The future of digital marketing trends

Emerging technologies are poised to personalize the consumer experience radically-in real time and almost everywhere. It’s not too early to prepare. Digital Marketing is about to enter more challenging territory. Building on the vast increase in consumer power brought on by the digital age , marketing is headed toward being on demand not just always  “on “but also always relevant, responsive to the consumer’s desire for marketing that cuts through the noise with pinpoint delivery.

What’s fuelling on-demand marketing is the continued symbiotic evolution of technology and consumer expectations. Already search technologies have made product information ubiquitous; social media encourages consumers to share, compare and rate experiences; and mobile devices add a “wherever” dimension to the digital environment. Executives encounter this empowerment daily when, for example, cable customers push for video programming on any device at any time or travellers expect a few taps on a Smartphone app to deliver a full complement of airline or IRCTC services.

Companies have ramped up their publishing and monitoring activities on social channels hoping to create positive media experiences customers will share (think Facebook). They are even “engineering” advocacy by creating easy, automatic ways for consumers to post favourable reviews or to describe their engagement with brands (think Flipkart).

But we’re just getting started. The developments pushing marketing experiences even further include the growth of mobile connectivity, better-designed online spaces created with the powerful new HTML Web language. Consumers may soon be able to search by image, voice and gesture; automatically participate with others by taking pictures or making transactions; and discover new opportunities with devices that augment reality in their field of vision (think Google Glasses).

As these digital capabilities multiply, consumer demands will rise in four areas:

1. Now: Consumers will want to interact anywhere at any time.
2. Can I: They will want to do truly new things as disparate kinds of information (from financial accounts to data on physical activity) are deployed more effectively in ways that create value for them.
3. For Me: They will expect all data stored about them to be targeted precisely to their needs or used to personalize what they experience.
4. Simply: They will expect all interactions to be easy.

This article seeks to paint a picture of this new world and its implications for leaders across the enterprise. One thing is clear: the consumers experiences with brands and categories are set to become even more intense and defining. That matters profoundly because such experiences drive two thirds of the decisions customers make, prices often drive the rest.

What companies could do?

It’s also apparent that each company as a whole must mobilize to deliver high quality experiences across sales, service, product use, and marketing. Few companies can execute at this level today. Companies need to be familiar with emerging tools for gathering the right data across the consumer decision journey. Finally, the marketing organizations structure will need to be rethought s collaboration across functions and businesses become ever more essential.

Some online marketers already use features in devices such as cameras and touch screens to help consumers see what apparel and accessories may actually look like.web retailer Myntra.com for example, offers pictures of hundreds of customized apparels overlaid on a dummy so that the consumer can zoom the product and select the right apparel.

What to expect in 2020?

Evolving technologies and consumer behavior should make it easier to redesign many complex experiences. For example companies offering inherently complicated products or services could overlay game interface on certain Web pages, to let consumers play trading off different options and prices .Visual –recognition technology could allow you to scan health-care bills receipts statements, and appointments into one integrated calendar and cash management system.

To deliver these new experiences, executive teams must rethink the role and structure of the marketing organization and how it engages with other functions. The changes are likely to cut deeply transforming the way companies manage campaigns and communities measure performance provide customer support and interact with outside agencies. It’s still early days, but considers the breadth of recent efforts.

Finally the forces enabling consumers to expect fulfillment on demand are unstoppable. Across the entire consumer decision journey, every touch is a brand experience and those touches just keep multiplying in number.