The key to success for any company’s marketing success is data. Being able to find, target, and convert your target audience all comes down to the access and use of actionable data. EDA is one such source of data that allows you to refine target audiences by equipment type, age, brand, and even geographical location. With the world of marketing continually changing and evolving at a rapid pace it’s important to stay current and incorporate all the new and exciting technology.
Data will remain a key component to being able to harness these new technologies, but what exactly does that mean for the future of marketing? Here are a few of the more interesting marketing techniques we can expect to see come to the forefront in the not too distant future.
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Interactive Content Marketing
What exactly is interactive content? Simply put it is any content that requires the participant’s engagement, beyond simply reading or watching. In return for this active engagement, the participant receive real-time, hyper-relevant results. Interactive content falls somewhere between more traditional formats of content marketing such as whitepapers, slideshows, and videos and a gaming experience you might find on a typical mobile device. So, what are some ways you can expect to see this be implemented?
Geographical maps that react or reveal new information when a user hovers or clicks in an area is one way to spruce up your content to make it more engaging with an interactive experience. Surveys and questionnaires are another example of a classic format that can be tweaked to become more interactive and keep potential customers engaged with your content. By revealing different answers, figures, or suggestions based on user input it makes each user experience unique and more effective.
These techniques are not only a fresh approach already being employed by some marketers, but it also offers a new way to get the desired messaging in front of potential customers without being overly aggressive. The user (potential customer) gets a more engaging experience than typically offered and the marketers reach their target audience in a new way, possibly gathering valuable new data for retargeting in the process.
Interactive content is already here, and will only continue to grow in in its usefulness and saturation as time goes on. It provides the ultimate freedom to give your current and potential customers a unique experience with the only limits being what you can imagine.
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Augmented Reality is Coming
Like it or not augmented reality (AR) devices are coming. Google unsuccessfully launched their gateway product to AR, the Google Glass. The problem the product faced at the time was for the most part people just didn’t like the way it looked, and didn’t see the value in what Google was offering. Though the majority of people weren’t interested at the time, that doesn’t mean that Google was too far off the mark. In fact, they were just a little too far ahead of the market’s demand.
There are now multiple companies working to bring a new generation of better functioning and more stylish AR glasses and devices to the market. Even beyond AR glasses themselves, there are a few companies looking into AR enabled contact lenses. With the advances taking place, it’s not a question of if AR will become common place, but when. As glasses and contact lens designs are perfected, released, refined, and made cheaper more and more people will start buying the tech products.
These AR technology advances will open up a whole new world to marketers. Virtual billboards or marquis with information displayed as people pass will become a part of daily life. There are infinite possibilities of how to use the augmented tech moving forward, but all of the augmented features will continue to rely heavily on rich user data.
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The Internet of Things Continues to Grow
The final and possibly most far reaching emerging technology I’d like to discuss is the so-called “internet of things.” This is something that is in fact, already being put into practice. The internet of things is way to describe the growing interconnectivity of our world.
It’s essentially a way to conceptualize the internet no longer just connecting our computers, but an endless array of products. Smart TV’s, phones, watches, and even refrigerators have already joined the ranks of “connected devices” already available for purchase today. This trend of having more and more consumer products being continually connected to the web will continue to grow as the technology becomes cheaper to implement.
Even today there are entire websites solely devoted to promoting and selling internet connected devices. The products already available run the gambit from the aforementioned televisions and phones down to a cup!
This could be the most influential of the emerging marketing opportunities. People don’t think twice about their cell phones or watches tracking their every move. With more devices being designed to operate and function within the internet of things, the amount of available data grows exponentially. This wealth of information will allow marketers to refine their targeting and engage with their ideal customers more effectively.
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The Future of Marketing Still Depends on Data
These three different emerging technologies have one major thing in common. Data. Times are changing and so is the way we use technology in our everyday lives, but the goal of marketers remains the same.
Tools and strategies may evolve over time, but in the end it still comes down getting products in front of the right people. To this marketers have and always will rely on data. Gathering techniques, styles, and accuracy have shifted and improved over time, but core principles remain.
No matter what path you plan to take with future marketing campaigns, the foundation to success was, is, and will remain accurate data from a reliable source, such as EDA. This actionable data allows you find, target, and convert the desired target audience. The future may be different, but the power of data will always play a key role.
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