December is a time to reflect on the past twelve months and prepare for the year ahead. For a digital marketing agency like GrowthEngine Media, that means analyzing recent trends and identifying technologies and techniques that will help our customers thrive in 2018.

In a recent MarTech Today article, BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu helpfully listed several marketing technology trends that he expects to flourish over the coming year.

The first is artificial intelligence. AI is a controversial topic in the tech world: while titans like Elon Musk warn against its theoretical consequences for the far future, a savvy digital marketing agency can leverage AI to analyze data and deliver better messaging to its clients’ audiences. Yu urges marketers to embrace AI as soon as possible, especially as mobile and connected devices generate almost insurmountable troves of consumer data. AI, and machine learning in particular, is vital to making sense of and translating this data into useful marketing strategies.

Yu also urges marketers to plan for voice search. As many as 20 per cent of all Google searches are now derived from voice queries, and that number is sure to grow in the coming years. By establishing a solid understanding of voice search, marketers can ensure their clients maintain existing levels of visibility in search engine results.

Finally, Yu advocates for a focus on ‘hyperlocal’ mobile search marketing. Smartphones and other connected devices are no longer a novelty; they’re now a fundamental tool in most people’s everyday lives. As such, users expect search engines to deliver results tailored to their physical location.

As a Premier Google Partner All-Star digital marketing agency with access to valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media aspires to stay up to date with the latest marketing and technology trends to ensure our clients reach their target audiences.