Monday, August 13, 2018

Digital Tech Trends 2018

Technological Advances and Digital Marketing in 2018

Introduction The constant flow of technological progress means that digital marketing is always evolving to keep up. Today’s digital marketing tactics look completely different than they did five years ago – and it is likely they will look completely outdated by the time another 5 years go by. But for now, here’s how technology is currently impacting digital marketing – and what you have to do to keep up with the times. Forbes  has suggested a new term, known as Digital Marketing 4.0. The prior framework includes website traffic, email campaigns, digital advertisements, basic social media management and basic blog publishing. It only focuses on increasing visits to websites but has no focus on lead conversion and proper online lead qualification.  
  This most recent trends, though, include: Integrated Global Marketing: Inbound and outbound marketing should now be combined. In comparison to cold-calling, consider this "warm-calling." For instance, after someone reads a blog article on your website, follow it up with an email sharing more meaningful content. Omnichannel Marketing Strategy: This includes deep analytics and data mining, such as AI and machine learning. Omnichannel marketing brings a diversity in mediums when it comes to communicating your brand and value-add. Focusing only on one medium can be limiting, especially if your buyers don't exist on that channel. A Comprehensive Marketing Technology Integration: No one software tool can save the day. Marketing is not about the creative aspect alone anymore. Marketing technology infrastructure needs to be designed and integrated correctly. One social media tool alone will not save the day, nor will one CRM tool be the solution to a challenge anymore. Consider your full stack and how it can work together. Instant is the New Speed Gone are the days when web pages took 5 seconds or more to load. Technology and connection speeds have progressed to a point where everything is expected to be instantly available on-demand. To the younger generations especially, to be constantly connected to instant information is the norm. And, as they move up to fill more of the buying market, businesses will need to cater to diminishing attention spans to ensure they don’t miss out. Engage IT personnel to work on streamlining your website load speed and run frequent tests to ensure it falls within an acceptable range to avoid a high bounce rate. If you put out any content or communications, ensure they get to the point quickly to keep users engaged. Lastly, you can make use of the numerous “Live” channel features on social media to interact with your consumer base in an on-demand fashion.

Mobile Devices Take Over

According to BonsaiMediaGroup.com, with the mobile-first index due out on in early 2018, it’s no longer just competitive advantage to have a mobile-friendly, responsive site. Without the proper precautions and set up, your rankings and your business are sure to suffer. Over 60% of search is now mobile, and nearly 20% of mobile queries are voice searches, which means that your site needs to be mobile-friendly from both a search engines and a user’s perspective. Nowadays, the prevailing use of mobile devices is becoming a common trend. Search engines, social media  networks, online shopping websites, books, movies, and any sort of information are accessed with the use of smartphones, rather than desktops. Think about yourself: how often do you use your phone compared to PC? Yes, you get my point. Google is observing the rising number of mobile search enquiries since 2015, and now it is time to make changes. 2018 is announced to be a year, when Google will officially start to rank and index web pages based on mobile experience and its content, while desktop version will be a less influencing factor. You can find more information about Google Mobile Index in our article.  
    Smart phone evolution, ubiquitous Wi-Fi, and ever-increasing data allowances mean that people are constantly ‘plugged in’ and ready to receive information. 65% of all digital media time is spent on mobile devices – and yet, all too often mobile optimization is overlooked as a priority. Ensure your IT personnel are well-versed with mobile optimization in terms of design, as well as functionality and always test your website on various mobile devices (of different resolutions, screen sizes, display settings, and so on) to make sure that it looks good and is easy to use. Besides your website, don’t forget to mobile optimize the other communications you put out – whether it be ads, emails, articles, and so on. Who knows – as time goes on and mobile dependency gets higher, it is possible that the new norm will be to design for mobile, then optimize for desktop. From mobile-optimized pages to tailored mobile advertising, creating dedicated mobile marketing may seem time and resource-intensive, but it is an extremely worthwhile investment in 2018.

More Reliance on Artificial Intelligence

According to Mobilebusinessinsights.com, driving digital transformation is much more than managing the creation of a minimum viable product. The solution must also have the agility to support innovation going forward.\ The MarketingScope.com states that AI was in the headlines across business disciplines in 2018, from supply chain planning and finance to production and, of course, marketing. Average daily searches for the term doubled from January to December 2017, according to Google Trends. It’s not a tool itself, but AI technology is being applied to marketing tools like ad serving to help target ads more effectively; marketing automation software to personalize content; and analytics tools to find patterns at a speed and scale humans can’t match.  
  Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing every day to better understand human behaviors, interests, and thought processes. This is a benefit to both users and marketers, as AI is able to segment large audiences based on their characteristics and show them content that is relevant. On the user side, AI acts as a filter towards the huge amount of information out there, selecting and curating an experience for each individual according to their interest and behaviors. On the side of the digital marketers, AI is used to save costs by ensuring that marketing materials are shown only to the people most likely to be interested. Thus, in all your online marketing channels, make sure you are making full use of the AI available to segment your audiences and show them the most relevant content – whether it be based on their interests or by where they are in their journey through the buying cycle. This will enable you to meet their needs in a much more relevant and engaging way – a win-win outcome!

Conclusion

The evolution of technology is changing the way we form a digital marketing strategy. This creates a growing challenge for industry professionals to keep up with evolving trends, as well as find the best way to incorporate them into their marketing plan. Inspireinfosol.com states marketing is no more people-only driven, it is equally driven by technology. Having mentioned that, we support marketing function teams with technology that will ease analytics, provides insights, implements automation, lead generation, conversion optimization and branding. With marketing you would need help in either creating a digital collateral, system integration, implementation or analytics. The recent development in the marketing technology space is to be able to find the right resources for your business, network with and execute task-driven projects. Would you want Blueninja.io help you with Digital Marketing? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, PWA System Development, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with Blueninja.io and be the first who will read our next article!

1 comment:

  1. This is really an awesome article. Thank you for sharing this.It is worth reading for everyone.

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