2019 And Beyond! 8 Predictions For The Future Of Digital Marketing

This blog post plays off of my previous post a bit. Many of the predictions that I made regarding the future of marketing and artificial intelligence will come into play in the future for digital marketing.

1. Content Will Become More Intelligent And Interactive. 

I received a poem in an email today from a Ceros.com 

“I’ve been on your site,

Let’s talk about the content…

Is Monday alright? “

Yes, you read that correctly, a poem asking when I could speak on the phone. I think the poem goes to show how difficult it is to get people to respond to content and the lengths that marketers will go to get people to read their content. Content will continue to be difficult to get people to read. According to Criteo, people spend an average of 2.5 seconds reading any given piece of content on a desktop.

Content writing will become more important, as I do not see that number diminishing. The standard form of static written content (such as this blog post) will become increasingly less common. Content will be colorful, dynamic and creative. According to SnapApp, interactive content generates two times more conversions than regular content.

SnapApp also reports that within the next 12 to 24 months, about 30% of all content will be interactive. I think that this number is spot on, as companies are already making their content more interactive. For example, many fitness is using various kinds of quizzes such as body type or nutrition quizzes, to get their audience to interact with their content, and generate leads. Therefore, it stands to reason that interactive content will comprise roughly a third of all content, if not more.

I also think that content will get more intelligent, as Natural-Language Processing software will be able to tell people what content their target audience is viewing. The software will also be able to tell people what content is going to improve their conversion rates and improve their search engine optimization. Such technology already exists, but will be used more commonly, and effectively going forward (more on this in a future blog post :).

As I mentioned earlier, content will be creative and dynamic, as dynamic content draws the attention of viewers more easily than static content. What do I mean by this? I mean that the content on landing pages, funnels, websites, ads, etc. will be colorful and will have images that are literally moving.

Ceros.com, a company that specializes in drag and drop design software that creates dynamic content provides a perfect example of dynamic content. Ceros provides an example of content becoming dynamic. If you visit the link you will notice a picture of a town with the clouds rolling by, this is a dynamic image (you cannot see the clouds in the picture below, but you can see them in the link).

Dynamic HTML will become the most common language for creating images and infographics.  Dynamic images will become the norm for most images in the next couple of years or so.

Virtual reality will also become a very common form of interactive content. As will quizzes, knowledge tests, utilities (such as calculators for example) and interactive videos.

2. Video

According to TabularInsights.com, by 2020 video will drive 79% of all internet traffic. This is an insane amount of traffic to drive, but it goes to show how many people like watching videos. People generally prefer watching videos to reading text…fact!  Did you know that you literally could not watch all of the cat videos on the internet in the average lifetime? That is how many videos there are on the internet.

What does this mean for the future of video marketing?

Video marketing will become tailored to the moment. Adweek calls this “micro-moment marketing.” Adweek also makes the point that people view content online in short bursts and look for recommendations on what content to consume and what to buy. I would add to this that people also use the internet to immediately solve problems. For example, if someone realizes that they need a standing desk, they will search for it. These are all opportunities for marketers to use video to market to people in the moment when they are most likely to buy.

For example, Instagram suggests videos for people to watch, and when they view those videos, they may see a sales pitch or a link in the bio to a product related to the topic of the video, this will become the norm going forward. Not only that, but artificial intelligence will be used to target people who are viewing content that is most related to certain products and market to them at that moment. In other words, video is and will be an opportunity to create highly targeted and personal ads.

Geo-targeted videos will become increasingly common. Apps like Snapchat and Google maps will become even more common tools for video marketers. Geo-location will allow marketers the opportunity to see people’s locations and create targeted ads pushing products to them based on their location. For example, a sunscreen company may use video ads to market to people in Miami.

Video marketing will also become highly interactive. This goes back to what I was saying earlier about content becoming more interactive. Videos will have (and already do have ) links to click on, sign up forms to fill out, or quizzes to take.

3. Geo-Targeted Ads Will Become More Popular

 “Geo-targeted ad revenue will represent 45% of all mobile ad revenues by the year 2021.” –Balihoo.com

45% of all mobile ad revenues, that is nearly half! Geo-targeted ads will only increase in popularity, will enhance mobile advertising, and will be an integral part of video advertising, as previously mentioned.

Not only that, but people want geo-targeted ads. Balihoo also reports the following:

“66% of people want ads customized to their location

Brands are seeing as much as a 20% increase in conversions when using location data in their campaigns

78% of local searches lead to offline purchases.” Balihoo.com

Ceros.com gives several examples as to how markets can use geo-targeted ads. For example, geo-located ads will allow marketers to target people with ads for products that are relevant to the climate in their region.

Geo-targeted ads can help customers save on shipping. According to Ceros.com,”44% of customers abandon their cart because shipping is too expensive.” Ceros reports that a solution for this is for retailers to offer reduced shipping rates when shipping within the same state.

