A New Era in Digital Marketing
Marketing is always an exciting industry to work in as it is constantly evolving. Technology is changing and adapting all the time so there are always new ways of communicating with people. We have seen this in recent years with the growth and popularity of social media. This changed the way businesses marketed their products and how individuals communicated with their friends and family. Digital Marketing will only grow further in the future and continue to push boundaries. Businesses need to keep up to date or risk falling behind their competition.
This posts looks at a few examples of new marketing methods that are growing in popularity. With the industries expecting to see huge levels of growth in the coming years, it is fair to say we as consumers will soon see our favourite companies in a completely different light.
Augmented Reality (AR)
What exactly is AR? It is a new and exciting form of technology that superimposes images on a users view of the real world. An example that helps demonstrate AR is ‘Pokemon Go’. The popular app released in 2016 allowed you to find and catch Pokemon while walking around in real life. Images and graphics of Pokemon would show up on your phone on the path you were walking along. This was an example of AR that was immensely popular and was all over the news and social media.
This is also a common tool used by the app ‘Snapchat’. They often create new filters for their users to use when taking selfies which are highly popular. This form of digital marketing has shown how successful it can be when utilised effectively. It creates a lot of buzz and word of mouth and is a fun and more engaging way for customers to build a relationship with a company. It creates an extra dimension that more traditional forms of marketing lack.
AR is becoming increasingly popular and is now being used by a wide variety of industries to promote their products in a much more engaging and fun way. For products such as watches, AR allows you to see what the watch would look like on your wrist, allowing you to decide whether or not you want to purchase it. For products that may be seen as ‘dull’, AR paints them in a completely different light and allows them to be marketed in a fun and engaging way.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality differs from AR by being a more immersive experience. VR uses a headset which the user puts on and explores a virtual world that they can interact with and move around in. The ‘Oculus Rift’ is a VR platform which is becoming increasingly popular in the gaming world. Fully submersing yourself into a virtual world provides a much more intense and interactive experience.
Businesses have taken note of the potential of VR and have adapted marketing to it. An example is a virtual house tour. It is one thing to look at a slideshow of a house you are considering buying. However, with VR you can immerse yourself into a digital model of the house and move around it. This gives you a much better idea of size and appearance.
VR however is not as flexible as AR because VR requires a headset and tools that can monitor your movements. That being said, the next time you visit a trade show, it is likely you will see a VR demonstration of a product being shown. It puts you into a completely different world, meaning its it a highly memorable marketing tool.
Video Brochures
Brochures have been around for years. While they are useful and present your company in a professional manner, digital marketing has taken it a step further and modernised them. A video brochure incorporates a video that starts when you open the brochure. This allows you to tell a story in a much more user friendly way while removing all text that some readers can get bored of if there is too much.
This presents a great way of standing out from your competition. You present your company in a unique way and you can upload different videos as and when you want. You do not need to reprint the brochures, you just need to sync them to a computer to upload a different video. The memorability of video brochures are therefore extremely high and are a modern, digital solution that can greatly benefit your business.
Video Marketing
Using videos to promote your company or your products is a popular means of marketing today. Today’s audiences are typically more receptive to watching a video rather than having a block of text to read through. ‘Going Viral’ means your videos are seen across multiple platforms by thousands of people. Companies are striving to create video content that is one of a kind and really sticks in the mind of the viewer.
As a result, videos are becoming more extravagant and memorable, with characters and humour that help promote the product (where appropriate). This again is a more memorable form of marketing that creates a positive buzz and word of mouth promotion.
Videos are becoming embedded on websites, part of a news feed on social media and attached to content on YouTube. They are targeted and distributed on channels with high traffic, meaning high exposure and ultimately, more brand awareness. Customers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it as in most cases it allows you to relay a much more concise and less ambiguous message. This is therefore a channel of great potential for your company that can really make you stand out from your competition.
This channel is also widely utilised to promote client testimonials, which as we all know form an integral part of your marketing strategy. It is definitely an up and coming channel recognised by many.
360 Degree Video Marketing
360 degree videos differ from normal video marketing by allowing the viewer to move their finger around the screen and view different parts of a video. This has given video marketing a whole new dimension by making it interactive and highly innovative.
Viewers can explore the world around them with 360 degree videos, making it a much more engaging experience. The brand awareness and relationship building that comes from this channel is huge. Furthermore, this channel is only expected to grow in large numbers in the coming years. Companies have realised the potential it holds to build rapport with their prospects.
For companies that offer experiences and travel for example, 360 degree video has provided a key opportunity to increase their brand awareness by allowing individuals to explore the experience through video. This gives them a much better idea of what the real thing will be like, making them want to go ahead.
As 360 degree video is still a relatively new concept, 360 videos gain thousands, even millions of views as they offer a completely different and unique experience.
Benefits of using new digital marketing methods
As you can see, new marketing methods bring their own benefits. Below we have listed a few.
- Engagement. New technology is always exciting to experience and engage with. Your prospects will pay more attention to a new, innovative marketing technique.
- Modern. It is important to stay with the times and on platforms that are current and have high interaction with prospects.
- Stand out. What better way to stand our from your competition than by utilising a new and modern marketing technique? One day, it will become the norm and mainstream, but until then, you have an opportunity to take advantage.
- Memorable. New age technology such as VR and AR are highly interactive. Being more involved with a piece of marketing material makes it more memorable and will stick in the mind of your prospects. This will make them more likely to convert to customers when they are ready to buy.
Summary
Technology is always evolving so our list shows just a few examples of new marketing techniques. These bring new opportunities for companies to change the way they market their products to ensure they stay on top of current trends. The ones mentioned have shown particular promise and high growth potential. However, Others such as the Microsoft ‘Hololens’ looks to take the market by storm in the coming years. It is currently in development but it further shows how technology constantly evolves.
We are living in the era of digital marketing and advancements like AR show that it will be around for years to come and will adapt further still.
Get in touch today and a member of the team will be happy to advise on your current marketing and how we can help increase your ROI through our marketing services.