Inbound marketing is changing under the influence of social, mobile and personalization, among others. Modern solutions are growing along with it.
What does Amazon have to do with inbound marketing trends? Extraordinarily, argues marketing expert and Beeckestijn lecturer Hans van der Meulen. In fact, self-service is one of the big trends within inbound marketing, and the American tech giant does a good job of showing how to tackle it. Amazon makes it easy for customers to take care of things themselves.
Amazon Prime
Who doesn't do this will have trouble staying relevant, according to Van der Meulen. He points to Amazon Prime as a means of providing that relevance: no shipping costs, being able to watch all video and using Twitch for free. Nice for the customer, but it allows Bezos and co to bill seven billion dollars right at the beginning of the year. Plus: initial figures show that Prime holders spend several hundred dollars more per year than customers without this subscription.
Also, online, social and mobile are undeniable trends that ensure that basically every organization becomes a publisher. As a result, the battle for attention is fiercer than ever, which calls for personalization. "Personalization is also an important trend," states Van der Meulen. "Whoever wants to market something will have to tell their story in the most focused way possible and be careful not to want to sell something too directly, but focus on content that has value for the customer. This is quite a challenge given the information overload out there. And makes SEO a particularly critical factor."
Some other insights:
Although social has come of age, most people still start their online search through search;
Your own Web site remains the most important. Other platforms may suddenly change their rules;
Two out of three teens buy something online, and more than half do it on their phones;
27 percent of Internet users still only use their phones. So think about your speed;
Range is one thing, but how do you hit someone? Think carefully about your message, how do you convince? What does the person actually see?
There is no right or wrong. Keep A/B testing and seeing how things work.
