New technologies have given power to the consumer. Information has become transparent, meaning consumers are more connected to companies than ever before across a variety of channels. It is the role of digital marketing to understand buying behavior across all touchpoints. They must ensure that the transition between touchpoints is smooth and brand consistency is maintained.
To create an advantage in the competitive online environment, companies should incorporate the latest digital marketing trends into their business plans to maximize results and impact. To help you better achieve your marketing goals in 2023, here are some of the biggest trends affecting digital marketing that you should not miss.
Trend 1: social media and influencers
Without a doubt, social media platforms are one of the biggest drivers of digital marketing. According to a survey, there are 4.6 billion active social media users worldwide – almost 60% of the world’s population. This huge figure also means that social media marketing is no longer an option for brands, but a necessity. Brands can build a more human relationship with their customers, as well as quickly increase awareness through developing viral marketing campaigns. To effectively use social media and successfully convert value for your brand, you need to keep up with the social media changes in the coming year.
The rapid rise of TikTok
TikTok will continue to be a major player in social media marketing through 2023. It has more than 1 billion active users and is expected to exceed 1.8 billion users by the end of 2022. More importantly, TikTok has improved the usability of advertising and targeting options, giving brands more opportunities to meet their promotional needs. All of these conditions make TikTok a bigger and better platform for brand investment in the future.
Decentralized social networks
Social media is moving toward the need to decentralize social networks. Decentralized social networks run on servers that run independently, rather than on centralized servers owned by the enterprise. The exciting new platform Mastodon is an example of a decentralized social network – it is based on open-source software and functions much like Twitter did. A decentralized social network gives users more control and autonomy without being monitored by the enterprise. Users are free to build social networks, and creators are independent of the platform, so the choice of experience is up to the user.
Significant growth and change in creator economy
The creator economy is an economic system built by independent content creators who connect to their audience and businesses via the internet. The creator economy has grown rapidly as brand awareness increasingly requires the use of social media. In a study released in August 2022, Adobe found that the global creator economy grew by more than 165 million people in the past two years – a 119% increase. And the creator economy is changing in the post-Covid-19 era of “recommended media” – focusing less on the number of followers and more on the content itself. As a result, we believe we will see more brands collaborating with influential content creators in the future.
Trend 2: B2B digital marketing trend
According to research, 2023 is a “pivotal year”for B2B, as the U.S. has spent nearly $15 billion on B2B digital advertising. To stand out from other businesses, creative ideas, marketing channels and the tools used are particularly important.
Video is a powerful way
Across all types of content, video has become the most powerful way to communicate a brand’s message. For B2B companies in particular, video can play an important role in the sales and marketing cycle. In 2021, 86% of companies were using video campaigns as a strategy, and 88% want to see more videos from brands. In addition, LinkedIn is becoming increasingly popular – it is now one of the top three channels for companies to share videos. In recent years, LinkedIn has made content easier to share, enabling businesses to connect and influence their customers. Also, LinkedIn is expected to account for 25% of B2B advertising within two years, meaning there are increasing opportunities for businesses to use the platform for growth. If you need some video campaign inspiration, check out our roundup of the 10 best video campaigns of 2022.
Social selling works
For B2B companies with long sales cycles that rely on digital channels to provide useful and relevant information, using social media can build stronger relationships with customers. According to internal data from LinkedIn Sales Solutions, companies that are leaders in social selling generate 45% more sales opportunities than brands with a low social selling index. And 78% of companies that use social selling sell more than companies that don’t use social media. It’s worth noting that there’s a difference between posting content that drives sales and using content to build connections. Therefore, making effective connections through social selling will be one of the key factors driving business success in the coming year.
Share curated content
When creating content in social media, it is essential to share curated content that aligns with your public values. Curated content can provide valuable information and resources to a company’s target audience. For example, share insightful information such as industry news, third-party research, interviews, etc. By sharing relevant and useful content, a company can demonstrate its commitment to helping customers and adding value to its brand, thereby increasing credibility.
Trend 3: content is the key
As one of the most effective ways to increase customer engagement, develop brand presence and boost sales, content marketing is already a key growth method for most companies. According to a survey by Semrush, 91% of companies had some level of success with content marketing in 2021. And 71% of those companies that have had success with content marketing have increased their budgets in 2021, while 58% plan to expand their content marketing teams.
