Today, consumers are more connected than ever before and are more skeptical of marketing messages and distrustful of brands in general. Concurrently, marketers must meet customers’ needs who want personalized experiences but won’t accept a sales pitch from any brand. Even the word “marketing” has negative connotations for many people. As a result, marketers must adopt new strategies and techniques to reach their audience as efficiently as possible while also addressing the trust gap created by years of disingenuous practices. To that end, there are several trends marketers should expect to see in the future of digital marketing.
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
Many marketers will start to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their everyday workflows. A lot of AI is already being used in marketing, but it’s not yet as widespread as it will be in the future. For example, many brands are now using AI to improve their email marketing campaigns by understanding customer behavior and preferences. An example of AI on the horizon is natural language processing, or NLP. When integrated into marketing, NLP allows computers to understand human language in the same way that humans do. A few other AI trends in marketing include customer journey mapping, automated content creation, and automated campaign generation.
Video Content Will Be Everywhere
As the preferred method of consuming content across the internet, the video will continue to dominate marketing strategies. According to Hexagroup, a digital marketing agency in Houston TX, “statistics show that marketers who use video grow their revenue 49% faster than those who don’t”. As video becomes more sophisticated and interactive, marketers will be able to use it in more ways than ever before. Even more importantly, brands will be able to use video to address the trust gap. By providing transparency, authenticity, and a willingness to answer questions, brands can use video to win over customers.
Virtual and Augmented Reality Will Takeoff
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have been growing in popularity for several years now. But, because of the high costs associated with developing VR and AR, marketers have been slow to adopt these technologies. However, as technology becomes more affordable and accessible, VR and AR will become a large part of marketing strategies. They can be a game changer at events too. Teaming up with someone like Event Display and using VR and AR to show off your products to clients, customers, and stakeholders can be really impressive.
Indeed, VR and AR are already being used by businesses in many different industries, including retail, healthcare, tourism, real estate, and more. For example, retailers are using VR and AR to allow customers to try out new products at home before buying them.
Voice-Based Services Will Grow
As more people become comfortable using voice-based services, marketers will start to incorporate them into their strategies. Indeed, since the release of Amazon’s Alexa, there has been a spike in the use of voice-based digital assistants. This has been especially true among younger generations. VR and AR are likely to grow in popularity, but voice-based services will be used by a much larger group of customers. Because voice-based services are much less intrusive than VR and AR, they have the potential to be adopted by a much larger segment of the population.
Marketers Will Become Data Pros
As marketers become more familiar with the wide range of data available to them, they will also develop a better understanding of how to use it. Indeed, in order to meet the needs of customers and rank well in search engines, marketers need access to as much data as possible. As marketers become more comfortable with the data available to them, they will be better equipped to use it more efficiently. They will also be more likely to adopt the use of artificial intelligence to automate their workflows and make data collection easier. That said, marketers will also need to develop a better understanding of how to interpret the data they have available to them.
Influencers Will Have a Lot of Say
People trust other people over brands in many cases. That is going to give influencers a lot more pull than in the past. While their audiences have grown and their sway is apparent, chances are that over the next few years, they are going to increasingly be able to use themselves as a brand that consumers will rely on. Many consumers want to hear from other people before they even begin to look at reviews. That change in approach is going to alter marketing for many years to come.
Learning As We Go
As businesses and brands undergo these changes in digital marketing, they will need to adapt their strategies as well. Marketers will need to keep up with the latest trends and techniques to ensure their efforts are as effective as possible. Today’s customers want personalized experiences, transparency, and a willingness to answer questions. In order to achieve those goals, marketers must change course and make significant changes to their strategies and techniques.
