4 tech trends pushing marketers forward in 2018

The digital landscape forever altered marketing, forcing marketers to continually evolve in order to meet their audience wherever they are – a relatively simple strategy now mired in complexity with new channels and personalised engagement strategies.

Relevant marketing is more important than ever so the industry must develop targeted strategies to their customer base. As such, it’s no surprise that the 4 trends pushing marketers forward in 2018 include making space for a new audience, upgrading data management and analysis, embracing the mobile revolution and bringing everyone to the table in an organisation to achieve all marketing goals.

Generation Z & their importance on marketing strategies
Each emerging generation is the generation whose buying behaviour changes everything in marketing. As Generation Z ages (born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s), they are expected to comprise up to 40% of consumers by 2020. Their behaviour is compartmentalised, meaning they consume and use technology, including social media platforms, for drastically different things. What a Generation Z-er does on Snapchat is different than what they do on Instagram and Facebook. A single social media strategy won’t cut it anymore, as marketers will have to be more nimble and agile using tailored content on each platform and channel in order to engage the consumer.

Data management platforms 
We’ve heard a lot about data. We know capturing and harnessing data to better understand and engage consumers has changed the industry in the last five years. Now, marketers will be able to store, manage and analyse their consumer data within data management platforms (DMPs). Going deeper than marketing automation platforms (such as Hubspot or Pardot), DMPs like BlueKai and Salesforce DMP allow marketers to create more targeted “look-alike” audiences based on a combination of third-party data and data aggregated on their platforms.

Mobile optimisation is the new website 
Mobile owns 30% of consumers’ time devoted to media consumption. Mobile optimisation has been a buzzword and accepted business practice since 2010, but this year marketers will put further emphasis on dynamic email content that is custom-fit for mobile. Companies will seek to create “mini-experiences” via mobile email, breaking down barriers between email, social media and mobile ads in order to engage consumers directly within their inbox.

Websites will also follow the trend, or be penalised as a result. Google has begun to index a website based on mobile content so, more than ever before, mobile optimisation and fast load times will be paramount to marketer’s success.

Breaking down silos and bringing everyone to the table
It’s all connected. The consumer experience doesn’t begin and end with the marketing department as marketers are breaking down silos between operating business units to promote cross-functional collaboration to exceed marketing goals. Marketers are rethinking internal team structure, adding client experience representatives, IT teams and even product development to create a more comprehensive view of their customer’s journey in order to personalise marketing tactics.

A consistently evolving landscape will be the rule 
These trends will shape the landscape of social and digital marketing. Whether you’re implementing a data management platform or implementing custom content across social media channels, you’ll want to keep an eye on the development trends so you can shift as needed in order to reach your goals.