After years of economic turmoil, slashed budgets, and heightened pressure on marketers to demonstrate ROI on their companies’ investments, industry professionals may find themselves burned out and looking for ideas to help relieve some of the everyday stressors of their jobs. But there’s relief within reach.
Being proactive and understanding the marketing challenges your business may face can help you run smoother campaigns, optimize ROI and protect your budget—and maybe even your sanity. Marketers are more likely to experience optimal success by adapting to evolving trends, staying agile and continuously monitoring the marketing landscape.
Here are the top obstacles you may face as a marketer this year—and how you can address them:
1. Leverage AI to deliver personalized experiences. Consumers increasingly expect personalized experiences, whether it’s having their name written on their coffee cup at a café or receiving curated enewsletters in their inboxes each day. To enhance your personalization efforts, consider utilizing AI to tailor your customers’ brand experience—particularly when it comes to rewards and promotions. AI can analyze your customers’ demographics, shopping behaviors and preferences to formulate offers that are relevant to them—helping ensure your campaigns successfully resonate with key audiences.
2. Align your campaigns with current consumer behavior. Marketers constantly try to craft successful promotions to capitalize on the latest shopping trends. Forecasting can be an imperfect art form, but your company’s analytics software may provide insights into what worked and what didn’t last year to inform your 2024 campaigns. For instance, our research(1) found that a staggering 92% of consumers surveyed prefer digital rebates and rewards, with the numbers being even higher for younger shoppers. If your company plans to invest in rewards, this type of intel will help make sure you tailor promotions to what consumers currently want.
3. Push past content fatigue. Last year, research(2) found that people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds—which is less than the attention span of a goldfish. We’re all inundated with phone notifications, emails and ads, which means marketers have mere seconds before a customer decides to scroll or look past your content. You can stand out in a crowded marketplace by sharing your one-of-a-kind perspective—and by offering rewards. For instance, if you’re tackling customers’ pressing questions or encouraging them to learn more about your products or services, offer incentives for everything from downloading content and demo to survey participation.
4. Pursue multi-channel marketing tactics. In the age of distraction and despite having to contend with technology like ad blocking software, marketers competing for limited attention still have multiple channels to try to reach customers. I recommend running promotions across different channels (e.g., social media, search, email, virtual reality/VR, sponsored content) to cut through the noise. Make sure you’re consistent in your campaign copy and design to create a single unified campaign look and feel, and leverage your own channels for marketing promotions, such as apps, customer emails, your website and social media. A word of caution: be certain you understand and comply with US state consumer privacy laws.
5. Assess your competition. You have to know what you’re up against when it comes to campaign challenges and roadblocks. Today’s shoppers are always on the lookout for a good deal without sacrificing quality; research(3) has found almost 33% of consumers are limiting purchases to nonessential items given the current economic climate. This is where competitive recon can help you know the quality of your competitors’ products and services, pricing and customer experience—helping you adjust your strategy to stay ahead and differentiate your offerings.
6. Highlight and promote sustainability and social responsibility initiatives. Consumers want to buy products from brands that connect with their values. For instance, research by Accenture(4) found 72% of consumers surveyed reported actively buying more environmentally friendly products. If your business has taken steps to create sustainable products or engage in social initiatives, feature them across your marketing materials. You can also give your customers rewards that espouse your company’s mission and values (like paper-based or digital gift cards that protect the environment, or gift cards that donate proceeds to charity).
7. Pay attention to your data. Many marketers struggle to demonstrate their marketing campaigns’ ROI, and it can be particularly difficult to attribute customer conversions to specific touchpoints along their journey. Measuring attribution through marketing analytics software can help better pinpoint the answers you’re looking for and track your goals more tangibly. It can also help you adjust marketing strategy mid-campaign by understanding which tactics are resonating with your target audiences along the way.
Being armed with solutions to these challenges will help maximize your 2024 marketing efforts—and can drive sales, loyalty, brand affinity, and customer engagement along the way.
(1) Next-Generation Promotions Research was conducted by Aberdeen Group on behalf of Blackhawk Network (BHN) in March 2023. The sample size included 400 respondents in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
(2) “Average Attention Span (By Age, Gender & Race), Supportive Care ABA was published by Ruben Kesherim in2023.
(3) SmartBrief: Inflation is making purchases stressful survey finds was published by SmartBrief in May 2022.
(4) “Most Consumers Want Sustainable Products and Packaging” was published in Business News Daily in 2023.
