30-second summary:
- AR serves as one of the best opportunities for digital marketers to promote their product effectively.
- It makes it easy for a customer to visualize the product before purchasing.
- Digital packaging makes it more engaging and drives higher sales.
- Using AR with digital marketing strategy gives an authentic and unique perspective to the brand.
Augmented reality (AR) is no more a concept limited to sci-fi movies. If you are familiar with the digital retail digital marketing of 2020, you must have known that it has made its way to marketing long before.
Marketing experts are showing interested in adopting this amazing technology in their digital marketing strategy. They have some compelling reasons for this.
Do you know, 72% of online shoppers buy products they had not planned because of AR? Or that 61% of them prefer retailers that use AR?
In 2020, 32% of users had already used AR apps for shopping. This is the time you should realize that AR is not just impacting digital marketing, but it is transforming it forever.
This new industry is literally on the rise. The net worth of the AR market is $3.5 billion. And according to Citrus Bits, the market is set to grow by $61.4 billion by 2023.
Seven ways you can leverage the power of AR in your digital marketing strategy
Let’s discuss some of the ways augmented reality can change your digital marketing strategy forever:
1) Allow you to grab customer attention
Good marketing is all about capturing people’s attention. In the past, it was quite simple, but with the advent of new technologies, it has become quite difficult. You need (Read more...) find out innovative practices to boost brand visibility and awareness.
AR technologies allow you to do this. With AR, you can collect plenty of attention from your target audience in ways that traditional promotional tactics such as Television, billboard, and print media cannot. You can reach a huge number of peoples within no time, and this is the beauty of AR.
Plus, you can excite customers, which forces them to buy from you.
2) Product visualization for digital marketing strategy
Augmented reality empowers today’s consumers by handing them the ability to visualize products.
In its basic definition, product visualization can be described as a process where images and graphics are used by companies to visually communicate the products to the customers. To this date, a lot of companies are doing this by enabling their e-commerce sites and demo apps with visual product configuration software.
Take IKEA, for example. The Sweden based furniture retail company has recently replaced its traditional photography with 3D renderings. The digital catalogs and IKEA app let users see how a piece of furniture of a specific color and size would look in their homes.
According to a survey, more than 75% of customers worry about buying the wrong size of the furniture. AR apps are great technological advancements that can help retailers reduce the hassle of returns and regrets.
3) Letting customers virtually try before they buy
You can try your next pair of glasses that you are going to buy by just using your smartphone.
Integrating AR technologies in your digital marketing strategy would allow customers to understand what they’re buying- and how precisely cosmetics, clothing, and accessories, etc. would work for them.
It’s all about putting your product in the hands of customers virtually so that they can make more informed decisions. The direct-to-consumer eyeglass brand, Warby Parker, launched a ‘virtual try-on’ system that lets its customers try glasses at the comfort of home.
People just need to download the app, pick the style of the frame they want to try, and then activate the feature that opens up the front camera and place the glasses on your face. The glasses stay fixed in their place even if the person moves and tilts their head.
4) Creating a buzz around the brand
Augmented reality can work both directly and indirectly for your digital marketing strategy. If you’re not launching a new product, you can still use AR technologies to uplift your brand reputation and increase awareness among the target audience.
By offering an unexpected reality experience, you can create a significant hype around your new brand. Since AR is still a new concept in the market, using it as part of your marketing plan can help you create memorable moments for people with the brand.
Take some inspiration from the beauty brand that thrived even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sephora has created an AR app that lets people buy perfect makeup during the pandemic. The company partnered with an AR firm ModiFace that scans the human face and lets consumers try on different hundreds of cosmetic products so that they can pick the products according to their facial features and needs.
5) AR tech for injecting life into objects
Augmented reality is a great way to boost the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. AR technology is a fantastic way to improvise touring experience by bringing the dead to life.
The app is famous among visitors who use it inside the museum to history and see how the dinosaurs and objects displayed on the exhibition looked about thousands of years ago. This is indeed a great way to enhance tourism and academic experience as technology enables people to engage with the objects on a deeper level.
6) Driving engagement with digital packaging
Every marketing student and professional knows that packaging plays a great role in influencing purchase decisions. The packaging is your chance to communicate with users. With AR technologies, you can turn your dull and boring packaging great and pass on detailed information that you can just put on the label.
AR is a fantastic way for all of your users to explore additional product-related information by viewing a product with specially designed apps. You can share content that’s unique, interesting, and relevant through a variety of digital mediums.
This information could be text or 3D animations. For instance, The British Museum signed a partnership with the smartphone company Samsung to build AR apps for this purpose.
AR technologies for product packaging can benefit you in a number of ways:
- Powerful brand storytelling
- Providing educational and technical details about the product
- Entertain customers
The world’s leading whiskey brand Jack Daniel’s, use AR for its product packaging. Within a few seconds of scanning the bottle, the app takes users on a virtual tour and shows the detailed process of winemaking.
7) Digital marketing strategy with gamification
According to a recent study released by a coursework writing service, gamification has been recognized as a top digital marketing technique within a very short period of time. This tactic has been adopted by a number of brands to capture the market’s attention and deliver them superior value.
It involves design elements that can engage game lovers and compel them to crave for more. The US-based entertainment channel used the gamification tactic to spread the word about their mystery series ‘Dig.’ The cable channel launched a smartphone app with the name ‘Dig Decoder’ to give hints about the game.
By using the app’s viewfinder option, the users can look for additional game cues hidden inside the game magazine, billboards, and print ads. You can say that by using augmented reality for your next digital marketing strategy, you can give your audience another reason to enjoy the show.
Key takeaway
Augmented reality has made its way into the digital marketing strategy of big and small brands. The technology is allowing marketing managers to make their digital marketing campaigns innovative and engaging by letting people connect with the brand.
This article contains multiple examples of how brands are using AR technologies to grab the attention of customers and build emotional ties with them, which become a basis for product decision making.