With over 90% of the population in the UK having access to the internet, spreading the word about businesses has never been easier. Businesses now have a direct way to interact with their target buyer personas, and this has resulted in an e-commerce boom like never before. But what factors are promoting this growth in online marketing, what trends are taking over, and how can businesses position themselves to profit from the new normal? This guide has all the insights.
Online Marketing Through the Years
Online marketing has always appealed to businesses due to its low costs. Even a new business that does not have a big marketing budget can make headway in its target market by relying on proven online marketing techniques, such as jumping on social media challenges and trends. But it's not just cost that proves alluring. Marketers also enjoy the ability to craft targeted ads, measure the performance of their campaigns, get real-time insights on consumer behaviour, and build brand awareness at the tap of a button. In recent years, these and more perks have resulted in the following changes in this industry:
A Growth in E-Commerce Users
By 2024, the UK boasted over 60 million e-commerce users, with more people choosing to shop online for sheer convenience. This figure, which was 45 million in 2017, has been growing steadily over the years and is expected to continue as more businesses streamline their online shopping experiences. What's more, many businesses are choosing to focus on their online clientele and foregoing brick-and-mortar shops, which is sure to change marketing strategies in favour of online marketing.
An Increase in Digital Ad Spend
As more businesses throw their hats in this lucrative ring, digital ad spending has soared in the last decade, making the UK top among the digital ad markets in Europe. For context, the overall budget was a cool £9.6 billion in 2017, which hit £15.9 billion in 2023. Interestingly, the traditional ad spend has largely remained the same. The figure, which was £10 billion in 2017, rose to £10.8 billion by 2023, which is nowhere close to the sharp incline in the digital ad space.
What's New for Marketers
The digital ad industry is highly dynamic, and trends come and go. It's up to marketers to have their ears on the ground to know what they can use and what's no longer working. So, what trends are getting people's attention?
Advanced Personalized Marketing
In the past, a general ad was enough to get people's attention. For example, if you were selling cookies, you'd use similar marketing strategies for all your target customers. But now, such general ads do not perform well. With people seeing thousands of ads in a day, they barely pay attention to overgeneralized marketing.
UK marketers are changing this through personalization using artificial intelligence. This technology enables them to analyze their client profiles, segment their buyer personas based on interests and demographics, create marketing messages that address different pain points, and send tailored messages to their target clients. In return, they get more engagement because people can relate to the messaging, which results in less ad spend and a higher return on income.
Interactive Marketing
Remember the days when the target audience was a passive player in marketing? Marketers would come up with the messaging, and people would watch the ads and determine if they were sold on the idea. But with such little engagement, marketers had to replay the ads over and again to make them memorable.
Now, marketers are changing things by inviting the audience to be part of the ad. For example, many use polls to encourage people to participate in the discussion. Others have fun quizzes, while others present videos. These are some of the concepts that businesses can borrow to get people to do more than watch an ad in passing. Just like the case with personalization, engagement results in a higher return on income.
The Eco-Friendly Approach
While people are happy that they can order groceries, clothes, and everything in between from the comfort of their homes, they are also cognizant of their effects on the environment. More people have been putting businesses to the task of demonstrating their efforts towards environmental sustainability, which has prompted more marketers to highlight their environmental conservation efforts.
Some have done this by highlighting how they focus on raw materials sourced sustainably. Others have engaged in eco-friendly packaging. Others still have focused on CSR activities that involve environmental conservation. In a world where sustainability is going to be a main concern, any company wanting to be outstanding may have to consider similar initiatives that mirror their values.
User-generated content, already popular over the past years, keeps on rising as marketers realize that such marketing is more personalized and tends to drive higher conversion rates.