You might not think that marketing has much in common with a German festival that's over 200 years old, but in fact, there are a number of things marketers can learn from the annual Oktoberfest tradition. Not convinced? Here are three surprising similarities that might change your mind.

1. It's All About Perception

Did you know that the famous festival isn't actually about beer? Although thirsty travelers come from around the world for a pint of Oktoberfestbier, this tradition, known to locals simply as "Wiesn," celebrates the anniversary of the wedding between Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The roots of the festival are in commemorating a historic event, but the popular perception of it as the "ultimate worldwide beer festival" has served it well — year after year, tourists pour into the city.

It's often easy for marketers to get bogged down in data. As we peruse the latest keyword trends, CTA conversions and linking metrics, the human element can sometimes get lost. However, it's that very element that can elevate a humdrum content marketing strategy to something truly spectacular.

Inc. reported that customers have grown to expect a certain level of authenticity from brands — and will pay more for the ones they feel they can trust. Forbes highlighted Dove and Airbnb as brands that have embraced the shift toward a more "human" approach; both have seen significant returns from increased interactions with customers.

It can be a tricky balancing act to inject some personality into your content marketing in a way that seems natural. If you're struggling, here are some practical ways to help jump-start your creativity:

Every autumn, customers wait anxiously as the retail world stares down the single most profitable day of the year. According to Entrepreneur, one in three Americans plan to make a purchase on Black Friday.

That means new buyers and loyal customers alike will be browsing your mobile site, apps and website for a deal. Your special offers and sales are ready to go, but is your digital presence prepared for the seasonal excitement? Can it efficiently handle the influx of holiday online shoppers?

Test Website Responsiveness

A frustrating website experience can encourage customers to turn to your competitors. Before the autumn sales begin, take time to test your desktop and mobile sites for download speed, branding consistency, ease of use and responsiveness to customers' needs. Are you making customized product suggestions? Are subscription forms easy to complete and submit?

Attracting new customers is always important when growing a business, but customer retention is no less important. For most companies, it's four- to six-times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one, according to Relationship Building Strategist Ian Kingwill. If you aren't able to keep your churn rate low, then new client acquisitions can't grow business — they will only serve to replace the customers you've lost.

When it comes to retaining customers, brand loyalty is one of the best resources in your marketing toolkit. This loyalty is valuable and can only exist if there's a strong relationship between the customer and the company. Fortunately, this is entirely in your hands.

Evergreen content is a specific type of content, whether it be text, slideshow, video or something else. This is created once, but designed to continue ranking in search engines for years, bringing in traffic and compounding in value. The idea behind evergreen, according to Forbes, is that this content keeps providing benefits to you indefinitely — in the form of domain authority, referral traffic, conversion rates and brand visibility.

However, simply applying a "set it and forget it" mentality to this type of content might not be the best approach, as there's some real value in keeping your evergreen content fresh and updated.

Modern restaurants need more than an appetizing menu, enticing ambiance and welcoming staff to drive diners through their doors. While a positive write-up in the local newspaper may have been enough to fill tables in previous decades, restaurateurs in the digital age must embrace new tech trends in restaurant marketing to drive new business — and keep customers coming back.

Tech Presence Is Critical

If your potential customers are among the 77 percent of Americans who own a smartphone, chances are they've used their device to look up local restaurants, check reviews or even place an order, according to Pew Research Center.

If your back-to-school marketing strategy launches in late summer and wraps up after the first bell rings, it's time to re-think your approach. Take a moment to embrace a wider view of students. Sure, there's the elementary through high school population, but what about traditional and non-traditional college students or graduate school? Students attending schools that are in-service year-round is something to consider, as well. Marketing campaigns running from July through August are often too narrow in focus to include everyone who's heading to classes. Here's what to do.

The way legal consumers go about searching for necessary services is constantly changing. Research shows that offline sources for attorney referral are dropping while online sources are rising at a steady rate. As legal consumers search online, traditional marketing strategies alone are simply no longer going to cut it.

According to Findlaw's whitepaper, Your Next Client Wants to Hire You Now, more than 60% of consumers use some form of mobile device to conduct attorney searches. So what does this all mean? There is so much opportunity for attorneys to target  legal consumers online.

The world of higher education is filled with competition, not just among students hoping to gain admission, but among schools that want to be the first to attract the best and brightest to their campuses. Public, private and even for-profit schools are vying for attention from potential students, and have increased advertising budgets and education marketing departments to attract students.

This is actually a relatively new trend, as nonprofit colleges and universities previously only spent approximately 2 percent of their tuition revenue on recruitment, according to Inside Higher Ed. However, now that these higher education institutions are spending more than ever, let's look at some of the marketing trends currently used to attract prospective students.

The arrival of spring has an obvious impact on the mental state of consumers. Sunset moves to later in the day, ice begins to melt and snow gives way to green grass and flowers. You'll see people walking down the street wearing shorts before it's warm, and sitting outside at restaurants while still wearing jackets.

Spring has an effect on people, and businesses are smart to consider spring marketing ideas that capitalize on these changing behaviors. With consumers eager to get out of winter and move on to brighter days, brands have a chance to win new business by feeding into that spring mania, giving consumers the experience they're craving. Here are five ideas to get going: