Another border that has come crashing down concerns technology. New tech tools have not so much supplanted older technologies when it comes to online marketing as to augment them, giving them more depth and reach. AR (augmented reality) gives potential clients the kind of one-on-one 3-D product viewing that used to be done at trade shows or in real stores. The reality of product presence online is becoming so concrete and real that customers and potential customers no longer need an in-person experience before committing to a purchase, even with something as massive as a pool, according to Pool Guard USA. And that can only be good news to marketing departments everywhere. In conjunction with AI, AR has the potential to let consumers sample a brand without ever having to leave their homes. This has been exciting marketing departments world wide for the past half year, and as the technology becomes even better it can only boost the bottom line of companies who are willing to push the marketing envelope.
Quantifying with algorithms
Perhaps the greatest bugaboo in all of online marketing has always been quantifying results. Clients, both in-house and outside, need to know just exactly how effective their advertising/marketing dollars have been, and what can be done in a concrete manner to increase the bang for each further buck. This hasn’t always been easy; in the early days of online marketing the only true yardstick was whether or not sales of a product or service jumped noticeably during the time a specific advertising campaign was running; and even then there were a host of other variables that could impact the bottom line. The fact of the matter is that early on, clients became a little skeptical, and a little weary, of what they perceived as ‘snow job’ accounting of their budgets. So for a few years the whole online marketing industry saw a plateau in revenue. But today, with user-friendly algorithms and other state of the art programs available, clients are getting the kind of transparent, clear cut, data that pinpoints exactly what their online marketing campaigns are doing — it’s all broken down into specific traffic flows, demographics, click throughs, and so on. Of course sales is still the ultimate goal of every marketing project, but along the way the new algorithms demonstrate conclusively how online marketing strategies are impacting customer and consumer perceptions and interactions as well. And a good marketing campaign always needs to consider collateral benefits as well as the sales figures. Today that kind of data is at the fingertips of everyone involved in the marketing department, and they can make it available to clients at the drop of a hat. This has increased client satisfaction enormously, given encouragement to new entrepreneurs, and swept away the plateauing of online marketing. It’s only going to get better as 2019 turns into 2020.
Organic and metric
Evolving new technology now makes it possible to personalize marketing campaigns in a way that was never available before. Automated emails use the consumers first name. Advanced metrics will tell marketers just what kind of product, and price range, each individual consumer will appreciate the most — and thus every single one becomes an individual target, not an anonymous group. This is truly revolutionary if you really think about it. When a customer has made several purchases online their data is melded into an individual profile that can be dissected and examined for buying patterns, lifestyle choices, travel preferences, and so on. With the help of powerful new algorithms, this data is stripped of generalities and so when the marketing campaign begins contacting potential customers they do so literally one-on-one. In a sense, it’s a rebirth of the door-to-door sales approach, but instead of knocking on someone’s door, the online marketer reaches out to each individual with their first name and a soft assumption of what they are interested in and capable of purchasing.
