Future of Marketing: It's Still a Physical World Out There!

By Sritharan Vellasamy

Marketing is never done. It's always a moving target. It soars, stutters, evolves and starts all over again. Marketing functions of the future must operate with a mix of promotion, technology and most importantly, data analytics. To make the shift, marketers need to have a broad set of skills.

This means employing data analysts, digital specialists and strategists who should be considered an extension of the marketing team.?

The future of marketing will require these skillsets besides the traditional forms of brand marketing and advertising to predict customers' behaviour, predict effectiveness, and ensure that attribution to marketing activities is associated with financial outcomes.?

Why the change?

Without a doubt, the rise of digital marketing has been one of the most significantly profound innovations in business today. While traditional marketing is not necessarily dead, there is a growing realisation that it simply does not hold the same value as it once did. These days, consumers respond better to digital marketing strategies.

But wait ...

And again, as said earlier – traditional marketing may not be dead altogether. Though a few forms of conventional marketing have grown irrelevant over the years due to the Digital onslaught, there are still a few highly profitable areas of traditional marketing.

Unfortunately, many new-age marketers or organisations overlook conventional marketing methods, which can substantially hurt their business's or their client's business's success.

Some of these traditional marketing outlets include:

? TV Campaigns

? Radio Ads

? Billboards

? Trade Shows

? Flyers and Direct Mail

? Specialised content/media?

Hybrid Marketing

In the current pandemic landscape, it is almost without doubt that digital marketing is reaping in customers and profits for any adept enterprise. COVID-19 has forced all marketing activities to move to digital channels, whether organisations were ready to go "all in" on digital or not.

However, traditional marketing is still far away from its demise. In fact, it still has a sturdy advantage on some marketing fronts—and this is something professionals have yet to let go of.

Hybrid marketing refers to the hybrid between the styles of digital and traditional marketing campaigns.

Hybrid marketing enlarges the scope of marketing and allows the marketer to connect with different audiences larger, more engaging, and more meaningful.?

Digital marketing is not equivalent to digital selling. Most customers are influenced by what they see or read in the physical world, leading them to end up buying online.

The idea is to get the message through the audience's mind and ultimately sell the product or service.

The world is certainly on the move, but the world around is still physical. The people's experiences are also physical, so the marketers will have to evolve a ready mix of digital and the physical world for a better business experience. And those who fail to risk losing out in the competition.