The only constant is change, and that is particularly true of the marketing and advertising industry. Savvy marketers are always on the lookout for the new strategies that best speak to a changing cultural and social landscape. And in today’s digital era, the top trends to keep an eye on are rooted in technology.

Print will never die completely, but its role in marketing and advertising is definitely being minimized. Companies are opting to spend more of their advertising dollars on online properties, instead of on newspaper ads and circulars, radio ads and even TV commercials. Website ads and banners, and recorded ads that are played before YouTube videos are only part of the digital landscape. Increasingly, companies are using grassroots-style marketing campaigns by harnessing the already established audiences of popular bloggers. Food bloggers in particular can be asked to review a new product or service, and post affiliate links with the write-up.

The interest in inbound marketing continues to grow, as companies and advertisers realize the benefits of having potential customers come to them, rather than the other way around. Inbound marketing attracts prospective customers with valuable content. Rather than having a company’s blog focus solely on how to use their products or why their services are superior, an inbound marketing strategy would focus on giving the audience relevant information that does not aggressively sell to them. For example, a holistic wellness company could post a blog titled, “How does Your Body Use B Vitamins?” instead of a blog entitled, “Try Our Multivitamins.”

Plenty of marketing executives feel like they are treading unfamiliar water when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), and as a result, some companies have hesitated to use it for marketing and advertising purposes. But as AI becomes more prevalent and more widely understood, it is expected to increase its role in this industry. AI allows marketers to develop impactful strategies for targeting effective messages to the right audience. In other words, it prioritizes quality over quantity.

By now, virtually everyone is familiar with Siri, Alexa, and Cortana—the three major voice-activated, digital assistant services. All a consumer needs to do is ask Siri for the hours of a nearby urgent care center, or ask Alexa to put an item in a digital shopping cart. Now that voice searches are making up a significant percentage of all digital searches, marketers are paying attention to how the technology is changing search engine results pages. For instance, most people type in one or two keywords into a search engine, such as “hotels Boston.” With voice search, marketers must adapt their campaigns to longer queries in a question format, such as “What’s the best hotel in Boston?”

If you have an interest in marketing and advertising, as well as the way it is constantly being changed and improved, a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertising might be a good fit for your career goals.

With a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Advertising from Grand Canyon University, you’ll know how to understand consumer behaviors and stay on top of the latest trends. This undergraduate degree program is offered by the Colangelo College of Business. Find out if it’s a good match for you by clicking on the Request More Information button.