There’s no time to wait. The future is already here. If you aren’t already thinking about the future of marketing and martech, then you will quickly fall behind. Check out some of the future marketing trends that will continue to shape years to come.

Top 10 Key Future Marketing Trends

Artificial Intelligence

AI is basically everywhere these days and that trend will continue far into the future.

Currently, you can find AI in services like content creation, chatbots, search engines, data analytics, natural language processing, personalization, and more.

Most businesses plan to increase their investment in AI, as it has many benefits: better customer experience, more innovative products and services, higher cost savings, increased productivity, and improved decision-making - even if Artificial Intelligence creates risks for personal data.

As machine learning and deep learning become more advanced, we will be seeing a lot more AI in the future.
 

Conversational Marketing & Chatbots

The rise of AI can be great for businesses and processes, but when it comes to interacting with people, it can sound too much like a machine.

Not only do people want immediate responses, they want to interact in a conversational manner - like they would with a real person. This can make the job of a marketer a bit more difficult, as AI has its limits. But if you have interacted with a chatbot lately, you can see that things are improving.

Using more advanced AI, companies are also able to create more personalized videos and emails, and provide virtual sales assistants. All this enables companies to meet customers on their own terms: when, how, and where they want.

Voice Marketing

Not too long ago, the only way to interact with devices was through text. Now, you can interact with many devices using only your voice.

Alexa, Siri, and Google Nest have all increased voice interactions immensely.

Searching for something? Just ask Siri. Want to buy a new gadget? Just ask Google to find it for you and buy it.

Some brands are already doing this. Walmart Voice Order enables customers to choose products and add them to the cart, only through voice commands. AmazonFresh also enables customers to shop through Alexa.

Visual Search

Visual search takes voice marketing one step further.

People no longer want to have to describe something, in voice or text, using specific keywords to find what they are looking for. The easier thing to do is just search using a picture. This has been possible since the late 2010s, with varying degrees of success.

With improvements in AI, Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and Amazon StyleSnap can now search through billions of images to find what someone is looking for with much more accuracy.

ASOS is already using this technology to find an exact product or a similar product in the same style based on an image.
 

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is already considered a best practice by many, but there are other digital advertising experts who still rely on manual bidding options.

As AI continues to evolve, it is becoming easier to work with automated advertising, as well as to trust that it is accurate enough to help generate leads or make the most of your budget. 
 

XR

XR (eXtended reality), the umbrella term for AR/VR/MR, has been gaining ground in marketing over the last decade.

It’s most often seen in gaming and different phone features like filters, but you can also find companies using it to their advantage.

IKEA Place is a good example of this. Their AR app enables people to place IKEA furniture in their rooms to see if it is the right size and style for their needs.

Many brands making use of XR have seen that the technology creates the possibility for more realistic, personalized, and immersive storytelling experiences that enables people to connect emotionally with a brand, boosting brand loyalty and increasing the number of purchases.
 

Predictive & Augmented Analytics

There’s no doubt about it - data has become one of the biggest game changers in marketing in the last 10-15 years. Without reliable and accurate data, even the best marketing ideas struggle to get off the ground.

This trend is pretty much unstoppable at this point. AI and ML have made even more possible with predictive analytics and augmented analytics.

As the name suggests, predictive analytics works to help companies predict the future. In marketing terms that means more sophisticated lead acquisition, customer segmentation, and personalization.

Augmented analytics helps to automate data preparation and sharing, making it easier to work with larger data sets.
 

No Code Marketing

Nothing can be more frustrating for a marketer than knowing what needs to be done but not having the technical skills to make it happen.

Usually, new martech is created by software development teams. And, while they will always be necessary, now marketers can take advantage of no code options.

Digital assets, apps, analyses, and workflows can all be created with little to no development skills. 
 

Location-based & AR-based advertising

We’ve all been there before - casually talking about a product with a friend or just doing a simple Google search for it, and then that same day we start seeing ads for it on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. It can be a bit creepy and annoying, but it is the future of advertising.

With IoT, more and more devices are connected to networks. This makes it possible for ads to be even more personalized.

Imagine that the same product appears on digital billboards when you walk by, or as an ad during your favorite podcast, or even as an AR experience suggestion when you are on your phone.

Advertisers will be able to personalize advertising with increased accuracy based on someone’s behaviors, location, and time.
 

Brain interface advertising

Placing ads directly into someone’s mind may sound like science fiction, but it may be closer to reality than we think.

The first step in this new form of marketing could be Elon Musk’s Neuralink. By inserting micron-size threads into certain areas of the brain, people could theoretically interface with computers and devices.

Who knows what will come of this type of link, or if people will even accept it, but it is the next logical step in the field of neuromarketing. 

No matter what, the future of marketing is definitely digital. Which trends are you already exploring? Let us know. And if you need a little help figuring all this out.