I know that half of my advertising is wasted money. I just don't know which half. Henry Ford

Every year...... budget planning is on the agenda. Marketing managers and decision-makers are asking themselves whether they should continue to rely on the old familiar measures or whether, against the background of rapid digital development, they should increasingly test and establish new channels? Especially sustainable companies that rely on green marketing should take a closer look at the most important trends.

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The end of loyalty

As an entrepreneur, strategist and founder, you fight every day to gain the attention of your customers. However, you know from your own experience that attention is a precious commodity in short supply. There are simply too many advertising messages pelting at us and, like most people, we struggle to protect our privacy and consume only relevant information. Relevance in this context means that a product or service helps me achieve "my" goals or fulfil "my" desires.

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When you think about marketing your brand you should always ask yourself one important question. "Can this type of marketing really be relevant and important to my client? Can my marketing help my customer?

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The barrier to entry for creating web-based content is now almost zero. Every smartphone user is a potential publisher. This has led to an explosion of arbitrary content over the last few years, making it increasingly difficult for us to get our product through to the customer.

• Ads are sorted out by adblockers
• the open rates of our email newsletters are decreasing while at the same time the prices for Adwords and paid advertising are increasing.
• Many people feel overwhelmed by the flood of information and generally block out advertising

To reach our customers we have to adapt to the circumstances. We are forced to act and be relevant.

Advertising Annoys

First ask yourself whether your communication really offers your target customers added value. Are you offering a real solution to a customer's problem, or do you just want to stay "in the conversation" or raise your profile? From your customers' point of view, it is important to block irrelevant attention grabbers and to pursue your own problems and goals - everything else is consistently ignored.

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What is becoming important for green marketing

After a lot of budgets were shifted from Google to Facebook during the last years, there are some innovations to keep an eye on. Today we present our 5 favourites.

Marketing along the customer journey.

The term "customer journey" probably has a good chance of winning the buzzword title. During the relevant marketing conferences, hardly a speaker could do without this term. Yet the word describes a simple fact. Visitors to a website are not the same but are at different stages of their specific customer journey. There are "cold" first-time visitors and "warm" prospects who already know your product or service. However, your best chance of success is with "hot" repeat customers who have already bought your product. Did you know that a very small percentage of visitors to your website (about 8%) are responsible for 90% of your sales, which is exactly why you should tailor your marketing efforts to the different customer needs of this journey?

Storytelling for sustainable brands

When it comes to talking about your business, many sustainable entrepreneurs are so close to their own business that they don't know where to start. Good storytelling helps people tell their story in a way that potential customers will listen to. We all know how difficult it is to communicate clearly and simply. If you simplify your company's message, your website will work better, your team will have an easier time selling your products and, in the best case, your story will spread.

Audio instead of interruption

Siri, Alexa or Cortana, interaction by voice is one of the big topics of the future. But it is not only active use via voice that is on the rise, podcasts are also experiencing an upswing. But what distinguishes podcasts (audio content) from the written word or video content? The big difference lies in the simple fact that audio content can be consumed passively. During a car journey or any other activity, it is pleasant and easy to follow well-made audio content (that's why radio is still so successful). Video and/or written content, on the other hand, requires all our concentration and therefore our valuable time. Think about creating specific audio content for your business that can be helpful and valuable to your customers. The technical implementation has become very easy and the availability has increased massively due to the intensive use of smartphones.

Brand as a media house

A good product alone is usually not enough. Our target customers need to know that we exist. Therefore, we need the attention of our target customers. Since there are far too many brands and products vying for our attention, it is usually not the brand that delivers the best product that wins, but the one that is most successful in gaining this attention. The recipe for success is therefore: good product + ability to attract attention = success.

Therefore, we need to understand what our customers are really interested in. (Sustainable brands have a big advantage here because a lot of people are interested in green issues and sustainability).

Based on these interests, we should create our content. (Many companies do not understand this simple fact. They assume that consumers are interested in the brand) Based on the customers' interests, they should create content and distribute it through different channels (media). Media companies have become very successful over many years in creating and distributing content. The tools that media professionals use to create this content have become affordable for everyone over the last few years. From the TV studio, to the radio station or the publisher. All these channels are now available to everyone via smartphones and computers.

Chatbots and marketing via Messenger

When we think about attention, we should also think about where our users spend their time (and thus their attention). In digital times, these preferences change very often. Until a few years ago, email was the dominant channel. This was followed by social media platforms like Facebook. Today, if you take a look around any subway, you will notice it. People spend a lot of time in so-called messenger apps such as Whats App or Facebook Messenger. Against this background, emails have become a secondary matter. It takes much longer to reply and is much more complex than quick 1-to-1 communication. If you are now wondering how you can include Messenger in your marketing mix, you should take a look at Wechat from China. The popular messenger service is anticipating our future and allows users to shop, book restaurants and much more directly via messenger. In this article you can download an overview of the use of Wechat. Another phenomenon are so-called chatbots. With the advent of AI (artificial intelligence) systems, these text-based dialogue systems are becoming more and more powerful. Especially the use as helpdesk and service bot is promising. If you are wondering whether this is not just a dream of the future, you should take a look at the free chatbot called Kit. Kit is available free of charge to operators of Shopify Ecommerce stores. As a virtual employee, Kit connects to various areas of your online shop and recommends actions via Messenger that should generate sales for you. Kit creates Facebook ads and fixes broken links, it recommends and creates Facebook updates when a customer leaves a positive review.

No matter what measures you plan for the coming year, keep your customers and their wishes in mind. Only then will your message get through and be successful.