Making Snap Marketing Decisions

Trends are like helium balloons, they float a while and slowly collapse and end up being forgotten. While you can often anticipate major events like world cups or new season of popular series, some trends emerge out of nowhere.

Since trends are often short-lived and people lose interest in them quite quickly, here are few tips to help you capture those fleeting moments:

Make sure that a trend/event/hype is suitable for your target audience.

Sure, you may be able to link the launch of the new Game of Thrones season to food delivery or a hotel stay, but is this really suitable for a private bank? May be not. You need to evaluate and judge quickly by looking at your target audience and what the trend is about.

Look at campaigns your competitors or other companies in your business domain are doing.

Having a brilliant idea for a campaign is great! But it’s worth nothing if it was already done by somebody else, so make sure you’re not copying anyone else!

Check if it’s logistically possible to unfold a campaign fully before the trend is over.

Time isn’t the only factor here, you need to be absolutely sure that you can get your team on board as quickly as possible. Don’t forget that financial aspect of any campaign is important and budget allocations may take time.

Keep it simple.

Not all trends deserve a big budget campaign, in-fact, most don’t. But it’s still worth investing a small amount of resources to capture some of the glory. Sometimes, a simple post on social media is more than enough.

Going back to the Game of Thrones example, if you suddenly woke up to all the spoilers and only noticed that the new season rolled out on the same day, a smart way to tackle the hype is to come up with a witty social media post that links your company to the show. If you are not present on social media for some reason, a short mailer to your partners and clients will do the job. You can even theme your emails’ background and font for that day around the show.

Remember, your marketing plan should always be fluid and adaptable. So be ready!