Trends and Bandwagons

Look at this blog addressing trends for B2B marketing. Very demure. Very mindful. Very cutesy. 

If you’re discovering this blog sometime after the end of August/first week of September in 2024, you may not pick up the reference I left in the opening sentence. 

A TikTokTik Tok video caught fire and burned out as quickly as it sparked up.  After a trans woman/makeup influencer shared how she chooses to present herself at work, suddenly, words like 'demure,' 'mindful,' and 'cutesy' started popping up everywhere as playful descriptors for just about everything we did.

It was fun until it wasn’t, which was very quickly. 

Participating in trends on social can be a great way for businesses to showcase their personalities, get on feeds to target prospects, and take advantage of knowing where a large digital audience’s attention is. 

Trends used to take more time to catch on. They had a longer runway for takeoff, which allowed them to fly longer. Businesses had time to think if it made sense to play in that trendy sandbox given the nature of the business and audience. They could strategically and quickly participate and share it for all the reasons I mentioned. Think back to how big the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was got before it got old. It raised millions of dollars for a great cause and had everyone from celebrities to CEOs to regular citizens filming themselves getting an ice-cold bucket of water dumped on them. 

The lifespan of something’s popularity has been cut down dramatically. “Going viral” is no longer a “you have or haven’t” difference. It has subcategories, category verticals, and audience niches for further context. There’s nuance to virality. 

What does all this talk of trends have to do with marketing? Plenty. Here are three main things to keep in mind: 

• Move fast or get out of the way – if you’re going to hop on a trend, do it before it’s out of style. You can’t predict when that will be, so understand your window is short. You have to be decisive one way or another. 

• Don’t force trendy participation – If you’re trying to make every trend fit your message, brand, products, etc. then you’re going to out yourself as just trying to hack an algorithm for the eyeballs. “That’s an ick.” 

• Incorporating trends into marketing strategy is like playing a slot machine – you can hit big. As queen for a day, maybe you leverage that attention for long-term gains. Other times, you either make your money back and it’s just an exercise, or you go bust. This could look like participating in a trend that gets steeped in controversy and requires a public apology or sudden pivot. The only question you have to answer is: Is it a risk that’s worth taking? Only you can decide that. 

There is one trend that will never ever go out of style: good content. Making sure your brand, website, company, e-mails, etc. is producing meaningful, relevant, helpful, and compelling for the people who need it is the evergreen way to grow a following and become known for exactly what you do best.