The marketing industry is in constant change and development, with progress in recent years picking up speed as technological advances and new trends are introduced.
Artificial Intelligence is making its mark on the digital marketing scene with Search Engine Optimization, content, and social media marketing all undergoing changes.
The ongoing expansion of the fast-paced environment of digital marketing means that if you want your marketing campaigns to succeed you need to stay updated with what is trending and how consumers are reacting to new online marketing techniques and strategies.
Luckily for you, online marketer Ben Givon shares his top marketing trends and tips for this year.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is making its mark
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more sophisticated which is increasing its scope and potential across many industries especially for digital marketing.
For example, Tech giant Microsoft and Uber have invested in Knightscope’s K5 robot that uses Artificial Intelligence to combat crime and keep premises under surveillance.
In an article by Harvard Business Review entitled AI Is Not Just Getting Better; It’s Becoming More Pervasive, they explore the growing influence od AI:
‘All this is to say that AI is not just getting better—it is becoming more pervasive. As new generations of hardware and software endow all manner of both consumer and enterprise devices, appliances, machines, and other equipment with AI capabilities, we are poised to enter an era of pervasive intelligence.’
‘This era of pervasive intelligence will be marked by a proliferation of AI-powered smart devices able to recognize and react to sights, sounds, and other patterns. Increasingly, machines will learn from experiences, adapt to changing situations, and predict outcomes. Some will infer users’ needs and desires and even collaborate with other devices by exchanging information, distributing tasks, and coordinating their actions.’
‘With AI embedded, rather than confined solely to the cloud, the intelligence in these devices will not depend on internet connectivity. And they will not suffer the latency entailed by transmitting data to the cloud for analysis. Lower latency and connectivity independence will enable all kinds of applications—such as vehicle navigation and some health care applications—that require instantaneous response and robust performance even when connectivity is poor.’
AI can study consumer habits and search trends and can analyze data from social media and online content in order to give firms an insight into the way consumers discover their goods and services.
Chatbots are a further example of AI in action. During a keynote session last year, The Facebook VP of Messaging Products, David Marcus said that chatbots on the social network platform were on the rise as engagement between Facebook’s chatbots and users skyrocketed.
‘The Messenger Platform wouldn’t be where it is today without 200K developers actively building experiences and forging connections with the 1.3 billion people who use Messenger each month. To date, there are over 300K active bots on Messenger, and over 8 billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses each month. Onstage we announced that we’re releasing new products that represent the evolution of messaging.’
To watch the full Facebook keynote session, click here.
Chatbots offer 24-hour responsiveness, answering user queries and questions quickly, have access to a variety of user data including purchase history. This form of Artificial Intelligence offers the ideal customer service, and the best part is it works independently meaning you have more time to focus on optimizing other aspects of your online marketing campaign.
Split testing for SEO
To customize your digital marketing campaigns you need to implement split testing techniques which give insights into which aspects and elements of your marketing campaigns are working well and which need improvement.
Through trial and error split testing you can work on optimizing call to action buttons, page layouts, images, content, keywords and titles; all of which are crucial marketing factors when it comes to driving more traffic to your site and increasing the CTR (click-through rate).
The more relevant the content is in relation to the keywords that visitors actively search for the higher you could rank on Google’s SERPs.
Programmatic advertising
What is programmatic advertising? Acuity defines this as: ‘Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of online advertising. This automation makes transactions efficient and more effective, streamlining the process and consolidating your digital advertising efforts in one technology platform.’
Programmatic advertising is changing the face of online marketing with more than 80 percent of online advertisements in the US set to be automated by 2020.
According to singlegrain.com: ‘it is expected that by 2023, brands will spend $25.1 billion annually on marketing automation, and the majority of them intend to use it for cross-channel campaign management software.’
‘Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2018 points out that in 2019 around 65% of marketing companies will spend more on martech, while only 5% want to decrease this spending. The majority of CMOs are actively adjusting the annual funds that they plan to invest for innovations next year.’
Programmatic advertising gives digital marketers the ability to target the right audience with the most relevant product or service.
‘Through automation and machine learning, programmatic creates an environment that enables marketers to reach their most meaningful audiences more efficiently than ever before using digital media to deliver the best results.’
‘However, programmatic is not the future of advertising, it’s already here. If you are not taking advantage of its potential in some capacity already you are missing out on the potential to save money and see better performance in your online advertising campaigns.’
To read the full article by acuityads.com click here.
Personalized content
A personal approach to marketing is the way to go if you want a successful marketing campaign that has a high ROI. With user data providing precise and valuable information including purchase history, customer behavior and search patterns, and now with the developments in Artificial Intelligence, personalized content has become a growing trend. Consumers are more likely to engage with personalized ads and content as opposed to the vast amount of generic content. Marketo, a marketing automation and software company launched its Ad Bridge tool that helps businesses to customize their online ad campaigns depending on consumer behavior.
