By Naida Alabata
It’s no secret that technology has played a vital role in changing both our personal and professional lives. In the case of the latter, the whole business sector has benefited from the continued innovations brought about by technological developments.
The field of marketing, for one, has seen a tremendous influx of innovative tools and solutions that allow for a myriad of tasks to be accomplished more efficiently. Below are nine innovative marketing technology solutions you should be using in 2019.
1. Public Relations Technology
The goal of public relations technology or PR Tech is to draw the public’s attention to a company’s story, while also expanding the public’s awareness of its products and services. This involves getting in contact with media experts and other channels that generally incites the public’s interest. All of which can be achieved via the internet along with other social media networks.
Last year, Johnnie Walker launched a female counterpart of its iconic logo in line with the celebrations of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. Johnnie Walker released around 250,000 of the limited edition bottle, donating $1 for every bottle sold to organizations that help empower women. Not only did the campaign bring attention to the popular whiskey brand, but it also depicted their support for social progress.
And apart from ad placements in premier traditional media outlets like the New Yorker and Time Magazine, a solid social media strategy was utilized to further add to the buzz.
2. Artificial Intelligence
In marketing, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been used to take advantage of the vast amounts of available data to intelligently and automatically learn from patterns and features found in the data pool.
These options can be applied to email marketing strategies, where AI software can generate personalized emails based on a user’s preference. This allows businesses to save time and resources while generating personalized content almost instantly.
For example, intelligent tools like Wordsmith, Heliograf, and Quill have been used by Forbes and the other popular media outlets to create content designed to generate more visitors to their website.
3. Marketing Automation
With countless online channels to choose from, it can be overwhelming for a marketing team to manually manage multiple channels effectively. Automation tools have enabled businesses to focus on things like increasing sales by taking time-consuming tasks off their plates.
Examples of these tools include Hubspot, Active Campaign, and Prospect.io – all of which are used by small to large enterprises to manage multiple social channels in one platform. These tools also include features that help analyze which campaigns are performing and which ones need to be tweaked. This data analysis can then be used to help create future social media strategies.
4. Data Analysis
Data analysis is considered the heart of every marketing software when it comes to determining what works best and what doesn’t. Without data, business owners will have a hard time keeping track of their campaigns, eliminating potential risks, and deciding on their next strategy for future campaigns.
Some examples of software with helpful data analysis tools include Mixpanel, the Adwords Performance Grader, and Formissimo. Some of the features of these tools include information on how customers interact with your product, real-time data reports, and monitoring metrics to help scale growth.
5. Custom APIs
As the number of martech tools continues to increase, employing agile software will be key. This is where customized API (application programming interface) solutions come in. APIs allow for the repurposing and scaling of software by connecting third-party data inputs to a unified system. And with the multiple tools and platforms that hold vast amounts of data and sensitive information, custom APIs make it much easier for businesses to exchange data without exposing internal programming.
In SEO, for example, APIs are able to integrate different SEO data. With a customized API, you can request for data already collected without the need to invest in a complex server infrastructure.
Some examples include Google Analytics APIs, Facebook Audience Management APIs, and FullContact Developer APIs, which allow you to automate complex reporting tasks while extracting basic demographic information to your marketing automation system.
6. Creative Optimization
Creative optimization combines leveraging user data to match a potential audience with a version of a creative most likely to garner a response. This is a practice that gives a targeted media placement the highest chance of engaging with a specific audience.
Of course, this entails thorough testing of different creative versions. For example, Chartboost tested several versions of the playable ad below until they got the results they were shooting for.
Source: https://www.singular.net
Source: https://www.singular.net
It’s important to note, though, that in a highly competitive marketing landscape, producing creative, interactive ads does not always guarantee success, making continued testing an integral part of optimizing creatives.
7. Voice Agents
Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri have introduced a new means of interaction between companies and users. As more and more people get accustomed to interacting with voice agents, data on users’ behavior and preferences will allow for more personalized suggestions. Along with the new avenue for data collection, voice agents also make optimizing for voice search an important aspect of marketing in 2019.
While the tech is still in its relative infancy, businesses should closely look into the many possibilities that voice agents and voice search trends can bring. For example, because users interact with voice agents like they’re actual people – businesses should focus on conversational, long-tail keyword phrases in their website’s content to optimize for voice search.
8. Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy that directs a business’ marketing resources to a specific set of target accounts instead of applying it to a wide range of people from different demographics. This enables them to create more personalized content to a specific group, identify key prospects, and yield better results within a shorter period of time.
ABM, in the most basic sense, flips the traditional inbound marketing funnel on its head by identifying the biggest opportunities from the get-go and proactively going after them. As noted by Drift, B2B marketers see ABM as a more efficient approach, targeting only the companies and contacts that are likely to buy, placing a strong emphasis on quality outreach and relationship building.
One example is a local business sending personalized gift boxes to specific members of a target company. The gift boxes include a personal note and information specific to their company role without saturating it with promotional content. This creates a lasting impression on the target’s mind, while also allowing your business to stand out from the rest.
9. Human Side of Martech
While leveraging the technological innovations for your marketing efforts will be important as martech tools continue to be developed, you shouldn’t forget about what matters most—your customers. These tools should be used to communicate better with customers, anticipate their needs, and improve their lives. When you lose sight of this and start thinking of your customers as metrics to achieve, you risk losing them altogether.
Takeaway
Thanks to modern technology, nearly every business owner from small to large enterprises can take advantage of these multiple innovations. Considering the amount of competition within the industry, it is extremely important that one’s marketing team needs to understand the latest trends and adapt whichever works best for their image.
While it may be overwhelming at first, investing in a strong marketing strategy by applying both online and offline techniques can yield rewarding results.
