9 predictions from digital experts for 2018

We asked several experts from the world of analytics and digital marketing to do a bit of foresight on the evolution of their field. We suspected it a little, but Data privacy promises to be THE key topic of this year 2018, but not only … Find out what awaits you in the weeks and months to come. 100% instinct-driven predictions, with no algorithm added, made by humans for humans!

Each strategy will require a strong and demonstrable ROI

It seems obvious that 2018 will be a special year. On the one hand omnicommerce and customer-centric analysis are the major challenges for advertisers, on the other hand, the RGPD has not yet revealed all its secrets … 2018 will be the year of rationalization! Whether innovation comes from AI, IOT or segmentation, the habits of marketers will have to evolve and go through the hands of the DPO (Data Protection Officer).

The more the projects evolve, the more they become more complex technically. In 2017, some advertisers embarked on risky IT projects, but in 2018 brands have a much more exhaustive list of uses cases and can thus rely on concrete examples. Each strategy will require a strong and demonstrable ROI so that it can see the light of day in 2018. The common thread of the analysis of the marketing contribution in the customer journey will therefore still remain in 2018, one of the main concerns of marketing departments.

Being data-driven is no longer enough, analyzing the market context will be key

In 2018, companies will have to change the way they make decisions by deepening the analysis of their digital ecosystem and that of their market. Many companies are starting to analyze their digital data to boost their business. Being “data-driven” is good, but it is no longer enough. Lack of context can lead them in the wrong direction. It is imperative today to understand precisely the behavior of its users on the Internet in order to develop its business. In 2018, adopting a Market Intelligence strategy will improve understanding of the market. You will have to be able to monitor your ecosystem daily, identify risks and opportunities and ask teams to analyze competing strategies in order to implement those that will increase market share.

In short, the combination of Market Intelligence and analytics strategies will enable more effective marketing operations with increases in turnover.

Data at the service of personalization and UX

In a context where acquisition levers are increasingly costly (SEA, display, etc.) or random (SEO), advertisers must more than ever focus on personalizing the customer experience by exploiting their data capital. The main challenge then lies in reconciling routes while contact points are multiplying (web, mobile, connected objects, etc.). Faced with these challenges, agile approaches are essential to obtain a rapid ROI.

Artificial Intelligence at the service of the marketer

After demonstrations of the strengths of the behemoths of tech, we are entering a very concrete phase of use of Artificial Intelligence which promises to revolutionize a multitude of professions and in particular those of digital marketing. 2018 will be a key year for the implementation of AI at the service of the marketer, especially in improving the user experience (personalization, recommendation, image recognition, chatbots …) or assisted data analysis (automatic segmentation, predictions, “automated insights” …). Despite the enthusiasm and the very strong trend towards the adoption of these technos, we will unfortunately have to expect disappointments, due to the discrepancy between the speeches (probably too sellers) and the reality on the ground.

Data quality (often insufficient) will also be a determining factor in the implementation of this type of project.

In 2018, democratize Analytics skills

You surely heard it a lot during 2017: in this context of the digitalization of the economy, companies that want to make a success of the game must be data-driven (understand an informed decision-making by the data). If the actors of the French economy have taken hold of the subject, we note that an obstacle to the complete democratization of data remains: the silencing of Analytics skills. Too often, this data analysis know-how is concentrated exclusively in an “Analytics pole”. The latter is then beset with requests from colleagues who have understood the interest of the data but do not have sufficient experience to know precisely which is the most relevant indicator and especially how to access it. In 2018, the data will therefore have to go beyond the circle of analysts to spread to all of the teams.

The challenge is that the latter can meet their specific business needs themselves. Let us not forget: it is business knowledge combined with data that makes it possible to identify opportunities, and not data alone. We take this opportunity to wish you a very happy new year 2018 under the sign of the rise in analytics skills and data democratization!