Gather around fellow marketers, and let’s share our insights on the business. It could turn into a sob story, so grab a glass of wine (or a box of tissues) and join me.
What will the future of digital marketing be like in 2023?
We all know that successful digital marketing must follow evolving customer trends and closely observe the shifting landscape of global market conditions.
To top it off, we also know that Facebook and Google algorithms are continuously changing. Consequently, if you fail to align your SEO tactics with the new changes, you will be rendering your marketing efforts obsolete.
You know what’s even worse? The competition.
The competition is fierce. Not only are you a minnow in the sea of abundant marketers globally, but as of November 2022, you are also up against sharp and extremely sophisticated AI content and idea generators.
For the record, ChatGPT (AI content creation tool) reached 1 million users within a week of its launching in November 2022. It is estimated that it will surpass $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2024. Of course, there is no way cheap, robotic content can replace the value of human content creators - more info on this heated topic here - but we have to admit that it is yet another obstacle that we must overcome.
So, what should you do to increase your customer pool, scale your business, and stay ahead of the competition? And at the same time, protect yourself from the rise of the machines?
Following old practices, and resting on your laurels, won’t cut it. What you need to do instead is to become proactive, change your practices and make sure that you are up to date with the latest developments in digital marketing trends, so you can follow suit.
So, cheers to that!
Ready to discover the top trends you must familiarize yourself with for 2023? Let’s go!
Use More Inclusive Media Planning
According to Think With Google, one of the first things that digital marketers need to consider is planning for more inclusive media content. It’s not enough to simply say your marketing efforts are diverse.
Inadvertent bias can always get in the way of inclusive strategic planning. So how do you rid your campaigns of bias and follow the 2023 trends for more inclusive media?
By thoroughly researching your audience and embracing the breadth of content they consume and meet them on the platforms they frequent at. If you are creating stellar content that fails to reach your audience, then you will find yourself back to square one. Discover what your audience wants and needs and pinpoint the exact platform to reach them.
This will help you to create more personalized content, appealing to your audience’s pain points and adding value to their lives with your products or services.
Curious to find out more? Read a very interesting article on how to research your audience and craft accurate buyer personas here.
Use Snackable Short Form Videos
You know how our attention is shorter than that of a goldfish, right? With an attention span of 8 seconds and technology at the tip of our hands, we tend to lose interest very quickly. With increasing internet speeds (and annoying pop-ups), humans will jump from one webpage to the next in a matter of milliseconds.
So, how do you grab your readers' attention and make sure they consume your content in its entirety before hopping on to other pages? By using snackable short-form videos. A picture is a thousand words, and a video is way more than that! Stats show that YouTube shorts have increased in popularity, and have grown by 135% between the years 2021 and 2022. With over 1.5 billion monthly users, short-form videos are a marketing trend that you need to adopt for 2023.
Do Focus On User Experience
Forbes predicts that one of the greatest trends that marketers will need to follow in order to stay ahead of the competition is to focus on user experience.
UX (user experience) is the marketing world’s newest buzzword and most precious darling. What exactly is UX, you may ask?
The User Experience Professionals Association defines user experience (UX) as: “Every aspect of the user’s interaction with a product, service, or company that makes up the user’s perceptions of the whole. Therefore, user experience design as a discipline is concerned with all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction.”
In simpler terms, and according to the European Business Review, the focus of user experience “is to find the synergy between the business goals and user needs.”
Consumers in the year 2023 will make a choice between two rival products based on UX. The more seamless the purchase of a product and the better the after-sale support is, the higher the chances that a visitor on your site, page, or social media account, will convert.
Forbes suggests that as we enter the metaverse era, customers will find themselves in “fully immersive, 3D, virtual settings” where UX is key.
Take Note of the Rise of the Customer Influencer
This is a very heated debate. How influencing are the influencers?
Is influencer marketing one of the biggest marketing trends for 2023? Well, yes and no.
Influencer marketing is indeed a very potent tool in the hands of marketers. However, long gone are the days when brands would splurge large proportions of their marketing budget on socialites and famous actors, singers, models etc., to increase brand awareness. In fact, data after data shows that using such influencers does not necessarily improve your KPI.
Smartbrief predicts that in 2023 we will see “more brands embrace word-of-mouth marketing, using social media as a vehicle to source user-generated content (UGC) from customers.”
Authenticity is key and if you want to leverage the power of the influencers, make sure you seek out those micro-micro-influencers; your customer influencers. Seek out real-life people with authentic, genuine testimonials that shine the spotlight on your brand’s uniqueness and value, instead of paying macro-influencers to advertise a product they might have never even used.
Make Sure to Embrace Empathy and Storytelling
Ah, the art of storytelling! Nothing beats a good story, especially one with a happy ending. The art of storytelling has been around for centuries. The earliest signs of this nifty little marketing tool can be found back in prehistoric times in designs of spear-holding, boar-hunting macho men (the competition was fierce, and if you wanted to get the girl and keep the flame burning, you’d better do a good job advertising your hunting skills - enter cave drawings). Well, guess what?
The art of storytelling is still very much alive today, and especially in 2023, marketers will need to embrace empathy and harness the power of storytelling to bond with their audience.
Semrush’s study on global marketing trends in 2022 indicates that storytelling was crucial in the past year. Moreover, given the global economic uncertainty that is unfolding in the new year, empathy will be even more crucial in 2023.
Want to find out more about the magical art of storytelling? Click here.
Final Words
Ok, fellow marketers. Have you drained that glass of wine yet? Well, refill it and bottoms up and let’s quickly recap these words of wisdom we have just shared with you. So, in a nutshell, these are the trends you need to put under your radar for 2023:
Use More Inclusive Media Planning
Use Snackable Short Form Videos
Do Focus On User Experience
Take Note of the Rise of the Customer Influencer
Make Sure to Embrace Empathy and Storytelling
These are the predicted marketing trends for 2023, and as long as you follow suit and align your marketing efforts with them, your future should be bright and promising.
So cheers to that!
Bold Marketing, Over and out.
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