredibly important. Even though the technical complexity is growing, marketers must be adept at crafting impactful messages and communication that set them apart from their competitors.