45 Benefits of Digital Marketing that Your Business Can’t Ignore

1- Advantages of Digital Marketing:

The advantages of digital marketing are equal parts against the drawbacks of traditional marketing and new avenues opened by technology. One the one hand traditional marketing doesn’t allow consistent customer interaction and restricts personalization for each customer. On the other hand, digital marketing offers a lot of new advantages that are only possible through 5G and IoT.

Digital marketing has a lot of qualities that make its use more advantageous with respect to small and medium enterprises. There are the usual suspects like cost cutting, greater control over ads and marketing, and greater ROI.

However, there are newer advantages which come with the adoption of new technology. These include access to big data, targeting ideal customers, getting objective measurements on the effectiveness of campaigns and advertising, etc. It’s due to benefits like these that digital marketing is deemed ideal for SMEs.

Here are 45 Benefits of Digital Marketing that Businesses can’t deny.

2- Digital Marketing Works for Everything

The first and most obvious benefit of digital marketing is that it works for everything. Whether you want to market gardening tools to single mothers or a grooming service to bachelors, you can do it. The same can’t be said for traditional marketing.

Not only does traditional marketing come with limitations of time and location, but niche markets. Traditional marketing would often target large swathes of the population without concentrating on ideal markets. Niche customers would often be targeted through catchy slogans and messages rather than through their search habits. It was simply because search doesn’t work the same way in real life as on the internet. No one can really open a television and switch to what they’re searching for in terms of products and services. In fact, people would prefer to turn away from any channels that would feature ads for products and services. The same can be said for print media, radio, etc.

Most marketers realize this and that’s why they’ve all but abandoned traditional marketing completely. Take this survey from eMarketer for example. It showed that 54.2% of ad spend in the US consisted of only digital marketing in 2018. In 2019, that percentage was supposed to grow by 19% to 129.34 billion. The same survey also reported that traditional marketing methods were taking hits. The Yellow Pages, for example, would see their market share deplete by 19%. Radio would deplete by 1.8%, TV advertising by 2.2%, and Print advertising by 17.8%.

3- Access to More Data for Better SEO

Traditional marketing may be a preference for some, but digital marketing definitely gives access to more data. Comments, messages, site interaction, bounce rates, purchases, conversions, etc. all contribute to digital marketing. Specifically, all these variables help to formulate a better SEO strategy.

This doesn’t just feed in to which keywords are being used in a blog post. It factors in to the slogans of different ads and the backgrounds, fonts and colors used for websites. It factors in to the overall UX of a website or an app and which platforms customers prefer to interact with.

All of these data points help to formulate better SEO strategies for companies, and it can only be done through digital marketing. If you want to get the best of SEO optimization for your business, contact SEO Resellers Canada.

4- Predictive Analytics Result in Better Inventory and Marketing Strategies

Predictive analytics has only been made possible by big data. With the wealth of data available on customers, it’s now possible to predict customer behavior. That’s why Amazon recommends additional buys to you after you’ve checked out a product. This is why YouTube recommends you different channels and videos based on your behavior. This is why Netflix can recommend shows to you based on your watch history; though maybe that’s a bad example. It’s only natural that your recorded actions teach the business something about your behavior.

Through a large enough data set, companies can predict how much they are predicted to sell in a year. They can also predict dips and spikes in their demand so that they can stock inventory commensurately. More importantly, companies can predict how customers will react to a certain ad or notification based on past behavior. This makes digital marketing, much smarter than traditional marketing.

5- Measure Your Impact More Objectively

You wouldn’t believe it, but there are still brands that don’t consider digital marketing worth their time. They believe that their brand value and outreach is so significant and ubiquitous that they don’t need it. Those companies don’t even know it, but they’re asking what are the benefits of digital marketing for any company? They’re not concerned with new apps and services that are the harbingers of the sharing economy. They want concrete, objective reasons to shift to a digital model. For them, there’s only one answer. Digital marketing allows you to measure your impact more objectively.

Without a doubt, digital marketing is more measurable than traditional marketing. Every comment, impression, site visit, share, conversion, and subscription, is recorded. The numbers are there for everyone to see in black and white. There is no mistaking it. Data analytics, conversion rates, bounce rates, A/B testing; it all culminates into a sea of actionable information. There is more that companies can do with this pool of data than with anything they get from traditional marketing.

