Digital marketing is ever-changing. As once-effective desktop marketing strategies give way to a mobile-first mentality, marketers must push for ways to keep content fresh, authentic and effective.
So what will the future of digital marketing entail? Where should marketers put their dollars best to work?
The rise of augmented reality
What started as a fun way to blur the line of what is reality and what is computer-generated has turned into a marketing opporunity. Pokémon Go took off radically, earning $10 million a day in new revenue during it’s peak. The app represented a moment when a new technology, AR, fused digital technology and the physical world. Augmented reality adds sounds, graphics, and smell to the natural world as it exists, offering some really valuable ways to reach out to consumers through new sensory experiences. Marketers who can tap this potential smartly will yield results.
Heavy investment in niche marketing
The online marketplace is becoming more and more crowded. While the number of consumers has remained steady, the number of businesses has flooded the marketplace, each vying for a piece of the pie. This is very true in the social media and content marketing spaces. A solution for this issue is to focus on and invest in niche marketing that appeals to a smaller range of demographics with a specific topic. This happens when companies opt for targeted, almost personal-level content and campaigns.To make that work, better audience segmentation is needed. The best thing about a niche marketing approach is that companies can easily bring costs down and target exactly what the specific audience likes.
Voice search as a way of life
What started as a seemingly superfluous way to go about the day has turned into a crutch for many consumers. Voice services served through digital assistants on smartphones and home assistants are tapped for day-to-day things now. A study from Gartner recently that by 2121, digital brands that optimize their commerce sites for visual and voice searches will see 30% greater revenue.
Data and visualization initiatives
Data and visualization will assume a much larger role in the years to come for marketers to become more efficient and cost effective. People expect data that not only is visually appealing, but tells a compelling story too.
Interactive data visualization is a powerful tool for marketers who are looking to win over stakeholders and boost campaign performance, and will continue to be over time. It can be as impactful as a piece of marketing content. Look to identify new data sources that exist within your company or customer base to unlock potential ideas and business opportunities alike.
Even greater focus on mobile
Companies need to take advantage of the huge amount of people on mobile devices and learn to make their experience easier. While many businesses have adopted mobile responsible web design and utilize email templates, research still shows that retail conversion rates are much lower on smartphones. This means businesses need to work to optimize conversions via mobile. To do so, businesses need better coding, fast websites, and top-notch marketing.
Marketing is a constant state of change that involves humans, machines and other “things” to interact, meet, and surpass the needs of customers. As technology leaders, we must both anticipate and adapt quickly to the digital marketing landscape to meet the needs of consumers and improve our own bottom lines.
Alex Alexakis is a UI Designer, a self-proclaimed SEO addict, and the CEO of Pixelchefs.