HubSpot’s 2023 trends recommend that inbound marketing be a priority for growing brands. Inbound marketing calls for utilizing SEO, social media, blogging, influencer marketing, and viral marketing for hopes of increasing engagements and brand awareness. Inbound marketing helps a consumer decide the brands they choose to interact with rather than pushing your ads to them like outbound marketing focuses on with techniques such as TV ads, PPC (pay-per-click), display ads, trade shows, and traditional print ads. Inbound techniques are not only a great way of creating a strong brand with associated value but can help create a strong customer base with a lot of retention instead of just new lead acquisition.
A possible downside of inbound marketing is authenticity. Most Gen Z and Millennials are quite accustomed to influencers and social media promoting a company, product, or service. What comes with this inclination is somewhat of a “6th sense” for BS. We know the influencers who bought their followers and are getting paid a couple hundred bucks to promote a product they haven’t even used themselves. So, the best way to overcome this is to be authentic. This takes a much longer, focused effort to reach people who genuinely love your brand and want to share the experience with their acquaintances. This too will create more retention and a stronger customer base in the long run. Another way to do this is with real people, real customers, and everyday people who may have just tried your product or service for the first time. You may not hear everything you want to, but this will also allow ample opportunity to improve defects.
In 2015 much of the beauty industry was taking advantage of photoshop and creating false hope through their advertisements. The Dove brand opposed this and created their “Real Beauty Campaign” which showcased women of all age groups and skin colors without using the industry’s regular photoshopping which resulted in a massive success for the brand. Although this was 8 years ago, I believe this authenticity factor would only be that much more successful today in a world filled with editing and AI. As Jacob Teeny said from the Kellogg Institute “Introducing a small character flaw makes you more likable, because people can’t relate to you when you’re just all shiny and perfect”.
To summarize…
- Inbound Marketing is expected to become even higher of a priority in 2023.
- Authenticity is a must for Inbound Marketing
- Take Doves Real Beauty Campaign as an example!
To learn more visit, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends or https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/for-brands-perfection-is-out-and-authenticity-is-in.
