Digital marketing is more competitive than it has ever been.
When the COVID-19 pandemic arose, many companies had to strengthen their digital marketing strategies to adapt to their customers’ new at-home and digital lifestyles. Because of this, companies now better understand how important it is to have a solid digital presence.
As we enter 2023, companies must stay on top of the new digital marketing trends. Just like in business, when you need to adapt to market or customer changes, it’s time to embrace the latest digital marketing trends to stay on top.
Do you know what’s in store for digital marketing in the new year, and are you prepared for it? We’ve compiled a list of the top digital marketing trends 2023 to help ease your troubles.
Digital Marketing Trends 2023: What’s in Store?
Discover what the future holds for digital marketing and get ahead of the game by reading up on these trends.
Nurturing Leads: Every Step of the Way
The importance of building strong relationships with customers has never been greater. Today’s sales process is longer than in the past. People like to spend more time researching products and services before committing to their purchase.
By nurturing these leads, you’re accomplishing these goals:
- Building trust.
- Increasing your brand awareness.
- Maintaining a connection until prospects are ready to purchase from you.
To nurture leads, you must consider every stage of your customer’s buying journey. You’re not starting at the Decision stage. You want to stay in your prospects’ minds as they research throughout the entire journey.
Consider targeting content through multiple channels. You want to disperse all types of information, whether it be through blogs, discounts, or thought-provoking discussions. They’ll soon think about your business when they need help.
The Beginning of the Personalization Era
Everyone wants to feel special – including your target audience. This is why you need to prioritize personalization in your digital marketing strategy.
Are you aware digital marketers who employ personalization in their emails report 27% higher unique click rates and 11% higher open rates than those who do not?
Meanwhile, 52% of consumers say they’ll look elsewhere for their shopping needs if a brand sends an email that’s not personalized.
Keep in mind that personalization is broader than just email marketing. You can use it for landing pages, ad campaigns, social media, and more.
Some easy ways to build a community include:
- Sharing User-Generated Content. A lot of people want to be in the spotlight and become featured. So when they tag you in a post, consider posting it to your social media platforms, highlighting it on your website or even your newsletter.
- Curating Outside Content. Staying involved with outside sources can build more credibility in your consumers’ eyes. They like to know that they’re not just following a business that solely promotes themselves and their products or services.
- Get In The Conversation. Sharing relevant content from your industry can create conversations and show you are interested in solving an issue rather than just selling. Try sharing industry news, third-party research, interviews, podcasts, and more.
- Creating Interactive Quizzes and Polls. Who doesn’t like to join in games? People love interacting with quizzes and polls (especially on social media). It’s an easy way to get involved, but it’s also an excellent way to learn more about your audience’s likes!
Advertise with Purpose
Don’t forget that personalization also comes down to your company’s personality. People care about who they’re purchasing from. They want to know what a company stands for.
- Are there particular social causes you support?
- What charities do you donate to?
- How important is sustainability?
- How does your company help make a difference in society?
This year, we’re noticing that people care a lot about social responsibility and inclusivity. As a result, companies like Domino’s and Diageo have taken a step to better connect with their entire audience by critically assessing their media placement choices and inclusivity. This change was accomplished by lifting keyword exclusions and proactively investing in hand-picked authoritative voices and publishers.
Change may be scary, but supporting causes can help build more trust. Displaying your opinions can also help attract more visitors. After all, people want to be proud of the brands they purchase from. Being associated with a business that aligns with their visions can build a strong relationship. As a matter of fact, 80% of people prefer to buy from brands whose actions align with their values.
Nonetheless, avoid “purpose-washing” in your advertisements. A commitment to a cause must be long-term, authentic, and supported by actions. People expect your business to impact society positively by aligning their promises with actions, not empty promises.
