Digital Marketing and the techniques that encompass it are constantly evolving. Business owners of small, medium, or large scale companies must stay ahead of trends in order to grow their brand. As the digital world expands, so does the way we attract current and new customers, obtain brand awareness & authority.
The days of focusing on one or two digital platforms to promote your brand, product, or services are long gone. Navigating all of the latest social media trends and how to leverage them to your advantage can be quite overwhelming. In this article, you’ll discover the top ten digital marketing trends of 2023, and how you can implement them into your next business strategy
DATA COLLECTION
As internet privacy laws and securities become more stringent, collecting critical user data in order to scale your business has become harder. With that being said, brands can no longer depend on third-party data collection services or cookies to get crucial consumer analytics, website data, etc. Brands must focus now on zero-party data collection such as website forms, signups, and consent forms. If done right, this trend can benefit any growing or established business.
Zero Party Data is when a consumer knowingly and willfully gives their personal information to a brand. This can happen in the form of purchase intent, personal context, surveys, or preference center data. Information is key, and in a world with GDPR compliances and less third-party opt-ins, getting the information you need in order to target your audience more accurately has shifted. When a consumer trusts a brand enough to proactively and intentionally give their information, you don’t have to make guesses on what they want.
Try This: Implement forms on your websites and within your campaigns. Send out email campaigns with fun, interactive content like quizzes that will collect important user data. Get creative and always stay on top of data collection, you’ll never know when you might need it.
VERIFIED LISTINGS
Speaking of trust, consumers want to trust the brand(s) they’re interacting with , whether it’s purchase intent, follow on social channels, or an email opt-in. The perfect way to establish trust within your audience is to get verified – and it’s completely free. Verified listings are becoming increasingly popular, and will likely become mandatory in 2023. Getting verified is great for local SEO, as it lets your audience know that you’re real and trustworthy. Getting verified on google will help your brand show up more in google searches, maps, and even through voice search (more about that later). If you’re not sure if your business is verified, click here. Other platforms like: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, offer verification status, but these platforms tend to have stricter requirements in order to obtain a verification badge. Nevertheless, if you take the time to follow these requirements – you will add more credibility to your brand.
Try This: Get verified on as many platforms as possible. Aim for more niche social media platforms like yelp, yellow pages, pinterest, etc. Seek out the easiest platforms first to maximize your time.
EMAIL MARKETING
Email isn’t dead. In fact, it’s one of the best methods of marketing today. According to Mailigen, this type of marketing is preferred amongst 89% of digital marketers. Keeping your audience up to date with what’s going on within your brand is important for client retention, awareness and even authority. However, as a business owner, big or small, doing this can be time consuming. Especially if there are no dedicated employees to handle such a multifaceted task. Creating the perfect email strategy not only takes time, but creativity and consistency as well. Utilizing time-saving email marketing platforms like EmailFirst, allows you to create eye-popping emails in an instant with user-friendly drag & drop components and templates.
With email automation software like Mautic, and automation services like the ones offered by Powertic Canada – email marketing can be as easy as posting on facebook or instagram. Marketing Automation does exactly what it implies, automation of repetitive marketing tasks and customer relationship management. You can create multiple campaigns for segmented audiences; send follow ups, forms, surveys, etc – all automatically. Learn more about marketing automation and how it can help your email marketing for 2023 here.
Try This: Use your email marketing strategy to promote product launches, get feedback; share brand related news or just simply check in with your audience – just don’t get spammy.
CHATBOTS
Chatbots have become more of a necessity for marketers and small businesses owners sense the pandemic hit. This trend hasn’t shown any sign of letting up. Even big businesses like godaddy.ca utilize the powers of chatbots. These automated customer service agents act as an outlet for customers to communicate with your business, even during non operation hours. This allows your customers to get the answers to their questions and concerns. This trend will continue to boom in 2023, a time where people want answers in an instant, chatbots can help give that to them.
Try This: Utilize real-time messaging platforms such as facebook or linkedin messenger to see who’s engaging with your brand while never missing a lead.
VOICE SEARCH
Digital Assistants like Alexa, Google Home, and Amazon Echo are steadily becoming a permanent fixture in the homes of millions. Whether its voice-activated assistants like Siri or home-based devices like Google Home, voice search is a trend no business should overlook. Voice Search requires a different approach than traditional seo and other search optimization techniques. Instead of creating keywords in your content that might rank on search engines, you must now think as if you’re talking to Alexa – asking a question. “Where’s the nearest chinese food restaurant?” “Who’s the best permanent makeup artist in Ottawa?” These are the questions your audience will be asking their voice-activated assistants, so make sure your content and seo techniques enable you to take advantage of voice search.
