What Are the Top Digital Marketing Trends of 2023?
- THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
- AUTHOR: KENSHŌ
- DATE: 10 MAY 2023
Developing a relevant marketing strategy is becoming harder by the day as the environment keeps shifting at a lightning pace. This gets even more complex with a digital marketing strategy with new inventions being introduced, seemingly by the minute, to disrupt the whole status quo and – more often than not – bring marketers back to the drawing board. True, digital marketing is a dynamic space but you still need to plan and strategize. Here are the top digital marketing trends for 2023 that can help you weather the storm and keep your brand ahead of the competition:
1. Marketing personalization
Personalized marketing is a must for all marketers as it is a sure winner. The logic is simple. Yes, digital tools are evolving every day and new ways to do things keep popping up but the audience remains the same and is most probably as overwhelmed as you are by the technology burst. It is your duty as a digital marketer to research your audience and sift through the chaff for them to ensure you can connect with your target audiences and existing customers to offer an optimized marketing experience. The marketing personalization will surely set you apart from competing brands.
By collecting and using data, businesses can identify patterns to more effectively target potential customers. The idea is to develop personalized marketing content that answers the questions of your target audience by speaking to your audiences’ needs, challenges, and pain points as they search for solutions and answers. Make sure your digital content helps your target audience make the right choice in the easiest way possible.
Audience focused marketing is a digital marketing trend and is big in this fast moving information age because you really can’t be everything to everyone. Your marketing messages are now quickly drowned by so many other messages, they lose potency as the famed silver bullet and become easily disposable and ignorable. So, you need to speak to specific interests and hook your target customers’ interest throughout your engagement with them. Current digital marketing trends start by finding out what audiences need first!
2. Voice search optimization
Digital marketing trends in 2023 are incomplete without optimizing for voice search. This the future of online marketing and it is relatively a new digital marketing trend. In the current ever growing digital landscape, you cannot expect to reach your audience if your business is not optimized for voice searches. This is simply because people prefer the convenience of searching by saying the search terms rather than typing them.
Voice search keeps gaining popularity with audiences because in addition to offering speed and convenience, it is well supported by voice assistant technology which is also becoming more of a mainstream offering from technology companies. Voice search is also appealing to users of the latest technologies as it is adapting to service users of cars, wearables (smart watches), smart TVs, and other appliances that make typing very inconvenient. You would lose out on this big and growing customer base without voice search optimization.
It is important to understand that voice queries are longer and more conversational than typed queries. They are also popular for local content searches and are answer focused. This means you should optimize for voice search with this in mind and expect questions such as “Which coffee shop is open near me” or “Who is the best Ford mechanic near me.” Your voice search optimization should direct customers to you with an instant answer to such questions. Analyses of digital marketing trends in 2022 revealed that the focus of modern day marketing is on being conversational and brands that fail to “talk” to customers and answer their questions directly will always get secondary interfaces with audiences. For digital marketing in 2023, think voice optimization.
3. Consider the role of AI for marketing efforts
Artificial Intelligence is keeping marketers on their toes with some integrating it well into their marketing work while others view it as unnecessary competition. Regardless of individual perceptions of AI, it powers all marketing nowadays. Relatively new among digital marketing trends, AI is being used as a tool for predictive analytics and forecasting and has been integrated into almost every digital marketing channel.
Algorithms are used to determine which posts social media users interact with, selecting such variables as the search results and adverts presented to users. This predictive analytics uses data from past customer interactions to predict what actions they may be likely to take next. AI is, therefore, now a big component of targeted marketing which makes research for personalized marketing immediate and automatic. AI algorithms are beneficial because they can process vast amounts of data to provide businesses with a deeper understanding of their customers.
The role of today’s marketer is to take advantage of AI by understanding how the algorithms impact their results and optimize content strategies for this. The ability to do this can help brands make informed decisions about product development, pricing, and marketing strategies, leading to improved customer engagement and increased sales. We have already seen that customers seek out and appreciate all the help they get to make buying decisions easier. Likewise, it would be folly for digital marketers to ignore AI considering its ability to boost customer satisfaction and engagement.
4. Utilise social commerce
Another big and growing trend in digital marketing in 2023 is social commerce, a branch of e-commerce that uses social networks. Communities are increasingly getting established on social media and it makes business sense to use networking websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote and sell products and services. Success in a social commerce campaign is measured by the degree to which consumers interact with the company’s marketing through retweets, likes, and shares.
One way of engaging online shoppers in social commerce is by offering expert product advice and support. The ultimate goal of such strategies in social commerce is to connect brands directly with their customers. User-generated content (UGC) such as photos, videos and customer reviews help businesses build relationships with customers on a deeper level than what’s feasible with traditional e-commerce strategies.
To ensure their brands stay relevant, digital marketers have to embrace what’s new in digital marketing and infuse social commerce into their strategies. The biggest challenge will be constantly developing content that engages and creates connections with audiences. Here, a lot of creativity in sources of content has to be built, from encouraging employees, customers, and even subject matter experts in a niche area to create content to sharing curated content. Rigidity, failure to be inclusive and refusing to experiment would be disastrous for brands’ social commerce efforts which are essential for businesses to stay ahead of digital marketing trends in 2023.
5. Make use of video content
For decades, marketers have enjoyed and exploited the power of great video campaigns to inform and connect with their customers. Fortunately, video is still very much a trending digital marketing strategy. Video is used for many purposes including explaining, social media, presentations, testimonials and advertising and still play an important role in the sales and marketing cycle.
Research has revealed the following statistics on video in digital marketing which makes a great case for its use:
- 97% of marketers claim that videos help their customers better understand products.
- 81% of businesses are now using video as a part of their digital marketing strategy.
- Live videos account for 13% of total traffic.
- 90% of consumers claim a video will help them when making a purchasing decision.
Video is an adaptable and engaging content format that not only gives a real-life picture of what is going on. Its adaptability is a huge selling point because it is easy to share across multiple platforms. In addition, video offers a break from the overabundance of textual information online, and it’s certainly an ongoing digital marketing trend.
Generally, video is great for conversions on websites because they have the ability to keep people around for long enough to navigate the site, the big achievement is video’s ability to also hook site visitors who aren’t big readers. To remain competitive and stay abreast of digital marketing trends in 2023, you should find ways to incorporate video into marketing content.
6. Integrate influencer marketing into your marketing strategy
Third party endorsements have always been a trusted pull factor towards brands which lead to brand loyalty at best or at least brand consideration and trial. Despite communities being built online and marketing moving to virtual spaces in response, third party endorsements are still sought after and relied upon by any potential customer. In online spaces, they usually come from influencers.
In 2023, digital marketing trends will have brands using influencer marketing to increase their reach, build trust and drive sales. To be competitive, digital marketers have to think of innovative ways to integrate influencers into their work. Depending on the type of product and profile of the influencer, strategies could be as simple as publishing an image of your influencer partner consuming your product or service to the influencer actually saying out their endorsement.
The marketing strategies can vary but what is certain is the need to have an influence partnership supporting your digital marketing efforts.
These are the top digital marketing trends in 2023 that you must familiarize yourself with to execute a winning marketing strategy. Designing and executing the right digital marketing strategy requires a lot of research, experience and expertise. It may seem like a daunting task to bring all these trends together but you could start by talking to us at Kenshō for expert assistance. Visit our website to learn more about our marketing services.