As constantly evolving and growing industries, marketing and PR are often forced to adapt to changing trends. Many companies are required to take on and learn about new trends in the industry to effectively keep up with the strategies other firms are employing. However, sometimes it’s not easy to know whether a trend is something that’s just the buzzword of the day or if it’s actually something that benefits the business and brand.
The goal for businesses is to integrate new marketing and PR trends while also delivering value and ROI to the business. To help you sort through which trends should be on your agenda, here are four trends known to deliver solid results.

Podcasts
While they have been around for over a decade, it wasn’t until recently that podcasts became mainstream. As a result of technological advances, podcasts are now easy to access and a seamless experience for listeners. Nowadays, the quality of podcast content is superb and there’s a podcast about almost everything.
The potential for using podcasts for marketing is huge. It’s a great way to target your specific audience. If brands are able to find podcasts with great content and presenters that resonate with the brand and the industry, it can provide an excellent avenue to reaching out to people who are likely to be interested in your product or service.

Influencer Marketing
While there might seem to be many cons to influencer marketing, when done right, it can be extremely valuable to a business. By engaging influencers that connect with the brand’s values and that are held more accountable for showing ROI, businesses can reap many benefits. The key to influencer marketing is having a quality over quantity approach.

Tackling the Gen Z Market
According to Forbes, Gen Z makes up around 25% of the US population, a higher chunk of the population than any other generation. Therefore, it’s important for marketing professionals to start putting some focus on these new spenders as they begin to acquire disposable income of their own.
This means understanding how Gen Z consumes information and what kind of information and marketing appeals to them. Companies need to think about targeting these consumers while they’re young to instill trust from early on and nurture long-term relationships with the Gen Z market.

Listening to Customers
Traditionally, marketing and PR were about telling customers what to buy and why they should buy it. Now it has evolved into a two way conversation between customers and the brand. Listening to customers helps brands understand what the customer wants and deliver accordingly, and getting in tune with customers helps marketing professionals understand how consumers actually behave.