How do I advertise in the 21st century?

As I have stated in a previous blog post, platforms like TikTok have rapidly gained popularity globally and has completely changed how marketers and brands advertise in the 21st century. That got me thinking, how else has marketing and advertising had to adapt in this fast paced online environment? What are the new techniques that are being used by marketers to reach their audience?

Getting in the mind of the consumer:

Ever since the internet took such a fundamental hold on the global economy and our lives in general, advertisers have been able to interpret data in a completely new way to perform much more targeted advertising to specific people, adding a completely new meaning to "giving the consumer what they want". Your online footprint constantly leaves data for companies to mine and analyse, meaning that now more than ever, privacy is becoming more of an ideology than a human right. We are all consumers, and as consumers we have all had the scary realisation that software like Siri is listening to conversations and directing advertising accordingly. An excellent example of this kind of cognitive, targeted advertising is Facebook. Facebook are leaders of taking everyday data from users scrolling through their feeds. Data is collected on things you like, comment on, watch, how long you watch and even what profiles you visit. All this information allows Facebook to direct advertising in the form of sponsored content, videos, photos and much more. This is rapidly making many other kinds of advertising and marketing obsolete as this direct, data driven approach is changing the way we advertise.

Email marketing:

This next one may come as a shock to many readers who think "who reads emails any more, all ads can be put right into spam how is this effective at all?". Well, funnily enough, it is still one of the most prominent and effective advertising techniques in 2020. According to a HubSpot poll, 78% of people un-subscribed from company emails because of the volume of promotions and deals that were being sent to their inboxes. Email marketing however is far more than just spam. Subscription based company emails like company news letters have proven effective. There is one factor that sets email marketing apart from other forms of social media marketing however. Research done by the channel preferences survey found that 91% of people check their emails at least once a day and also people prefer to receive business deals and endeavours of companies because it seems more personalised instead of appearing on someones social media feed, its less invasive. To add to this, 92% of internet users had an email account whereas not all internet users have a social media account, meaning a larger customer base.

These two advertising methods are, from my research, some of the most interesting techniques currently being used. I feel that all who read this have been influenced by at least one of these methods repeatedly and will continue to do so. Marketing is an ever evolving beast and it is amazing to see the lengths advertising firms will go to to promote a product.

References:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/advertising

https://digitalagencynetwork.com/email-marketing-still-effective-strategy/#:~:text=Email%20marketing%20is%20up%20to,faster%20than%20in%20social%20media.&text=According%20to%20the%20Fourth%20Source,at%20least%20one%20email%20account.