Marketing is set for a digital transformation over the next few years. Marketing professionals should keep digital marketing trends in mind as they plan digital campaigns and create digital experiences for their customers.
Large companies with the necessary digital infrastructure to store consumer data and personalize digital interactions will gain an advantage in their digital marketing efforts. But, that doesn\’t mean every company needs to build out its own data center or invest millions into software like Salesforce.com, Google Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager. With this list of digital marketing trends , I hope you\’ll see how these technologies can become part of your small business or nonprofit\’s strategy without making big investments.
What do I mean by Digital Transformation?
The digital transformation is the shift in digital technologies that digital marketing trends foreshadow. The digital transformation is a change in how digital marketers work and what tools they use to successfully promote their brands or individual products online.
Digital Transformation of Marketing
Marketing has been going digital for years, but it took a few key developments to get us where we are today: the ubiquity of broadband internet access across the world, faster processing speeds on local devices and cloud-based platforms for data storage.
This combination of features enabled new digital experiences from startups like Uber, Spotify and Airbnb. These companies had an advantage over traditional brick-and-mortar companies because they used digital technology to disrupt markets with marketplaces through which customers could order rides, stream digital music and rent lodging.
Digital Marketing this year will accelerate the Digital Transformation of Marketing
The digital transformation has been underway for some time, but digital marketing trends for this year and beyond indicate marketers should focus more on four key technologies:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI encompasses a variety of technologies that imitate intelligent human behavior. An AI-driven digital marketing assistant will learn to understand customer needs and how to provide digital experiences across devices and channels.
2. Machine Learning (ML)
Machine learning is the technology that enables an AI digital marketing assistant to get smarter over time. The digital assistant\’s knowledge grows as it gets more data from customers\’ interactions with your brand or company\’s digital presence(s). It makes predictions about what customers want and provides these services and suggestions to customers based on their preferences and past orders/purchases.
Machine learning and AI digital assistants will be used to enhance digital marketing experiences with AR and VR technology throughout the next five years. It will impact digital marketing, customer service and operations – increasing digital engagement with customers while providing digital value that goes beyond entertainment or novelty; it can add real value to your customer\’s experience on a more personal level. For example: people shopping for clothes could see how they look in different outfits without trying them on; musicians could hold concerts in people\’s homes via satellite-connected digital video equipment; and sports fans could watch their favorite teams compete against each other regardless of where their home stadium is located (e.g., New York Yankees vs Miami Marlins).
3. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Augmented & Virtual Reality in Marketing Augmented reality uses digital information to enhance a customers\’ view of their real-world environment. For digital marketers, AR means adding digital information to customers\’ view of the marketing experience in stores or at brick-and-mortar locations. It could involve digital displays that show digital coupons when people are nearby or tech that helps guide shoppers to digital deals or products on shelves.
Virtual reality goes beyond augmented reality by putting digital experiences inside an immersive virtual environment where customers feel they are physically present in another place. This could be a simulated store with digital storefronts for your company\’s items, digital meet \’n greets with celebrities via hologram videos and simulations of historical events/settings like ancient, the Titanic wreck site or outer space.
4. Blockchain Technology
The Blockchain Technology Blockchain technology is a digital peer-to-peer network that underpins digital currencies like Bitcoin, LiteCoin and Ethereum. It is also known as distributed ledger technology because digital information (blocks) are stored across the network instead of in a central location. Each digital asset transaction is recorded to the Blockchain digital ledger where it cannot be changed or deleted.
Digital marketers see blockchain\’s potential for digital advertising to enhance its transparency between digital advertisers, publishers and customers by enabling digital ads to be tracked without passing through an intermediary – giving more control over digital ads appearing on ad exchanges, ad networks and other intermediaries so customers can better track who sees their digital ads and how much they pay for them. They also see the potential for this technology to drive digital coupons/rebates and digital loyalty programs to the next level – helping customers track digital coupons, digital rebates/credits automatically when they shop or making digital loyalty programs
Digital marketers must be prepared to implement these technologies throughout the next five years while learning what each can do for their digital marketing strategies. It will change how people interact with brands, publishers and businesses in general while creating new levels of customer engagement through immersive experiences that are driven by autonomous machines that learn from experience.