It’s that time of year when people have their eyes fixed firmly on the future and the trends that the coming year is set to bring with it. The problem with that is that most years tend to be fairly similar, and so it’s likely that we’re already using most of the tools and concepts that will see us through 2019 and into 2020.
It’s that time of year when people have their eyes fixed firmly on the future and the trends that the coming year is set to bring with it. The problem with that is that most years tend to be fairly similar, and so it’s likely that we’re already using most of the tools and concepts that will see us through 2019 and into 2020.
The single biggest change for marketers will be the switch to more artificial intelligence (AI) based systems, which will be able to parse through huge amounts of data and to provide a truly personalised experience to your website visitors. Personalisation has always been important, but it’ll become even more important once AI-powered CRM systems become the new norm, and not just for big internationals.
True Sales Alignment
Marketing and sales aren’t so different, and the companies of the future will bring their sales and marketing teams closer together to share data and to provide a constant feedback loop. Without this feedback, your marketing team could be generating thousands of leads that your sales team has no chance of ever turning into customers.
At the same time, both sales and marketing employees need to know exactly what conversations are taking place so that they can further understand their customers. New communication platforms will spring up to help companies with sales and marketing teams in different locations, but the general idea – that of bringing sales and marketing closer together – will remain the same.
And of course, sales will be able to benefit from smarter, more personalised AI-based tools too. AI also goes hand-in-hand with its sister technology, machine learning, the same tech which powers Netflix’s recommendations engine. Imagine how powerful your marketing would be if you could tailor it to people’s needs based on what other, similar customers have responded to.
Conclusion
The sales and marketing teams of the future will be almost unrecognisable from the ones that we have today, but at the same time they’ll use many of the same tactics and ways of thinking. The difference will largely be in the underlying technologies that these tools use and the way in which they allow us to offer more personalised marketing. And if we’ve learned anything from the last five years of marketing trends, it’s that the more you’re able to tailor your marketing to the customer, the better.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.