Digital marketing is an ever-changing landscape, thanks to the strides in digital technology. The prevalence of smartphones and tablets, along with internet penetration, have added more power to digital marketing. Going digital means using the entire gamut of technologies - from the use of artificial intelligence to wearables. It’s no longer just about having a website or email marketing.
As a brand, making an impact on every customer (internal or external), and opening up multiple channels of communication for customers is no more a luxury, but a necessity.
Businesses know that the present and future of marketing is undoubtedly digital. Millennials and Gen Z-ers are living in a digital age — using smart devices to work, party, commute, and play. In fact, the boundaries between what constitutes marketing and smart devices and technology are a blur, and the medium has become the message.
Bots for company
What trends should marketers be eyeing right now to get their message across? Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already become an intrinsic part of our lives without us paying too much attention to it. Google’s machine learning algorithms are at work when you search and get a satisfactory answer. Similarly, Facebook uses algorithms that learn from what we read or watch. There are intelligent tools that generate and curate content or provide an enhanced user experience on websites.
Programmatic advertising
Another area of significance for digital marketing is programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising is essentially serving advertisements to targeted and specific users by using data. When AI is integrated into the process, programmatic ad placement can only get better. Natural language processing (NLP) has the potential to understand the message and real meaning of a specific piece of content and see how an ad can be an ideal match for that content.
Going personal
Observe how every trend is geared towards addressing the customer as if they are the only ones the brand is talking to. Personalised messaging is the biggest trend the digital marketing world is seeing and will see in the near future. This could be in the form of personalised notifications on apps, personalised emails, content, banners, etc. Just log into your groceries app or a video streaming service, and you will know all about personalisation. Your Netflix recommendations or follow suggestions on social media are also based on your own history and use patterns.
