What can digital marketing do for business efficiency?

The promise is that digital marketing can bring huge results, but few companies can really achieve: high conversions, recognition within the Internet, influences on consumer decision making, and being the first choice of the market. Fine, but why does this happen? Why do some companies invest and fail to make a satisfactory return?

“What differentiates a company that has results from those one that feel that this digital marketing talk is boring is the way they act within the Internet. That’s because, in theory, everyone knows which digital strategies that need to be done, but in practice not everyone puts them into action”, says Carlos Borges, CEO of Agência New (Forquilhinha/SC).

According to Alessander Firmino, Criteo (São Paulo/SP) general manager for Latin America, when talk about digital marketing, one of the main strategies and pillars is the omnichannel concept. “You need to put the consumer at the center of marketing attention. The consumer is not looking at the store by channel, but as a whole. You can’t plan a campaign just for physical store, or only for e-commerce,” he says. For the expert, in terms of digital strategy, the Brazilian retail is in the maturing phase. “There are different levels of retailers, and some are much more advanced, with an omnichannel vision, brands that
make their stores points of interaction with the product. There is an education process that we do
together (to the press) that helps those just starting to understand this opportunity and start to dedicate “, he speaks.

The year is almost over and trend lists for the coming months are starting to appear. For 2020, the digital marketing will be hot. New data protection regulations, video ads increase, wide adoption of AI in digital marketing, changes in media buying, and advancement in the use of voice and visual technologies should mark next year. Some digital marketing trends for 2020, listed by New and Criteo experts:

• DATA INTENSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE USE
The universe of information offered by consumers helps to know the audience in detail and it is central to create methodologies that accelerate the analytical development of companies. There is good news for 2020: If the data use is considered the “new gold rush” among businesses of all sizes, digital marketing tools put companies on a new level. The law Geral de Proteção de Dados (General Data Protection law) arrives to move the industry in 2020, which will have an important impact in the way how companies handle the information of their customers.

• NEW FORMATS AND STYLES OF CONTENT
Telling a good story remains to be one of the most efficient ways to attract the consumer attention
and make a sale. But digital platforms have changed the recipe for delivering quality content. Language, channels, tone, size ... everything needs to be in tune so that companies can tell their stories in the most effective way. This is especially true for content generated within the home, precautions must be taken so that it doesn’t seem overly promotional and dull.

• BROAD ADOPTION OF AI
Artificial Intelligence will drive more costs with ads through online channels. In 2018, several digital marketing companies announced their investments using this technology to develop solutions that offer advanced customization and better user engagement using Machine Learning. AI will enable the professionals of marketing to better understand their audience and deliver highly relevant and personalized messages. We’ll see companies with large data sets and strong computer advertising capabilities starting to lead the development and offer of solution, e systems of digital advertising based on this technology to reduce advertising fraud.

• OMNICHANNEL
Brands and retailers are looking for opportunities outside the well-known giants. Many will begin to do developing their omnichannel capabilities through collaboration and data sharing. Retailers can, for example, share POS and inventory data in realtime with brands, and both can access the analytics and insights to plan promotions and operational efficiency. For brands, consumer insights are essential to make the right decisions of investment when it is about products. The technology giants offer very little to brands in this respect, and the collaboration with other retailers can help them access consumer information on a large scale.

• VOICE TECHNOLOGY
Combining relevance with convenience. The use of visual and voice technology in digital marketing will become more apparent in the next years. With voice search, the engagement becomes more convenient and meaningful for professional of marketing and consumers at every stage of the buying journey. According to Gartner, brands that will redesign their sites to support the visual and voice search, and providing more engaging and interactive experiences, will have up to 30 percent increase in the recipes of digital commerce until 2021. Brands and retailers that leading optimization of their sites to search with these technologies conquer buyers who looking for instant information in anywhere. They may have more attractive and effective interactions with consumers.

• HUMANIZED LOOK
The evolution of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning is helping to outsource to digital robots a number of tasks previously delegated to people, especially in the service areas. But there are still elements irreplaceable by the machine when thinking about a marketing strategy: the empathy and the humanized look. Bringing each other’s optics into the conversation not only helps you better serve the customer, it’s also one of the most effective ways to find the good stories.