6- More Control and Personalization

While most consumers know that retailers and companies follow their behavior, 75% of them are ok with it. This is because they want companies to use their personal information to better market products to them. This allows companies to find out what niche they fit in to and craft better marketing pitches and better products. If there is a large enough market for a change in their products or an addition to their services, they implement it. These changes were never possible with traditional marketing. It could take years or at most, months, for companies to find out if their new products or services were a hit.

With digital marketing, since the response to a product or service is immediate, the implementation is too. With more data serving companies, they can personalize ad campaigns, email campaigns, and posts better. With that information they can send out specifically targeted ads to their potential customers.

7- You Can Market to People Based on Location

he idea of marketing to people based on location isn’t something new. However, this market of geo-fencing is now growing at a high rate. It will reach nearly $2.4 billion by 2023. What geo-fencing does different that traditional marketing is that it markets based on real time location. With so many apps available on smartphones, it’s easy to send a notification based on the location of a person. If they’re near a restaurant, they can be sent a coupon code.

If they’re near a clothing store, they can be reminded of a sale. These kinds of location based marketing tactics were never possible with traditional marketing. First, the technology was never there. Second, there were never devices that could be ubiquitously with people throughout their day.

8- Real-time Engagement

Real-time engagement can take many forms. With traditional marketing it could entail speaking to a potential customer at an expo or cold calling someone for a survey. However, with digital marketing and social media, it’s a different ballgame altogether. With the resources of social media at one’s disposal, real-time engagement is a click or a tap away. Every single post on social media can elicit comments, impressions, reactions, shares, etc.

That kind of engagement about an offer, a discount, a new product, a new service, etc. isn’t possible with traditional marketing. The advantages of digital marketing are that every impression, reaction and engagement is immediate and fleeting. It’s very effective as well. According to a study, 76% of brands say that real-time social posting increases audience engagement. That’s an undeniable advantage.

What real-time engagement through social media affords a brand is that they can reply back. A customer can not only give their opinion about a post, but ask follow up questions. Brands have the option to converse with their base and elaborate further on points that are unclear. Besides the obvious likability that may result from this interaction, brands can learn a lot. If a question appears multiple times from different user accounts on the same post, it may present an opportunity. Brands can put that piece of information in a new post and/or learn what their niche prioritizes as key information.

These advantages simply don’t present themselves in traditional marketing. Even if multiple user interactions can occur at expos or during surveys, this type of engagement is improbable. The bulk of raw data that results from real-time social media engagement is impossible to generate with traditional marketing methods.

9- Conversational Marketing Makes Your Business More Appealing

What encourages brand loyalty for consumers? It may be the way that a brand treats you or responds to your queries. It may be the discounts and the offers that they give you. Or it could just be that they create a great product that you value. Whatever the case, conversational marketing helps give customers the confidence they need to make a purchase. The more that a marketing professional is conversational towards a customer, the more they feel at home. This is why employees are told to be extra nice to new customers and old customers alike.

However, conversational marketing has the added advantage of forming a personal connection with a potential customer. Since this is now available across multiple platforms like messenger apps and comments on social media, it’s much more effective. A customer can talk to an employee for a few minutes and make a purchase a few seconds later. It’s all about assuring them that they’re making the right choice. With digital marketing, you have so many more tools to do that with.

10- Semantic Keywords Will Help Reel in Adjacent Markets

One of the great benefits of online marketing for small businesses is the access to adjacent businesses. Keywords in a blog post, an ad, on a landing page, or in a social media post don’t just cater to that niche. Google also indexes those kinds of keywords to correspond to adjacent niches. Take for example ride hailing services. Keywords for those can be coupled with delivery services (Uber Eats), ticket purchasing apps (Fandango), etc. Similarly, keywords for a post on pet shelters can also index keywords for adoption services, animal control, etc.

Digital marketing gives you the advantage of creeping in to those adjacent markets and picking up customers. This is not possible with traditional marketing since the ubiquity of the internet doesn’t translate. If you want to tap adjacent niches and improve your ROI with great SEO, contact SEO Resellers Canada.

11- Making Changes as You Go

With traditional marketing, there is no going back once you’ve designed a campaign. The fonts, the template, the background color, the slogan, are all etched in concrete. However, with digital marketing, and a digital template, there are many chances to change as you go. If there is a new key piece of information that is revealed to marketers, they can respond to it immediately.

