Martech Trends 2018: How Blockchain and AI Will Change Marketing Forever
Since us as consumers use disruptive technologies more and more every day, letting Spotify pick a song or Instagram replace slang with emojis, such promising inventions as AI, blockchain, VR&AR or IoT, have no other choice but hold to their promise to change as many industries as humanly, or better say, technologically possible. As businesses need to respond quickly to consumer needs, let alone desires to test these advancements, marketing is not an exception. There is even a term for that — martech, or marketing technology.
The general trend from 2018 and on is that investment in martech is going to increase, as businesses are recognizing the importance of having disruptive technologies in their marketing tool kits as a competitive advantage and getting more eager to adapt it.
The number of companies considering the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in marketing strategy is expected to grow from 13% to 39% over the following three years, according to Forbes. While the importance of blockchain technology implementation for marketing purposes among surveyed companies will increase from 8% to 17.6%.
How Blockchain Impacts Marketing
Even if you are not a fan of cryptocurrencies, you can still give cryptoenthusiasts credit for promoting blockchain’s values. When there is decentralization, there will be transparency and even free market. At least that’s what the development of decentralized applications promise.
Blockchain-based mobile and web applications encourage participation due to their open-source nature and an absence of a single controlling owner. As opposed to centralized integrated application platforms, such as Google Play or App Store, decentralized applications augur the evolution of cooperative economies worldwide.
By the way, the development of new marketplaces is suggested by smart contracts per se, as they enable autonomous negotiations of counterparties and simplify transactions that would have otherwise required physical documentation. Marketers, even not directly involved with the field of crypto, should take into account the new ways of goods and services circulation on digital markets.
Another way blockchain will work in favor of marketing is by tackling the problem of consumer distrust in brands and advertising. Misleading content, untrustworthy media and counterfeit goods are supposed to be vanquished with Proof of Authenticity (POA), but it will be up to marketers to use integrate blockchain in their marketing practices to create new brand images, liberated from deceit.
AI Applications in Marketing
Data-driven marketing has been there for a while and doesn’t surprise anyone anymore, no matter how complicated or even less costly the tools for data collection will become in the near future. However, do we really know what to do with all of that data? Even if you already use smarter analytics tools like Chartio or Klipfolio that help you collect data from various sources from website tracking applications to different social media accounts and visualize statistics on a single comprehensive dashboard, you are still left with many questions at the end of the day. What color should be a CTA button? How many letters should be there in an email campaign, and how long every title should be?
You might not only need less sources, but also less data to collect and analyze.
“Marketers will increasingly start to rely on martech tools fueled by artificial intelligence to sift through the vast amount of collected data, but it will also mean a rethinking of what metrics matter in the first place.”
Tim Asimos, VP and Director of Digital Innovation at Circle Studio
Here is why you need to seek for other tools, and AI will help you solve those mushrooming questions. Combining different martech tools is something that can really bring value to your business.
While there is a variety of AI applications for any CMO’s taste and budget, but there is the one most important and soon-to-be-mainstream trend every marketer should pick up right away. With a help of machine learning, you can send your AI to a trip along each customer’s journey, and it will built deeper connections and bring you more thorough insights you will use to create content that resonates when it matters most.
Increasing Value of Exchanged Data
Speaking of data collection, there is another 2018 martech trend, the one you probably have heard about even if you are on a sabbatical for the whole year. It deals with customer consent preferences.
In the aftermath of GDPR implementation earlier this year, the impact of privacy regulations on data collection has become obvious even for businesses that underestimated it. However, besides its being a challenge to the free flow of personal data, it is also a hidden business value. Privacy-friendly data can be enabled a new use for, and when exchanged between organizations and data subjects, generate more trust and increase transparency. What’s more important, the value of data will skyrocket. If approached wisely, simply complying with new regulations can be a strongly beneficial strategic decision.
There are two ways martech is going to thrive: an increased breadth of tools available and their increased sophistication. What comes to the first, the technology is not going to only affect a particular stage of marketing, let’s say automatization and optimization of content distribution, but will be addressed at every stage from research to analytics and strategic planning. The complexity, in its turn, is enhanced by the developments in the underlying technology, but also by the exponentially growing number of possibilities for the combination of the tools available.
Vanessa Emrith