Thanks to the globalization processes and technological development, the world is getting more and more digital. Today, mostly everything is already available online: traveling, entertainment, healthcare, real estate, stock exchanges, remote jobs, and internships. According to Statista.com, the number of Internet users has quadrupled since 2006 and now equals more than 4 billion people worldwide.

The trend of digitization is going to be even more rapid. Thus, companies strive to catch up with technological development and survive the challenges of digital marketing. Trying to predict the future is always a difficult thing to do, but let us take a look at the most probable marketing trends of the next decade.

1 Personalized Digital Marketing

Thanks to open data technology, companies can know much more about your personal information than you think. They will use all relevant communication channels you use frequently and offer you products that exactly fit your preferences. On the one hand, it may seem very convenient — you are more likely to buy the thing if you really need it. But at the same time, one should consider that their personal data is not safe anymore. For example, Brian Acton, a WhatsApp co-founder has recently left Facebook due to its users’ privacy issues.

Moreover, Facebook is not the only company that seems to collect your personal data. According to TechCrunch, Android smartphones anonymously send your location to the company servers even when they have turned off geolocation. Although your location data is anonymous and does not contain any significant facts about your personality, it can be used in a variety of ways: starting with creating customers’ typical behavior models in a specific region to offering you customized ads based on your current location.

2 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence is about to infiltrate each digital industry and replace the manual work of millions of people. The brightest example is a stock exchange where AI has already proven its supremacy over professional financial dealers — machine learning has a considerable competitive advantage in predicting risks and analyzing the economic situation. A machine can perform a precise analysis in a matter of seconds, while the human brain requires several days to complete the same predictions.

Marketing is totally on the same path and soon will be substantially influenced by AI. The opportunities are broad enough: it is possible to predict goods trends and product life cycle lengths or even find a profitable niche before it booms. Taking into account the availability of open databases within the Internet, there are a lot of things to be worked out by AI in the digital marketing future.

3 Taking over the Virtual Reality Market

Both virtual and augmented reality technologies are an open field for marketing. Despite still looking for mass-market recognition, VR technology has already shown impressive results in the entertainment industry. According to Statista.com, an augmented reality market is expected to reach a size of 20.4 billion dollars in 2022.

In combination with Augmented Reality, marketing technologies can become overwhelming soon. However, companies should learn how to build their client's journey in a virtual world and figure out how they can maintain adding value to their product, instead of just trying to sell their products with a new type of advertisement.

4 Video Trend

The traditional content you’re used to watching on TV is now available on smartphones, sorted into genres and rated by users’ feedback. With the emergence of Netflix, Facebook Live, and YouTube Premium, the video way is going to become a primary online trend in the next decade.

In 2019, the power of influencing your clients’ decision-making has significantly shifted from typical advertisements characters to bloggers and streamers. Nowadays, companies invest more money in ad placement in YouTube trending videos than on TV ads. For example, the majority of Gen Y are more likely to hear “We do your essay” from their peers than from graduates on TV.

5 Voice Assistants

With the development of voice recognition systems and the emergence of Smart Speakers, voice search has become much faster and smarter. It is easier for people to search through the Internet while they are on the move by talking to their smartphone instead of typing. With voice commands, you can save a lot of time doing several things simultaneously. Moreover, you speak much faster than write, which makes the voice search even more faster.

In 2019, voice searches have accounted for more than 20% of total Google requests. With Amazon’s Echo with a Google Assistant onboard, smart speakers will soon become a new must-have in the household items market. Although the voice sector is not yet monetized, some analysts forecast the rapid development of this segment in the nearest decade. Thus, it’s advisable for marketing companies to optimize their SEO in accordance with the voice-friendly search keywords.