Where is digital marketing headed? Experts provide answers

"The days of linear one-way communication are over"

"In both areas, the customer journey, i.e. the path from the perception of a brand to information about a product to the sale, will become an important topic this year. Online is not only an important channel for media campaigns, it is now the main channel for information procurement and research. Communication can therefore no longer be seen separately from the rest of marketing. The days of linear one-way communication are over. An integrated strategy is needed."

"Moving image advertising is becoming increasingly important"

"1. quality, brand protection, control: Today, many advertising customers are dazzled by low prices, but are not aware of exactly what they have bought or where their advertising is delivered. Advertising customers will increasingly use the quality of the inventory as a basis for decision-making again, where delivery takes place in high-quality and secure environments.2. Moving image advertising is becoming increasingly important: Traditional TV customers in particular have discovered the potential and are increasingly booking the online channel. In conjunction with targeting, online video advertising has become a respectable alternative or supplement to TV advertising.3. mobile: Advertising on mobile devices will grow significantly, albeit still at a rather modest budget level. There is a feverish search for the perfect concept for how and when to use mobile campaigns.4. display: Display formats are becoming larger and more interactive. There are already creative implementations that invite interested users to interact. Clicking on the advertising material and being redirected to a landing page will become less important in branding campaigns.5. deduplication: Deduplication of users in delivery will be a decisive factor for delivery optimization and achieving net reach targets.6. multi-screen: Internet usage today is spread across many end devices. This means that campaigns have to be planned and delivered differently than a few years ago. In future, all digital screens will be included in planning and delivery and no longer treated in isolation.7. targeting, big data: Targeting mechanisms will be further expanded and better linked (big data). Available data is used for the campaign in order to reach the target groups even more precisely. This makes advertising more relevant and interesting for the user.8 Automation: The increasing complexity of online advertising, due to the number of digital devices and targeting functions, must be provided and simplified via automated booking systems. Today's manual processes have become inefficient."

"Intelligent emails are becoming a reality"

"The good news: email marketing remains one of the most effective weapons in the digital marketing arsenal this year. However, the requirements are constantly growing at both a technical and conceptual level: Responsive design and timing are two important keywords here, and embedding them in the holistic online strategy is arguably crucial. Traditional newsletters alone are far from exhausting the potential of email marketing, but are still the only method used by many companies. However, in the age of big data, intelligent emails are becoming more and more of a reality and there are additional benefits to be gained from this."

"The most important trend is increasing professionalization"

"The most important trend in online marketing is increasing professionalization. What does this mean in concrete terms? For SEO: Relevant and high-quality content will ultimately be the decisive factor for a good Google ranking. Google rewards those who offer users the most relevant content with good positions. For customer acquisition: Remarketing campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated and widespread. They are also being used increasingly and successfully in the B2B sector (and not just in the consumer sector by providers such as Zalando). For controlling: Controlling marketing measures using analysis tools such as Google Analytics is finally becoming as important as it has long been in the USA. An important keyword here is multichannel tracking. This involves measuring and evaluating the success of marketing measures across different channels, beyond the online world. This enables marketing managers to better measure the cost-benefit ratio or ROI of online and offline campaigns and use marketing budgets more wisely."