Try This: When writing content for your brand, write like a person. Create content that reads like a conversation and will trigger voice-search keywords.
ONLINE REVIEWS
Online reviews can make or break any brand. They are the most valuable opinion a business can have. Let’s face it, when we search for a specific product or service, we tend to look at the reviews and ratings before we make any type of buying decisions or interaction between the brands. Any brand can boast their product or service, but it can’t manipulate the honest opinions of consumers. Having honest, insightful reviews from your customers will make your brand stand out from the rest.
The best place for reviews is Google Business. This platform is the most trusted and viewed before any other review platform. Google is great because prospective customers can interact with your business, right from the listing. A good review, or several reviews can lead to a website click, directions to your location, or even a phone call. Facebook is another great place to get trusted reviews from your customers, you can even use them on your website or create a testimonial page.
If you want to get more reviews, create a link to your Google Business listing to promote your audience to leave a review.
Try This: After a visit, whether it’s in your store or on your website, ask your customer if they can leave an honest review/testimonial. Offer an incentive for their next visit and show appreciation for taking the time to review your brand and its products/service(s).
VISUAL SEARCH
Google, Pinterest, and Instagram have started to leverage the power of the Visual Search trend in 2022 and won’t be stopping for 2023 and beyond. What is visual search exactly? It’s the search for products, services, and items through images. A user can snap a picture of a pillow, search engines will populate similar or the same item that was captured. This is a fast-growing trend in a world where attention spans are low and the sense of need is high. Your audience wants to find the answers to their problems as fast as possible, and visual search might be the saving grace. This is done by optimizing your images with specific keywords and descriptions. No “alt tag” goes unchecked. In order for brands to appear on search results for images, businesses need to make sure their images appear in their sitemap, correct file types and image size, as well as being high resolution.
Try This: Submit your image sitemap to google analytics so you can come up for voice related queries.
Omnichannel Marketing
what is omnichannel marketing
Before we begin, first you need to understand what omnichannel marketing is.
Omnichannel marketing is basically an organizations presence across multiple channels or platorms. Such platfoms/chanells include: websites, apps, social media, and email. To learn more about email marketing, click here.
A cohesive customer journey is necessary in today’s digital advertising market. A brand’s messaging, identity, and tone must be seamlessly integrated throughout several channels.
In order to create a campaign that uses this type of marketing, every aspect of your campaign must be thought out and recreated strategically for the platform(s) you chose to use. The point of omnichannel marketing is to tell a story in a seamless, unified way that doesn’t seem like an entirely new campaign.
Try This: Focus on two or three social media channels for your next campaign. Analyze insights and create a campaign that will transition smoothly between channels. Try to stay on brand with your email blast, reels, post, etc.
The Metaverse
This emerging trend has been around for a couple of years, however, it’s just now starting to solidify itself as a permanent fixture in the digital marketing world. Speaking of worlds, if you aren’t* familiar with the metaverse, it’s basically a virtual world or worlds, created to bring the real world into digital spaces. These spaces can range from venues, stores, halls, a room, etc. The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating in the metaverse.
Although the metaverse is in its infancy, it’s critical to get your brand acquainted with the new technology. Merge your brand experience with Augmented and Virtual Reality to attract a whole new audience, who could be millions of miles away from your home location.
Understanding what you want your audience to experience and feel while interacting with your brand is an important part of the overall metaverse experience. Being able to buy products, travel, or go to concerts from the comfort of a couch will become more appealing to consumers. So get started and do some research on how to get yourself and your business associated with the uprising of the Metaverse.
Try This: Create your brand’s digital token and learn about the components that surround the metaverse like: Cryptocurrency, App Design, UX & Customer Relations to start.
Influencer Marketing
The reality is, with all of the new ways to advertise your business, no tool is more powerful than word of mouth. This is essentially what influencer marketing is all about. People are more likely to try a product or service if recommended by someone they trust, follow, or like. Influencer marketing is the strategic partnership between a brand and a social media influencer with a large following. Typically, these influencers are within the same niche of product or service your business provides. These partnerships can help a business grow drastically. They increase brand awareness, build trust, gain conversions, and connect with your target audience.
Even though this type of marketing isn’t new, it’s surely a trend that top brands like Fenty Beauty and Adidas are jumping on. Get creative and offer a partnership that’s beneficial to you and the influencer you seek. This could be a free service, or free products for a duration of time, or even cash.
Try This: Cameo.com offers personalized videos from celebrities, social media influencers and socialites that you can use for your brand’s marketing strategy.