It’s undeniable that with methods like A/B testing and personalized email campaigns, marketing can change instantaneously. Marketing campaigns can respond to a new holiday, a new event, a change in perception, etc. If companies have made an error in marketing to their base, they can pull back ads and redesign them at a moment’s notice. They can also try and test different ads with A/B testing so that they find ones which work the best.

PPC campaigns and SEO campaigns can be updated along with your content as you see fit. New blog posts and articles can be put up to react to different information as it becomes available. All of that was never and will never be possible with traditional marketing.

12- Controlling the Entire Narrative

There’s one thing that you can’t deny about online marketing, and that’s its ability to control narratives. With traditional marketing you can put up as many flyers as you want or cold call as many people. However, with digital marketing, you have access to every single user and customer’s digital device. This is something that they carry around with them 24/7 and hardly put down. This means that you have access to their social media apps and their screen for as long as possible. Hence, you can notify them of changes to your campaign, respond to allegations, and learn from their behavior.

Hence, you can control the entire narrative around your campaign if possible. Billboards and TV ads don’t cut it anymore. Nothing is in the face of your customers more than their own device. Hence, that’s the way that you can reach them to give them your message. With such ubiquitous access, your marketing campaign can be tuned to what appeals to them. Hence, you can control the narrative that you would like.

13- Round the Clock Promotion

Digital marketing doesn’t just have the advantage of being ubiquitous, it can also be used 24/7. No matter how hard you try with traditional marketing, it can’t reach someone on their smartphone at midnight. With digital marketing, no matter the time zone, country, or city, you can convert a user in to a customer.

All sorts of campaigns can make this possible including posting on social media, landing pages, blogs, E-books, etc. While resources do need to be expended for this to work, the opportunities are endless. Someone lying on their bed at night can whip out their smartphone and see an ad for your products/services. No matter how good a salesman you are, no one’s going to attend a cold call at midnight.

14- Better Conversion Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness

One thing that is beyond contention is that digital marketing is by far the most efficient form of marketing. Marketing through social media, landing pages, paid ads, and blog posts is much cheaper than traditional marketing methods. According to a survey, all forms of traditional marketing are costlier and less efficient than digital marketing. These include direct mail, broadcast TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, etc. Of all these, social media costs the least and that comes under digital marketing.

The instant results that a company can get with digital marketing aren’t available with digital marketing. Consider marketing through a newspaper. There is limited circulation even for the best of newspapers today. There is a chance that the target market won’t even see the ads or pick up the newspaper for that matter. There is also a pretty good chance that a potential customer will see the newspaper ad and not respond to it. Finally, the newspaper is only in one’s hands in the morning and is then discarded. Even with digital newspapers, people often prefer not to click on those ads. They opt for ad-blockers that will help them concentrate on the content instead.

However, with digital marketing, a single post can link you to a product. That post is forever archived within that social network. Also, you can instantly interact with it via a comment or a reaction or a share. There’s no contest.

15- A More Level Playing Field

One of the most exciting benefits of digital marketing for small businesses is its ability to level the playing field. According to research, technology and digital marketing has helped to level the playing field for small businesses. 98% of marketers agree that personalization leads to measurable lifts in engagement. With extremely personalized ads and campaigns, small businesses can improve their ROI. Hence, they don’t have to expend as much capital as a large business to get the same results.

This would be unimaginable with traditional marketing. Neither do small businesses have the manpower or the resources to generate massive TV ads or cold calls or radio ads. They don’t have enough for celebrity endorsements either. However, with the expanse of social media and internet ads, and YouTube, businesses are nearly equal in marketing terms.

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16- Get to Know Your Competition Better

With so much data out there to collect on your customers, there’s definitely a lot you can know about your competition. With Facebook posts, Instagram posts, and Tweets out there to read, you can find out all you need. There are even specific apps that you can use to find out how your competition is formulating their strategy. Services are dedicated to finding out how your competitors are selling their products, what keywords they’re using for products, etc. These services also can tell you how effective and how non-effective these strategies have been for your competitors.

All of this information can help you better understand your competition and formulate better strategies. This has never been possible before. It used to be that businesses could study each other’s ads and look at each other’s sales through surveys and quarterly reports. Now, the uptick in traffic and conversions are almost instant, so businesses can respond immediately.

17- Increase Your ROI by Targeting Ideal Customers

The great thing about all the data that you can get from digital marketing is that you’ll know your niche better than ever. Traditional marketing could zero in on your ideal customers, but not to this extent. Digital marketing segments your user data by age, gender, sexuality, interests, apps, platforms, etc. Hence, a business can find out how exactly to reach their ideal customers.

