With just 32 days left in the year, we are looking forward to the big technology trends for marketers in 2019. Below are a few of our thoughts on the latest and emerging tech for next year.
Voice: More and more searches are being done via Alexa and Siri---one in six Americans has a smart home speaker, according to a recent study by NPR and Edison research. Get into voice recognition to get into the rankings and recommendations for your products and services. Marketers can use these tools for acquiring, stoking the loyalty of and retaining customers. On Alexa, for instance, you can add a skill or app aligned with your business to drive brand awareness.
Chatbots (AI): Consumers value world-class customer service. Chatbots can help you stay connected to customer needs, wants and concerns to help improve upon your product, service and overall brands. Financially, they're cheaper than humans (not that we foresee robots replacing people---the latter will just evolve to do higher-order tasks).
VR: Some brands are starting to embrace and develop their virtual reality strategies. For example, having people "try on" clothing through a virtual reality app and experience your product as if they were in your store. Read HubSpot's list of 9 VR Marketing Examples That You'll Want to Steal for 2019.
Content: Being authentic and having original, valuable content to push into the market that customers can easily relate to is more imperative than ever. It helps to think of all of your marketing as "content," from ads to emails. Read our post on How Great Content is the Key to Better Ad Performance.
Mobile: Be where your customers are. Although not a new trend, it's imperative to speak to consumers with your mobile strategies as they're constantly on the move and usually have that one thing always with them, their smartphone. Mobile is also integral to other channels like audio, social and video. Get more tips in our post How to Optimize Mobile to Drive Purchases.
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