Whether you’re ready or not, digital marketing trends and strategies will continue to evolve in our current high-tech internet era in the coming years. Here are 7 marketing trends that will be boosted in the years to come.
Also interesting: If you want to implement the targeted new trends within your company, it is absolutely worthwhile to delve into the Growth philosophy. Ready to take the growth of your business to the next level?
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence, or simply AI, is perhaps one of the buzzwords of recent years. This is done via various channels. AI could replace many jobs. We will have to find out whether this will be the case in reality. What is certain is that AI will definitely broaden the possibilities for businesses. Chatbots, or Facebook Messenger bots (see below), are perhaps the trendiest example of the moment. , even 25% of customer services will use chatbots by 2020. If we compare this with the 2% in 2017, this would be a huge increase.
- Blockchain
Almost every large company is experimenting with blockchain today. Any industry can use blockchain and therefore has enormous potential. However, there are currently few industries that actually integrate the technology. This can completely change within a few years, certainly in marketing. To make a transaction in the blockchain, you need a cryptocurrency. The two largest cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- Programmatic Advertising
The days of a simple Pay Per Click (PPC) and automatically generated keywords are long gone. Google is also on the cart of machine learning and customer-centric marketing. For example, you can opt for automatic bidding strategies, targeting and even ad creation (also known as programmatic advertising). What was initially discouraged has now been developed into strong marketing automation? After all, over the years, Google has invested heavily in enhancing the possibilities and quality.
Just look at Google’s new smart display campaigns. Advertisers can show ads in almost any format across the Google Display Network. This means that ads reach people at every stage of their customer journey. By targeting, these ads appear where they get the most significant responsibility for the most value. While this change is already underway, it will impact how Google determines how its ads appear in the years to come. Nearly 90% of digital display ads in the US will be programmatic by 2020
- Chatbots
Chatbots are on the rise! They take over a lot of customer service work for many companies. According to Medium, by 2020, 85% of all customer interaction would be via chatbots. They are quick to respond, know your entire buying history right out of their pocket, and never lose patience. Chatbots are not only an effective way of communicating, but they are also available 24/7 for the customer thanks to AI and instant messaging.
In addition to customer satisfaction, chatbots increase the response rate on Facebook, which in turn improves your SEO. 70% of consumers say they have had a positive experience with chatbots! In addition, chatbots have a Click Through Rate (CTR) of up to 80%. What great market potential! In addition, they provide valuable insight into what a customer is looking for and when they are looking for it.
Uber even rents out cars through Facebook Messenger, Slack, or Google Maps. The chatbot takes over the entire process from them. For example, passengers can choose the type of ride, make a request, track the location of the car, send a friend an expected time of arrival, and even make payment.
- Customer-Centric Marketing
Personalized content, emails and products have been around for some time, but thanks to AI and machine learning it is becoming easier to reach the right target group. Before, marketers could only rely on demographics, place of residence, age, … Now come habits, desires, activities and preferences in an instant. Customers are already overloaded with content and you don’t want to just add that little bit extra. If you want to have an impact, it is important today to personalize content. And with the information and technology available to support this, that is getting easier.
Amazon, for example, uses such AI-based solutions that bring together data from different sources, such as customer data, CRM data, social media feeds, purchase history and link clicks. This provides extensive insight into the personas of the customers. By understanding consumer behavior more, Amazon can personalize their products. In fact, 96% of marketers believe that personalization improves relationships with customers! Netflix is also already raising the level of personalization. As soon as you log in, you will immediately receive a customized overview of your film preferences in the banners, the carousels, the order, etc.
- Video Marketing
Do you already know the following figures? These do make you think about the video in your marketing plan in the coming years:
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- 70% of consumers say they have already shared a video of a fire,
- 72% of companies say video increased their conversion rate,
- 52% of consumers say viewing product videos makes them more confident in purchasing decisions,
- 65% of executives visit the website and 39% call a salesperson after watching the video.
It becomes so easy to make videos. Film material is getting cheaper and the quality of smartphone cameras has increased enormously in recent years. It is therefore easier for marketers to send personal video messages instead of telephones or emails, also known as the 1: 1 video approach. To get more engagement, make a video post or a live broadcast on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Live video is hot. A lot of companies use it for interviews, product demos and a look behind the scenes at events, in the office, of the production process, etc. The 360 ° video also allows a more interactive experience.
In addition, Google now also shows videos in the SERPs, which indicates the increasing importance of video SEO.
- Influencer Marketing
influencer marketing is a very effective marketing technique in attracting customers. Influencers can be anyone from celebrities and Instagram or youtube stars to well-known bloggers and journalists. They help get the word out about your company or product through their social media channels.
Influencer marketing is not a new concept, but the importance of influencers in digital marketing is growing. The current approach, where influencers openly promote products, appears to work less well. Consumers are becoming more aware and influencer marketing is becoming more and more challenging. Brands, therefore, want to use a more subtle approach from now on.
Brands are moving towards more sustainable relationships with their influencers. They want to establish long-term relationships with their influencers and grow together over the years. This way they can also prevent their influencers from suddenly taking a different path, such as Selena Gomez with Luis Vuitton. In addition, brands more often opt for highly relevant and dedicated micro-influencers instead of celebrities.