Sustainability, social responsibility and content creation are big news in the ‘ever-evolving marketing landscape’ – to use some AI phraseology. This 2½ minute blog summarises how businesses can humanise their brand through high-quality content, embracing social responsibility and enhance their email marketing campaigns – where small is beautiful but big can be clever.
Sustainability and Social Responsibility
‘Green hushing’ is an emerging trend. This refers to the apparent under-reporting of a business’s environmental commitments due to fear of a backlash against statements they make about their environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities. It may be hard to believe in one sense but not surprising in another.
This practice may become even more likely as a consequence of the recent US presidential election, given the existential crisis that climate change presents to the future of the planet.
Back on safer ground, a business can seek to strengthen its ESG commitments in its commercial relationships by looking to attract clients who share the same values. This also impacts recruitment, with ‘Gen Z’ often more socially conscious and taking a close look at a company’s ESG activities before applying for a vacancy.
Content Creation and Humanising Brands
A content-related trend noted in the Fedora b2b guide to marketing trends (add link here?) is the need to keep providing high-quality content that shows ‘Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness’ (EEAT).
It has been reported that Google has updated its EEAT ‘Search Quality Rater’ guidelines and (thankfully) re-emphasised the value of human expertise and experience in content marketing – something AI cannot (yet) replace.Maintaining a strong human touch in your content is a strategic way to build trust and authority with your audience.
Email Marketing Evolution
The personalisation of email communication is making a comeback. This means smaller firms can act on this trend for customer retention and brand loyalty without the need for heavy investment.
For the bigger campaigns it’s all about data. If you are smart with primary data collection and event tracking, you can automate relevant emails with dynamic fields, striking a balance between the human side and technology.
Once upon a time it could be said that email was best used for customer retention communication but nowadays some of the new AI-backed email programs may well be able to create content of such relevance that, for certain industries, it will start generating enquiries.