To know how to adapt, you must first identify the so-called ‘disruptors’ that are set to change the world of digital marketing as you know it

Perhaps you’re familiar with the often-misquoted Darwin aphorism, "It is not the strongest species that survives but those that are adaptable to change." While this concept largely impacts the field of biology, it may also be applied to technology and the different fields that use modern tech in making improvements. One industry that is set to go through massive changes is digital marketing. Those who dabble in this field should be aware of the changes influenced by modern technology to stay relevant. But to know how to adapt, you must first identify the so-called ‘disruptors’ that are set to change the world of digital marketing as you know it.

Big data

Cloud technology has blown the doors of businesses wide open when it comes to gathering massive amounts…

Nine of the best team chat tools for making your team extra productive this year

With eight million active users and three million paid users, Slack is the darling of the business communication world. Indeed, the tool is hip and smart. It’s often praised for having multiple integrations, friendly UX and other features. At the same time, Slack doesn’t work best for many teams. Some consider it expensive or cumbersome. Others find themselves buried under tons of notifications and constantly distracted while using it. In a word, the demand for an alternative communication tool is high and there’s plenty of Slack alternatives. But which one should you choose? [si_guide_block id="70611" title="Download our Premium Resource – Essential digital marketing tools" description="This guide gives Free members a preview of the 30 categories of digital marketing tools you should be using for your marketing."/] Developing our own …

Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in the market and hugely impacting on the manufacturing industry

Currently, the world is highly fascinated with terms such as cryptocurrency, bitcoin and blockchain technology. The reason for this is simple - people are getting are really benefitting from them, especially blockchain. When it comes to blockchain, the technology has largely evolved, bringing with it even more benefits. In this blog, we will cover the initial phase of blockchain technology, its evolution and how it can benefit the manufacturing industry. [si_guide_block id="87688" title="Download our Premium Resource – Marketing technology selection guide" description="Where do you start when deciding on the best types of services to use? There’s a challenge with the sheer number of tools which vary enormously in cost and quality and new challenger tools can sometimes do a better job than the established tools.This guide will help you harness the power of the available digital tools."/] Let us…

Startup company growth needs effective and easily accessible digital tools and resources

Over the past few years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of startups that can be seen as a fresh alternative to working in corporations. This is due to their creators’ desire to be independent and run their own company, but also due to changes taking place in the business culture, rapid technological development and most of all, easy access to tools that help grow and manage firms effectively. As a matter of fact, every startup company supporting relevant software and digital sources can build a strong marketing campaign and grow business all by itself. Looking for tools to conduct startup business, entrepreneurs are drawing attention to some of their common features: • Easy availability • Low-cost or free • Accelerating work • Integrated with other tools SaaS…

An opted-in, highly engaged audience that enjoys real-time service from preferred brands will set the foundation for the ROI that businesses need to see

There’s no denying that chatbots drew in a lot of attention last year. The tremendous hype around their capabilities fueled intrigue about how they were going to change consumer behavior and produce impressive results. However, creating any chatbot experience - let alone a great one - is a much harder task than expected. When Facebook Messenger launched services for businesses in 2015, online retailer Everlane was quick to form a partnership. In spite of the company’s first-mover advantage, the chatbot struggled to produce real business value. Everlane used its Messenger chatbot as an email alternative, sending messages such as order confirmations and shipping information. It fell victim to a rushed creation process and never had the time needed to generate real ROI because the holistic customer experience was…

Where is the digital advertising industry today?

When the digital advertising industry broke out, many digital marketers used to rave about the fact that it’s much more transparent and traceable than traditional forms of advertising, such as radio and TV. Today, the digital advertising world makes up almost half of the advertising industry and is faced with some challenges, of which, transparency and traceability seem, ironically, to be holes in the system manifesting in issues like ‘ad fraud’ for instance. The estimated cost of fraud in digital advertising in 2018 is around $19 billion and that figure is expected to grow by over 230% by 2022 to hit $44 billion (statista), according to the current variables. Much of the losses come from ‘non-human traffic’ or what’s known as ‘bot traffic’ but there are also other types of waste like ad-blocking software. Fraud losses will amount to 22% of video spending, according to…

Flying Autonomous Vehicles, Biochips, and Blockchain for Data Security - how long do we have to wait until we start seeing these emerging technologies take shape?

Changes in technology are inevitable as we strive to create products and ways to improve our quality of life.

Gartner Hype Cycle 2018 - Emerging technologies

Newly released, the 2018 Hype Cycle is a perfect visual aid to understand the maturity and adoption of emerging technologies and their current state of development and expectations.

Phases in the hype cycle:

Innovation Trigger - This might signal a breakthrough in the technology development, an initial product launch or interest from the press. This technology is on the rise which sees early adopters investigate their potential benefits. Peak of Inflated Expectations - After an influx of media and press attention this sparks a huge amount of interest and speculation. There is normally heightened expectations of what the technology will be able to…

AI, in a marketing context, is a form of optimization (designed to optimize marketing tasks, tools, and communications). It’s on the verge of transforming our roles and is spurring a revolution to our entire industry

Have you ever received a marketing communication from a brand that seemed as if it knew you almost too well — using your name, showing you enticing recommended items, or even reminder cart abandonment emails and unique codes and coupons? Sometimes they even turn up as though someone read your thought. Ever wondered how they do it, or how you can too? The answer: Artificial intelligence marketing. Indeed, Apple’s Siri product, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, or any of the dozens of other AI-driven digital assistants out there are already changing the role that machines play in making our…

Chart of the Day: What do Marketers want from AI?

AI and Machine Learning is not just for the biggest of companies with a large budget - yet many SMEs still think so. There are various ways of adding AI into your business' customer lifecycle, as demonstrated in our infographic below. Machine learning can be applied to interact with first-time customers and those that show purchase intent, to repeat customers and re-engage lapsed customers. Yet the majority of B2B marketers asked, expect AI to help them with identifying prospective customers and improving marketing effectiveness in driving revenue. "B2B marketers surveyed for this latest report were twice as likely to say they’re unclear as to the differences between AI, machine learning, and predictive (37%) as to say they have a strong understanding (19%) of how they differ." Knowledge of AI is still limited, which means…

Managing the changes brought about by AI applications is the next big challenge for marketers

Artificial intelligence applications are already becoming a mainstay within marketing teams across the globe. With pickup levels of AI marketing initiatives already much higher than you might think. From interviews with 100 senior marketers from a wide range of industries, we found that 55% of companies are either currently implementing or actively investigating some form of AI initiative within their marketing practices. Meaning, AI is already shaking things up in the industry. Unsurprisingly, this inevitable rise of AI technologies in marketing is causing a major shift in the way companies work. With more and more companies looking to adopt a data-centric approach to meet the demand for more effective digital marketing. Nonetheless, there remains to be a clear consensus on the extent of the changes that AI will bring to marketing. Leaving many companies and marketers in the dark…