Digital marketing has made incredible strides throughout the past few years in the direction of customer service, real-time support, and inbound marketing. With 2017 just a few weeks away, there are many trends expected to create unprecedented development and success in digital marketing in the New Year.
Will it be a year dictated by machine learning capabilities, or one that is forever remembered by its commitment to the adoption of smartphones for every purchase decision?
Here are three digital marketing trends to look for in 2017:
1. Real-time marketing
Gone are the days when marketers needed to predict sales, data, and growth for their company through bookkeeping and quarterly reflecting. Today, with all of the digitally integrated methods of marketing, marketers have the instant data they need to create marketing strategies in real-time. This allows them to give their customers what they want to see, when they want to see it by immediately taking advantage of hyper-relative micro-moments as they happen. Adapting marketing methods in real-time can create powerful contextual communications like never before. Just ask Oreo and Arby’s.
2. Increasing smartphone usage
You may be thinking: smartphones are already incredibly important and popular, what makes 2017 any different? Smartphone usage in the United States alone is expected to reach 222.9 million, with an estimated worldwide total of 2.6 billion. That’s an enormous amount of people relying on only their smartphones for buying, selling, and business interaction. This should be an obvious indication that if your audience can’t reach your business through mobile search or display, or your mobile experience is not friendly, you have a serious problem.
3. Machine learning
Machine learning developments by Google, Facebook, IBM, etc. have been continuously hinted at in 2016. We’re predicting that 2017 will be the year in which these developments are put to use, with chatbots becoming a standard and useful feature for communication and purchasing platforms, and more businesses incorporating Artificial Intelligence for consumer support and predictive analysis. Google has indicated they have machine-learning devices that will be able to understand consumer sentiment for aggregate sales plans. Just imagine what machine learning will do for customer segmentation, open rates, and social engagement. Is your business ready to incorporate a machine-learning component?
2017 is clearly set to be one of the most technologically impressive – and perhaps overwhelming – years digital marketers have seen. Brands that are able to quickly and effectively parse data and adapt their strategies to new trends as they happen will have a clear marketing advantage over their competitors. If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with the rapid pace of marketing, Van West Media can help!