Re-evaluate your Digital Marketing Strategies
Just because a digital marketing strategy didn’t work in the past doesn’t mean it won’t work now. For example, people are thirsty to get outside and have human contact. Creating digital ads for an in-person event is more appealing to customers than if you advertised this in the last few years when people were more cautious about leaving their homes.
Another example is people used to be annoyed when they received a Sponsored Message in their inbox, but now LinkedIn Conversation Ads have an open rate of 55% and lead to more engagement. In simpler terms, sliding into the DMs is highly encouraged. Just keep it professional!
The point is that digital marketing evolves every year, and sometimes we need to dig into the past to ensure that our strategies align with different types of ads, channels, and more.
Save Time and Money by Remarketing
Remarketing is an effective way to target people who have already shown interest in your business or brand. For example, think of the consumers who have visited your website but have yet to take specific actions. How do you get them to move forward?
With remarketing, you’re targeting these past visitors and creating new digital ads or campaigns to convert them into customers. Remarketing not only has a lower cost-per-click than when you target a new audience but can also have better results.
Because you’re targeting people who have already shown interest in your brand, remarketing can help save you time and money. Remember, they have already stepped into the customer journey but need a little push to help them progress.
Optimize Your Ads with A/B Testing and Rotational Ads
A/B Testing continues to be one of the most effective to learn what works best for your audience. With A/B testing, you can realize these positive outcomes:
- Improve user engagement.
- Decrease bounce rates.
- Increase conversion rates,
- Minimize risk.
- Create content more effectively.
To further collect more data on what works best, it’s also recommended to use rotational ads. A significant number to consider is having four variations. The practice of rotating digital ads can help keep the content fresh and dynamic so users will continue to pay attention to them. When people see the same content over and over again, it becomes stale and becomes overlooked.
In other words, variety is key to success.
Create Snackable, Short-Form Videos
Short-form videos have taken over social media feeds (and consumer attention). There’s no doubt that this format will continue to grow. In fact, YouTube Shorts now has 1.5 billion monthly active users and sees more than 30 billion daily views.
It’s important to note that creating highly engaging short-form videos must utilize the best storytelling practices. For example, videos should jump straight into the action. There’s no time to waste when you only have 10 to 60 seconds of available ad time. You don’t need to go into full detail – just enough to pique your audience’s interest and get them to your website.
The wonderful thing about creating these snackable forms of content is that you can actually make them from old videos that you’ve created. This step can help repurpose your content and save you a lot of time brainstorming for new ideas.
In addition, by posting video content through your social media channels, you can keep your brand on track by:
- Building brand awareness.
- Encouraging engagement.
- And most importantly, reaching people through different mediums!
Your Employees’ Voices Matter – Practice Employee Advocacy!
According to PwC, 46% of consumers will abandon a brand if its employees are not knowledgeable about their own company. And bad employee attitude can account for 32% of customers ceasing to return.
So, what does this mean? It’s time to practice Employee Advocacy because your employee’s voices matter.
The goal of employee advocacy is to get your team talking and sharing on the company’s behalf. By better understanding the company, they can fully represent and answer prospects’ questions. This is why more and more businesses are investing more resources into their employees’ training and knowledge.
Consumers view your employees as the company. They represent the company and not just themselves.
If you’re looking for ways to bring unification and showcase brand spirit, you can start by providing consistent branding resources. Think of social media headers and email signatures. They’re types of branding that an employee can quickly implement.
Just take a look at this stat: businesses with a uniform branded email signature gain approximately 25% clicks, traffic, and leads to their website!
Are You Ready to Boost Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
In the past, strong customer relationships were built through word-of-mouth marketing. But how does that extend to our current digital age?
The Internet is the newer version of word-of-mouth marketing, and the great part is that you’re not just limited to the people in your family and friends group but to millions worldwide. Finding the right way to target your audience may sound intimidating, but we’re here to help.
Now is the time to work on your digital marketing trends 2023. Consider working with a digital marketing agency like Marketing Refresh to help start the year off with a bang!
