Marketing is a fascinating concept if you take the time to think about it. It has actually existed in various forms for many thousands of years. The fruit seller in a Greek open-air market who stood in front of their stall and cried out their wares was engaging in primitive marketing.
The last century saw companies using radio waves to talk about new products and services when radio shows became popular. Billboards had their day, and some companies are still using them because they feel like they promote product awareness sufficiently to warrant renting them. TV commercials are another obvious marketing form, but some companies are getting away from them.
Social media is one of the superior ways for companies to market their services and products right now. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and dozens of others are the place to find millions of people, and businesses can often locate their niche with a little bit of careful market research. Some other companies are utilizing podcast appearances to promote their latest products.
In the near future, marketing will change. Let's look at some ways that might happen.
Marketing Innovation
Whether you're trying to sell a full-featured intranet service, refrigerator magnet sets, or just about anything else, you need to be creative with how you inform people about your offerings. You must look at your operating budget and its limitations, and you must consider where you can most easily locate your target audience.
For example, if millennials are your target audience, you need to consider the fact that they spend at least 4 hours on their phone per day, meaning that implementing an SMS marketing strategy is your safest bet. Connecting with all of your clients immediately has never been easier. You can now use an SMS blast service to reach thousands of customers at a time, and you can rest assured knowing that your message will be seen for sure, since text messages have unmatched open rates of 98%. Another way to maximize opportunities when determining how to locate your target audience is to use tools that help you save time and money. Companies like SuperSaaS specialize in online booking solutions that enable you to reach your customers by connecting to your favorite apps, or by linking to your bookable calendar or embedding it into your website. This way, if you run an appointment-based business, your clients can book at their convenience 24/7.
Think about when movie theaters starting showing ads before films. That was something that never happened thirty years ago.
Imagine how innovative it must have seemed when someone came up with that idea. A movie theater crowd waiting for the feature to start is a target audience. Company marketing heads must have kicked themselves when they realized they had never come up with the concept before.
That's the kind of genuine marketing innovation that doesn't come along very often. But what is the equivalent of this kind of opportunity in the future that no one has come up with yet?
Self-Driving Vehicle Marketing
We definitely know that several companies are working on self-driving cars. Those will likely present some unique marketing opportunities.
If you ever take a New York taxi, you'll probably notice a TV screen blaring directly in front of you, advertising restaurants or various services. Your self-driving car, when it arrives, will likely have similar ads.
You'll have an interactive touch screen or a voice-activated one. As you tell the car where to go, you can probably expect some ads for shaving cream or pantyhose along the way.
Wearables
We're already seeing various wearables these days, like Fitbits and Apple Watches. We've also seen Google Glass and similar headgear.
These wearables will be another way that corporations can market to you. You can use your wearable to get some headlines, as it will tell you what's happening in the world when you're running out the door in the morning. It should not surprise you if your wearable has some ads for you too, tailored to your likes according to the algorithm and what it already knows about your preferences.
At-Home Marketing
Soon, you will have large and small screens throughout your home with which you can interact. They will be like smart TVs, but you can find them in your kitchen counter, embedded in your refrigerator, oven, and so forth.
You can already find and install some of these if you can afford them. At the moment, they're either prototypes, or you have to pay top dollar for them, but they will become more commonplace in modern homes soon enough.
Essentially, any surface can be a screen, from your bathroom mirror to the ceiling above your bed. You will be able to easily interact with this "house of the future" in all sorts of ways. You can order products simply by asking for them, as you can already do with Siri, Alexa, and other voice-activated assistants.
These interactive homes will present nearly infinite marketing opportunities for creative, intrepid companies who want you to buy from them. For instance, when you interact with one of these smart screens in your home, the voice assistant will let you know that you're almost out of milk, and a particular at-home delivery company has a discount you can use if you order within the next 24 hours.
As everything around us becomes more interactive, companies will get marketing opportunities of which they previously never dreamed.
