Digital marketing managers who think out-of-the-box have been leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) to add oomph to their campaigns online. And the good news is they are yielding results. The traditional digital marketing strategy relied heavily on copywriting. Although it still matters a lot and you have to be up and right about it, the other equally impactful aspect is the visual appeal. While images, video clips and animation have done well, it is time you look to elevate the appeal further with Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality in digital marketing adds an extra charm to the otherwise normal campaign which can perform but have to compete with other similar brands and their campaigns.
This blog will discuss how Augmented Reality is being employed into the digital marketing strategies of brands across businesses:
How is AR used in digital marketing?
Regular digital marketing content fails to appeal to a wider audience. Every new campaign asks for new, unseen and unheard ideas. However, things can be a little easier and need less brainstorming to kick off a high-performing campaign with utmost conversion. Here’s what you can do:
Product try-on
As a part of your digital marketing campaign, you can launch an AR powered try-on. Customers can virtually try on products and engage with them. For instance, users can try-on clothes to choose the one that suits them. Cosmetic brands can employ the same feature to let their customers try on accessories and makeup. Lenskart uses the product try-on feature to allow its customers to try eyewear from the convenience of their home. They don’t have to walk to Lenskart’s offline store to try specs and see how they suit their face. Brands like Wayfair and iKeas are already leveraging this feature to improve how their customers experience their furniture and other home decor products.
Product visualization
Another highly impactful idea which also takes lesser effort will be product visualization. It allows users to take a closer and detailed look at the product. Most importantly, customers can see them in the real world environment for a better judgement. For instance, it makes a lot of sense to see furniture and place them in the living room and then make a buying decision. However, it is not feasible to bring them home physically for a trial. In such a situation, Augmented Reality in marketing could be a game-changing technology. Customers can pick, drag-and-drop and place furniture in their own space to see how they fit. Brands like iKea and Wayfair are already leveraging this strategy to boost their digital marketing strategies and others look at them as inspiration to enhance their own campaign online.
Informative campaign
Successful brands are those that succeed in communicating their product information the right way. Thus, informative content ideas are a priority. However, with people’s interest shifting towards video based content, text-based documentation, knowledge base and wiki-based content are less read. Even with video campaign ideas, it is hard to look different and be more impactful than competing brands. To stand out, you can use AR to recreate those video and image-based campaigns to amplify the engagement and retention aspect of your educational campaign. You could add extra text, an animation, button, links and much more that enhances the informational value of the campaign.
Interactive games (Gamification)
AR gives digital marketing managers the opportunity to rethink and transform the recreational and entertainment aspect as they plan to increase traffic and engagement online or footfall. For instance, shopping malls and showrooms can introduce interactive AR games to entertain younger visitors. Restaurants can gamify the dine-in experience by integrating AR experience throughout the visitors journey through their meal.
AR-based Social Media Marketing
Today, social media is a lot more than just images and video ads. People expect to engage with content rather than just consume them. Be it snap chat integrating AR features into their app or instagram adding an extra excitement to their post feature with AR, it was received well and left audiences overwhelming. When AR is integrated into social media content, image or video, it becomes way more exciting. Users invest twice the time they spend on regular social media content. Besides, they have wider reach and higher conversion rate if you can integrate it into your brand promotion and marketing content.
How AR in digital marketing benefits businesses?
Digital marketers and the associated businesses that adopt Augmented Reality in their digital marketing strategy benefit from it in many ways:
Attract new customers
Gen z customers love to see newer things. Therefore, integrating AR into digital marketing campaigns will likely attract more younger buyers and thus add new customers and widen the age group. Also, it is equally exciting to the tech-loving millennials and might attract them to your campaign and product eventually.
Innovate Product Launch
New product launches must be larger than life. Imagine a luxury furniture brand launching a new sleek set of furniture or a car brand introducing its newest edition of cars. If, at the same time, their distant audience can see the furniture or the car by placing them in their own space in real time. It is likely to be more impactful than just learning about them on a screen.
Enhance Brand Value
Stronger brand value goes a long way in keeping the brand’s performance in terms of sales number. If people remember your brand, they are more likely to return and purchase products. Thus, brands that focus on impactful branding, logo, colour and templates with higher visual retention do well. You can take the branding aspect of your business to the next level with AR in your branding strategy. You can equip your branding assets with AR magic.
Increase Sales
Rise in sales numbers is the ultimate goal of a digital marketing campaign besides traffic, branding and awareness. Augmented Reality in your digital marketing strategy contributes to increase in sales by influencing buyer’s decision. When customers can see products up and close and by placing them in their own space, it increases their confidence in the product. Thus, they engage more, spend more time on the product page and are highly likely to purchase them ultimately.
If you are struggling to yield good results with your digital marketing campaign, you are probably missing the much needed extra spark. it is time you innovate it with the in-demand AR magic. Add AR to your digital marketing content ideas to add an extra appeal to the campaign. Enhance your campaign’s reach, engagement and reception by the potential customers. Start your AR journey with the PlugXR platform, sign up now and build AR solutions without coding.
