You cannot be left out of the digital marketing trends for 2023 if you want to beat the competition. The past few years since the Covid-19 pandemic have not been all that exciting.
We have had disruptive trends that may have made it hard for you to achieve your digital marketing goals. But now, things look promising in 2023.
Here is what you should expect.
Why Should You be Optimistic about Next Year
It's okay to be skeptical about the year ahead. Because even for a person with a strong "glass half-full attitude," the conditions on the ground aren't that promising.
Talks of recession don't seem to be going away. Moreover, tech companies that are expected to set the pace in innovation are instead setting the pace for employee layoffs.
Amid all these challenges, we live in one of the most fast-paced marketing landscape eras. Technology and innovation evolve at a faster rate than we can keep up.
Digital transformation has become the new normal, and the pace of digitalization is accelerating. In this regard, you can easily transform your business using digital technology and beat your competitors. Follow the below trends to prepare your business for success.
1. A Shift to Customer Experience
Technological innovations such as social media have changed how people view marketing. It’s no longer about selling hard.
Marketing is now shifting towards creating amazing customer experiences that will keep your customer coming back for more. Customers are now more attracted to businesses focused on creating authentic human connections.
A recent Deloitte report on global marketing trends shows an increase in people seeking more human-centric businesses while leaving those with less value for authentic connections. Customers are even more appreciative of digital innovations that promote customer relationships.
For example, don't underestimate the importance of live chat services on your website. The instant replies to your customer inquiries improve customer experience and ultimately influence their purchase decisions.
2. Personalized Customer Journeys
Closely related to building seamless customer experiences is the marketing trend of creating personalized customer journeys. Like dating games, customers want to be wooed and feel like you care about their needs.
And there are enough marketing statistics to back these claims. 90% of US consumers find marketing personalization as very or somewhat appealing. Moreover, 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that provide recommendations and relevant offers.
You can effectively achieve this feat by adopting the data-driven customer journey trend. Specifically, you need to understand how to leverage data to engage customers throughout their journey.
The only way for your business to provide a personalized journey that influences customer purchase decisions is to research essential data points correlating to customers' intended actions. Luckily, you have AI, algorithms, and analytics for this. It is now easier to collect up-to-date marketing data than a decade ago.
Here are strategies you can use in designing a personalized customer journey.
Understand the customer journey –from the point of need awareness to their purchase.
Identify the available data sources – understanding the customer's journey lets you know the data you need to personalize their journey. That will then inform your choice of sources for the data you need.
Develop a data-informed marketing strategy – it becomes easier to develop a personalization strategy by understanding the customer journey and the right data sources. All these should contribute to you effectively developing a data-driven buyer persona.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing may have been around for some time, but it is also one that still promises to be a trend in the future. There are currently over 4 billion email users across the globe. Most of these email users check their emails at least once daily.
The number of email users is expected to increase with the growth of digital natives across the globe. Therefore, you can only presume the number of target customers for email marketing will rise.
However, what will change is the approach to email marketing. The current trend leans towards personalization and customization of the emails you send to your customers.
With the number of emails a customer receives each day, you can expect very few of them will open your email if it has a generic subject line. You will be lucky if your email even makes it to their inbox. The availability of advanced email filters means that your target customers can filter emails with generic or promotional subject lines to head straight for the spam folder.
Another trend you ought to be up to date with is email marketing automation. That entails using the latest email automation tools and ensuring that your business systems are streamlined to support these levels of automation.
Email automation improves your competitive advantage in generating and nurturing new leads. Email marketing campaigns are vital in pushing your leads through the sales funnel.
Moreover, don't forget about improving the interactivity of your email marketing. There is a growing trend of using videos, carousel images, Gifs, and gamified content to increase the chances of your target customer clicking your email's CTA button.
4. Story-Driven Content Visualization
You may have noted how much people remain glued to their screens when using public transport. The trend is also notable in other public places, including parks, and it has found its way into our homes.
But there is no real surprise in that. A recent survey showed that 40% of all consumers and 60% of 18 to 34-year-olds admit to excessively using their phones. It could count as screen addiction, but it’s part of a digital shift in how people consume content.
You can adapt your business to this change by developing content that matches this customer's preference. Customers want to be engaged and want to interact with businesses online.
But not with all those adverts of promotional content. Instead, they are busy looking for the latest cool stories, videos, or news in town.
And you can provide this to them while indirectly marketing to them. You can develop blogs or videos that narrate a brand story through your customers' experience.
A great example is how Nike has positioned their running/athletic shoe marketing on an emotional storytelling approach. You will never find an advert telling you to buy a Nike running shoe. Instead, you will find a story of how your hero, like LeBron James, overcomes hardships and defies the odds to be the hero he is today.
Automate and Streamline Your Business Systems Now
Success in digital marketing begins with efficiency and being up to date with trends as you’ve seen above. Let’s help you acquire automated and streamlined business systems so you can focus on your core business activities.
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