The SEO community went crazy about “Mobilegeddon“, which honestly, is kind of a joke.

I mean, take a look around you (right now). People [of all ages] live in their phones.

[Tweet “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that in 2016 your website SHOULD be mobile friendly. “]

In all honesty, the “mobile friendly” update is nothing compared to what’s coming next.

Emerging tech (VR, AI, 3d printing) is going to impact human behavior in a way we’ve never seen before.

I’m going to analyze 7 industry shifts and the marketing adjustments you should be thinking about now, before it’s too late.

 

 

1. Only the fast will survive

What’s the longest you’ll wait for a page to load?

We’re seeing platforms react to this with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Facebook Instant Articles (IA). These markups allow your content to load instantly within Facebook, Twitter or Google (both iPhone and Android).

Google AMP:

Facebook IA:

This poses a challenge to marketers because traffic does not pass through to the site, it stays within a frame of the network. While the website will get credit for a visit in analytics, the engagement metrics will plummet (bounce rate, TOS, PPV).

This makes it difficult to gauge the impact of our content and justify spending the time / money to create it.

 

2. Online behavior is increasingly lazy

As previously established, people don’t want to visit websites – they want information with as little effort as possible. Google has already begun cashing in on this trend with knowledge graphs, instant answers and Google Flights.

If you’ve traveled anywhere in the last 6 months, you’ve probably used it.

That’s not by accident – a Google study found 61% of people use search engines to plan travel. Instead of funneling that traffic to Orbitz and Kayak, Google got smart and created their own platform.

This keeps the traffic in Google and plays to lazy users who prefer to search flights without clicking to a new site.

Flights is only the beginning – they’re also rolling out a mobile interface to drive people into the travel funnel (called Destinations).

From a consumer point of view, this is pretty awesome. There’s no longer a need to search through slow websites – you can plan your entire vacation on your phone.

From a marketers point of view, this poses a challenge. Google is taking over taking over the entire customer journey, stealing search traffic at all points in the funnel.

Google has positioned themselves to take over the travel industry.

 

3. Talking > typing

A study showed 55% of teens and 41% of adults using voice search. Other studies show voice search increasing almost 50% more than the previous year, for 3 years in a row.

Voice platforms are currently pulling results from the same place as desktop/mobile search engines (i.e from the web and apps). However, voice search queries are distinctly different than typed ones:

• We use natural language when using voice search
• Results are spoken back to us, we can’t see them (for now…)

As voice search grows, we will be building content to better match voice based queries. To put that in marketing terms, there’s an opportunity for increased visibility targeting voice search.

Instead of building web content, I see companies building / collecting unique data and pushing it out via API to different apps like Cortana, Echo and Siri.

 

4. Intelligent machines are coming

There’s 2 main types of artificial intelligence in the market right now:

a. Machines:

• Tesla’s Model 3, which runs on full auto pilot, recently sold 325,000 units in pre sale
• Robots like Baxter, that can ‘learn’ tasks by watching you perform them

b. Software:

• Chatbots, remember Smarter Child?
• Deep learning (RankBrain)

Facebook is investing a lot of resources into a chatbot because they believe it’s the future of search, content discovery and commerce.

The gif below perfectly demonstrates how a simple messaging platform can help manage your life:

As previously mentioned, the consumer is lazy. No one wants to go to the app store, download your app, wait for it to load, sign up, etc.

[Tweet “Chatbots offer a seamless experience wrapped in a personalized conversation. “]

 

5. VR will push content to new heights

Forecasts predict over 200 million VR headsets will be sold by 2020, taking it from novelty to mass consumer good. VR isn’t just for gamers – it could have a larger impact on commerce:

• Shoppers can “try on” items without leaving the comfort of home
• Potential home buyers can take property tours from across the world
• Fans can watch their favorite concert, sports team or award show from the front row

This presents a challenge to marketers as it throws an entirely new form of content into the already crowded mix.

 

6. The internet of things is here

Research shows over 80% of consumers are interested in having fully connected homes. An overhaul of this magnitude will take time, but the roots are already taking place.

For example, Amazon Dash buttons allow you to reorder household commodities with the click of an external button.

We’re not far off from living a life where all these tasks are automated by ‘smart’ tech:

• Your self driving car will auto select the best route home based on traffic patterns
• Paper towels will auto re-order themselves without the trip to the store
• Your clogged toilet will auto dial a plumber / technician to come and fix it
• Your closet will pick out the best outfit based on weather forecasts

From a consumer point of view, this is incredible. The monotonous parts of our lives will be automated and we’ll be able to focus more time on things that matter to us.

From a marketers point of view, we’re presented with another challenge. “Smart” homes will manage the day to day search and purchase of items. You will no longer need to visit stores in person OR search Google / Amazon for because your connected life will do it for you.

 

7. 3d printing + AI + uber economy

I stumbled on an article outlining a crazy future scenario.

• If you own a home with a yard, you probably own a lawnmower
• That lawnmower might get used for half an hour a month
• At most, you’re using your lawnmower 0.149% of the time

This is a model of inefficiency that tech could eradicate in the future.

• A neighborhood would set up a sharing program, where each yard gets the needed access to the lawnmower as needed
• The mower would be created from the 3D printer of one of the households
• The lawnmower would be intelligent and automated, taking itself from yard to yard on a learned schedule

This is the model of efficiency and although it’s 20+ years in the future, it would erode the capitalist system we live in today.

Major takeaways: what does this all mean?

Hopefully you stuck around to this point so I can wrap a bow on this for you. We can see a few underlying themes develop throughout each of these shifts:

 

1. The future looks good for the customer.

All of these changes are going to make commerce more enjoyable for end users. For that reason alone, we need to embrace these changes.

The businesses succeeding in the future will be the ones bending over backwards to cater to their customers. 

 

2. We need to make our content work harder.

Valuable content should be a cornerstone of your marketing strategy. However, creating and promoting content doesn’t work like it used to.

The web is incredibly saturated and people are increasingly segmented in where they hang out online.

This makes it a challenge to reach people with traditional methods and it’s only going to get harder as more mediums arise.

The businesses succeeding in the future will be the ones creating cross channel content that captures customers in multiple dimensions.

 

3. There will be a return to quality.

As marketers, our job is to create demand for a product or service. What we’ve created is a society that believes we “need” stuff to be happy (cars, boats, clothes, 2 car garage, etc).

Things will be different in the future, as you’ll be able to 3D print the latest Ferrari.

What’s left in a society like that?

Quality.

We’ll live in a time where the only “marketing” will be your brand’s story and the value you bring to the market.

Start building your story now, before it’s too late.