If someone would have told me in 2015 or 2016 that Voice Search, AI and data-driven marketing were going to be the future of the digital marketing industry, I would have probably thought “fine, ya, let’s forget it for now and think of it when that happens; we have more important things to do now man”. And suddenly that time has come now. It’s 2020 and all these are now part of innovative digital marketing trends that businesses are adopting to remain competitive in the online landscape. If there is one thing we know by now is that consumer behaviour has become hard to predict and marketing technology is moving ahead at a fast pace. If you are a digital marketer who is still applying the old methods and taking educated guesses, it’s time to move on. So, here is a list of the top 13 top digital marketing trends that your business/brand needs to consider in order to stand out in the cut-throat world of online marketing: 1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning With such a large chunk of data harvested from ecommerce and online consumer behavior, it’s necessary to adopt a system that can compile and analyze all necessary information as quickly as possible. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are perfect for doing just that. Not only can the combination of these technologies analyze data without step-by-step instructions, but they can also work to develop more accurate ways to execute digital marketing goals. For example, AI and ML have driven product recommendations for companies as big as Amazon and been able to accurately generate content without human direction. To implement some of these strategies in your own digital marketing campaign, you can create AI-powered digital ads, or smart posters. Essentially, with this technology, you can customize content based on physical or virtual consumer interaction data. The system can understand what features are interacted with the least and automatically drive out that feature to only showcase those that are creating the maximum consumer interaction. 2. Blockchain While converting the bulk of your business’s marketing strategies to the digital world can create a vast amount of opportunities and efficiencies, it also opens the door to a number of security threats. Luckily, in recent years, many businesses have begun to implement blockchain technology. The technology can protect your general business functions and transactions from fraud and theft. For marketing, specifically, blockchain technology has helped businesses to earn more profit from their marketing data. Previously, when a business invested in Google’s search engine marketing ads for their site, Google ultimately handled the ad transactions to ensure that each site was charged fairly for the number of clicks generated from the ad. However, with blockchain digital marketing, this middleman, which is Google, is removed from the equation. Businesses now have complete ownership of the data and information they receive. They no longer have to go through Google to ensure that the data is valid and authorized by the user, because the users are able to authorize their data themselves. This allows businesses to retain 100% of the profits. 3. Personalization In order to ensure success for your business’s digital marketing campaigns, you must adopt personalization as one of your strategies. Not only will it help to build a relationship with each of your customers, but it has also proven to be successful at converting potential buyers into dedicated customers. In fact, 79% of consumers say they are likely to interact with a campaign only if it has been personalized. Similarly, about 63% say they become “highly annoyed” by a brand’s continued use of generic mass marketing campaigns. These two statistics alone give plenty of reason as to why personalization is required in today’s digital marketing. Also Read: Best Crucial Things To Keep In Mind While Building Your Digital Marketing Agency To integrate personalization with email marketing, many companies send out abandoned cart notifications. Every time a consumer shops on your site and leaves without purchasing any of the items that they added to their cart, you can send out an abandoned cart email. In doing so, you are remarketing the products that a specific consumer added to their cart. This email will be very different from the email another customer receives about their abandoned cart, which is what makes it personalized. However, this is not the only way to personalize a digital marketing campaign. So, be creative, and eventually you will appeal to those 79% of consumers. 4. Chatbots Chatbots and instant messenger are expected to grow and power about 80% of customer service this year. Given that we now know the powerful benefits of personalization in digital marketing, you may understand why the conversational component of chatbots is equally as powerful. Businesses that use instant messaging or chatbots have the opportunity to connect with customers in real time and cater to their specific needs. With the advanced intelligence that AI has introduced in chatbots, the technology is able to simulate an in-person conversation, which is typically preferred by a customer. A chatbot’s AI capabilities also give it the “brainpower” to market relevant products throughout the conversation. 5. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) Given that about 60% of Google search engine queries come from mobile devices, one might assume that both the mobile device and mobile view are much more user-friendly and accessible than a desktop. While you can’t convert a desktop to a mobile device, you can most certainly add elements that make the desktop view similar to its counterpart. This is essentially the idea behind progressive web apps. They act as a middle ground between desktop and mobile views, allowing businesses to implement successful elements of mobile or app views at a fraction of the development cost. Small changes to a desktop page, like faster loading speeds, offline working, and push notifications can help improve the user experience and the digital marketing and sales process for businesses. 6. Internet of Things (IoT) When it