While this has its advantages in designing advertising strategies and marketing campaigns, it also improves ROI. With marketing targeting a niche market, it helps to focus your resources on the right people. When you’re focusing on the most likely targets for your products and services, you will get a better ROI.

18- Featured Snippets Give Actionable Info for Potential Customers

Digital marketing SEO is not just confined to luring in potential customers with ads. It also helps to address actual problems that users have. For example, in the screenshot above, the query relates to colognes for bachelors. The first result is a featured snippet that contains the exact answer that is needed. These kinds of snippets usually appear for specific queries and are filled with actionable info.

These kinds of snippets help customers instantly find what they’re looking for. This is a form of SEO that was never available through traditional marketing. The most that the latter could do was run an ad that was aimed towards mothers or kids. It could never specify niches that specific. Also, it could never solve a problem for customers in the moment. Now, with the internet, digital marketing can address your problems when you want it to.

19- User Generated Content Boosts User Involvement

The best ways that traditional marketing could take the input of users was through contests on television, radio, or magazines. Those were subject to time. They could only work if potential customers and brand loyalists would tune in to those programs, or pick up those newspapers. Now, with a single post and a notification, brands can invite users to interact. Whether this is through giveaways or quizzes and contests, it compels the users to interact.

These users can contribute to the marketing by engaging in conversations, responding to answers, etc. No matter the winner, this makes customers want to interact whether through comments, or buying products. This is one of the easiest ways that digital marketing engages with its customers. A single, well optimized user generated campaign, can do wonders for a brand.

20- Global Reach

It’s not as simple targeting someone living in your own country as someone living thousands of miles away. However, digital marketing enables it. The internet has made the world a global village which has enabled marketing to a foreign country, a click away.

No longer do you need to establish firm ground in another city or country in order to market your product. There are billions of people from around the world on one social network. A third of the world’s population is on Facebook. Over a billion people are on Instagram.  That’s why digital marketing is effective. It accesses pools of people that are aggregated within a single platform. That has never been possible with traditional marketing. Now, businesses can market their products and services from thousands of miles away for free.

Also, all of these platforms offer business marketing options to businesses for very little money. That has never existed before. This opportunity blows anything traditional marketing has to offer out of the water. With digital marketing you literally have the audience in the palm of your hand and the tools to reach out. All you need to do is act.

21- Progressive Web Apps Improve Customer Experience

Creating an app is hard work. You have to not only optimize for the OS, but for the device that the OS is on. Also, getting apps approved is hard as well at times. That’s why, apps aren’t available for every single company or business. However, the internet and browsers have evolved so much that there are now progressive web apps. These are basically web pages which are built to work like apps on a smartphone or tablet.

This is very advantageous to companies that don’t have dedicated apps. Customers now overwhelmingly prefer to interact with businesses through apps. With over 3.5 billion projected smartphone users by 2020, this trend isn’t about to let up. Progressive web apps will thus allow companies to create enough functionality to attract users to their platforms.

22- A/B Split Testing Improves ROI Further

If ROI was already improved through the processes of targeting idea customers and SEO optimization, A/B testing pushes it further. A/B testing is the process by which different ad campaigns, landing page designs, email campaigns, etc. can be tested for effectiveness. In essence, this allows companies to choose the most viable option and consistently improve upon it. This leaves you with the option that will effectively give you the best return on investment.

Companies weren’t always able to do this. How would they test the effectiveness of an ad; give a survey along with it? They would test a single type of ad and not be able to change things about it later. With A/B testing, this can be done with all sorts of marketing materials. With the measurable metrics that digital marketing provides, A/B testing is able to ascertain which path is the most effective.

23- Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost

This one’s a no brainer. Digital marketing gives you so many free options to reach out to customers that a dip in customer acquisition cost is obvious. Messenger apps, social media platforms, SEO optimization, landing pages, organic ads, etc. it’s all free. Even when you become a large enough operation that you have to pay for marketing packages, the cost is low. If one accounts for paid ads and subscriptions services for data analytics, the costs are less than traditional marketing. There are not nearly enough ways to counter that sort of outreach through traditional marketing. Even if you look at the overall costs of traditional marketing vs. digital marketing holistically, the latter costs less.

24- Browser Notifications Alert Customers to Sales/Discounts More Effectively

This goes back to the point about web apps. Browsers can now ask users if they would like to receive notifications from websites. Once turned on, these notifications can remind users in real time about offers, discounts, and special sales.

