By Jay Kulkarni, Founder and CEO, Theorem
Over the past two years, rapid changes across the marketing technology industry have pushed teams to pivot strategies to adapt quickly and efficiently. As brands look ahead to 2022 and beyond, it’s clear that the new normal is here to stay — especially in the current endemic landscape.
Because of continued bandwidth and supply chain issues, consumers will call for even more transparency from brands. Brands must enter 2022 with a future-proofing outlook and be better prepared to connect with consumers.
But what does future-proofing mean for current brands, and how can brands ensure their executives are taking the necessary steps to do so? Let’s take a look at some of the industry predictions for 2022 to help in determining what steps brands should take to enable success and scalability in the immediate future and beyond.
Automation Will Reign Supreme
Brands will see a rise in automation integration across the marketing tech (martech) industry to accommodate growth, enable scale, and significantly decrease error rates. Automation — a once-feared topic in the martech community — is now the industry’s go-to resolution, ensuring adaptability and future-proofing businesses.
Integrating automation methods is especially relevant within the publishing and streaming industries, where repetitive manual processes directly negatively impact business revenue and growth.
Beyond processes such as order-to-cash (a newcomer to publishing and media), there are countless other automation integrations that marketing teams can integrate to streamline processes and enable the scalability of their business.
For instance, creative automation allows teams to optimize marketing and advertising creatives to enhance performance and personalization while simultaneously increasing bandwidth for teams.
Data Strategies Will Adapt to Meet Market Demand
The ever-evolving data compliance regulations coupled with privacy changes brought forth by Google and Apple are working in unison to change the way data is viewed and leveraged. These shifts in compliance to privacy fuel the consumer demand for more transparency from their favorite brands. To adapt, many marketing teams are leveraging Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) to streamline collection, management and utilization across all data sources.
The imminent demise of the cookie is a significant driving force toward building innovative data solutions. As privacy regulations evolve, all marketing technology teams must be ready to provide clients and consumers the option to analyze data without putting their privacy at risk. The development of data connectivity systems and similar technologies will allow teams to connect and match data sets in a controlled and privacy-compliant manner.
In addition to adhering to privacy regulations and providing transparency to consumers, these new data aggregation solutions (CDPs) will be an integral part of enabling deeper personalization and customization that drives consumer engagement and retention for brands across the industry.
Building Relationships Will Be Key
Establishing strong relationships and consumer loyalty are two keys to a successful strategy. As the impact of the endemic market continues to evolve, strong relationships and consumer loyalty will only become more prevalent. The marketing technology industry needs to begin the new year with strategies that will ensure positive relationships and long-term loyalty among both their customers and partners.
To establish long-term loyalty, many marketing teams are creating strategies with transparency and performance at the forefront — taking into consideration elements such as consumer interaction and feedback.
Allowing customers to guide the way in terms of what type of messaging they respond to and ensuring brands the correct type of connection with their target audiences. This practice is the foundation of building trust and brand loyalty while securing customer retention.
In the same vein, brands are seeing changes across the marketing tech industry in terms of partnerships. While consumer trust and loyalty are just the beginning for marketing teams, it is imperative that brands also lean into partnerships that will grow their business and meet their ever-changing goals.
As a direct result of the pandemic, many teams had to downsize and rethink their strategies — just as companies began leveraging partners to help meet consumer demand. These budding strategic partnerships are helping brands evolve and better future-proof their businesses for what is coming in 2022 and beyond.
The overarching theme of the new endemic era for the year ahead is agility. As we anticipate what to expect in 2022 and beyond, it is clear that the ability to adapt to the ever-evolving demand of consumers will be the key to success. Brands who begin pivoting their strategies toward future-proofing their business are enabling scalability and ensuring prosperity in 2022 and for years to come.
