The Importance of Using Trends in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing will always be defined by change. Change in consumer behaviors, changes in technology and changes on social media platforms that are constantly updating their algorithms means change is occurring. These changes create trends, which greatly influence how brands interact with their audiences. Trends have become very important for digital marketers – trends are not a nice to have or something that is tacked on to a campaign and forgotten. Trends have now become part of the core of any digital marketing strategy.
If a brand is willing to lean into a trend, and use that trend to their advantage, there are immense opportunities to remain relevant, build awareness, engender emotional connections to their audience, and ultimately produce measurable results. We will reflect on why it’s important to follow – and use – trends, and how to do it properly.
1. Trends are beneficial to your brand.
In the digital world, relevance is your currency. If your content appears to be irrelevant, or isolated from what is happening in the world at that exact moment, you risk losing engagement and the viewer will scroll past, and likely never again think of it. When brands make use of trends in topics, formats, or challenges in their marketing, they are creating trust that your brand can be a part of a much bigger conversation.
For example: If a TikTok dance-type challenge is trending or ‘going viral’, or an Instagram Reels trend is happening, the brands who partake in the trend are receiving the biggest bang for their buck for visibility for their branding/marketing efforts. Even the serious/corporate persona companies can still get in on the fun by figuring out how to make it relevant to their values/tone. Relevance can be relevant in any niche.
Why this works:
– Audiences are naturally curious about what is trending or relevant.
– It shows audiences that you are utilizing a trend, and you are demonstrating that your brand is engaged, and aware.
– It creates new opportunities for organic discovery through the use of hashtags & recommendations from the platform
2. Trends Boost Engagement Rates
Social media algorithms usually favor trending content. When you take advantage of a trend, your content will usually receive more engagement in the way of views and shares. That will allow for more engagement and likes, comments, shares, and saves, all which are signals to the platform that your content has value.
For example, Instagram’s “Add Yours” sticker, or YouTube Shorts challenges, will trend for a few weeks and people who adopt the format early will gain engagement, since the platform really wants to promote things that are new to the feature/platform.
The bottom line: Use trends early and ride a wave of additional engagement (unless you’ve spotted the trend, too, is oversaturated).
3. Trends Humanize Your Brand
In a world where audiences are searching for genuine experiences, trends offer brands a way to show off the lighter, fun side of their brand. Even B2B brands can leverage meme culture, pop culture references and sound bites to help take the edge off and build a human relationship with people.
For example, brands can help people relate to them by leaning into the trending memes as something funny while providing a pun or witty interaction that they want to share and engage with.
Pro Tip: Make sure your trend fits within your brand voice. If you are struggling to fit within silly trends, you are probably only going to create awkward brand moments and lose credibility.
4. Trends Can Lead to Viral Marketing Possibilities
In recent years, a number of great viral campaigns have happened, and many of them happened by simply being creative and implementing an existing trend. The Oreo tweet from the 2013 Super Bowl blackout – “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” – was instantly successful for Oreos, mostly because their team’s quickness was able to capitalize on the critical moment of relevance.
Finding valuable, relevant moments like this can raise brand awareness and extend your reach outside of just your normal follower audiences. And the two things that will matter most in whether or not you achieve a viral moment is the element of speed and creativity…. you need to recognize the relevant moment early enough to create something that is differentiated and grabs attention!
5.Trends Reveal Insights into Consumer Behavior
Trends are no accident. Trends often signify deeper movement in audience preferences, cultural attitudes, and technology. By looking at trends, you can provide a window into your customers’ interests, and contemplate those into your marketing approaches.
For example:
A rise in sustainability hashtags indicates an increase in eco-awareness.
A rise in “day-in-the-life” Reels indicates a consumer interest in authenticity.
The rise of short-form video suggests a shift toward snackable content.
There are implications from interpreting trends to make more empirical decisions regarding content formats, messaging, and timing of campaigns.
6. Trends Assist You in Leveraging the most from the Features of the Platform.
Social media platforms encourage new features with algorithmic boosts; when Instagram launched Reels, content using that format had a substantially wider reach than conventional posts. Similarly, LinkedIn often promotes polls and carousel posts when they first roll out.
If you jump on the trend fast, you can leverage the features for additional free © exposure, which is a great approach for marketers with small budgets.
7. Don’t get left behind
Your competition is also keeping up with trends. If they take trends and you do not, you risk losing out on the conversation. In fact, most industries are hyper-competitive, and the first company to align with a trend has a distinct advantage over the competition.
This does not call for copying – you want to be unique. But knowing your trends keeps you engaged with and capturing your audience at the most opportune time to listen.
8. Use Trends in Digital Marketing Wisely
While trends can be extremely useful, use caution when utilizing them. Here’s how to capitalize on trends:
a) Always Be Aware of Trends
Use Google, don’t simply accept SEO as the rule, use Exploding Topics, leverage social listening tools to find out what is trending, track hashtags that have relevance to your brand. Be involved in online communities that relate to your niche.
b) Move Quickly
Most trends fizzle out very quickly, and if you wait too long, you will suck all the trend’s steam out of the project. You want to create and publish your content and piece while still riding that wave of the trend for easier engagement.
c) Put Your Own Spin on It
There is easy and there is idiotic — if you only copy the trend, you will lose your audience in the crowd. Put your brand’s style, tone and vibe on it. That is what makes your take on the trend going to be entertaining or memorable — originality.
d) Don’t Force It
Some trends will simply not be matt for your brand to engage with. Pick a trend that is going to organically fit to your values and messaging capability to maintain your credibility.
e) Measure It
Find out if the trend expanded our reach, engagement, site clicks and conversions on your website. Measuring will also help provide more points towards our data-driven insight and assessment of your next campaign.
9. Brands Winning with Trends
Netflix – Takes trending memes and cultural moments and finds a relatable way to promote the shows.
Dunkin’ – Works with trending influencers and participates in viral TikTok challenges.
Ryanair – Plays off TikTok trends, using humor and self-awareness which makes airline marketing somehow entertaining.
These brands find success in spotting trends and consistently making them their own.
10. The Dangers of Ignoring Trends
If your brand frequently ignores trends, you are at risk of being out of date. While this may be a concern limited to the digital space, your audiences will likely view you as out of date, while brands that are more timely and engaging will dominate and bury your posts. Being in competitive markets with a focus on brand awareness and reach means that even inaction can lead to the introduction of a new competitor, or at the least declining reach over time.
Final Thoughts
In digital marketing, trends can be seen as more than simply “why is this happening?” They represent something so much greater, they represent opportunities for brands to stay relevant, connect with audiences, and ultimately create more visibility on digital platforms. The process is fairly simple, monitor trends consistently, know when to act, created adaptations of those trends, and measure results.
Using trends is not just about being “part of the moment”, you are deliberately contributing to the way in which people view your brand within a modern version of the digital world. In an environment in which attention spans are shorter than ever, and competition is at an all-time high, veering into a trend can be just the move your brand needs.