Even for companies or businesses that don’t have their own apps, they can churn out notifications. This can help them reel in customers and take advantage of the immediacy of the moment. Customers are more likely to buy products or invest in services if they’re reminded in the moment. About 85% of online stores use these push notifications to their advantage.

These notifications are much more effective than either newsletters, emails, etc. They can tell customers about an offer or an opportunity in real time so that they can engage immediately.

25- Chatbots Expand Your Reach

Chatbots are another aspect of artificial intelligence that serves digital marketing. It will allow you to send automated responses to queries that customers have. You can’t do that with traditional marketing. Here chatbots will simply recognize keywords and the text that is sent through your chats and respond. Through this, you can interact with so many more customers at the same time in real time. Day or night, whether you have staff on duty or not, these chatbots will work.

Surveys have shown that nearly 63% of respondents prefer online messaging through chatbots to communicate with businesses. Other studies have shown that due to this preference, chatbots will comprise 85% of all customer service thru 2020. This is not just due to the preference of the customer of course. This is also due to the huge leaps in efficiency and marketing that are possible.

Never before has this much communication with customers been possible. With all their queries and responses recorded, a lot of data can be collected. Plus, chatbots can reply to queries much quicker and help customers make decisions about purchases. Usually when potential customers can’t get in touch with a company, they don’t make an intended purchase. Not so with chatbots.

26- Messaging Apps Expand Your Reach to Millions

Messaging apps are extremely useful when it comes to communicating with your customers. Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and even LinkedIn provide this facility. All of them come with built in apps to communicate with customers. Your potential customers can simply pull up your Facebook page or Instagram page and talk to you. They don’t need to dial a number or look up an address to email you.

This kind of instant communication wasn’t possible with traditional marketing. This is one of the benefits of digital marketing for small businesses that levels the playing field. They now have the technology at their disposal that only big businesses once did. Any CRM worth its salt has the same functionality as a messenger app. In fact, some CRMs even offer integration with these apps because they’re more convenient for a customer to use.

These apps are nearly all available on Smartphones and notify the user when there is a reply. Even if you don’t have automated chatbots waiting on customers, they can be notified on your reply instantly. This will help many customers get over their inhibitions of trusting a service. Just because they can get in touch with a human being, they’ll be more trusting. Also, these messaging apps don’t have the caveats of telephones and emails which may or may not be answered. Most of the time, any query sent through messaging apps is automatically answered or easily responded to.

27- Respond to Voice Searches

According to a MindMeld study, more than 60% of people surveyed have begun using voice search within 2019. That means that a huge volume of searches is being conducted partially through voice search. That number is only going to increase through 2020 and beyond. By the end of 2020, voice searches are predicted to comprise half of all queries.

With voice search, people tend to ask more straight questions and don’t structure their queries as statements. Hence, there are going to be a lot more queries online that are going to be phrased like questions. That means people are going to be asking more typical questions than ever before. Hence, marketing will have to appeal to those questions. The way that the digital landscape often changes from month to month or week to week, traditional marketing can’t compete.

Digital marketing will allow companies to zero in on queries that relate to them and shape their marketing strategies accordingly. This will include rephrasing their ads and landing page titles and headings. It will also include optimizing their articles and blog posts to more closely serve up answers.

28- Smart Speakers Will Require Digital Marketing

While this ties into voice search, it has more to do with the actual devices. Nearly 147 million smart speakers were sold in 2019. With a few exceptions, smart speakers are all pure audial devices. They can be spoken to and listened to only and they don’t have, for the most part, screens attached. Yet, their programming allows them to answer queries like, “what’s the weather”, or “what movie is playing in my theater.”

So people are treating those smart speakers more like digital companions rather than tools, and they’re making do with audio. This is in contrast to radios which are used as entertainment tools, but not as companions. Hence, digital marketing is poised to fill the void of smart speaker marketing optimization. It can direct voice search queries to specially optimized pages with actionable info; the sort users are looking for. Specifically, with smart speaker search, users are looking for small snippets of information that they can act on immediately.

Also, smart speakers are usually meant to be home devices that control different appliances and serve as entertainment systems. Optimizing digital marketing for them means serving an entire family or multiple users rather than just one. That’s an opportunity that businesses would jump at, and it’s only achievable through digital marketing.

