How is marketing automation going to change the future?

Today, you can call for a cab using Uber, order your favourite shoes on Amazon, and also place an order for your meal at a local deli using your smartphone. All of this can be done right now, from wherever you may be sitting. However, when you call for a cab using Uber, you often get personalised suggestions based on your previous trips. This makes your experience even better and makes you want to use their services again. Now, that is marketing automation. Do you really think a huge brand like Uber has so many employees for just customising your experience while using their services? Of course not! Uber is simply smart to employ automation techniques to its marketing campaigns to personalise customer experience. A few years back, these ideas would have seemed far fetched or even farcical. But today, you and I are living amidst automated systems.

The Marketing industry is undergoing a constant transformation and evolution with respect to technology, creativity and innovation. With so many brands implementing automation in their marketing strategies, the future of this domain holds really exciting things to unfold in the future. Here are a few trends that will see the spotlight in 2018 and probably the years to follow.

Firstly, what is contextual marketing? And how does it impact marketing automation? Contextual marketing is nothing but delivering the right content at the right time. Contextual marketing is all about rendering targeted ads using data from user behaviour and their search patterns online.  The main intent of this type of marketing is to offer your products and services to dedicated customers who have shown prior interest in your offerings. For instance, if you are looking to buy a new pair of shoes on the Internet, you will see the same or similar products right after your search. And since you shown keen interest in this particular product, you click the ad in order to check out the offer. That is where contextual marketing succeeds most often.

Let us take a really popular example to understand the impact of this kind of marketing. Do you remember the Superbowl of 2013? So, just to recap the scenario, Oreo came up with a brilliant campaign on Twitter that read “You can still dunk in the dark.” The cookie brand didn’t have to invest much in this. However, the effect of sending out this tweet during the blackout showed their presence of mind along with their agility to stay ahead of its competitors. Here’s a closer look at the ad.

Chatbot is undoubtedly one of the greatest discoveries in the marketing industry. We sure agree that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. However, in the online world, personalisation is the best way to a man’s heart. Yes, that’s right! Chatbots are instrumental in offering a customised experience to your leads and customers. They provide a human touch to your brand with minimum human intervention. It may sound complicated, but the implementation is quite simple.

It is the age of the customers and brands are transforming to become more customer-centric rather than owner-centric. In such an era, chatbots make this experience possible though your website. To know more on this subject, take a look at our article on how chatbots can be configured to give your users a personalised feel on your website.

ABM is an approach that follows a dedicated set of marketing strategies for each account that the agency is handling. AI can be further used to customise marketing campaigns for individual accounts in the portfolio. You may want to follow a sophisticated approach for a luxury apparel brand while use a quirky tone for another fun and new apparel store. AI and ABM can be converged to create personalised funnel theories for specific buyer journeys. Trust me, it is really interesting to implement these strategies and unravel the results.