Marketing trends
This time each year, nature – as well as marketing – slows down as we head into colder seasons. As we enter Q4, marketing departments are preparing for a slowdown in business that comes as people tune out towards the end of the year. But, while seasonal change is expected and inevitable, this year’s economic shifts might cause some marketers to worry that this year could bring a flurry of poor numbers. As you see dips or bumps in early Q4, you might wonder, “Is my marketing department experiencing seasonality or an impact of outside events, or are our numbers solely based on the work we’ve been doing?” To help you gather evidence that proves or disproves the possibility of outside impacts in Q4, here’s a look at how businesses across industries entered the first month of it in October. About this Data: These insights are based on data aggregated
This post is a part of The Crisis of Disconnection, a thought leadership series examining the latest research and insights to uncover how businesses can meet their growth goals, even amidst unprecedented changes to the way we work. It’s no secret that reaching customers has become more challenging in recent years. Interested in going a few steps further to develop meaningful, lasting relationships? That’s an even taller order. To sustain business growth during trying times, many of us are realizing we need to reimagine how we attract, engage, and delight the communities we serve. Until recently, it’s been equally tricky to pinpoint a root cause for what feels like an uphill battle. The struggle, as they say, is real. When we zoomed out, we discovered that disconnection is widespread across internal systems, among cross-functional teams, and — increasingly — between brands and their customers. Yamini Rangan, Chief Executive Officer at HubSpot, sums
When it comes to Q4, Halloween isn’t the only spooky thing haunting marketers. In fact, the most intimidating part of Q4 is the pressure to end the year with great results, while also taking on immense annual planning to start the new year off right. And, on top of the normal stressors of Q4, businesses are also dealing with concerns about inflation, uncertain economies, and how a potential recession could impact their bottom line. As you enter an uncertain Q4, it will be helpful to gather all the hard data you need to make decisions, including research on how industries like your own have performed in the past few months. This data not only gives you insights into how you’re performing against the competition today, but it can also help you create actionable strategies that could enable you to transition from one successful year to another. In this post, we’ll
If you’ve watched the news recently, it seems that the possibility of a recession has captured everyone’s attention. Americans have already seen signs like the inflation of rent, gas prices, groceries, and other necessities that pre-existing wages can’t meet. But, still, some experts say that we could still avert a recession – and if we don’t – a recession might not last as long as 2008’s. With all these changes and newsbites in mind, business decision-makers might wonder how their potential customers are reacting. And, if their spending habits could be changing in the near future as a result? While we don’t know if we’ll head into a recession, this post aims to help brands and marketers prepare to continue to meet consumers where they are – even in uncertain times. To give readers insight on how spending behaviors are or could be shifting, we surveyed more than 200 U.S.
To be honest, Gen Z can feel like foreign territory to all. Even myself, born in 2001. Although I’m smack in the middle of the TikTok, middle-part wearing generation, I don’t always fully understand the trends we start, stop, or totally cancel. Even though I’m no genius when it comes to how to market to our generation, I can tell you it’s pretty obvious when marketers try too hard to sell to us. It often feels too forced and fake. That’s why I’m here to help! Let me debunk a few myths and predictions marketers might have made about our wild generation so that you can find the right ways to grab our attention and keep us engaged. Let’s dive right into some of those incorrect thoughts, debunk them with data from our State of Consumer Trends Survey, and discuss tips for what you can do instead. 5 Gen Z
Last summer, as physical businesses began to reopen, analysts predicted one of the largest summer slumps we’d ever seen. And, when analyzing over 130,000 businesses, we certainly saw dips in engagement and conversion that affected some industries more than others. This year, we’ve seen a lot more of the economy open back up. But, unfortunately, businesses have still worried about which direction they’re going due to the rising costs of inflation and continued economic uncertainties. At this point, many business owners could be asking, “How do I stack up to others in my industry?” To help you, we collected data from more than 150,000 businesses to see how web traffic, conversions, and inbound leads were trending up or down MoM and YoY in July. Here’s what we learned: Editor’s Note: These insights are based on data aggregated from 150,000+ HubSpot customers globally between July 2021 and July 2022. Note: Because the data
“Your next business idea, delivered weekly.” That’s our job over at Trends. And, when we say “business ideas,” we’re not just talking about businesses you can start. We’re also talking about the next idea that’s going to help business operators, including insights on emerging consumer trends they can leverage in their marketing strategies. While you’ve likely learned about some of the latest consumer trends to watch in the State of Consumer Trends Report, we wanted to dive even deeper into the future business trends we plan to follow in the coming months. Take a look at the following nine trends that we think will pop over the next six months, including NFT subscription services, virtual pop-up stores, direct mail marketing, and more. 9 Trends We’re Watching in the Coming Months 1. Gifting Forget loyalty points — gifting is the new customer retention strategy. As remote everything continues to rise, keeping
Shopping habits have drastically changed over the past few years. For instance, while most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to find great deals, we now turn to Instagram to find discounts offered by influencers. And rather than watching TV ads to find out about new products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos. Here, we’ll explore the shopping trends of 2022 to ensure you’re able to meet customers where and when they’d prefer to shop. Plus, we’ll uncover the shopping differences between generations. Let’s dive in. The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 1. Influencer recommendations matter more than recommendations from friends and family. Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend, ahead of SEO, experiential marketing
I won’t lecture you on the importance of incorporating virtual reality (VR) into your marketing strategy. What I will do, however, is share a few fun facts about VR and show you nine examples of this technology used for marketing a product or a brand. Consumer and enterprise VR market revenue is expected to reach $6.71 billion by the end of 2022, and $12.9 billion by 2024. Augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality market size worldwide is expected to jump by more than 220 billion dollars between 2021 and 2028. By the end of 2022, it is estimated that virtual reality hardware and software sales will generate more than $6.4 billion dollars in revenue. By the end of 2020, the number of VR headsets sold is predicted to reach 82 million — a 1,507% increase from 2017 predicted totals. VR is growing in its adoption, and it’s worth considering
With new marketing channels and trends constantly popping up, it can be difficult to know where your target audience actually is. Not only do you need to know where they spend their time, but also how they like to shop –- and that largely depends on their age group. To help you determine where to meet audiences where they are, we surveyed thousands of US consumers of all generations across to learn about their shopping habits, media consumption, and the latest trends they’re following. While you’ll find even more data in our State of Consumer Trends Report, we wanted to give our readers a deep dive into each generations and the unique themes that make them different. So let’s take a look at where and how each generation likes to shop — and what really impacts their purchasing decisions. We’ll get started with a quick breakdown of the shopping habits