29- Marketing Funnels Will Change With Voice Search

Voice search is already changing SEO overwhelmingly. Since the queries and questions of customers can change at different stages of a purchase; this requires increasing customization. Customers don’t just want to be taken to an FAQ page to be handed the most common answers. They want the answer to the question they asked.

Hence, a voice marketing funnel will have to evolve as a customer’s queries evolve. The funnel will usually begin with a voice search about a generic product and then lead down to specific products. The customer will ostensibly ask which one is better and consider the pros and cons. At this moment, the voice funnel should attempt to convince the customer why one specific product is best for them. And so on, and so forth, until the purchase is made.

Previous marketing methods couldn’t adapt to this, but digital marketing can.

30- Video is the New Content King

The chart above shows that 68% of those surveyed preferred to learn about a new product or service through video. The same way that a well-made commercial on television holds massive appeal, so does video now. There’s a reason that super bowl spots are so coveted. People still rely on a good ad to help them make decisions about what to buy. In fact, half of those surveyed want more video content from their favorite businesses.

However, as with the changing tide towards digital marketing, video content has also changed. No longer do companies only rely on ads for their marketing. They focus on endorsements by vloggers and influencers. These types of ads for products can come at the beginning, middle, or end of videos. Those kinds of decisions are left up to the influencers themselves who know how to interact with their audience.

Furthermore, video content is available on nearly every single social media platform. Facebook has invested millions in developing its own video streaming services. YouTube is considered the holy grail when it comes to modern video advertising. Even Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok are rife with ad videos. This is a huge market that is otherwise inaccessible through traditional marketing.

31- Social Media Changes the Game

Social media has given digital marketing its single largest advantage over traditional marketing. Not only are social media platforms built on immediate interaction and engagement, but also segmentation. These platforms are naturally built to serve people what they’re interested in depending on their interactions. Hence, brands and companies can take advantage of that and focus on what to serve to their niche.

No other platform has ever been able to do this by sheer segmentation. Every other avenue has been targeted towards general marketing. The closest that traditional marketing was able to come to segmented marketing was specialized magazines, television shows and radio shows. However, with the sheer data available on social media platforms, segmentation is possible on another level entirely.

Segmenting by country, city, and even region aside, segmentation is possible through different interests. People can form different groups and start pages that focus on common interests. These can include gaming, television shows, river rafting, knitting, programming, etc. With all this possible on a single platform, brands can market their products and services to the right people.

32- Branding Is More Effective Through Social Media

Branding isn’t exactly something new. People knew about Pepsi and Coca Cola’s brand war decades before the internet. Pepsi built a niche for itself among the youth for being associated with freedom and new trends. Coca Cola tried to do the same across different decades. However, with social media, consistent, on-brand messaging is possible every other day.

Instagram posts, Facebook posts, Tweets, Snapchat stories, etc. are all consistent reminders of branding. These don’t necessarily have to be ads, but messages that hit home the concepts.

33- Shoppable Posts Make Purchasing Easier

Digital marketing puts you right in the middle of the action. If there’s a post about a product, it contains a link for you to buy it. If there’s an ad about finding a hotel to live in, it leads you to the check in page. This is why digital marketing is effective. It wastes no time in giving you the chance to buy a product or invest in a service.

With social media posts that are shoppable, this is an even easier task. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. are all investing in shoppable posts. These posts don’t just allow you to explore a product, but complete the purchase within the site. Hence, those that don’t want to leave the platform to make the purchase are spared. With most of the information required taken from the platform, the purchase is much quicker.

34- Artificial Intelligence Will Influence Marketing More than Anything Else

2020 is the year that artificial intelligence will take over. With the recent coronavirus pandemic shutting down a lot of businesses, companies are looking to automate. This will result in a lot of AI research, and thus a lot of practical application. Even before the pandemic, companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon were automating a lot of their operations. Uber and a lot of car companies were working on self-driving automobiles. All this is the harbinger of the AI age that we will eventually live in.

That AI age will obviously apply to the world of digital marketing too. In that age, AI will be able to collect data faster than any of the present programs in operation. It will also be able to coalesce that data into useful information faster than any other program. Eventually, it will be able to formulate basic strategies for marketing that it will itself check for effectiveness. Hence, digital marketing will be poised to take advantage of AI.

35- Interactive Content Can Improve Trust in a Brand

It’s the age of the online purchase. However, there are still those that don’t prefer purchasing their favorite items online. These can range from phones to tablets, to clothes, to fragrances. However, with the advent of Interactive content that may be about to change.