Ceros also mentions that geo-targeted tax rate discounts. For example, adding a discount to offset sales taxes.

Ceros reports that “2/3rds of customers who purchase online use a brick-and-mortar store.” Marketers can build a store locator feature that allows customers to find the nearest brick and mortar location to them. This goes back to the above statistic that 78% of local searches lead to offline purchases. Geo-located ads will help brick and mortar stores to succeed in the future by attracting more buyers to their physical locations. Sometimes people do not have time to wait for an item to ship.

4. Voice

Voice is going to be a major player in marketing in the next couple of years. Currently, the AI that is used for things such as Alexa and Google has a ways to go. When using Alexa I notice that quite often Alexa does not understand what I am saying. However, going forward, digital assistants will integrate with many different tools and will be a mandatory part of every marketers’ strategy.

Convenience is the reason that many people use digital assistants. People will be in the kitchen doing the dishes and realize that they need more detergent. Rather than dry their hands off and grab their phone, they will just say, “hey Alexa, order more detergent pods.” If an online store sells detergent pods and integrates with voice, this can help drive traffic to their site.

5. Social Media Will Be Used Differently!

The way in which we use social media is shifting. Social media was originally purely for entertainment and connecting with friends. Then, Facebook launched their business features and people realized what a great marketing tool it is. Now, Facebook is an amalgam of entertainment and business content. As a result, people are tired of viewing ads, not to mention the fact that we are not captive to ads as we once were with TV ads before the invention of the DVR.

Facebook is even jumping on board with this transition, as they are working on their Facebook Explore feature, which separates social feed from ads. Marketers need to be smart about these shifts and utilize the new platforms to collect customer’s information.

Social media has become more like a search engine in my opinion. For example, external websites can link to Instagram now and people can buy e-commerce products straight from Instagram without leaving the app. The ability to purchase from the app makes for more efficient purchasing. That is a slight shift in the way in which social media is used.

6. Chatbots

It is no secret that chatbots will be an important part of every marketer’s strategy in the future. Just like voice, the AI used for chatbots will become more intelligent and will be able to hold semi-real and intelligent conversations with humans. According to Digital Marketing Institute Limited, Facebook is creating a messaging bot designed to integrate with their messaging service.

I think that chatbots will also improve to the point of being able to market to people “in the moment.” For example, when someone views content related to a particular product or abandons their cart, they will receive a chat on FB that will offer them a discount on that product, thus improving conversion rate.

7. Influencer Marketing

Ten years ago, the people who endorsed products were almost exclusively celebrities or athletes, people who were given screen time on TV. Now, the internet and social media have democratized the business world to the point where anyone with a lot of followers can endorse a product. Influencer marketing is now and will be in the future, one of the best ways to reach people.

For the following reasons:

1.  people live on their phones. Your average millennial consumer scrolls through their Instagram feed several times per day. Their attention is on social media, so if the ads are there, they will buy from there.

2. If they see a fellow millennial endorsing a supplement or something, they can relate to that person more than a celebrity. Therefore, they will buy that product.

3. As Digital Marketing Institute Limited, wrote, there is “a built-in audience.” Brands that use influencer marketing do not have to spend time building up a following among say millennials and slowly add them to their mailing list, or follower count. The influencer can spread their messaging immediately.

Influencers also (if chosen correctly) speak to a brand’s target audience perfectly. For example, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model speaks perfectly to an audience of young women who are in the market for swimwear.

Digital Marketing Institute Limited also made the point that Influencer marketing will become more of a part of an actual marketing strategy than a tactic designed to push just one product.

I believe that influencers will also be used to test products in the future. Why not offer a limited release of your product, and have an influencer whose following perfectly represents your brands’ target market sell your product to their followers? The only cost would be whatever it cost to create the product, and the influencer’s cut. There would be no need to spend money on ads and whatnot, and if the product is successful, that money could be used for marketing.

Neil Patel wrote a terrific article on influencer marketing. In the article, he defines influencer marketing and provides strategies for how to successfully implement influencer marketing in a marketer’s strategy.

8. Marketing At Lightspeed!

I have mentioned this a few times in the article, but marketers will need to market to people in as soon as they view content related to their product. Or, as soon as they abandon their cart. Marketers will need to use AI to tell them when someone is viewing their content, and immediately create a personalized ad with a discount included.

Digital Marketing Institute Limited makes the point that consumers are performing searches of their own, and marketers need to be able to “catch” them at that moment with highly targeted, personal content. Digital Marketing Institute Limited suggests that marketers will rely on “single-touch (mobile-friendly) offerings and ensure they can still hold their own in search rankings (versus Amazon).” As well  as  “‘highly customized content (via AI).”

I predict that AI will tell marketers when their content has been viewed, and then to use chatbots or other forms of communication to offer discounts on their products to customers. That is the future of marketing.

What do you think the future of digital marketing is? Leave a comment below and share your opinion!