You might be thinking to yourself that digital marketing, by its definition, is already a part of technology, and you will be right. However, there is an obvious distinction between the traditional idea of digital marketing and the futuristic definition of the same, especially when everything present today and tech advances in the future are considered. Before we dive into dissecting how technology will affect digital marketing, it is important we run through some basic definitions for context.
In the orthodox sense, digital marketing is the use of digital channels, such as the internet, mobile devices, social media, email, etc., using tactics like SEO and PPC, to promote products and services to end users.
How Technology Will Affect Digital Marketing
That being said, there has been a proliferation of new players in the game that tend to render the definition of digital marketing we just gave outdated. These include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), AI writers, and blockchain technology. Let’s break down the effects some of these currently have in the industry and their futures as well, starting with virtual reality.
Virtual Reality in Digital Marketing
The use of virtual reality technology in marketing initiatives is known as virtual reality marketing. It can be utilized to engage your audience more effectively and connect with them. For instance, customers can interact with a virtual character rather than reading text on the screen.
Virtual reality marketing has a significant opportunity for organizations to promote their brands, boost sales, and increase consumer loyalty and retention. It is branded together as immersive media, along with augmented reality.
Through VR headsets or other software tools, users have access to a realistic, immersive simulation of an environment that engages several senses.
There are countless chances for promotion thanks to virtual reality, which enables firms to communicate with potential clients beyond conventional media like TV and magazine adverts.
Virtual reality technology, or the newest technologies in general, can assist close the gap and give brands the ability to address their consumers’ shifting pain points because customers’ demands and expectations are continuously changing.
Businesses can build branded digital environments to demonstrate their goods or services using virtual reality marketing. Instead of actual experiences, brands may provide digital ones. This enables customers to virtually test-drive a product or service in the convenience of their own homes. You can increase brand awareness and retention by enabling consumers to connect with your business by creating a realistic digital environment.
Additionally, you may use VR to develop innovative experiences that provide customers with a fresh perspective on your business. For instance, you may utilize virtual reality to give customers a tour of your facilities and give them an exclusive, up-close look at what happens behind the scenes. You may demonstrate how you operate or what happens throughout the creation of a design or product. This adds a more human element to your brand and what you do while fostering trust and transparency, which can increase customer brand loyalty.
Additionally, since VR logs user motions, businesses may use technology to learn more about how consumers might engage with their brands or products in actual environments.
Augmented Reality in Digital Marketing
If you are a fan of Pokémon Go or similar games, well, you already know firsthand what augmented reality is and how it has been incorporated into mundane daily activities.
Using technology, augmented reality adds audio, visuals, and text to the real world. You are bringing elements of that dimension into your life rather than being transported there. In contrast to virtual reality, which frequently requires a headset, augmented reality may be experienced by just holding your phone up while navigating through apps.
In order to increase sales, modern companies are harnessing the capabilities of augmented reality (AR) and improving their digital marketing strategy. Marketing professionals have expressed interest in incorporating this incredible technology into their digital marketing plans. They have some strong justifications for doing this, some of which we shall explore immediately.
1) Enables users to virtually test products before buying
Using only your smartphone, you may test-drive the next pair of glasses you intend to purchase.
Customers would be able to grasp what they’re buying and how precisely cosmetics, apparel, and accessories would function for them if AR technologies were incorporated into your digital marketing approach. It all comes down to putting your goods virtually in the hands of clients so they may choose more wisely. Warby Parker, a direct-to-consumer eyeglass company, introduced “virtual try-on” technology that allows clients to try glasses at home. Simply download the app, choose the frame design you want to try, turn on the feature that activates the front camera, and put the glasses on your face. Even when the wearer shifts or sways their heads, the glasses remain in place.
2) Attracting Customers in Novel Ways
Getting people’s attention is the foundation of effective marketing. It used to be very easy, but with the introduction of new technology, it has become more challenging. You must learn cutting-edge techniques to increase brand exposure and visibility.
You can achieve this thanks to AR technologies. You can draw a lot of attention from your target audience with AR in ways that are not possible with more conventional marketing strategies like television, billboards, and print media. One of the best things about augmented reality is how quickly you can reach a large number of people.
3) Using digital packaging to increase engagement
The packaging process is your opportunity to interact with customers. With the aid of AR technology, you can make your plain and uninteresting packaging appealing and transmit detailed information that can be found on the label alone. By viewing a product using specifically created apps, AR is an excellent approach for all of your users to access more product-related information. Unique, fascinating, and timely content can be shared through a variety of digital platforms. Text or 3D animations may be used to convey this knowledge.
4) Game-based digital marketing strategy
Gamification has quickly become regarded as a top digital marketing strategy, according to a recent report published by a coursework writing service. Many brands have used this strategy to grab the market’s attention and provide it with exceptional value. It involves design features that, by incorporating products into games, can captivate game enthusiasts and make them crave more. The previously mentioned Pokémon Go is a fantastic illustration of this.
There is no denying that people are more drawn to images than to text. With its visual edge, augmented reality can reach audiences throughout the world by overcoming language barriers with moving pictures. These interactive visualizations assist users in finding the information they seek by utilizing the options offered, even though at the fundamental level you may need a language.
5) Consumer Protection
All the information attached to products and services can easily be confirmed by potential buyers and end-users which prevents them from getting fakes or getting less value for money spent. This is much better than relying on reviews from previous buyers as reviews can easily be manipulated
Blockchain in Digital Marketing
Blockchain technology has generated a lot of hype and demonstrated its usefulness through use cases that have been established in a variety of industries. Blockchain, for instance, has seen several prominent applications in the financial, healthcare, real estate, and supply chain management sectors.
Trust in the conventional banking system was damaged by the world financial crisis in 2008. The introduction of the peer-to-peer electronic cash system, known as Bitcoin, at this time demonstrated the use of cryptographic techniques for handling financial transactions. Hashing, consensus methods, asymmetric encryption, and time-stamping are some cryptographic techniques that underlie Bitcoin.
Bitcoin solved the double-spending issue and established a new standard for conducting financial transactions and exchanging value in virtual spaces. Additionally, the impact of blockchain on marketing would concentrate on how the technology’s operation focuses on confirming the legitimacy of transactions. The public blockchain transaction records cannot be altered since they are sequentially organized in blocks with timestamps. Applications of blockchain in marketing would significantly alter how customers and organizations engage. Blockchain offers the benefits of several technologies, but its most valuable feature is a distributed record of transactions made by participants in the blockchain network.
Blockchain can significantly increase the security of online payments by providing a layer of transparency and trust. Without the consent of other network users, no one would be able to add or cancel any transactions.
This means that because the parameters of an agreement are available to all parties participating in the transaction process, blockchain addresses one of the most common trust issues with online payments. As a result, consumers and businesses will no longer be concerned that one side may break an agreement.
Users are being inundated with ads on almost every channel they access. There are frequent calls to action for purchases, from billboards along the highway and television commercials to social media and online marketing. The advertising experience could, however, become much more direct with blockchain. In reality, a portion of the funding that businesses spend to fund their advertising may be redirected to offer users some kind of reward for viewing their adverts.
Conclusively, it has been argued by development experts that the progress in tech we have experienced between the Apollo 11 mission and today could have taken over a thousand years, but that is not even the big news. The huge point is that we are still in the infant days of incorporating new technologies into digital marketing. From all indications, digital marketing will have to be completely redefined in less than 10 years to accommodate the latest tech which we are yet to even dream of.
