A seasoned online marketer once said the next big marketing challenge would be overcoming predictability. 

He was darn right! 

How does predictability hurt?

Every time a buyer makes a buying decision, a brand gets benefited. Brands do their best to influence this buying decision. Strategies becoming predictable means a brand is getting stuck in the outdated techniques. 

This is how predictability hurts. It’s something a brand can never put up with. In this article, let’s take a look at a few recommended strategies that can help marketers overcome the predictability challenge. These are recommended by a professional Columbia web designer. 

Predictability on social media

When it comes to social media, quantity has little to do with quality. Some online marketers advise brands to increase their presence across multiple social networks. It does make sense because the audience is scattered. But a brand should prioritize consolidating its presence on two or three networks that bring the majority of traffic. 

For example, Twitter or Tumblr are chiefly for content curation. To showcase some appealing works, target Facebook and Pinterest. Keep thinking new ways to entice users on these two networks, and see the results that they are bringing. 

Micro level marketing 

An article by Cindy King on Social Media Examiner explained how scores of micro-opportunity windows are created every day, every hour and every minute, and how we fail to see them. Even though her tips were for the B2B vertical, the idea applies to the B2C framework as well. 

Micro level marketing gives an online marketer an edge. He doesn’t market his products/services to a nameless crowd, but to individuals, whom he could identify by their driving licenses and social security numbers. What he needs for that are email ids, customer details, device specifications, etc. Unless his marketing strategy includes these specifications, it’s not comprehensive. 

Anonymity helps

Sounds ridiculous, isn’t it? But it can help a brand. To market a product or a service, a brand needs to get close to users. Anonymity helps them in this pursuit. 

Imagine Ford or Motorola wants your feedback on a particular product. You’ll hesitate and probably conceal what you really feel about it. But what if it’s just a John Doe? You’d speak your mind then. Staying anonymous helps a brand get an idea of what users really feel about it.

Facebook has been giving support to a platform called Tor; it’s an open-source platform, which allows users to suppress their true identities. Not only their locations or identity details, but they can hide their browsing history too. Harnessing such platforms can enable brands to get closer to users and make their campaigns personalized and user-focused. 

Shopping is here

Social commerce was a leading trend in 2014. In 2015, it has given way to something totally new. According to reports, Twitter and Facebook have already beta-tested the buy-button, which will allow users to buy something right from his news feed or chat window.

As the integration between social media and e-commerce is deepening, the ballpark for brands is becoming narrow. Brands need to discover similar crossroads where social media’s integration with upselling and cross-selling factors deepens. This way, they won’t have to spend gigantic amounts in marketing and still increase the sale. 

Decrease reliance on Google

It may surprise you, but you need to be less dependent on the search engine giant. That’s because the latest updates that Google is bringing may give you trouble. In my previous article, I described how the Panda 4.2 rollout may affect the online retail sites by affecting search queries in English language. 

I don’t encourage you to do anything spammy, but I recommend two things; 

• Don’t put all your eggs into one basket (SEO in this case). 
• Discover the territories of web that’s beyond Google. 

These tips will help you in the long run as you will focus on brand building and don’t consider keyword ranking as a matter of life and death. 

Real time marketing

Users don’t expect brands to respond in real time. What if brands do respond to users in real time? They’d get an edge for sure. Real time marketing or agile marketing is all about putting the right content to users at right time and getting the right reaction from them. This technique is already in use, the #Bendgate tweet by KitKat is an example of agile marketing. 

Follow them

It’s almost 2022 now and brands are deconstructing the said techniques. I recommend you to do the same. Keep your eyes open so you could spot any change and redesign your campaigns.