Blueprint for Future Marketing: 5 Behaviors You Must Embrace Right Now

Patrick McFadden

While it’s impossible to see the future, it is possible to prepare for it.

Customer experience, Big data, Content marketing, Digital media, Inbound marketing, Inbound selling, these are just some of the elements that are involved in the future of marketing.


So how can marketers use all of this to better engage with customers? In a way that generates long-term loyalty? And builds business results?

By acknowledging that the future of marketing is about organizing behavior. To understand how to use or improve any marketing initiative, you first have to understand how your current customers behave.


In my opinion this is the formula for evaluating any new technology or platform. When you take into consideration what you’re already doing that works and ask how you can use new technology or platforms to do more of that, you’ll rarely get caught up in the shiny object syndrome.


  • To create a better customer experience you need to address the behavior that customers want to have at every touchpoint.
  • To effectively use big data you need to address visitors based on their actual behavior.
  • To employ content marketing successfully you need to match different kinds of content with the behaviors of customers in the life cycle.


Today, marketing is about guiding buyers on a journey they want to take and identifying the core behaviors they desperately want to experience on their way to becoming loyal customers. Organizations that understand this and create and organize opportunities for people to experience these behaviors at any point along the customer lifecycle will win.


5 Behaviors You Must Embrace Right Now

Below are five behaviors you can no longer ignore as they’ve become universal across industries and demographics in the way buyers want to behave:


  • Permission  – Customers seek to give permission to companies they want to engage with, anticipating personalized and relevant messages. Marketers must view this as the privilege of connecting with receptive audiences who actively seek their offerings.
  • Educate  – They want to learn more about the companies that might be addressing their needs. Shopping is inherently an educational activity for buyers, who seek information to make informed decisions. Marketers must recognize the role of educating customers, providing valuable insights and resources to facilitate decision-making processes.
  • Trust – They want to see others they relate to have come to trust certain organizations. Seth Godin famously said, “What would change the mind of many people resistant to evidence is a series of eager testimonials.” Customers value testimonials and endorsements from peers, underscoring the importance of trust in purchasing decisions. Marketers should prioritize building trust through consistent delivery of exceptional experiences and garnering enthusiastic endorsements from satisfied customers.
  • Sample  – They want to be able to sample your expertise, product or service so they don’t look foolish. Continuing to build trust is such an essential element of long term loyalty. Offering opportunities for customers to sample expertise, products, or services instills confidence and reduces apprehension. Marketers should provide avenues for customers to experience offerings firsthand, reinforcing trust and loyalty.
  • Refer – They want to share with the world how smart they are. They want an experience that surprises them, excites them or so clearly exceeds their expectation in ways that make them turn to social channels to share their story. Customers seek experiences that surpass expectations, compelling them to share their stories with others. Marketers can capitalize on this by delivering memorable experiences that inspire customers to become brand advocates, amplifying reach through word-of-mouth referrals.


To address these key behaviors effectively, every facet of marketing, sales, and service initiatives must be meticulously designed to organize the behaviors customers crave. By aligning strategies with customer preferences and desires, organizations can forge meaningful connections, drive loyalty, and ultimately achieve sustained success in the dynamic realm of modern marketing.


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