People are usually apprehensive about buying certain things online because they’re not able to try them in person. With interactive content that can change. In fact, nearly 91% of customers are looking for interactive content on the web to test their products. There are technologies today like 360-degree video which can give you a tour of a facility. There are AR ads which help you experience certain products with your smart device like how furniture looks in your room. There are also quizzes and polls that can help you decide whether a product is for you. All of these things will help to establish an immediate connection with the customer. This connection will translate in to a purchase or a subscription eventually.

36- Influencer Marketing is the Celebrity Endorsement of the Future

Influencer marketing is everywhere today. Everyone from YouTubers, Instagrammers, Snap chatters, and people on Twitter are marketing things. These influencers are just doing what their predecessors, celebrities, did for products. They’re endorsing them. The difference is that since social media platforms are so open, influencers are much more valuable in this regard. 49% of all consumers in a survey said that they bought a product recommended by an influencer.

That should tell you that the power of influencers is growing exponentially. The best part about this is that influencers needs brands to grow as much as brands need them. Anyone that is popular on a platform like YouTube, Instagram, or any other social media handle can be an influencer. These people have hundreds of thousands of people, sometimes millions, under their influence. A recommendation from them can turn a maybe to a yes. Digital marketing has never been better poised to take advantage of such a great marketing tool.

37- Paid Google Advertising Will Cut Through Intense Competition

With the internet becoming saturated by ads and landing pages, paid ads can help cut through the competition. This is similar to how old school ads used to function within newspapers, but digital ads are much more visible.

The most beneficial aspect of these ads is that they’re going to be listed atop the Google search results. With that visibility, you’ll be able to attract people that are looking for very specific products and services. You’ll also be able to get people that need specific answers to their questions. Since that ad will provide actionable info and be geared to appear before all organic ads, you’ll get greater ROI.

38- Image Search Will Sell More Products in the Future

More tools are now making use of artificial intelligence to search for different products and services. Google’s own image search has been used for many years to search for different queries. However, now, with other services like Google Lens appearing on the scene, image search will proliferate.

Using Google Lens to probe pictures for text, emblems, logos, identifiable markers, will lead to better search. Identifying brands, products, specific models, etc. can lead to direct links on Amazon or Alibaba, etc. They can also lead to company pages, app store pages, etc. Hence, digital marketing is poised to take advantage of the proliferation of image search.

39- Digital Marketing takes Advantage of Micro-Moments

A micro-moment is when a consumer turns to their device in order to buy a product or avail a service. This can be to buy a movie ticket, some groceries, book a cab, or do any other ten thousand things. Through digital marketing, it’ll be possible to take advantage of these moments more and more to recommend services and products to customers.

For example, if they’re booking a ride to a location near a theater, that theater chain can send them recommendations. Restaurants can send them invitations or coupon codes, etc. These micro-moments will eventually evolve to take advantage of different times of the day when a consumer is active. Businesses will be able to pitch customers at the right moment to increase the likelihoods of purchases.

40- Social Media Stories are the New Ads/Teasers

Social media stories have grown immensely popular through 2019 and 2020. 500 million users now use Instagram stories every day. 300 million use Facebook stories every day. These stories tend to be less than even 10 seconds long, yet they advertise major brands like Audible and Deezer, etc. This is a great opportunity for companies to reach out to hundreds of millions of people through digital marketing. It will allow them to sneak in their ads between stories of accounts that individuals follow and hook them. That activity is already standard, and it helps to convert people left right and center. That’s something traditional marketing has never been able to do. With so little time real estate needed, ROIs can be massive for Story advertising content.

41- Content Marketing Still Dominates SEO

Content marketing isn’t dead no matter how many people tell you. 88% of B2B marketers agree that creating content engages their audience and builds trust. That is undeniable evidence that content marketing can still convert people to certain brands and businesses.

Content marketing isn’t just comprised of landing pages, articles, and blogs. It also consists of making videos and catering to people that need actionable info. It’s still about catering to the niche that you’re marketing to. 61% of consumers say their buying decisions are influenced by custom content.

It also costs less than outbound marketing, but generates nearly 3 times as many leads. It’s not as tiring as editing videos or making different types of graphic content. Yet, it has lower upfront costs and long term benefits. It promises great digital marketing outcomes at a fraction of the cost of other methods.

