Marketing is changing. It is about time that we start preparing for what is to come in the next five years. Read to stay on top of your game by exploring what the future of digital marketing has to offer. But let’s pause for a moment and think about whether we are really considering all the changes in the industry?
The future of marketing. Are we speculating it right?
As Marketing is evolving at a really fast pace, can we tell what’s coming our way or is it all a gamble?
Well, we’ve all read several predictions about how attractive technologies including automation, voice search and AI are the future of marketing.
Honestly, it's exciting to hear that new trendy technologies are taking over, but how are these changing the industry’s practices? It’s something such stories often lack.
How exactly is Marketing changing?
From the last 4 years, the digital marketing industry has been evolving at a rapid pace. Even though there are many sexy trends such as micro-influencers, interactive emails, conversational marketing, etc. are great and attractive methods to implement, but we all know as marketers, that setting up a solid marketing strategy requires a deeper understanding of the consumer before encountering channels and setting up technology. Hence, I am not really interested in these.
As marketers, there are some other trends that are important to understand. With the innovation of data, analytics and effective tracking, marketing has taken a turn to be the ROI factory for a company.
Gradually, the role is under making a lot of money instead of really increasing awareness, positioning and visibility. While I strongly believe that numbers, data and analytics can really increase the turnover rates of this job function, whether we like it or not, the future of marketing is going to be focused on ROI metrics.
I think when management starts focusing on such things, short term plans, growth hacks and quick catches become way more important than long term strategies and investment in brand values and quality content.
Therefore, it can be said that marketing is shifting towards being more focussed on the “present ROI” than building a brand which generates a “future ROI”.
However, it is quite obvious that we as Marketers have been slow at consuming the drastic shifts in the industry. But well, from all what I have seen, heard and witnessed, the management would not care whether new techniques are been employed or whether you are at the same pace with your work as your industry is, it eventually is all about numbers and results.
Next comes, the change in consumer behaviour. Are we really ready to welcome Gen Z?
Yeah, so I am talking about people who are turning 18 now and are ready to join the workforce, making 40% of all consumers last year.
How will this shift impact marketing?
Well, the answer is really simple; One cannot predict the behaviour of a consumer group which is shaping its purchasing habits, therefore making it difficult for marketers to market their product and utilising their current marketing techniques. It all becomes a hit and trial here.
Gen Z is known to be quirky, sensitive to phone tactics and cheesy styles, pushing marketers to shift into more authentic and new ideas.
Finally, I think the last change I’d like to touch upon is the change in marketing skills.
Apparently, all the trends that are rising in the marketing will continue to be affecting the marketers. A few facts have drawn my attention which summarizes the change happening in marketing roles.
- No standard titles for marketing roles.
- The description of marketing jobs is getting broader in terms of duties but very specific in the required tech skills.
- Everyone is hiring data experts in their team since the data-driven approach is taking over.
The Future…
While marketing trends highlight new channels, interesting tactics that we could potentially employ to increase our ROI (wink wink), these are some crucial facts that are making the future uncertain (mainly for marketers).
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
