As the world grows and technology advances, so do trends in marketing. Brands seeking to best their competition will need to keep up with these trends too. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top marketing trends of 2022 and how sampling can support them. We can help facilitate your business in achieving best-in-class marketing, and here’s how…
Experiential eCommerce
Experiential eCommerce is a strategy that creates user interaction / participation through virtualised online shopping experiences. This type of strategy will soon become essential to businesses selling online. Particularly for those selling items that may require trying the product before purchasing. In the beauty industry, for example, many brands are now developing ‘virtual try on’ augmented reality (AR) technology. This essentially involves the user uploading a picture of themselves or using their camera to allow the product to be visualised on screen on their skin.
An additional layer could be added to experiences such as this by including sampling. This will tempt the user with a virtual try on, then enable them to try the product for real. As part of their sampling, consumers receive bespoke communications and packaging to go alongside their sample, to surprise, delight and also educate them on its key features. All of these communications will include links to your D2C, pushing the consumer back into the purchase funnel.
Long term influencer partnerships
Influencer expertise and credibility has led to the rise in this form of marketing. Brands have the opportunity to build more authentic connections with consumers by leveraging longer-term partnerships with their influencers. The expertise of influencers can help brands to build awareness of their products and their benefits. To add an additional layer to this, why not include a sample offering? This will enable consumers to try and experience the product themselves before committing to a full-sized purchase. Additionally, it’ll also provide ample opportunity for collecting first party data for your CRM. The influencer can then engage their followers with questions around their experience of sampling the product, creating a more mutual experience.
Growing your first party database
We still have some time until Google phases out third party cookies. Brands that can effectively grow their first party database with rich data will be in a stronger position when this time comes. Even without the cookie phase out, third party data can help to drive personalisation and relevance. Campaigns run through Sampl gather rich first party data and provide insights into consumer behaviour. This will enable better personalisation and relevance when cookies are no longer the ‘go to’ for this type of activity.
Expanding digital presence to support social commerce
According to the CEO of skincare brand Plant Mother, Jena Joyce, they saw a 100% increase in revenue and a 1280% increase in referral traffic after launching an Instagram shop in November 2021. This coupled with the rise of TikTok and influencer marketing shows that social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. On average, global users spend 2h 27m on social media every day. With more than half the world (58.4%) using social media, this is a fantastic opportunity to grow online sales. Sometimes people do need to try a product first, so sampling still plays a big role. To enable this, integrate a sampling offering into your ads. This will help to support engagement rates with a more enticing offering, as well as organic growth by introducing new consumers to the brand.
Sustainability
Sustainability is arguably the hottest topic right now, with 1 in 3 consumers saying they have stopped buying from brands about which they have sustainability or ethical concerns. At the same time, retailers are increasing pressure on brands to be more sustainable, such as with Tesco stopping stocking baby wipes which contain plastics. Whilst mass sampling can be rather wasteful, online sampling mechanics is far more sustainable and can be a great way to highlight your sustainability credentials to consumers. Sampling to more precisely targeted groups of consumers, using plastic-free, biodegradable packaging sourced from sustainable forests and even offsetting the carbon produced through the entirety of your sampling campaigns are just some of the ways you can highlight your net-zero strategy whilst attracting new audiences to your brand.
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