Almost every business has an online presence these days. Irrespective of the industry, businesses are reaching out to customers with marketing expertise to realise their visions for growth. And digital is central to their expanding plans.

What is digital marketing?

It involves marketing products and services through a wide range of digital media like website, email, social media, display ads and mobile apps through interactive or engaging content. Digital marketing activities include search engine marketing, social media marketing, ecommerce marketing and messaging apps based marketing.

The shift from marketing products and services to customer engagement:

More brands are realising that just aggressively promoting their products and services is not going to cut it. In fact, it may alienate consumers. Also, just competing with competitors to make offers, give coupons and rebates is only going to bleed them financially. The trend that is fast catching up is actively engaging consumers in a dance that is up close and personal. Brands are moving towards storytelling and other immersive experiences to connect closer with consumers and also to create product experiences as close to reality as possible.

And digital is quick to embrace that change!

It’s difficult to say if technology has created the paradigm shift from marketing to engagement or if it has just embraced the change. Irrespective of where the change originated, technology has proved to be a great enabler of this paradigm shift. Moreover, the digital landscape itself is evolving to meet the demands of new age marketing.

So, what are the emerging trends in digital marketing?

Rise of video content: With the growing penetration of smartphones and wireless networks, there has been a rise in the amount of video content consumed on mobile. Brands are making use of this medium to create engaging content that educates, entertains and inspires to try or buy their products and services. And consumers are just loving it here!

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make smart recommendations:

Recommendation engines and chatbots have sprung up across the digital ecosystem of commerce. Powered by data about consumer demographics and preferences, they intelligently suggest products that consumer might need, or is yet to figure out that he needs. These are soon going to be the norm as conversational commerce comes to the forefront of marketing. With the likes of Facebook opening their messaging apps to business bots, messaging apps are currently in the spotlight of conversational commerce.

Advanced marketing analytics:

There is more data about a potential consumer on the web than ever before. Every like, comment, tweet and share is tracked. Analytics also plays a meaty role in connecting the dots in a way a marketer would have not imagined to produce big picture insights. These in turn are used to redefine marketing strategies in a way that the brand reaches the right customer at the right time.

Social media beyond Facebook:

Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat have expanded the social media footprint of a consumer beyond Facebook and Twitter. The advertising here is done via stories, videos, pictures and ads. While earlier these spaces were limited to interpersonal conversations, brands have made their presence felt through great bite sized content.

The slow but steady arrival of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR):

To create immersive product and service experiences, businesses are adopting VR and AR technologies in their marketing. Not only are these fun and engaging but also create great brand recall. This is particularly so for the millennial demographic which is likely to appreciate the ‘cool quotient’ of a brand.

What’s the way ahead for digital marketing?

The next big thing in marketing is to build up on the Internet of Things (IoT) network making use of smart sensors and talking devices sense the mood of the consumer and make recommendations or personalized suggestions. Clearly, technology has changed the marketing game for good.