It’s not unusual to be afraid of something that we don’t understand. It’s also easy to get comfortable in the things that we know best. Unfortunately, it can often be at the expense of our taking in important new information and skills. The ability (and willingness) to see the benefits of new ideas is essential to setting ourselves up for growth. Change and innovation in business is necessary to improve products, services, efficiency, and ultimately profitability.
Digital marketing is made up of a lot of moving parts. Being open to innovation can help you recognize opportunities, anticipate changes in the market, and stay ahead of your competition. Remember when people thought that Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone sounded like crazy ideas?
Things are changing at record speed. And sales and marketing teams have more options than ever to connect with their audience in more creative and efficient ways. Here are a few things to pay attention to:
High-speed Connections
5G Superfast – Speed is vital to your website’s success. Site speed and fast pages mean improved performance and consumer satisfaction. People don’t like to wait. They want what they want immediately.
Growing use of AI (Artificial Intelligence)
AI continues to change the world. It can provide businesses more access to a user’s behavioral attitudes, demographics, and even emotions. This will enable companies to understand their customers better – such as why a customer visits their website.
Chatbots
Chatbots provide instant responses to customers via chat. These virtual assistants can answer most customers’ queries around the clock, and experts say that chatbots will save businesses billions a year in the not so distant future.
Computer Vision
There are actually computers today that can absorb high dimensional data from digital images and videos and then automate tasks our own human eyes can do. With the billions of images shared daily on social media, computer vision is used for social media analysis and helps to discover brand mentions, product issues, and can even work with face recognition.
Voice Search
With a high percentage of all searches being voice searches, more companies will likely incorporate voice input into their plans. Brands will need to make sure that the content on their websites is relevant and up to date for consumers, thus adding value to SEO and the growth of a mobile-friendly movement.
Virtual Reality (Augmented Reality)
Virtual Reality (VR) implies an experience that shuts out the physical world. Augmented Reality (AR) adds something new to our current reality or live view, often by using the camera on a smartphone. More companies will launch VR and AR marketing initiatives as they continue to shape the future of digital marketing. These immersive technologies offer new ways to interact with customers and create a more exciting digital experience.
Shoppable Posts
Shoppable posts allow consumers to buy the product directly from the picture or video they are viewing. They can click on a “Buy Now” option by merely hovering their cursor over the image or video.
Personalized and Hyper-Targeted Advertising
Personalized ads are more appealing to customers as traditional and generic ads are proving to be ineffective and even tiring to many. Going forward, marketers will produce more personalized and targeted experiences for new and returning customers. In the same way you use a person’s name in an email to personalize it.
Social Messaging Apps
Using apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat are becoming popular ways for a business to interact with its customers. Yet another way to make your brand more personal.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is a significant marketing trend today that can work on any platform. Many consumers prefer short videos or live broadcasts to learn more about a product or service.
No matter your size, think about the positive impact that technology can have on your business and proactively take advantage of new ideas to improve customer engagement and profits. And remember, it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming change. Simple and incremental advancements to any area of your company will eventually deliver returns.
