2017 Predictions #5: The Convergence with Search

To give you a jump start on the new year, we asked industry experts about their predictions for the future of location, marketing, and technology in 2017. We'll be posting their responses over the next month here on the Yext blog. Follow us on Twitter @Yext for new posts, and tweet at us with your own predictions.

By Scott Linzer
Vice President, iCrossing
@slinzer @icrossing

One of the most common themes we have seen over the last three to five years is, in many situations, search marketing has really been conducted in silos or vacuums, or however you would like to phrase the disconnects that often happen within digital marketing. In 2017, that barrier will continue to lower and it's in large part due to convergence across content creation, social ideation, local listings, and how it all intertwines with search marketing. We have seen a massive influx of coordination across teams across our enterprise clients to understand the need of audiences in how they search, how they share, and how they buy. All of this leads to big things in search that will continue as this convergence continues.

Why is this? In large part, it's the understanding that the consumer is changing behavior. Study after study shows that searchers are thinking more specifically and more targeted. In 2010, we may have created strategies for Joe's Pizza to be in search, social, and local to be found, but now we must create opportunities to be found for Joe's Pizza for queries such as "Alexa (Siri, Ok Google) find me a pizza place with great reviews that will deliver to me in the next hour." To make Joe's Pizza found for something that specific will take a significant amount of convergence across agencies and clients to cater to an increasingly sophisticated and on-demand customer.

This post is part of a series of 2017 predictions from industry experts.