Marketing is a rapidly evolving business. It can seem as if the minute you finish revamping your current strategy in response to a trend, a new trend has suddenly emerged, and you’re back to square one. As technology continues to advance, brands must remain on high alert to meet their target audiences where they are. To help get your 2019 marketing strategy started on the right foot, we’re sharing what you need to know about the future of marketing technology.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has officially established itself as more than just a trend but as a necessity in effective marketing. Tech-forward companies are already utilizing AI for data capturing and campaign optimization; however, there are many more opportunities to be had in the coming years. Furthering personalization efforts, marketers will explore new ways to integrate AI into customer experiences. Emotional AI, for example, will greatly improve the already successful chatbot model. Offering 24/7 customer support, emotional AI-powered chatbots are capable of understanding a customers current emotion. Whether the customer is happy, sad or agitated, chatbots will serve as a personal support tool for each customer’s individual needs now with an added human touch.
Due to customers’ growing demand for personalization, marketers must seize every opportunity to gather data. Developing a clear understanding of what’s working, what’s not and what channel is most preferred to audiences is critical. Machine learning provides useful insight into this information as well as customers’ brand engagement and purchase patterns. Eliminating the use of one-size-fits all marketing, campaigns delivery going forward will be created with the broader customer experience in mind.
Having a deep understanding of a target audience’s needs, wants and interests is essential in effective marketing. Big data facilitates this by providing in-depth insight into consumer behaviors, shopping patterns and background demographics. Big data outlines how specific people respond to certain campaigns, promotions and channels used, thus removing any guesswork on what consumers are thinking. Utilizing this insight, marketers can create detailed buyer personas and create messaging perfectly aligned with their preferences.
Aside from improved customization in marketing campaigns, big data is also poised to help marketers make informed, real-time decisions on how to adjust prices of their products or services. Pricing strategies to be expected with the use of big data include:
Smart marketers have already begun the shift to voice and visual search. As intelligent home assistants and smartphones drastically alter the way people search the internet, marketers must develop new strategies to take advantage of these trends in future campaigns.
Restructuring online content to optimize for voice search will be essential for brands moving forward. More than half of all searches will be done via voice search by next year, so marketers must prepare for a world without screens. Conversational tones people take when conducting voice searches as well as keyword phrasing, localized search and more targeted results all factor into optimizing marketing strategies for voice search.
Trends we can expect from this technology in the coming years include sponsored search results from intelligent home assistants and the use of voice for tasks beyond just search queries. Ordering products through ecommerce sites, making payments, ordering car services and ordering take-out food will all likely be conducted by voice assistants when possible. Already we’re seeing giant brands like Starbucks, Walmart and Sephora offer specific services via home assistant apps. However, smaller companies can also find success by simply optimizing their website for voice.
The idea behind the emerging technology known as visual search is an image itself serving as a search query. While still in its early stages, consumers can now conduct searches based on parts of a whole image using smartphone cameras or via augmented reality applications. As search engines grow increasingly better at understanding the components of an image, more reliable results are being produced and therefor heightening usage. At present, Pinterest’s Lens technology is making notable strides in visual search, reporting their users carried out over 600 million combined monthly searches in the technologies first year. Fashion brand ASOS has also implemented proprietary technology into their ecommerce site, allowing shoppers to take a picture of any item in a shop and find a similar item on asos.com. In coming years, visual search can be expected to dominate the fashion and home decor space. Offering consumers more convenient and relevant results. Tech-forward marketers will have to adjust their strategies.
Marketing is all about appealing to target audiences. Fortunately,with today’s vast supply of information and innovative technology, meeting consumers demands through effective marketing campaigns is easier than ever. The future of marketing technology is certainly exciting, and we can expect even more advancements to come.
Author Bio: Maddie Davis is co-founder of Enlightened Digital and a tech-obsessed female from the Big Apple. She lives by running marathons and reading anything and everything on the NYT Best Sellers list.
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