It's almost time to wave goodbye to 2016 and greet 2017 with open arms—and an open mind. That's because emerging technologies are going to play a huge role in the New Year, and for marketers to stay ahead, they're going to have to get on board.
Advancements in consumer technology, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality may distinguish the coming twelve months as the official doorway into the Internet of Things. Here are the seven biggest tech trends that will change marketing in 2017. Is your business thinking about how to adapt?
Location-based technology
You go to a store looking for a gift for that special someone, and a notification pops up on your phone. Just today, just for you… 15 percent off of your total purchase!
Expect to see an increase in location-based marketing throughout 2017 and to come. While 2016 was expected to be a watershed year for location marketing (think about Facebook’s local Bluetooth beacon), the technology is beginning to come into its own. The adoption of location-based technology by businesses—Wi-Fi, beacons, GPS, near-field communication, and RFID, to name a few—is happening. And it’s happening rapidly.
Consumers are biting, too. Personalized deals, rewards, and loyalty points remove their unwillingness to share data. According to a Microsoft study, a whopping 99.6% of consumers would willingly share data for cash rewards.
Wearables
Wearable technology has been around for quite some time (think about the calculator watch, hearing aids, and your old Walkman). But wearables—including smartwatches, activity trackers, and computerized eyeglasses—are poised to explode in the New Year, with industry analysts claiming growth from about 84 million units a year ago to a whopping 245 million units in 2019.
What does this mean for marketers? For starters, geo-targeting. Beacons and wearables will enjoy a friendly relationship, working together for a marketing one-two punch. Wearables allow businesses that use location-based technology to alert you more effectively than a smartphone because they're hands-free. You're already wearing them on display. But the smaller display for most wearables will require businesses to change the way they deliver their marketing messages. Shorter, easy-to-digest content and adaptability to voice search will be key.
Augmented and virtual reality
Pokémon Go! captured the world's attention this past year. With hundreds of millions of downloads and players across the globe, the mobile app introduced many to the possibilities of augmented reality.
Of course, that's only a single example, and you're probably not betting the farm on developing an app that goes viral. What business owners should be thinking about, however, is the ways virtual and augmented reality may influence their marketing. 30% of consumer-facing businesses on Forbes' Global 2000 list will be experimenting with AR and VR in the coming year.
Advertisers on social networks like Facebook (which purchased the Oculus Rift brand of VR headsets) and SnapChat (which recently released its AR Spectacles) will delve into this exciting new landscape in 2017 and catch the first wave. And look out for enhanced-reality experiences on mobile devices as well. Pokémon Go! was just the beginning.
Cross-device marketing
Consider the number of web-connected devices you're likely to use in any given day: a desktop computer, a laptop, your cell phone, a tablet. Perhaps you use a gaming console or a connected television.
We're connected nearly all the time, but our devices don’t often interact seamlessly. Cross-device marketing seeks to break down the “walls” that prevent users from skipping between devices and apps effortlessly. For example, someone might see a product they like on television, look it up on their phone, research it on their desktop, and then order it from a downloadable app.
Cross-device marketing will become critical this year as users become increasingly ambivalent to platform. PC or Mac? Android or iOS? Today’s users don’t care so much. They just want it to work.
Chatbots
Today’s mobile assistants are light-years beyond those we’ve “enjoyed” in the past (press four for more options). They simulate intelligent conversation to help users look for what they need using a digital messaging platform. Although chatbots have been around for many years, today’s predictive analysis and AI have made them easier, more effective, and cheaper to implement.
That’s not to say that they’re perfect. Microsoft experimented with a chatbot named Tay, who communicated through Twitter. Unfortunately, people on Twitter are not always the nicest crowd, and Tay very quickly began emulating some of the nasty language she learned.
Nevertheless, chatbots are here to stay! Look for them when hailing a cab, setting up an appointment, or shopping for your friends online. Because…
Advanced machine learning
Above all, 2017 will be the year of advanced machine learning technology and applied artificial intelligence. Google announced its expansion of cloud-based learning services in November. That means marketers will soon be able to purchase AI as a service.
This doesn’t mean that machine learning isn’t already embedded into much of what we use daily. Google, Siri, Watson, all those recommendations that you get—they’re all machine learning. The algorithms that guide much of our activity in the digital world are the result of computers understanding huge quantities of data and being able to interpret it to us, individually and personally.
But according to research from Digital Strategy Consulting, advanced AI will be the biggest disruptor of the marketing landscape in 2017. Interpreting data flow, understanding the behaviors the data reveals, and tailoring marketing content to the specific customer experience is no longer for the big companies. If’s for anyone serious about marketing.
Is your business prepared for these cutting-edge changes to marketing technology, or are you stuck behind the competition?
