December is a great time to take stock of your marketing. You had a plan for your business or organisation in 2016 and by taking a critical look at the past 12 months you can make sure that your 2017 Marketing is even better.
Whether your plan was to launch a new product, consolidate your sales portfolio or indeed increase brand awareness, you would have engaged in some form of marketing.
And only by assessing your past year’s performance and what worked and what didn’t, will you be able to make a step-change in 2017.
Here’s is some top tips to elevate your marketing efforts in 2017.
- Mobile First
The year past taught us a lot about how quickly marketing is changing and if you haven’t been under a rock, you will know how important mobile is.
More and more people, even the silver surfers, are going online via mobile devices. And if you are optimised for mobile you are missing a trick.
- Interactive content
We are in the business of engagement. It is all well and good putting together a marketing strategy, but without actual engagement that really touches and resonates with your target audiences, your brand and business won’t grow.
People don’t just want to read about your products, they want to engage with it, but can only do so if you give them touch-points and the tools to do so – interact through polls, surveys, infographics, videos and competitions as well as in real life…
- Engaging, digital-savvy events
Breaking the internet might not be possible, but your events should be immersive experiences that attendees feel they must share online.
Don’t just think of an event as a stand-alone activity, rather as a way to start the conversation with attendees and engage them in an immersive brand experience that they won’t forget.
And then, reinforce the brand memory by following up and sharing “digital” memories with attendees that were collected in-event, thus extending the life of your event.
- Mobile Video and Live Streaming
We are now in the age of mobile video. You only need to look at your Facebook page to see this. And when it comes to live streaming, there is no limit on how you can push your brand to target audiences.
Live streaming works for your events where you can build excitement around future event and also better engage with attendees.
Video allows you to connect with audiences and convey emotions and brand messaging in a totally different way to a story posted online.
Video connects immediately to the viewer, conveying emotion and a message that often is far more memorable than static words in a newsfeed.
Look at Instagram’s integration of a live stream option into its’ Stories and Facebook Live – which will allow anyone to create content, from virtually anywhere – and that means you too – so think of the possibilities for 2017.
- Personal
Never ever forget the person in your marketing. You are trying to connect and must always segment your content to reach different types of audience members based on their preferences, habits, etc. In such a busy world of messages, news and noise, by keeping it personal your brand will stand out.
- Augmented Reality
You might not have played it, but you couldn’t avoid all the hype around Pokémon Go. 2017 will be big for augmented reality with gamified marketing that drives real business results.
Here at Lumina we have exclusive rights to augmented reality technology which we can customise to fit your marketing requirements and enhance your brand activations and events. So treat your event guests to a virtual meet and great with a local celebrity or brand ambassador and in return they will reward you with increasing your online footprint and making noise about your brand or product for you!
- And finally
As we are taking stock…don’t forget to measure and constantly assess. Don’t just focus on views or clicks, look for return on your investment through other measures such as sign-ups, downloads and purchases, that you can attribute to your activity.
The future is bright and by choosing the right technology, tools and tricks your business could engage and reach new and current customers in a more creative and meaningful way.
Lumina is the leading provider of corporate event activities that utilise photography and video in Ireland. Our events are always the first to have the latest technology. We already have best Magic Mirror, and the latest portable Gif Station technologies and 3D and immersive 360 degree augmented booths. Consumer engagement is our specialty, and we always deliver truly memorable and engaging interactive experiences suitable for any event.
Elevate your marketing in 2017, contact our creative team for ideas and inspiration today.