Build connections to drive sales
Few people realize that content marketing can have an even more powerful use beyond providing information – building connections and community. As customers become more interested in the value and spirit of a brand, companies that develop connections will succeed. According to the survey, 55% of brands believe that the connections and communities brands build help drive sales. Meanwhile, 68% of brands report that the connections brands make help them generate new leads, which makes them feel like part of a community. As a result, in 2023, consumers will be more likely to buy from companies with similar values to their own.
Refine creator collaboration
While there are a lot of great content and content creators online today, they may not necessarily align with your brand. A good creator collaboration allows you to truly communicate your brand’s message to the right audience. As the creator economy grows in 2023, the purpose of creator collaboration is no longer about putting money first. According to Deloitte research, creators prefer to work with brands that are relevant to their content and stand out from the “noise”.
Balance your digital marketing content
According to marq’s Content Effectiveness report, more than half of marketers say the demand for content has increased significantly in recent years. Most importantly, it’s not just the amount of content, but the value it needs to provide. In 2023, brands can balance their marketing budgets to create curated content beyond creating their own voice. This unique and valuable content sends a great signal to buyers and makes them feel part of the network you’ve built.
Trend 4: automation in digital marketing
In a data-driven world, marketing can be automated. Companies can use software to automate repetitive marketing tasks and thus increase efficiency and provide a more personalized experience for customers.
A shift to signal-based marketing
By 2023, the mindset of technology-based marketing will shift to anticipatory marketing. Meaning companies collect data to predict customer needs and then feed it into automated processes. This new approach makes marketing more efficient and enables more personalized analysis of customers. Unlike in digital marketing where we always collected data and observed consumer behavior, now we are looking for signals – things that the audience tells us they want.
Automation tools are important
Choosing the right automation tool for your business is key to keeping up with these changes. By using automation tools, companies can not only dramatically improve the efficiency of their teams, but also deliver personalized products or services to their audience. According to Gartner, organizations with IT teams that understand their customers’ needs will have a 20% better customer experience than other organizations by 2024.
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AI and the launch of GPT-4
Artificial intelligence has become increasingly popular in recent years, and its use is growing across a wide range of industries. While the hottest AI topic this year is the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), developed by OpenAI, which has revolutionized the AI field. It’s a text-generating deep learning model trained on data, and it is available on the Internet for Q&A, text summarization, machine translation, classification, code generation, and conversational AI. Moreover, the upcoming GPT-4 is a cutting-edge tool that helps marketers automate many tasks. All you have to do is enter some information about your brand and the tools will come up with 50 ideas for your content. We expect this tool to open up even more new opportunities for marketers in 2023.
Trend 5: Martech in digital marketing
Marketing technology, also known as MarTech, describes a range of software and tools that help achieve marketing goals. Martech is a large and ever-changing industry, and its key advantage is helping marketers reach their target audiences in a cost-effective and measurable way.
Growing spending on Martech
According to Insider’s latest forecast, U.S. companies’ spending on Martech will grow 14.3 per cent this year to more than $20 billion. Meanwhile, B2B companies account for more than 30 per cent of the spending, and that share is expected to grow moderately over the next few years, reaching $8.5 billion by 2024.
CRO is changing
While many companies have tried many tests to improve conversion rate optimization (CRO), the era of looking only at results seems to be coming to an end. As customers get smarter about what they want, marketers will need to take a more holistic view. Therefore CRO can’t be viewed in isolation either, and marketers need to have a clear understanding of whether CRO improves the customer experience and its impact on the customer.
Metaverse still has a place in branding
Although the growth in metaverse is slow, it still has a place in the consumer experience. However, it will take years for consumer behavior to adopt this trend. Industry observers estimate that by 2026, at least 25 per cent of the world’s population will spend at least one hour a day in a metaverse for digital activities, including work, shopping, education, socializing or entertainment. So it’s clear that marketers should not miss the opportunity to leverage the metaverse to enhance their brands and drive sales. We look forward to seeing more creative brand campaigns about the metaverse in 2023.
Wrap up
Each year brings new challenges for marketers. Some of the key areas you need to focus on in 2023 are: social media and influencers, B2B digital marketing, content management, marketing automation, and the popularity of Martech.
We hope our roundup will be helpful for your digital marketing activation in 2023.