Technology is rapidly transforming the way that we do business today. AI is making work faster, while automation is taking it out of our hands. Technology is rapidly making us work better than we ever could alone – and if you ask any successful online entrepreneur, a lot of it’s all down to smart management of time using tech, along with closely following the latest in marketing.
Why? It’s simple: people generally get wise to marketing styles, and once it’s done enough, they turn off. Not deliberately, they just register it as marketing and their brain glosses over it. Therefore, staying ahead of the curve, or on its tip, is a great way to be on the cutting-edge and avoiding this doomsday invisibility.
So, what are marketers excited about which the general public is interested in? One such thing is VR, or Virtual Reality. This hasn’t quite taken off yet, but interest is still incredibly high, especially in niches like real estate, sports, and entertainment where it adds a whole new dimension (quite literally) of engagement and involvement. Sure, video marketing might be the hotspot right now, but just imagine being inside the video, and you can see why VR is kinda a big deal that’s set to explode as soon as VR really becomes commonplace.
As mentioned in the introduction up there AI (Artificial Intelligence) is also huge. While this isn’t so much consumer-facing, the fact that it’s getting so much smarter makes this something you don’t want to avoid either. It’s predictive, which means it can predict what will work, personalized, which means it makes awesome use of the data you feed it, and productive, because it does so much heavy lifting for you. What’s not to love about this?
Another trend is native advertising. This is what the general public might call “disguised adverts” or advertisements that look more like regular content. This is a subtle way to maintain brand awareness and exposure without being overly pushy, and it goes without saying that high quality is absolutely a must. Another reason for this coming to prominence is that social media platforms – in response to their own pressures – are demanding better content, simply because the public hates crappy, badly done advertising (and who doesn’t?).
Livestreaming is also starting to gain a lot of popularity. Again, this is driven by social media in their quest to topple YouTube. You’ve likely seen a “live” video lately on your own feeds; that’s livestreaming. These videos are pushed to the top by algorithms on all video sites, so it’s a great way to get a powerful boost, and it’s definitely a huge direction for video marketing to take. Livestreaming is also just that much more popular with viewers, who will watch them 8 times longer. If you’re not already on this gravy train, you should get on it before it chugs out of the station with your rivals on it.
Finally, influencer marketing. Love or hate social media “influencers” they’re called that for good reason, and getting one or two on your side will be a huge boost to your brand. They’re trusted, have hundreds of thousands or millions of rabid followers, and know how to play the social media game.
All in all, these trends are driving the future of marketing forward, and definitely something to consider. Next year will be even more exciting – but what will you be doing this year to keep your finger hot on the dial?