Three Technologies that Can Move Your Brand

The rise of digital has enhanced our ability to personalize our marketing messages and engage our target audiences more effectively. At the same time, it can feel overwhelming. From AI and machine learning to AR and VR, apps and voice assistants, SEO, SEM, MA, CRM, video and social-there are a lot of tools to choose from.

Here are three technologies that will be crucial for every brand to master in 2020 in order to crush your marketing efforts.

Mobile

Marketers have been talking about the importance of mobile for more than a decade, so it’s easy to discount the importance. The reality is that mobile is more important than ever. The majority of visitors to your website- both patients and doctors-will be using a tablet or smartphone, which makes it critical for your brand to present a first-class experience.

To crush your brand’s mobile experience, you should be asking:

• Does the site load quickly? Attention spans are now less than eight seconds and opinions on a website are made in 1/20th of a second. A super-fast website ensures more time is spent with your message than watching the page load.

• Is the site easy to consume? No one wants to read a wall of text. Design for mobile with content geared to smaller screens. Utilize lists, infographics, and clear calls to action to get your message across more quickly. Simplify the navigation and feature larger buttons and links that are suitable for touch screens. Ensure the font size is suitable and that charts and graphs are mobile-friendly.

• Are you presenting the full story or just a watered-down version of your desktop site? If key features like videos, forms, surveys, or calculators are missing, then you’re giving the majority of your audience a poor experience.

Video

Modern communication is becoming increasingly more visual. Just look at the popularity of social sites like YouTube and Instagram. Even emojis are seeping into business communications like newsletter subject lines and brand tweets.

It’s not surprising that brands are turning toward video when they want to make a lasting impression. According to Insivia, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Google also favors mobile websites that feature video content, giving them a boost in search rankings.

Savvy brands are already using video to tell patient stories, promote KOL interviews, enhance training, and explain complex medical information. Lower production costs and increasing network speeds offer even more opportunities for engagement. Forward-thinking brands are leveraging these market forces to produce 1:1 videos with personalized messages for key audience targets.

Voice

The rise of mobile devices and smart speakers have caused an explosion in voice search. In fact,  Gartner predicts that 30% of all searches will be made through voice assistants like Siri and Alexa by the end of 2020. That means huge opportunity for brands that act now.

As with SEO, improvements in your website can help optimize your brand for voice search. For example, people ask more specific questions when using a smart speaker device than they do when searching the internet (e.g., “What are the symptoms of gout?” or “Does [brand] have a co-pay card?”) It’s important for brands to develop content with specific questions and answers in mind.

Structured data built into the code of a website can also help search engines analyze page content to surface more relevant results. Investing in SEO and a robust social campaign will increase the likelihood that your site will be seen as the primary authority on a topic and be returned by a voice search.

Ready for the best part?

These three technologies are not competing priorities-they’re complementary! A fantastic mobile experience includes the strategic use of video and content geared toward voice search. When developed together, you’re not only providing the relevant information your audience expects, but you’re also multiplying the effectiveness of each initiative.

Sure, digital offers many ways to reach customers. But start with these three, and you’ll set your brand up for success.