Agam Berry is a remarkable businessperson who is well known for helping businesses formulate viable digital marketing strategies. He graduated from Punjab University in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree.
Berry is committed to sharing his knowledge and expertise with entrepreneurs. We had an opportunity to ask him a few questions on the state of digital marketing. Here’s what he had to say:
Ivan Widjaya (Q): On top of your marketing experience, you are an entrepreneur, a consultant, and a tech guru. What keeps drawing you back to marketing?
Agam Berry (A): Digital marketing is a fascinating field that keeps evolving as players in the industry create new techniques aimed at gaining a competitive advantage. For this reason, I am attracted to the challenging dynamics that compels professionals like me to keep learning and adapting to new exciting trends.
For instance, I foresee the choice of content formats (particularly video) becoming more essential. By relying on live and ephemeral video with stories, brands will boost their social media communication. Animated content like gifs or very lively content, which combines photos and videos, such as cinemagraphs will be much appreciated by the social partners.
All visual content will occupy an important place on social networks, video being the flagship format in the foreseeable future. Brands will have to ask the right questions about the creation and use of multimedia content on social networks. To stand out and catch the attention of users, especially with stories on Instagram, the content must be innovative. The challenge will be to deliver creative content by focusing on three essential values: relevance, spontaneity and authenticity.
Q: What are some of the biggest changes you have seen in digital marketing throughout your career?
A: Marketing automation continues to play a major role in the industry by enabling marketers to communicate more effectively. This makes it easier to diversify messages for specific audiences. Automation can be implemented at many levels, including emailing and social networks. It allows marketers to schedule posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.
Artificial intelligence is also transforming the digital marketing landscape and it is set to explode as tools, such as chatbots become more prominent on Facebook, Messenger and other platforms. The bots will grow in quantity and quality. They can help optimize customer relationships and allow users to interact with a brand.
Q: Do you think social media marketing will be impacted by all of the commotion over at Facebook?
A: Although it is hard to predict the full impact of events on Facebook, I am confident that the social network providers will adapt to any changes. The issues affecting them today were inevitable and, hence, they have to prepare for significant regulatory changes. In my view the changes will most likely empower users when it comes to user-generated content.
However, I do not believe this will spell doom for social media platforms because they will simply realign their business and revenue models in tandem with the new regulatory frameworks.
Q: Where do you see the industry going in the next few years?
A: With the launch of Google Home in 2017, there is no doubt that voice search will explode in the coming years. I have been advising businesses to prepare for this new trend by adapting search engine optimization techniques to match the requirements of voice search.
It is important to optimize content on keywords related to the spoken language. Marketers should place emphasis on geo-localized long-tail keywords because voice search is mainly used in a localized context. As marketers, we are still learning about the dynamics of voice search. I expect that optimization techniques for voice queries will evolve significantly in the coming years as we understand the technology better.
Q: What side projects are you working on?
A: I am passionate about digital currencies and I spend a significant amount of time monitoring the markets. My support for the Bitcoin Foundation is well documented. I believe that cryptocurrencies will transform the way people and businesses transact online. During the summer of 2013, I began working tirelessly to gain knowledge on the dynamics of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
Connect with Agam Berry
You can connect with Berry via his website, Agam-Berry.com or through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. This gives you an opportunity to learn more digital marketing trends.