As a marketer, I get it. IT jibble jabble is hard to follow, and we don’t want to deal with it. But recently, Gartner came out with this report detailing predictions for the IT landscape and changes that will happen in the coming years. I did the grunt work for you and read it so I could distill what we need to know and what we don’t. Some of these are extremely important for us to know, and if we know them, we can make them happen.
Without further ado:
1. “By 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual- and voice-search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%.”
If someone had a crystal ball and told you one thing you could do to potentially increase sales by thirty percent in 4 years, you’d listen, right? This prediction makes sense because 1) voice search is the fastest growing type of mobile search (think “Ok, Google” or “Siri, find me…”) and 2) nearly half of all e-commerce transactions are done on a mobile browser or app. So, get started on optimizing this channel now- if you don’t, competitors will.
BOTTOM LINE: Upgrading your website to support visual AND voice search is expected to generate more sales.
- “By 2020, 5 of the top 7 digital giants will willfully “self-disrupt” to create their next leadership opportunity.”
If you didn’t know, the “Top 7” are Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Baidu, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Tencent. “Self-disruption” is when brands seek out blue-ocean avenues to quite literally disrupt themselves and preemptively overtake more territory by quite literally creating a new market. An example of this is when Amazon came out with Alexa (psst… remember what we just said about voice search?) to cannibalize their own screen based e-commerce. And, it’s doing pretty darn good.
BOTTOM LINE: Five major companies are expected to quite literally invent new channels for you to be taking advantage of to market.
- "By 2021, more than 50% of enterprises will be spending more per annum on bots and chatbot creations than traditional mobile app developments."
This is GREAT! You get some automation help, but it also points to how customers want to be interacting with your brand, which is much more direct. Take advantage of this and start investing in making natural language processing bots useful to your customers, so you can direct traffic where it needs to go.
BOTTOM LINE: Bots are going to help with the customer journey; not only are you going to get better feedback on what your customers are looking for, but you’ll be able to better serve them in return.
4. “By 2021, 40% of IT staff will be versatilists, holding multiple roles, most of which will be business, rather than technology-related.”
HALLELUJAH. We need IT, we love IT, but as marketers, we know IT can get bogged down in the minutiae of sprints and getting projects shipped. That’s great, but we need someone making sure IT is on track to meet the vision of the brand alongside you. The big picture is just as important, and it’s high time enterprises start to value that versatility IT leaders will need to have.
BOTTOM LINE: IT will be predictably easier to work with because leadership will need to focus on business goals with you- huzzah to that.
- “By 2020, IoT technology will be in 95% of electronics for new product designs.”
It’s so important for marketers to consider other, new channels they can market on and use IT to accomplish that. Example: you’re a calendar company. Consider a person’s typical morning routine: get up, check phone, go to refrigerator for breakfast, get in their car to go to work. That’s 2 additional channels you could use to market to people rather than just a mobile app. That’s right, I said it- partner with smart refrigerator providers or smart car brands to form a partnership and create additional value for your customers by making their calendar reachable literally anywhere. There’s so many ways to do this in tangential markets, and in order to survive the IoT tsunami that’s impending, brands need to take advantage of it or they will drown out of the ignorance.
BOTTOM LINE: Again, more channels to market your brand!
THE ULTIMATE BOTTOM LINE
Call to all marketers, get innovative! Get creative! Do something no one’s ever seen before! And, if you’re unsure how to execute marketing for IoT, let's chat, as Zesty.io enables all of these initiatives and more.
By Chloe Spilotro
Hooked onto the platform since first using it through the Zesty.io Incubator Program at the University of San Diego. Passionate about all things marketing, IoT, and helping businesses leverage technology to grow and become major players in their industries.