As modern marketers, we have entered a world where the number of alternatives to complete our work is almost endless. Gone are those days, when we used to purchase the newspaper and magazine ads, design and distribute brochures, write an editorial, send email to our database, etc. We never really know exactly how well our efforts worked.
But it is a different scenario now. Now, we have digital marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, Social Media, and so much more.
We can witness the marketing industry evolving, and it is interesting to see how much technology has revolutionized the marketing function. We have reached a point where marketing space is continually being reshaped by new ideas, concepts, trends, strategies, and best practices.
According to a report, 24% of the 5,700 global marketers revealed that social media has been an essential part of their marketing for the past five years.
While marketing strategies have to be a lot more innovative and useful, but regular technical advancements have immensely helped the marketers. The role of technology in marketing in 2019 is -
The use of ‘Voice’
The statistics have revealed that around one-third of 3.5 million searches on Google are voice searches these days. Its purpose is only expected to rise in the upcoming years. Machine learning, automation and other technologies have made voice a useful tool these days. When you are asking Siri a question, it gives very fewer results, unlike regular Google searches, which provide a lot of results.
In the US alone, the use of voice assistants is likely to grow by 128.9% in 2019, compared to 2018.
While the growth is progressive, it is a big challenge for the businesses as well. Therefore it will become essential for marketers to try and be one of those searches. They have to tailor their SEO strategies to fetch good results for themselves. They have to predict what a customer will speak rather than type while doing a voice search. It is also essential to use natural conversational language as well as longer phrases or full sentences as keywords. This way, technology is helping marketers to get closer to their customers.
Chatbot Technology is growing
Chatbots have been around for some time now. It is a technology which combines the use of text, voice and messaging to converse directly with consumers.
According to surveys, global chatbot marketing is reaching $1.2 Billion and has been growing at 24%. Moreover, 45% of customers prefer using them to communicate with the enterprises.
Chatbots are utterly beneficial with the way they have handled customer inquiries and grievances by making meticulous use of data. With the questions people ask, with the problems they face and with the kind of feedback they provide through chatbots, it can be a useful tool for analysis, and it can be a basis to form future marketing plans. According to estimates, almost 80% of communication between the customers and organizations will be done through chatbots. Therefore, it is mandatory for business organizations to either include them in their marketing strategy or make current chatbot feature very useful.
Approximately 40% of big business organizations are expected to add this technique to their system by the end of 2019.
Mobile Advertising
It is an indisputable fact that for the past two decades, social media has changed the way people interact, but it has also created endless opportunities for marketers. Several companies have been connecting with customers through social media platforms for personalized campaigns. However, it is difficult to find marketers and customers with good credibility. They will have to connect to their customers in the real sense and put the human connection at the heart of their brand messaging.
Social Media Marketing gives you the freedom to advertise to as many people, according to a specific budget.
According to a 2017 report, mobile ads will contribute 62% of the digital ads in the next four years. It is a clear indication that with more and more consumers involved in mobile phones are using their devices as a tool for advertising, and this will continue to be a powerful marketing strategy.
Video Marketing
Even after all the automation, the video will continue to make its influence on marketing. The consumers will still like to see a video (if it provides authentic and accurate content) rather than reading a long blog post. Therefore, in the boom of blogging, video marketing shall never be underestimated.
Even if marketers focus on video marketing, it must be kept in mind that customers will prefer unique and one in many kinds of videos.
According to statistics, if a video is provided in emails, it will increase the chances of customers clicking on the link by 200–300% as compared to the nexus of video sent.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
It is an indisputable fact that Artificial Intelligence has become an essential part of our lives. But in recent times, the marketing field has gained significant importance with Artificial Intelligence. Since marketing involves decision making and planning, Artificial Intelligence proves to be the most critical support system since it helps in decision making.
According to a report, we have created 90% of the world’s data in the last year but have managed to use only 1% of it effectively (this is not as small as it seems). Therefore having known that data plays such a key role in making the right decisions about employees, strategies, and consumers, marketing has a significant role to play.
With machine learning, computers will not be given a lot of rules to follow but will be processed and programmed to learn and experience most things the consumers will need.
Changing Face of Marketing
Well, software tools and new technologies help marketers devise new ways to engage customers. Nowadays, the internet is quickly turning into a living entity having million of inter-connected devices, user-generated content, and social interactions happening over smartphones, computers, and tablets. These are all new streams of marketing. If we truly aim to achieve effective marketing, we must realize that technology has a lot to do with marketing.
Conclusion
These are significant advancements, and one cannot expect all the companies implementing all these technologies. It will depend upon other companies in the industry. However, there is still some growth marketing agency who are expected to make a significant difference in the world of marketing. Knowing what consumers want and how their needs vary can be assessed very well through technology. But the companies will have to incur the required expenses and make sure employees are trained and knowledgeable enough to make the best utilization of them.
The Cloud, AI and data analytics is probably the basis of other techniques emerging, and they will continue to make a massive impact in 2019.
Has technology altered you as a marketer? Take note of the latest digital marketing technologies and trends, since they will be the driving force for your success.
