• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, October 19, 2021

By now we know that many of the changes brought forth by the pandemic such as digital self-service, social commerce and so on will be permanent. The elimination of in-person activities places more emphasis on digital transformation. 

With sales and service virtually upended, marketers are reading up on “chatbots,” according to Bombora Company Surge, in order to help accelerate the sales and marketing process. Historically chatbots have been more prevalent in the B2C space. However, B2B marketers are increasingly finding new ways to implement AI-powered chatbots to automate the data-management process in a timely manner, supplement the sales process, and importantly, generate better experiences for the visitors/prospects.

Intent data also show agencies reading up on “brand safety.” In an ultra-sensitive world, accountability in advertising is more important than ever. The necessary pivot from in-person to digital channels has required advertisers to reassess their personalization methods in the privacy-first era, regardless of platforms, publishers, or technology providers. Brand safety, data compliance and ethics will only continue to evolve, so business leaders must stay on top of the latest trends to achieve business goals, protect ad spend and avoid the ‘bad bots.’ 

Marketers on the brand and agency side are on separate pages when it comes to “mobile app retargeting,” which showed the highest variance in interest among both groups last week. 

According to eMarketer, time spent on a mobile device per day increased by an average of 31 minutes per US adult in 2020, reaching 4 hours and 16 minutes. Social apps led with the biggest gains, while for obvious reasons travel apps showed the biggest decline. As the world begins the gradual process of fully reopening, people are re-entering the world with new habits, including mobile usage. While limited, the promise of 5G will only serve to boost mobile video in the future, while tablet use slows. Companies embracing connected commerce should account for mobile commerce, or m-commerce, a longer running trend with benefits aplenty.