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42- Structured Data Will Provide Greater SEO Optimization

Google is not only targeting random bits of information on the web. It’s targeting information that is well structured, valuable, and authoritative. With the update Google EAT that came out, it is evident that this trend will continue. Hence, digital marketing will allow companies to take advantage of this trend to create more authoritative content. No longer will random blogs with stuffed keywords be able to take advantage. Now, the most authoritative, accurate, and well-structured information will be able to rise to the top.

More than that, well-structured information will provide for better SEO optimization. This means that no matter the device or person, they will be taken to the most authoritative source on the subject. They will also be taken to the most well-structured, beatified and good-looking post.  It’s like how Wikipedia entries are presented to you now. Companies will be able to take advantage of this trend and provide customers exact answers and complete information.

43- Better Data Management Through Blockchain Tech

Now this is a new technology that is not ubiquitous or fully accepted in the world. However, there is no denying that it’s being adopted by all sorts of different companies for data storage and transfer. Digital marketing will be no different. Since Blockchain allows for data to be stored on a huge plethora of devices, it can’t be hacked. Since it’s hackproof, it will allow for marketers to store their data much more securely and retrieve it for analysis.

Also, Blockchain’s primary use is to transfer crypto-currency. Hence, it’ll be useful for payments. Hence, it can be used by a variety of online merchants, retailers, sellers, and e-commerce players. Digital marketing will greatly benefit from the addition of blockchain technology to the mix. It will allow nearly all types of information, data, transactions, etc. to be stored on one platform.

Digital marketing will be poised to take advantage of this since it’s already dependent on the internet.

44- 5G Will Allow Constant Communication with Potential Customers

5G is very new technology. It hasn’t even been correctly implemented across one nation, so it’s not widely available. It’s also in its initial stages, so it’s not perfect. It has the same problem that Wi-Fi has, which is attenuation. The further you get from the source; the worse reception you get. 5G has a pretty serious attenuation problem which results in immediate signal loss once you get out of range. However, with the number of carriers adopting 5G across the US, 20 to 100 million users are expected by 2021.

This means that major brands and businesses will be able to use 5G to market their products and services. This is not just a technological leap, but a marketing leap. This means that more complex and data hungry applications will be accessible on the go. Smartphones will be able to access more complex AR and VR applications on the go. While this area of technology is largely unexplored, it will open up a whole new marketing avenue for businesses.

45- The Internet of Things Will Bring All Electronic Devices into the Game

The Internet of Things is the nexus of 5G and Artificial Intelligence, and perhaps even Blockchain. It will allow for a ubiquitous network of devices to be created across the world that can effectively speak to each other. These will include not only cars, traffic lights, smartphones, and tablets, but smart clothing, parking meters, smart jewelry, and others. This network will allow for information to be exchanged readily between devices to accumulate an even larger reservoir.

This will be an incredible leap forward for digital marketing. An example can illustrate this further. Say a person is in their car and it’s freezing outdoors. The car’s thermostat can record the temperature and recommend some leather jackets at a store near the person. If it’s lunch hour, they can be recommended a new restaurant that has just opened which serves their favorite food. If a smart hub at that person’s home detects their smoke alarm is past warranty, it can recommend a replacement.

From smart technology to everyday items like groceries, the Internet of Things will be able to transform digital marketing. Perhaps the greatest of benefits of digital marketing is that it can adapt so well to the new technology on the horizon. More than that, it can add to the technology and make it so much better.

As 5G and Artificial intelligence matures, so will the Internet of Things. With its ubiquity, marketing will be able to reach individuals no matter where they are. Businesses will be able to know exactly when to pitch their products and elicit the best response from their customers.

46- Digital Marketing Will Target More than Google

You may be aware of more than one search engine, but you may never use it. Google dominates the online search engine game overwhelmingly. However, there are small players like Bing, which is everyone’s second choice; and Yahoo!. There is also DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, and StartPage. Together they count for about 8% of all search engine traffic. However, these are all still partnered with Google. They just offer the added advantage of not harvesting information. They’re for those that value their privacy much more than the average person. Google keeps them alive because it can’t afford to be seen as a monopoly in the search game.

However, in the future these will be targeted by advertisers and content marketers too. These are niche colonies of people that think a certain way. There are products and services that would like to reach out to them too. As the traffic on these search engines increase, it’s only a matter of time before they’re targeted specifically by companies.

These digital marketing benefits are too good to deny for companies. This is why digital marketing is so effective. It’s why digital marketing will continue to grow and adapt to every changing landscapes and challenge.