Lead generation is one of those constantly evolving fields that it can be difficult to stay on top of. New technologies are constantly coming and going, and time-pressed marketers often find it difficult to evaluate those new technologies and to figure out where to invest their time.
As with most things in marketing, the best option is usually to dip your toe into the water and to measure success every time you work with a new technology, but to spend at least 80% of your time working on the established marketing activities which are already generating results.
Nevertheless, it’s also important to keep an eye on the new technologies that are set to disrupt the industry. Here are just a few of them.
1. Machine Learning
Imagine if your marketing materials could be as personalised as Netflix’s recommendations. Well, thanks to artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data, the idea is coming pretty close to becoming a reality. Machine learning can be used to identify data correlations that you were previously unaware of, to carry out more detailed testing and even to identify what people are likely to do in the future. Better still, machine learning systems get better and better as they process more and more data, and when you couple that with the inevitable increase in the processing power that we have access to, you can start to see why marketers might be excited.
2. Voice Recognition
Voice recognition used to be hit and miss, with most providers failing to live up to the promise of a voice assistant that could actually hold a conversation. But now that technology is better than ever before, we’re getting more and more used to voice recognition services like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. In the future, it’s likely that more people will use voice assistants to shop and to consume content, and it’s the marketers who are able to tap into this who’ll reap the greatest rewards.
3. Virtual Reality
Both virtual reality and 360-degree video are increasingly being used to take a branded experience and to make it available to pretty much everyone with a mobile device. As VR rigs and headsets become cheaper and more accessible, consumers will be crying out for great content. Brands have increasingly been acting like publishers over the recent years, and if that trend continues then many of the most innovative uses of virtual and augmented reality could come from brands themselves.
Conclusion
Whenever you’re evaluating a new piece of marketing technology, you’ll want to weigh up its pros and cons and to identify how it can best be used to support your overall marketing goals. And if it can’t be used to support those marketing goals…well, there’s probably no point using it in the first place.
Confused by new technologies? Need a little help with lead generation? Help is at hand. Request a demo of Bant.io to find out how we can help your company to grow by sending hot B2B leads directly to your inbox. You won’t regret it.
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.