by: Sarah Saunders

Want to know what it will take to compete and win for the next three years? Want to know the secrets to ensuring you’re poised for success, given the rapidly evolving digital landscape? Then check out this SlideShare from Altimeter Group, with key technological and societal trends you simply can’t afford to ignore.

Altimeter Shines Spotlight on Near-Term Digital Trends

In 26 Disruptive & Technology Trends 2016-2018, Brian Solis (@briansolis), Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group (a Prophet company), identifies a series of technological and societal trends he predicts will affect “pretty much everything over the next few years.”

At 74 pages, this SlideShare’s a bit on the long side, but it’s worth the read.

Whether you’re looking to grow your nonprofit’s impact, hatching plans to launch the next great tech startup, or hunting for strategies to grow an existing business, you can’t afford to miss this report. Use it to get a jump on major disruptive digital trends coming down the pike.

Here’s a quick preview of some of Solis’ most intriguing insights into the competitive landscape and the evolving customer journey…

To Stay Relevant, Brands Must Actively Compete for the Future 

Be honest. Are you stuck in “business as usual” mode? Making few attempts to really listen to your audience? If so, then Solis suggests you may have already fallen into a state of competitive irrelevance.

If you’re merely following trends and reacting to events, then you’re “competing for the moment.” Makes it hard to maintain more than a fleeting competitive advantage.

The best organizations focus on building long-term, sustainable brand relevance. They“compete for the future” by engaging with and inspiring people – and by creating a culture that is “adaptive and proactive,” driven “to shape meaningful experiences.”

The best organizations focus on building long-term, sustainable brand relevance.

As Solis argues, brands “earn relevance by investing in engagement and collaboration in [micro-moments] of truth…”

A Mobile-First World Transforms the Customer Journey

Forget the static sales funnel.

The customer journey becomes a decentralized “series of non-linear mobile-centric micro-moments.”

“To reach mobile customers…requires new methodologies for search, advertising, content engagement, sales, and support.” – Brian Solis

This new reality completely changes how organizations become discoverable – and how they lead audiences through the buyer journey.

All of this gives rise to a new marketing infrastructure. “To reach mobile customers in each moment of truth requires new methodologies for search, advertising, content engagement, sales, and support.”

More Digital Insights

For all you die hard content-skimmers out there, here are a few more observations from Solis’ deck that really resonated for me:

“There is no one way to succeed in the future. Success is dependent on a balance of iteration, innovation, and disruption.”

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“Digital is its own drug…Everyone will need some sort of digital detox…”

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“Legacy strategies are good only for yesterday’s customers.”

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“Businesses must…practice radical transparency or risk irrelevance.”

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“Digital employees and customers…want every business to feel, serve, and work just like their favorite apps.”

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“People will specialize in tasks that computers need humans to complete.”

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“Intelligent attendants…will become staples in how people navigate life and work. Very soon, the complicated and often silly questions you ask of Alexa and Siri, will be answered. You’ll be taken aback for a split second and then you’ll go on as if you couldn’t have lived without it.”

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Altimeter’s 26 Essential Digital Trends

OK, ready to dive-in to the full SlideShare?

Here you go…