The businesses that will be successful in 2025 will be able to leverage digital marketing as an integrated system rather than a series of independent tactics. The most effective businesses will utilize three key strategies as a foundation: artificial intelligence augmented personalization, privacy-first practices for first-party data, and orchestration of a seamless omnichannel consumer experience.
The AI tools that allow marketers to personalize campaigns via the creation of localized content, running automated creative tests and obtaining instant feedback through product recommendations can no longer be considered experimental, as AI tools are becoming an integral part of marketing. In addition, With Adobe’s recent introduction of AI copy writing agents into their marketing tools, this demonstrates how software as a service provides AI driven automation beyond simply personalizing marketing campaigns.
Without creating a foundation of trust, personalizing customer interactions will not be effective long-term. Forward-thinking marketers recognise that privacy is a necessary element to supporting their personalised marketing strategies, and are therefore using relationships between the marketer and their customers as the basis for their development of First-Party Data Solutions. First-Party Data is made available when customers indicate through various signals that they want to communicate with and develop a relationship with their business, and therefore can be used both within and outside the domain of traditional marketing strategies as a means for building long-term loyalty. Today, there is an increasing amount of research being done by consulting firms which has resulted in a repositioning of the Privacy Aspect of Marketing from a Compliance Related Aspect to a Business Opportunity.
Omni-channel Orchestration combines both digital and physical touch points to create one seamless consumer experience using a multi-channel approach. The consumer journey will include search, social media platforms, short-form video, retail locations and messaging systems. Companies that use this strategy to measure, monitor and fine-tune their consumer journey will be much more successful than those that simply use ad-hoc channels. The use of unified analytics (where available utilise deterministic first-party data along with probabilistic modelling) will help to prepare for and create a pathway to success with this strategy, while sequencing test and invest in an array of content repurposing will enable marketers to send the same core marketing message across various communication methods such as short-form video or blog posts.