2023 is bringing significant changes to the way consumers interact with brands and prioritise their spending. This is because the cost of the global living crisis we are experiencing right now will create consequences for everyone and is to be covered by all market participants.
Looking back at our post on the Latest Marketing Trends For 2022, last year’s developments match what we had been expecting a year ago and most of those trends will continue to develop in 2023.
The main difference, however, between 2022 and 2023, is that customers are becoming more discerning about the products and services they buy. The reason behind this is more than aligning with social responsibility concerns; it can now be found in the economic climate as well. Almost two-thirds of chief economists believe a global recession is likely in 2023 and Australia is already dealing with the highest level of inflation since 1990.
In such dire circumstances, the latest marketing trends for 2023 should be used by brands as tools to tweak their strategies in the following period. Knowing everything about the trends coming down the line enables businesses to improve their messaging and take advantage of any new developments that can place them ahead of the competition.
To help you not only go through 2023, but navigate it successfully, we have talked to industry experts to identity the most important trends and the latest marketing ideas – incorporate them into your digital marketing strategy to stay relevant and create more value for your customers:
Increased video
Brands will continue to invest heavily in social networks that use the power of video to engage with consumers. If you have not created a strategy for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube yet, now it is the time to do it.
Video is currently the most popular medium for storytelling, with short-form videos seeing the most growth. Short-form video formats such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok have exploded in the last years and have become the most effective way to engage and entertain audiences.
Livestreaming is also gaining more traction than ever as it enables brands to build closer relationships with their audiences by showcasing behind-the-scene aspects of businesses, hosting Q&As and webinars, and interacting in a more personalised manner through video messaging.
In-person events making a comeback
In 2022 masks came off and offices filled up. People slowly, but surely returned to social life and public gatherings, with in-person work and industry events making a comeback as well. Most professionals are tired of webinars and online events and want to attend in-person events again.
We are innately social beings and thrive off of social interaction. Interacting with like-minded individuals increases productivity and helps to build trust. Connecting is so much easier when people meet face-to-face and without offline interaction, building connections and networking is almost impossible. The growing number of in-person events will enable everyone to relax, will create space for learning opportunities, and will contribute to business development a lot more than formal online meetings.
Omnichannel marketing
In order to thrive, businesses in 2023 and beyond will have to walk that extra mile towards their customers and make it easier for them to solve their problems. One way to achieve this is by using an omnichannel marketing approach, which consists of a company giving access to their products and support services on all channels, platforms, and devices. These days, consumers expect to be able to reach brands through Facebook Messenger, live chat, email and phone, opposed to only accessing support on the company’s website.
For businesses, benefits of omnichannel marketing include obtaining a greater reach, increasing profits, and boosting customer satisfaction. At the same time, it is important for brands to understand the difference between omnichannel and multichannel experiences. Whereas a multichannel strategy will include two or three channels, and omnichannel experience includes all channels, platforms and devices. Moreover, businesses need to promote their products and services using a unified message, cohesive visuals, and consistent collateral.
Mobile optimisation will be even more important
What’s new in 2023 when it comes to mobile device usage? Not much, actually – marketing experts have been highlighting the importance of mobile responsive websites for years already. Mobile phones are indispensable for today’s digital lifestyle and mobile use continues to grow each year.
The estimated number of Australian smartphone users is 22.74 million in 2023 and is expected to grow to 23.62 mill. in 2026. As a result, the so-called m-commerce is the new normal and many people are purchasing items using mobile shopping apps instead of reaching their desktop computers or going to the physical store. Other phenomena observed in smartphone usage include a surge of mobile video content spending and usage, voice and visual search growth, more shoppable posts on social media, augmented reality shopping, video-focused social networking, and mobile app integration for superior in-store experience.
Metaverse
Metaverse is at the forefront of a massive revolution that will change the future of our digital interactions. The advent of this new era is already improving industries such as education and healthcare. Even if the Metaverse is at its early stages of development and we are far from capitalising on all the possibilities these technologies provide, there are more than 400 million of Metaverse users worldwide.
More and more large brands and businesses are joining the metaverse due to this technology’s ability to establish virtual economies using digital currencies. The industries showing the most interest in the Metaverse are luxury goods, real estate, art, entertainment, retail, training, and education.
AI & ML
AI (artificial intelligence) is really catching up this year as it could provide the solution to many of the current uncertainties such as supply chain challenges, labour shortages, and economic contraction. Artificial intelligence is used to make decisions that improve efficiency, create useful differentiation, and reduce costs through automation.
ML or machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that makes software applications more accurate when it comes to predicting outcomes by using historical data as input. Machine learning is a central part of the operations of today’s leading companies and the ability to predict outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so creates significant competitive differentiation for these technological and digital giants.
Influencer-brand relationships
The hiring of online content creators or influencers, as they are best-known, will remain a common practice throughout 2023. More and more marketers are planning to increase their influencer budgets this year because this area is the fastest-growing marketing channel, beating email marketing, organic search, and paid search.
The process for influencer marketing is simple – businesses identify popular users, send them their products, and users share their experience with their followers. The method still works; even if people find too much sponsored content annoying, they use social media for tips and inspiration and feel that influencers are more responsible with advertising now than they were several years ago. The latest marketing trends for 2023 when it comes to influencers are influencer marketing evolving into relationship marketing and finding a brand’s true partners from the start. These new directions eliminate the need to continuously identify new influencers that fit changing requirements.
Voice search tactics for SEO
Search engine optimisation is not just about blog posts and images – when building an online business in 2023, you also need to think about voice search. Especially when searching for stores, restaurants and other businesses near them, people find it easier to ask their voice assistant than to type a Google search. Reasons why voice search is popular include a perceived higher accuracy, not having to use one’s hands while driving, and avoiding the unpleasant action of typing on a mobile phone.
Voice search requires slightly different SEO strategies, such as using longer and more conversational keywords, favouring local listings, focusing on user intent, and building a detailed FAQ page.
Interactive content
Interactive content grabs attention by asking your audience to participate and engage with your content. It is considered the new face of content marketing, which until recently only contained static materials, such as eBooks and blog posts. Interactivity is most visible in content such as infographics, quizzes, calculators, animated eBooks, landing pages, lookbooks, questionnaires, maps, and solution finders.
These types of interactive content enable brands to capture visitor contact data so they can further use the information to nourish potential customers along the sales funnel. Even if interactive content should be carefully crafted to match the requirements of every step in the sales cycle, you can start by using content you already have and giving it a new format and a new purpose – such as transforming an eBook into an interactive page that ends with a quiz to test the visitor’s knowledge.
Incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things has been announced more than a decade ago and ever since, the network of physical objects that are online and connected has grown exponentially. The range of IoT devices started with computers and smartphones and now also includes TVs, kitchen appliances, alarm systems, cameras, lightbulbs, cars, and medical devices.
But what is the link between IoT and marketing? These technologies generate a large amount of data and network traffic, revolutionising business operations. They are also helping to produce endless opportunities for brands to attend to their customers’ needs at the right moment on the right device. Marketing experts are using IoT to analyse buying behaviours, to collect more data on how customers communicate with devices, to get insights on purchasing processes, and to determine the stage of the marketing funnel where a customer is currently located.
Adopting the latest marketing trends for 2023 is vital as the new year has found many consumers in a posture of prudence. With consumers increasingly concerned about their future and dealing with uncertainty, marketers need to communicate positivity and transaction safety, and the latest marketing ideas will thrive only if they are well-established and less of a guessing game. So, whatever trends you want to focus on this year, make sure you do it in great style and with confidence!
