It’s the end of the year again! And even though this is the season when we curl up in front of the TV to watch our favorite classic Christmas movies, we won’t be talking about that here. December is the month when we start thinking about the new year (2019 in this case) and everything that lies ahead. To continue our tradition here at WSI, we’d like to make a few predictions for the future.
Since 2014, we’ve been publishing our marketing predictions for 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , and 2018 . Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the reason we started doing these marketing posts : Rand Fishkin’s annual predictions on the Moz blog, which he started way back in 2011 .
This is the grading scale we created for the OG predictions post in 2014:
d here at the WSI Digital Marketing Blog, we’ll qualify the philippines whatsapp number data claims we made last year to make sure we still have the Nostradamus touch.Since we like to keep our feet on the groun
Oracle (+2). When we guess so accurately we feel like that pretty lady in the movie The Matrix .
Oracle in training (+1). We didn’t get a full glimpse of the topic, but we did see the future.
As clear as chocolate (0). We were not right, but we were not wrong either.
A little bit out (- ve a mark on five marketing lessons businesses can learn from classic christmas characters the plate, but the umpire did not favor us.
Fan (-2). Like the batter who expects a fastball and gets thrown a curveball. We didn’t hit one.
For 2018, we made these five predictions:
#1: The future of AI-powered marketing will take shape
Rating: +2
We won’t pretend that this prediction was too hard to make, but material data when you’re right, you’re right. There’s no doubt about it: AI is changing the way marketers do their jobs, and therefore how companies market their products and services. Deep learning is giving marketers access to unprecedented amounts of highly detailed data, which is then connected to automated systems and platforms. Human marketers are still very much needed (panic time hasn’t arrived yet), but AI is no longer just part of the future of marketing, it’s already the present.
#2: Intelligent digital assistants and chatbots become commonplace
Rating: +2
We’ll just leave you with this: Why your customers want to chat and how it can change your business . Also this: Why advanced technologies like chatbots still rely on traditional marketing . When we write about a topic this often in a year after predicting it would be a big deal, we deserve two full points as oracles.