In the coming years, marketers are going to take full control over customer experience. To better understand how digital marketing will evolve in the future, the Economist Intelligence Unit asked 499 senior and chief marketing executives. They also conducted interviews with chief marketing officers of major brands. This has led to a glimpse into the future of digital marketing in terms of change driving trends and key technology.
The results generated by this have been interesting and shows what could happen over the next 4 years. However, there are certain key findings that marketers should be aware of. Here, marketing recruitment specialists, Stopgap, explore this further.
The Hottest Tech Trends for Marketers
The tech trends are not surprising with mobile being the top one. This has been a large trend in marketing for a few years and over half of web traffic is mobile. A newer tech trend is the internet of things and this is more exciting even though it is currently unclear how it is going to affect marketers. There are a lot of opportunities that this could bring, but anyone who says they know exactly how the IoT will impact marketing is probably lying.
Personalised technology is another trend which has been around for a long time. However, the amount of data marketers have available is better than ever and personalisation is starting to come into its own. The start is geo-targeting, but there is a lot more to this. Advanced marketing should make use of statistical models which determine which customers will be interested in certain products based on the data available. These models should then serve the correct marketing accordingly.
One of the newer and more ground-breaking tech trends is blockchain technology. The only problem with this technology is an uncertainty over how it will evolve in the coming years. There are many implications for law, banking and intellectual property which are coming about, but the impact for marketing is less known.
The hottest topic of the moment is Artificial Intelligence. This has become more important with Google’s AlphaGo AI beating the world’s best, Go champion. The combination of AI and content personalisation can generate amazing opportunities in marketing. This is something that is likely to be experimented with in the future and should be something that you look into.
The Key Channels for 2020
Most people still think that 2020 is a far-off time. This could be due to the lack of inventions we were all sure would have occurred by now. There are no flying cars and there is no base on the moon.
While this is how many people feel, 2020 is not far away. This might seem like a strange thing to consider when looking at marketing, but it is very important. It is easy to feel that the future is far away and you do not have to prepare for it. This often results in your marketing efforts remaining in the past and not moving with your competition. Having your marketing fall behind is a major problem that can easily be avoided by paying attention to the changes as they come.
One of the changes to consider is the key marketing channels you should be using. The research found that social will still lead the pack in terms of key channels. Mobile apps and the mobile web come in at third and fourth. You need to consider if this reflects your current marketing investment. When you invest in these channels now, you will future-proof your strategy and ensure that you are competitive instead of falling behind.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Marketing
Something that a lot of marketers have problems with is reviewing the effectiveness of their campaigns. This is not always their fault and it can be challenging to prove that an increase in sales was due to a new marketing campaign or the change in the website. This improvement could also be due to a push from the sales team.
This is where digital technology will come into play. This software will provide an opportunity to accurately measure all key metrics and see what is affecting the sales figures. Calculating ROI is only possible when you have the right data regarding traffic and conversions.