The role a marketing professional or marketing agency plays in the business world has already been evolving over the years.
A century ago, marketing was relegated to salespeople going door to door, sharing flyers, and implementing word-of-mouth efforts.
3 marketing trends shaping the future of consumer engagement
Even in the early 2000s, the act of promoting products and services revolved around creating one-way forms of communication. This included TV commercials, web ads, and marketing materials that were all very one-sided and informative.
In today’s environment of accelerated digital change, merely informing a customer using antiquated marketing tactics is no longer sufficient to stay ahead of your competition or ahead of consumers’ changing needs.
Marketing demands now require an individual or team to implement a more dynamic approach focused on addressing future challenges now. This is made possible with Anticipatory thinking and the exponential use of advanced digital technology available to all.
We are going to take an in-depth look at the trends in marketing today to analyze where they are headed and explore how to keep your organization at the forefront of consumer minds. Here are the three most important trends in the marketing industry today:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Overtaking Every Industry
Talk about conversational AI chatbots and how they are changing how we produce content and interact with customers online. With the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, AI applications helped us take a huge leap into the future, with many other organizations following in OpenAI’s footsteps by creating their own versions of the application.
As these algorithms are becoming more sophisticated, a Hard Trend is that they will continue to do so at a more accelerated pace.
Today’s consumers have a penchant for instant gratification, seeking answers and solutions on a near-instantaneous level.
As a result, conversational AI has far-reaching implications for marketers. They can facilitate the production of quick and effective content, creating a source for customers to ask questions about products and receive reliable answers, and quickly direct them to useful website information.
This technology is not slowing down and will not anytime soon, but many marketers are refusing to embrace the competitive advantage it can grant them. This is often from fear of change or worry that AI will make their skillset suddenly irrelevant. But putting off working with AI means they are falling behind others who do leverage this technology. Replace that fear by finding the opportunity it presents to you and your clients specifically!
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2. Virtual and Augmented Reality Is Growing
The time of using flyers, simple ads, and landing pages to entice customers has passed us by. As I stated earlier, these forms of marketing are one-way and informative but not interactive. We do not want to merely inform customers of products and services — we want to engage them with experiential marketing!
Getting your customers involved in your product is essential to remaining at the forefront of their thoughts. Both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are extremely common applications in many individuals’ lives. Outside of their recreational uses, marketing professionals and agencies can and should use them to get their message out!
For instance, if your client is a kitchen and bath remodeling company, consider creating a VR tour of their product showroom so customers can experience their work. Several retail brands, such as Warby Parker, are leveraging AR to show how glasses or apparel would look on each individual. This simplifies customers’ lives and facilitates an experience to take away the guesswork around selecting frames, shirts, or even makeup.
3. Big Data Is Creating Personalization Opportunities
The trend we are now seeing become more important than ever is consumers wanting increased personalization. Marketing campaigns tailor-made to speak directly to their wants and needs when they want or need something is vital. This is a trend that has been increasing steadily in the past few years, and it is a future certainty that it will continue to do so.
How do you anticipate a customer’s desires or needs? With the vast amount of data available to marketing professionals today, we can effectively link this data to the products or services of the clients we market to. But this comes with pairing advanced digital technology and big data. With the evolution of AI applications, marketers can process vast amounts of consumer data and preferences quickly, helping them to suggest more accurate products and services based on buying patterns.
Leveraging this data to customize your marketing campaigns effectively is a crucial strategy in today’s marketing landscape. I’m not referring to basic targeted ads, but rather to genuine personal product recommendations on an individual level. Making digital marketing and sales feel more human and less like spam can foster a unique trust with your clients’ customers and create personal connections through digital technology.
All three of these trends are giving marketers the opportunity to see the future in their own industry and the industries of their clients. Think about how powerful this is! You are in charge of helping connect customers to your clients’ products, services, or processes with the goal of bettering their lives as a result. Think of how many more individuals you can serve and interact with by utilizing these three trends in marketing.
The key to successful marketing is how well you know your customers and how you use current technological advancements to demonstrate that your organization can meet their needs. With the boundless benefits that can be obtained by leveraging these trends, let them help break you free from legacy thinking or legacy technology. Remember: Just because your marketing campaign works now does not mean that it will continue to do so. Nothing is forever, but that should not come with fear!
Turn these trends into opportunities for you, your clients, their customers, and the world overall.
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