Four Emerging Trends That Will Heavily Impact Digital Marketing

Digital platforms are changing rapidly. Just recently Facebook announced a drastic change to their algorithm that is causing waves in the industry. It is no longer enough to stay up to date with trends, it’s time to look to what’s coming next. Here are number of trends that we see as emerging that will impact how we reach customers and digital marketing overall.

Augmented and Virtual Reality Integrated Through Social Media

As mobile devices become more and more capable, we see more apps integrating AR. Pokémon Go was the pioneer with this idea and social media platforms have already started to adopt VR/AR into their algorithms. Facebook and Google Cardboard offer 360-video publishing and Snapchat offers users the ability to project their virtual self into the real world in the form of an animated, 3-D bitmoji.

It is only matter of time until technology becomes widely adopted by brands and they figure out how to take advantage of it. Marketers are at the front of this change and have the opportunity to serve as digital pioneers and improve the digital experience their companies are offering.

Here is an example of Marriot hotels using VR technology.  “Teleporter” helps consumers transport to Marriott Hotels, from Hawaii to London, transforming the use of technology in the travel industry.

Voice search will change Search Engine Optimization Industry for Ever

Voice search is the fastest growing type of search, according to the keynote speech given by Behshad Behzadi at SMX West, Principal Engineer at Google Zurich. Already, 62% of teens and 48% of adults use voice search on a daily basis, and that number is only growing. The allure of voice chat is undeniable—it’s faster, it’s hands-free, it lets you multi-task.

Very few people type the way they speak, especially when it comes to voice search. Marketers will need to figure out how to market to devices rather than humans and adopt their messaging to include natural phrases. Search results that will be delivered to consumer will be based on our preferences, habits and interests more then on organic search results.

Last year one of the Whiteboard Fridays by Moz founder Rand Fishkin was dedicated to voice SEO. To make it easier, we have included the video for you.

Personalization Along All Stages Of The Sales Funnel 

Focusing on personalizing every interaction is becoming increasingly important and will become even more important in the future. Potential clients and customers don’t like to be sold to and they will only engage with brands they want to connect with where they see value.

To win a new business, marketers will need to work closely with sales teams to educate customers and constantly personalize sales process. Personalized content should be connected to every one of your advertising campaigns. Building a personalized connection with prospects will be critical for marketers in 2018.

Digital Integrated Into Offline Experiences

In the future digital will no longer stand alone as a separate discipline. We will see it become more integrated into real-life experiences and the two will become seamless. From Connected Life study we know that for nearly a third of consumers, brands don’t deliver an equal quality of service online and offline.

Stimulating positive emotions and driving loyalty requires designing customer journeys and marketing message that leverage both technology and humans. This requires a closer relationship between marketing and functions within a business that fulfil the delivery or experience and need to be focused on a clearly defined goal: not just a satisfied customer, but a delighted one.

As a marketer you always need to be creative and deliver unique messaging that will resonate and capture attention of your target audience.  This is truly what will differentiate you from the competition.

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