5 Predictions Set to Shape Up The Industry

Getting out of your comfort zone is of resounding value in the marketing space. You can’t be too risk-averse; you may have to do things that your competitors are shying away from. Marketing is always an evolving industry encompassing skills, strategies, and trends.

One of those trends points to the industry outgrowing traditional marketing and gearing toward growth marketing. It’s still about engaging your customers and target audience, but the advent of technology, data analytics, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) has provided more opportunities for growth marketing to “grow” in a sense.

Having said that, there is much to look forward to in this industry. With a unique focus on evolving customer preferences, everything is set for growth marketing to take the next step. If you’re a marketer or a customer, taking note of these five growth marketing predictions could go a long way in helping you achieve your individual goals.

1. Using AI as a tool, not a competitor

When ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) was introduced to public use in 2022, an immediate prediction was that AI would eventually take over the market. ChatGPT’s language processing power was unprecedented, giving us a glimpse of AI’s endless capabilities when fully launched.

But if you see AI as a tool, not a competitor, it becomes a powerful aide that will make things easier. That’s particularly true in the growth marketing space, where AI’s use cases include data collection and analysis, automated decision-making, success measurement, and campaign optimization among many others.

To give you a broader picture of how influential AI could be, here’s a sneak peek: the value of AI in marketing will increase to about $107.5 billion by 2028. It’s a gigantic projected value, but who can put a price on the limitless possibilities that come with AI?

2. Tapping into the influencer base

For years now, almost every brand has been taking advantage of the reach and engagement they get from social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter — these social media platforms give businesses free opportunities to grow their reach.

To take the next step, these brands are now seeing the marketing potential of “influencers”. As people who have built prominence and reputation on social media, these influencers wield a persuasive gravity that could convince potential customers to buy products or services from a specific brand.

In a collaborative effort to boost brand awareness, growth marketing is now tapping into the influencer base. It’s not just in theory; nearly 90% of marketers say that influencer marketing is a new marketing strategy that will bring in positive results.

Of course, influencer marketing is not always a home run of a strategy. To make the most out of this approach, make sure that the influencer you’re collaborating with is a reliable source of information in your niche. If your business is inclined towards sports, it’s best to partner with an athlete or fitness enthusiast.

3. Getting word-of-mouth value via your customer service

Since the first business was first put up centuries ago, customer service or support has been part of people’s lives. Customers may not always be right, but it’s important for businesses to listen to the needs and feedback of their consumer base.

Valuing customers’ opinions will encourage these people to trust your brand. As they develop a high level of trust in your products and services, they will also become loyal to you. Their trust and loyalty will then encourage them to recommend your brand to their family and friends.

Building trust through dedicated customer service is an organic way of growing your customer base. In today’s digital era where even the smallest issues and conflicts become big news, one faulty response to an inquiry could quickly strip your brand of both current and potential customers.

The value of word-of-mouth is still unprecedented in growth marketing, and your approach to customer service is one of the driving factors in this trend.

4. Taking full advantage of referral marketing

Another way to generate word-of-mouth growth is through building a referral program. Structured around offering rewards and incentives for successful referrals, a creatively-crafted referral program could help diversify the customer base of a business.

Creating a referral program from scratch could be tricky and time-consuming. Don’t worry, though; there are tons of referral program templates on the Internet that you could use. Whether you want to code your own referral program or use a ready-made software, these templates could help you out.

5. Crafting trendy content in the form of short videos

Short-form videos are the future — just take a look at how TikTok is taking over the social media space. You also have Instagram, where the short-form Reels have the highest reach and average engagement rate on the platform.

With users aiming to consume more content than ever, engaging in short-form videos will get them moving from one content to another in the quickest way possible. This is one of the reasons why short-form videos pack the highest ROI (Return on Investment) among other types of content.

Conclusion

The future of growth marketing is poised for exciting developments. Embracing risk-taking and staying ahead of competitors is key in this ever-evolving industry.

These five predictions are set to shape growth marketing:

• The use of AI as a powerful tool.
• Leveraging influencers to expand brand reach.
• Harnessing the value of customer service for word-of-mouth marketing.
• Implementing referral programs for organic growth.
• Crafting trendy short-form video content.

By adapting to these predictions, you can achieve your business goals in this dynamic day and age.