Trend-savvy #digitalmarketing agencies help companies stay competitive and reach customers in innovative ways without overworking the #CMO.

 

What a headache! Company “A” has always thought of itself as a leader in its industry. But lately, Company “B” is gaining more business.

What has B got that we need, Company A’s leaders ask each other. The answer may be a digital marketing agency that helps companies keep up with changing trends.

Digital and Social Friendliness

Customers expect easy and consistent access to company services and information whether telephoning, walking in the actual door or navigating a detailed website by computer or mobile devices.

Also, even if your website shines on computer and mobile devices, potential customers may not find it if you aren’t active on social media. A friendly, useful presence on many social media sites is almost as important as the digitally friendly (easy to use) nature of your website, marketing emails and online collateral, such as whitepapers.

But keeping up with digital marketing change and trends for promoting brand can dominate time needed for other management issues.

Industry-Relevant Marketer

What you also need is a digital marketing agency that understands your industry. An industry-relevant agency is experienced at representing many industries in varying ways. One size of communication practices doesn’t fit all.

Another way to measure whether a digital agency is the right one for you is to note whether it invests in plenty of research and analysis to back up its marketing recommendations.

A digital marketing agency that knows your industry, or is expert at getting to know new businesses, can aid you in surpassing the competition. Its team can help you test, measure and compare response to all your marketing efforts, including social media and email campaigns.

Trend Know-It-Alls

To find new ways to get the word out about your organization, you need to toss aside any prejudice you may have about know-it-all types. Effective digital marketing agencies are full of trend know-it-alls who help you find your way through the latest marketing methods.

Trend know-it-alls understand the customer journey toward information and conversions. They understand what kinds of communication abilities customers of all ages expect from your business and what it takes to get customers in your door and coming back for more.

Piggybacking on the popularity of digital games is one fresh advertising trend. The summer 2016 mobile app Pokémon Go has become a wildly popular way to get consumers in the door at many kinds of businesses and organizations such as libraries and museums. It’s based on finding and conquering Pokémon cartoon characters lurking in real places.

Don’t wait to stumble on trends. A digital marketing agency can help you cash in while trends are fresh.

Creative Storytellers

You need a digital marketing agency that can pitch any story creatively. One increasingly successful technique is visual storytelling, which tells your organization’s story with tools such as photo slideshows, infographics and videos.

Hubspot recently noted that content containing “relevant images” receives 94 percent more views than information without.

To pitch creatively requires a digital marketing team that understands media consumption, how consumers expect to be treated, what’s trending and how to align these three elements in marketing campaigns.

Interactive storytelling is a particularly hot trend. An example is the Skittles’ Touch the Rainbow  series. Each video instructs viewers to place a finger on a single candy on the screen and promises that something special will happen. In one, a cat and a strange half feline/half human creature lick the viewer’s finger because it’s “so delicious.”

Of course, visual storytelling doesn’t have to be dramatic. Interactive screens and computer pads set up in public places, such as airports, are becoming more common for attracting viewers to catalogs and PR presentations. They are one of the many ways a digital marketing agency can help you “touch” the customer.

A Creative Team with Powerful Tools

A great digital marketing team has powerful tools and a powerful creative team.

Tools should include a powerful digital platform that runs many kinds of software and supports real-time gathering and analysis of the big data necessary to understand consumers.

The team needs to encompass a broad range of professionals, including brand strategists, copywriters, data analysts, directors, producers, copywriters, graphic artists, voice-over talent and a highly organized project manager.

A great digital marketing agency creates compelling communications for all the stories you need to tell. It gets you on track with new trends and, above all else, keeps you in the race.

 

Posted by Melissa Mullen, Strategic Account Manager at initiate-it, a digital first, full-service agency in Richmond, Virginia. She’s dabbled between agencies (both in and outside the U.S.) with clients focusing on some of her favorite subjects: research, consumer trends, competitive landscapes, and future marketing strategies.