What are the Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2023?

 

As customers become more discerning about the products and services they buy, there’s also a global cost of living crisis that brands will need to plan for in 2023.

 

That means it’s more important for brands to be transparent and think about their messaging and research or tweak their strategy in the coming year. It also means that marketers need to know the trends coming down the line so they can plan and take advantage of any web developments.

 

To help you kick 2023 off with a bang, we’ve talked to industry experts on our podcast to identify the most important trends. You might also like to watch our Trends webinar on more key points to watch in 2023.

 

Read on to find out the 2023 trends for

·       Within social media and influencer marketing

·        we look at TikTok and business, the rise of creators, and also of SuperApps.

·       In B2B marketing we hear about the value of video content, how to conquer social selling, and curated content. 

·       Content marketing looks set to see more connections, creator + brand partnerships, and the evergreen need to create valuable content.

·       You'll hear a lot about marketing automation in 2023, not least in available tools and the much-anticipated GPT-4.

·       Martech is also set to keep growing, CRO will take a further lead. And the metaverse will not be going away.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA AND INFLUENCER MARKETING TRENDS

There are some really interesting trends down the line in 2023 for social media. In fact, it’s an area of marketing that will see significant change and brands need to keep up to have a presence and use the platforms effectively. 

 

Decentralizing social media to create a ‘super app’

The changes at Twitter have shone a lens on the vulnerability of social media platforms. Customers are moving away from wanting to engage with billionaire-led platforms and instead have control over their content and data.

 

Battisby thinks that “we are moving towards a need for the decentralization of social networks. Some of the new and exciting platforms that we're seeing include Mastodon, which is seeing a huge amount of downloads over the last couple of weeks. And it’s an interesting tool because it is built by the masses.”

 

Other apps are in the works like BlueSky, which is being developed by Twitter’s ex-CEO, Jack Dorsey. More an infrastructure than a platform, the company describes it as “a new foundation for social networking which gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience."

 

The ‘creator economy’ will grow and change

As brand awareness becomes more of a focus on social media (as opposed to pure lead generation), marketers need to find creators that have a voice and fan base (small or otherwise).

 

It can be a challenge for brands to create content that engages customers in a time-starved world. That’s where content creators come in and that doesn’t mean high-level influencers. It can mean employees, customers, or even subject matter experts in a niche area.

 

“Since COVID we've seen a new social media culture that focuses not on the number of followers, but on the content itself, in this era of what they're calling ‘recommended media’. I believe this pushes brands even more to work with influencers and content creators,” says Neal Schaffer, social media leader, and author.

 

The emergence of content creator funds on TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch means there’s an incentive for creators to put time into creating content a brand could take advantage of.

 

2. B2B MARKETING TRENDS

 

B2B marketing can be seen as boring or at least less exciting than its B2C counterparts. But that need not be the case. As a B2B company, it’s important to be creative in your marketing and use the channels and tools available to be memorable.

 

Video, video, and more video

 

As marketers, we all know the power of a great video campaign as a way to inform and connect. After all, 86 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 92 percent value it as an important part of their strategy .

 

The same research showed the variety of reasons businesses use video with the top being explainers followed by social media videos and presentations. The top three channels companies use are YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.

 

For B2B companies, video can play an important role in the sales and marketing cycle. This is particularly true on LinkedIn as video has become more popular on the platform and offers a way to connect with and influence customers.

 

Empower teams to use social selling

 

Social media is an effective way for brands and their sales team to connect with customers. This is particularly true for B2B companies that have longer sales cycles and rely on digital channels to provide useful and relevant information.

 

But there’s a difference between posting content that pushes a sales message and using content to engage and create connections. Social transformation expert and author, Julie Atherton believes that’s what will drive success for businesses in 2023.

 

3. CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS

 

The Content Marketing Institute found that while 78 percent of marketers have a strategic approach to managing content, only over half have a documented content strategy in place to reference. That’s a mistake in today’s content-hungry society.

 

Use content to drive connections

We know as marketers that content can be used at all stages of the marketing and sales funnel to provide information and solutions. But content can do more than that.

 

In 2023, you should use content to make connections and build communities. As customers become more interested in the value and ethos of brands, it will be companies that foster and seek out connections that will succeed.

 

Refine and define creator/brand partnerships

There’s a lot of noise online, which equals a lot of content. Some of the content out there is great, but a lot is aligned with the wrong influencer or not targeted at the right audience. That’s where a good content creator/brand partnership can come into play.

 

Many creators want to grow and expand in 2023. This means they are looking for brand partnerships (rather than just sponsorships) that align with their content so posts feel natural and companies offer guidance and support, not just leave them to it!

 

For many creators it’s not primarily about the money, other aspects matter too as shown by Deloitte research.

 

4. MARKETING AUTOMATION TRENDS

As companies collect more data and need to execute more tasks to implement effective marketing campaigns, automation tools offer a way to automate routine and repetitive tasks at scale.

 

A shift to signal-based marketing

In 2023, there’s going to be a shift in mindset from technical-based marketing to anticipation marketing. This will enable marketers to anticipate what customers want and then feed it into automation processes.

 

This new mindset will now only make things more efficient but will enable personalization. This applies to platforms like Google Ads and also seems to be where Facebook and other social channels are heading.

5. MARTECH TRENDS 2023

 

Marketing technology – Invisio solutions - software is used to create, execute, manage, and measure the performance of content (online and offline), campaigns and experiences. It’s an effective way to streamline customer journeys and implement omnichannel marketing campaigns.