14 Feb How Technology Innovation Influences Marketing for Business

The rapidly increasing pace of innovation has brought tremendous opportunities to improve the way people work, live and play. Thanks to technology, digital marketers are able to achieve better and more impactful results with the help of a broad scope of solution providers—making the navigation of the influencer marketing spectrum a less daunting task. Technology innovation is driving forward marketing for business. 

How is marketing keeping up with innovation?

The increasingly competitive field of digital marketing has required marketing agencies to be more creative with their approach. And with tons of tools, platforms and solution providers available, choosing which works best for your brand and campaign has become more complicated than it used to be. Those that are up to the task, though, will inevitably see their businesses rewarded.

Marketing Tool Options

According to Chief Martech, there are 6,829 marketing tools available today. On average, marketers are using more than 12 different applications, with some even using up to 31 tools to monitor and manage their campaigns.

However, Winterberry Group’s report on the complexity of marketing data technology points out that, despite the abundance of available solutions, brands still lack a centralized system to manage data and their tools, thus causing confusion.

We’re helping get this tedious job of choosing the right tools off your plate. Here’s a rundown of some of the most important digital marketing technologies that you can use to supercharge your efforts on behalf of your clients.

AI Assistance

The increased accessibility of AI to smaller and large-scale businesses has allowed brands to apply the tech across all touchpoints of the customer’s journey. This allows businesses to track users’ behavior and needs as they change.

When it comes to content, for example, AI can suggest which types of content resonate with your client’s audience depending on which stage of the customer journey they’re in. Or when your client has a new subscriber, AI can create an email sequence guiding them on what to do next.

Apart from improving customer service, chatbots can now help with lead generation. For example, it can offer discounted prices on items related to the customer’s previous purchase, while also providing questions to basic queries. This improves the user experience while providing the opportunity to increase revenue.

Overall, AI makes your job easier when it comes to marketing for your clients.

Customized APIs

With businesses simultaneously using a number of tools, the agility of software is crucial. Customized API solutions enable software to be repurposed and scaled by connecting third-party data inputs to a unified system. As noted by SmartDataCollective, this also allows developers to experiment with the individual software’s capabilities without building everything from scratch.

In SEO, for example, APIs integrate different SEO data. With a customized API, you can request data already collected without the need to invest in complex server infrastructure.   

Innovative, Integrated Content

The past year saw ephemeral content take over the mainstream, with Instagram Stories reaching 400 million daily active users. By the end of 2018, even your parents were posting stories on Facebook.

With fresh features being regularly introduced by Instagram, the Stories format has made it easier for brands and influencers to get creative with their content. And with searchable hashtags and geotags, it’s also easier to expand the reach of your client’s content. This is why you should also pay attention to making this content integrated across all channels.

The different platforms and formats (IGTV, live videos, podcasts, etc.) allow you to be both innovative and creative in different ways. But while the format may differ, the messaging shouldn’t. The platforms have given you the power to let your clients be heard. Make sure your message is consistent everywhere.

Integrated Automation

Automation tools don’t only make your processes (and life) easier, it allows you to focus on what matters to your agency. For example, Aritic PinPoint takes care of nurturing both anonymous and identified visitors based on browsing activities. From there, the marketing automation platform is able to implement ad targeting and behavior tracking. There’s also dynamic segmentation, multichannel marketing, SEO, analytics, among a slew of automated features all in one platform.

Now, this is not an ad for Aritic, as there is a host of similar marketing automation tools that take care of the tedious legwork of digital marketing. When picking one for your agency, take into consideration your budget and what exactly you need. You don’t want to pay $1,000 for a fully integrated platform when you’ll only be needing a few features.

Quantum Revolution

As pointed out by Forbes, Google, Microsoft, and governments are making significant investments in quantum computing. The reason is they believe it to be a revolutionary tech that has the potential to disrupt virtually every industry.

In a nutshell, quantum computers have the ability to analyze large quantities of data. This means that when applied to online security, it would render present data encryption tactics obsolete. When it comes to machine learning, its ability to sift through massive amounts of information can improve AI exponentially.

Similar to AI, it could take a while before it becomes accessible to most businesses. But as always, those who invest early will be able to reap its benefits the soonest.

Visual Search

Visual search enables people to search using an image instead of keywords. And it is bound to take businesses to new heights in 2019. Pinterest’s Lens, for example, allows people to take a photo with their Pinterest app camera of any object. This can yield results, for example, of similar products and where they can purchase it online.

The potential for visual search is vast. Say you take a photo of a book, this can result in reviews and additional information about the title and author. It can do the same to a landmark, painting, dish – and virtually anything you point your camera at.

When it comes to business, it won’t take long before you take a photo of an object and you can get results of where to purchase, price comparisons, and the most influential people using the product.

Pay Display

Display ads appear in different sections within a web page that’s typically reserved for paid advertising. Compared with native advertising, display ads blend in with the existing page layout, making it less disruptive.

Despite a growing number of users having learned to tune out display ads, Facebook continues to benefit from it. As with a lot of things in 2019, taking a mobile-first approach will be key. According to Cardinal, Facebook is set to hit $23.89 billion in display ad revenue – 43.7% of the total spend.

And with video display ads forecasted as the second highest ad spend platform in 2019, brands would be wise to take advantage of the increasing Facebook user base and the sustained allure of videos.

Make Micro-Moments Matter

Google defines micro-moments as a new consumer behavior that clearly and concisely delivers marketing messages in a matter of seconds. This is key as the dwindling attention spans have been nurtured by increasingly shorter content.

The key to taking advantage of micro-moments is to be where consumers search for information. Whether they’re looking for a restaurant (Google Maps), the best places to go to in a city (YouTube), or the latest gadget (Amazon) – brands need to have a presence in different platforms, instantly.  

Technology has provided businesses with all the tools they need to be successful. How they take advantage of it is up to them. However, when your agency is at the reins, it will give you the edge you need to advise your clients and drive their marketing strategy successfully.