Every year, consumer preferences and technology trends evolve. New developments continually look for more engaging and interactive experiences, producing more data, and improving conversions. For this reason, marketers must stay on top of the latest trends to maintain their relevance. 

Let’s take a look at what we consider are the trending marketing technologies for the upcoming year: Artificial Intelligence, voice, content automation, Ecommerce automation, and, as always,  video. 

1. AI Helps Make Sense of Customer Data

In the age of analytics on every digital platform, analyzing data efficiently is crucial to extract useful insights. Companies must be able to tailor marketing experiences to individual customers based on their behavior and interests. 

For a long time, artificial intelligence and machine learning felt more like buzzwords than useful technologies. Now that the hype has mostly subsided, we have a better understanding of what marketing AI does best: analyzing customer data and predicting behavior. 

2. Voice Searches and Content Discovery Bring In New Streams of Visitors

With the increasing popularity of smart home devices like Google Home and Amazon Echo, customers are making more queries and completing more purchases through voice than in the past. Voice search is a lower-bandwidth medium than smartphone or laptop screens, so marketers need to make sure that they reach voice customers without seeming annoying. 

3. Content Automation Lowers Costs Associated with Content Marketing

Content marketing has proven very effective, especially for small businesses and companies with limited marketing budgets. Customers don’t necessarily visit a website or tap on a social media post because they want to buy the product; they do so because they are interested in the content. Content automation allows the right content assets to be displayed to the right customer on the right channel. With blogs, social media, and direct email marketing all using similar content, there can be a lot of manual work involved in modifying content to fit each channel and customer profile—content automation makes this significantly easier. 

4. Ecommerce Automation

Without ecommerce automation, maximizing the value of each customer can require a lot of repetitive work. Ecommerce automation can use information about customers—such as details about their first few purchases—to place them in customer groups that receive tailored marketing.

Ecommerce automation can even take care of non-marketing-related tasks, like automatically generating a purchase order when inventory drops below a threshold. 

5. Video Increases Engagement

Although text-based content marketing is easier to find through search engines, users spend more time watching videos than reading articles. Plus, the shares-to-viewers ratio for social video is far greater than for any other form of media.  The next big thing are Interactive videos which are proven to drive customer engagement and directly impact purchasing decisions.

Keep Moving and Stay On Top of Trends

Today’s world is constantly changing, both in consumer habits and martech strategies. Tons more data is being generated around the clock. Companies should evaluate new strategies to reach customers on different platforms and save time via automation. No matter what the future holds, it’s crucial to stay on top of new developments and technologies to avoid being left behind. 

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