The Future of Digital Marketing- Ed Leake Shares His Views! Must Read.

Now that I finally publish this blog it is a privilege to interview Ed Leake, Top 100 Digital Marketeer also seen on BBC about his views and insights on the future of Digital Marketing. I was grateful to connect to Ed, were he openly went out of his way to answer some of the questions put forth to him. Ed is a pioneer, well experienced in his craft who is also the founder of Midas Media a well known Digital Marketing agency in the North of England. With over 40,000 followers on Twitter, he is a person to be very well known in his field and with every other influencers I have connected with, from Timothy Hughes to Ian Moyse, it is a pleasure to have him on board, and share some of this knowledge with our audience. If you want to know what will happen in the future of Digital Marketing then I suggest you read this piece! 

Here are the questions below. 

1) As a Digital Marketing expert, Digital marketing is changing. Do you think it is going to evolve even more? What new processes will we need to adapt to?

Thanks to ‘the cloud’ and entrepreneurs in general - it’s never ending, ever evolving.

The ‘internet of things’ is in its infancy; but there will come a day when we’re so connected we’re literally walking databases. Human data hubs gathering, storing and transferring petabytes of information.

… and that’s not to mention VR and augmented reality. Both in their infancy but the possibilities are endless. Just look at the uptake and fever pitch over ‘Pokemon Go’!

No matter your ethical standpoint on all this – we’re not living in some fictional matrix – it’s happening for real!

The opportunities for marketing are immense, particularly to those first movers on data analytics and trends.

Unfortunately this level of data is typically not available to small and medium size businesses, but even so, a sound understanding of analytics still represents a competitive edge.

I’m amazed at how few business owners understand the data behind what they do.

Can’t measure it? Don’t do it!

2) Will companies need to hire more digital marketers or less? Can you see candidates needing to retrain themselves?

The reality is, computers are just tools. The day they become self-learning and therefore self-sufficient, then perhaps marketers need to worry.

But otherwise I wouldn’t fear for marketers too much – I don’t see myself, for example, being replaced by a computer anytime soon.

3) What would happen if automation, with all this new software coming out, do to the marketing industry?

With all the data points available, there’s still a great lack of understanding on how to join them altogether. With the many disparate sources and tools out there, it requires a great deal of complex development to tie just some data together – let alone all of it.

Automation is still in it’s infancy, especially when you consider the level of take-up among small and medium businesses.

There will become a point when without automation, you will struggle to engage your audience, because you’re simply not on-point.

4) Can digital marketing be replaced with AI?

Elements of it, certainly.

Computer algorithms already run bidding wars on Google and Facebook, but what really caught my eye recently was IBM’s Watson.

IBM are developing Watson at an alarming rate, already it’s capable of “automatically generating and recommending visualizations that help you quickly spot customer buying and behaviour trends”. These complete data points are summarised in the form of untapped campaign opportunities – it’s quite brilliant really.

But that level of power still requires the marketing person/team to action the result.

5) In 5 years’ time how do you think digital marketing will be seen with all the changes taking place online?

Mass smartphone adoption the world over.

Wearable tech.

Augmented and Virtual Reality…

The world is changing fast, and it’s because of the technology running it.

Your children today have never lived in a world without smartphones, tablets and always on internet access.

I’m only 33 years of age, but when I was much younger the current technological environment would have looked entirely alien to me.

That tech’ adoption and growth will scare many people. However, it’s a reality we simply can’t walk away from. As a race will only become more reliant on connected technology – the internet of things.

My top 5 ‘marketing like it’s 2021’ takeaways:

1. Our smartphones will be our wallets and represent purchasing power.
2. Unfaltering customer service will be critical, marketing is dead without it. Bigger frontline service providers and retail brands will find it ever harder to roll over their customer base.
3. Reaching your target market will be tricky for those that don’t respect their audience; blocking and filtering tech will rise and redefine the user experience.
4. Social media will explode – but it will look quite different to what we have today with many more walled gardens appearing.
5. The brands that prosper will be those that take heed and disrupt their incumbents by being super ‘human’ focused. They will reap the reward of this new direction by not focusing on profits but putting the customer first.

Webcontentspecialists interviewed ***Ed Leake***

****Ranked Top 100 Digital Marketeer ****

All Rights Reserved 2017.

Seen on BBC. 

Founder of Midas Media. 

Webcontentspecialists undertook this interview as its a small Startup looking to scale up. It shares basic up to date content from Tech to Growth Hacking and connects with influencers all over the world who can share some of their knowledge. Webcontentspecialists doesn't make any profit from this yet, but shares some of the latest news happening in the tech scene. Its looking to connect with top tech professionals all around the world, and build our image on Social Media. We are always looking to interview influencers who can share their insights about the latest tech news so check us out and please send me a message if you are interested in being interviewed.

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Interviews so far: 

Timothy Hughes: Voted No 1 Social Seller on Onalytica- Top Online Social Speaker and Influencer; Founder of the Social Selling Lounge. (200K Followers) 

Ian Moyse: Voted No 1 Cloud Expert and 18th Social IoT Influencer of 2016; (Over 50k Followers) 

Ed Leake: Top 100 Digital Marketeer, PPC Expert, (Seen on BBC, BBC 2, NBC NEWS)