Marketing is a constantly evolving landscape. It is continuously inundated with new technology, practices, and strategies, contributing to its growth and improvement. According to leading advertising agencies in Dubai, one of the innovative technologies finding its way into the world of marketing is augmented reality or AR. AR is a type of technology that superimposes digital content, such as images, texts, and sounds, onto a physical product or environment. This technology comes to life with AR goggles, which combine a view of the physical surroundings with computer graphics. Smartphones are also used for providing augmented reality experiences by using the phone’s camera to manipulate the viewer’s environment and view.

Benefits of Including AR in Your Marketing Strategy

There are several reasons why you should incorporate AR in your marketing campaigns. The most important ones include the following:

It can help you keep your customers’ attention longer.
Based on a report, augmented reality technology can hold the viewers’ attention for 85 seconds. This suggests that using this technology can help you capture and hold the attention of online users for a longer period. This is primarily due to the novelty of AR and the unique interactive experience it gives people.

It facilitates faster and more effective product visualisation.
AR technology makes it easier for people to imagine themselves using your products. For instance, you can use AR to help customers visualise how their roof or exterior walls might look with certain paint colours. You can also use this technology to help people shopping for clothes, shoes, and makeup. They can try each item in different colours and designs quicker, enabling them to decide which ones to buy in a shorter amount of time.

It can boost customer engagement.
Since the exceptional, exciting, and immersive experience of AR catches and holds the interest of customers, they are more likely to engage with you. This means online users are more likely to ask about your products or services or anything you advertise using augmented reality. When incorporated and used correctly, AR can encourage potential customers to interact with you throughout the various stages of the sales funnel.

It helps create buzz for your brand.
Lastly, AR can enhance your brand status. This technology lets you achieve this goal since it adds a fun and novel element to your digital branding campaign. When used correctly, AR can impress people and get them talking about your products and business. And this will generate buzz for your brand.

Ways to Integrate AR in Your Marketing Campaign
If you are wondering how you can incorporate AR in your marketing efforts, below are some already tried and tested ideas and strategies you can consider:

Implement a try before you buy shopping strategy.
Try before you buy’ is a shopping trend that is becoming increasingly popular in the retail industry.

Most customers want to try new products they are interested in before buying them whenever possible. You can ensure all shoppers do this through an augmented shopping experience. As mentioned, you can use AR to try different products, including clothes, shoes, makeup, paint colours, furniture, and other merchandise. This technology can reduce and even remove the need to have a large inventory to ensure your customers can try on or sample different variations of your products. Moreover, you make the process of trying different items easier and more convenient for shoppers with AR if you have a brick-and-mortar shop. When you implement augmented reality changing rooms, your customers won’t need to bring several pieces of clothing to try in the fitting room, which can be time-consuming. You can let them look at a vast collection of items with a tap of their finger.

Give customers AR tours of your physical stores.
Augmented reality gives you the opportunity to let more customers see your brick-and-mortar shop. With the help of experts, you can create an AR tour of your physical store. Customers will then be able to enter and see your shop regardless of where they are. When done correctly, you can boost your customers’ interest in your physical store and improve foot traffic. This can be extremely helpful if you have opened a new branch. Lastly, an augmented reality tour allows you to give shoppers an authentic in-store shopping experience. And this can encourage them to buy something even if they are in the comfort and safety of their homes.

Create unique, exciting branding materials.
You can also use AR to make your branding and marketing materials unique and more interesting so that customers will find them more engaging and valuable. By using augmented reality technology, you can add a virtual element to brochures and business cards to make them interactive. For instance, you can create a brochure that, when users scan it in the right spot, will display additional images or text highlighting more information you want to convey. This interactive and unique element makes your marketing material more dynamic and engaging, which can encourage your customers to heed your call to action or CTA. You can also add an AR element to your business cards. With this technology, you can give the recipient different options to get in touch with you by email, chat, or phone call with a single click or tap.

Implement engaging social media campaigns.
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok are some of the social media platforms that use AR, which many businesses are now leveraging to their advantage. Facebook, for instance, allows users to use AR on Facebook Stories, Messenger, and Portal easily. This social media platform also has an augmented reality experience creator tool which you can use to build and publish filters on Facebook and Instagram. Snapchat was one of the first platforms to use augmented reality to increase engagement and give users imaginative ways to create and share content. This app lets users customise and make their videos more fun by giving them the ability to add whimsical digital overlays, such as glasses, hats, and facial hair, to the subjects of their posts.

The different social media sites also let businesses and individual users combine live streaming and AR to create more engaging, unique content. For instance, models or influencers working with cosmetic brands can use augmented reality to show off various products without applying and removing them. They can simply use AR filters to showcase the different types or shades. Leveraging various types of technology can prevent business stagnation and make your brand more relevant and competitive. If you’re thinking about which technology you should include in your marketing strategy now, put augmented reality on the top of your list.