Mention digital marketing and you’ll be constantly reminded of the changes that happen every day in this industry. We have crossed six months into 2021, and in this Covid-19 crisis, digital marketers are constantly looking for new strategies, tactics to win customers for their clients’ products and services. According to industry experts, 2021 is the year when the industry eliminates failed marketing strategies and embraces new technologies to get closer to customers and increase sales. This article on “The Future of Digital Marketing?” sheds more light on the concepts.
digital marketing in the future
A. Publications that can be purchased
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the never-before-seen problems of social distancing and lockdowns in many parts of the world. With customers looking for easier ways to shop, digital marketers thought of the brilliant concept of Shoppable posts. So when a customer browses a social media platform, he comes across a shoppable post (product/service) with the link in the bio. It is easy for the customer to tap and buy the product or opt for the service. For example: the clothing brand Anthropologie uses the same technique to attract customers. Many brands will soon follow suit and shoppable posts will become the future of digital marketing strategies to boost marketing campaigns.
B. Programmatic Advertising
It is difficult for the marketing team to place ads on all channels that provide valuable information about the products/services frequented by the target audience. Programmatic advertising solves this challenge by serving customers personalized ads on their favorite channels in specific places based on their interests/behavior. Companies that make use of programmatic advertising are: Expedia (tourism), BuildDirect (home improvement) and AirAsia (airlines). Programmatic advertising can be called the future of digital marketing as it focuses on the attention share of customers and can lead to the best advertising campaign. Yes, did we forget to let you know that it offers the best ROI?
C.Interactive content
Digital marketing experts are always on the alert to retain the loyal customers of your company, through various methods. The idea is to get customers to not only buy but also interact through surveys, online quizzes, gift voucher signing, and more. Yes, digital marketers will face difficulties in creating content not only in words but also in web design. The website and social media posts should not only interest the target audience, but also outsmart the competition. They must also take care that the content matches the brand and the objective of their organization.
D. Voice search
There was a time when the customers who chose to buy on E-Commerce websites were over 25 years old. Cutting to the present, even children and teenagers have become regular customers of online shopping deals. And they buy a product or opt for a service through the voice search method. Since IoT-enabled apartments are becoming famous among households, content managers along with digital marketing team are very busy to optimize website/product content for digital assistant friendly voice requests for the future. They need to focus on long-tail keywords and also need to have a deep understanding of the target audience.
E. Influencer Marketing
The concept of Influencer Marketing is not new, with movie stars endorsing products/services on radio and television as early as the 1940s. However, the name “influencer marketing” stands out. Brands approach an individual with a large following on social media platforms (eg Instagram) to market products. But there are challenges, as the general public has come to realize that multinational corporations sign these influencers for big paychecks. So, there is corporate distrust and the target audience makes a decision based on the credibility of the influencer. This concept will remain strong and will play a vital role in the field of digital marketing.
Conclusion
It is true that there are other technologies that play a prominent role in digital marketing, such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots and more, but in this article we have focused only on the other four. Digital marketers in the coming years will need to successfully include emerging technologies in their strategies. This is not only to reach the target audience accurately, but also to outsmart competitors.