Technology continues to progress at an incredibly rapid pace, so much so that many of us can barely keep up with the innovations in various fields—even those of us who work in those fields! One field that’s advancing at a breakneck speed is digital marketing, and with the aid of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technologies still on the horizon, it’s not unreasonable to think that we might soon see some significant changes to the way marketers do business. Here are some of the most exciting ways that digital marketing might evolve in the future.
Virtual Reality
If you can’t imagine digital marketing without Google, or Facebook, then think again. Virtual reality is on its way, meaning how we buy goods and services is about to change as well. When you can walk into a virtual store that sells goods using VR headsets, what does it mean for your business? What does it mean for SEO (and SEOs)? How do you approach content creation when people interact differently online? These are just some of the questions that need answers sooner rather than later. A little bit of research now could help businesses stay ahead of their competition—or at least give them an idea of what’s coming down the road.
Artificial Intelligence
We’re already seeing some of AI’s influence on digital marketing, particularly as it relates to personalized content. In 2017, Google increased its use of artificial intelligence by 50%, leading to a massive increase in personalized search results. This is likely just a glimpse of what’s to come; most experts agree that we’ll see a big rise in artificial intelligence throughout 2018. Some marketers have taken notice—Airbnb used its host platform to train an algorithm that automatically creates house descriptions for each listing based on previous descriptions from other hosts. The company is also working with IBM Watson to explore AI-driven customer service and personalization efforts.
Voice search/Assistants
The capabilities of today’s voice search are impressive, but they’re only going to get better. The future of online search is not Google, it’s Alexa (or other AI assistants). The number of mobile queries where voice was used instead of typed text has grown by more than 40 times over five years, according to ComScore, and by 2020, more than half of all searches will be conducted through a voice-enabled device. Soon you’ll be able to access just about any piece of information via your phone or smart speaker—and make purchases and book services through voice as well. What does that mean for marketers? A lot.
Despite attempts by Google and Apple to kill it, email continues to rule. The email has seen success because it’s personal. As internet dwellers, we are constantly subjected to website advertisements that are meant to appeal to our emotions or force us into making a decision right then and there. Because of these annoyances, we want something more personalized for us. We want someone else who cares about us writing just for us—and that’s why email will still be around for a long time. However, marketers and advertisers need a way to measure how well their campaigns work; and that means more ways of tracking them through cookies—but those don’t exist in email very well at all yet.
Instagram ads
Instagram has over 500 million monthly active users. That’s a lot of people to market to! To make advertising on Instagram worthwhile, consider what types of posts are going to perform well with your target audience. You may already have an idea based on your previous content experience. If not, try A/B testing a few different approaches and see which performs best. For example, start by making three different short videos for each product you want to advertise and then test that against just having a single image with a caption or using that same image with copy written into it (i.e., program).
Conclusion
Digital marketing is ever-changing and adapting to modern trends. Nowadays, anything with a screen (phones, TVs, laptops) has access to the Internet. In order for businesses to be successful and engage their target audiences online, they must use digital media platforms. Also, video advertisements are becoming more popular online as it’s now cheaper than print or radio ads. Although traditional media is still being used today; it is not as effective due to people using new technologies such as smartphones and tablets that allow them to multitask while browsing websites instead of just doing one thing at a time. This can affect businesses who still rely on newspapers and magazines for their advertising since they’re missing out on potential clients who are multi-tasking with technology
