Marketing moves fast and understanding future marketing trends and how to implement them into your strategies is crucial in keeping your brand at the forefront of people’s minds.
Take a look at 11 of the most important digital marketing trends to know for 2023 and why each one will play a critical role in your marketing strategies moving forward.
1. AI in Marketing
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a prominent future marketing trend and it’s very popular in different parts of marketing. Not only is it useful in data analysis to spot trends and make predictions, but now it’s being used in more creative-focused ways like copywriting and graphic design.
83% of businesses claim that AI is a top priority for their business and the market for AI products is estimated to be over $136 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach nearly $300 billion by 2026. In other words: it’s growing fast, and businesses are taking note.
For marketers, there are numerous new tools to help marketers write and design while only having to assist the AI through prompt creation and context information like the audience, length, topic, etc. Though it’s not advised to rely solely on AI for all your copy or design projects, they can act as a great starter or as inspiration to jumpstart the creative minds of your teams.
For example, an AI-generated email will typically sound like it’s written by a computer. It’s stiff, uses typical marketing buzzwords, has a highly standard structure, and tends to lack that spark of life that good writers can inject into their work.
But an AI tool can be a big help to speed up these projects by eliminating some of the biggest roadblocks of content creation, such as the well-known “fear of the blank page” that can sometimes bog down copy projects. AI-generated copy can act as a great jumping-off point to jumpstart projects.
For designers, AI-generated art may not be the perfect solution, either, but it can spark inspiration or be used as a starting point, also.
It’s worth pointing out that a lot of this technology is very young, and it is making large improvements seemingly every month. 2023 might be the best time to have your teams become accustomed to AI tools and using them in their daily work.
2. User Generated Content and Other Short Form Videos
There’s no more genuine piece of marketing than one done by your own satisfied customers. User-generated content (UGC) is created when customers, employees, brand loyalists, or even your own employees post about your company in a positive light. Whether it’s pictures showcasing your latest product, sharing a joyful experience with your team, or other types of content, it’s essentially free advertising of the most authentic variety (unless you paid someone to do it, of course).
Why is user-generated content so important moving forward? Because of its authenticity, UGC stands out more than standard ads or influencer promotions, especially because people are consistently bombarded with these types of ads. Because of this, people now have incredible sensors for the “fakeness” that plagues paid promotions.
Instead, UGC comes from real customers and brings an often-unobtainable amount of authenticity for businesses. And people react to it. Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view UGC over paid promotions and 80% of people say UGC impacts their purchasing decisions.
3. Using Technology to Continue to Align Marketing and Sales
Aligning sales and marketing seems like a constant goal for business leaders, but that’s for good reason. Aligning these two is important. They exist in a symbiotic relationship where one feeds the other and vice versa and, if they’re not working together effectively, both sides become less effective. Organizations with aligned sales and marketing teams typically see an increased chance that they'll exceed their revenue goals.
So, why is this a future marketing trend for 2023? Because technology is always changing and creating new ways for these two departments to work together. Internal communications tools, open access to data and other databases, AI, cloud technology, and strategic decisions are all things businesses need to look into to bring these departments closer together.
4. Influencer Marketing and New Uses of Social Media
Social media is evolving. With new platforms coming into play, new people taking over old platforms, and old platforms reinventing what they are, businesses and marketing teams are having to constantly evaluate their strategies.
One future marketing trend to watch for in social media is the continued rise of influencer marketing. As shopping goes more and more social, influencers become more and more valuable. Influencers not only bring a highly dedicated fanbase, but they also allow businesses to easily find niche audiences and advertise to them in slightly more genuine ways than just planting ads on their feed. Influencers are entertainers at heart and getting your product into their hands is a good way to show it off without coming across as just another ad.
This goes hand in hand with other social media trends that have seen more businesses turn to social platforms to do their selling. Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, and other platforms now have tools that allow you to sell directly on their app or to set up shop-focused pages to showcase products.
In some cases, like Facebook, a business’ entire web presence can be hosted there effectively. Customer service, audience communication, content creation, and advertising can all be done on one platform.
And it’s working! Social commerce sales are estimated to top $992 billion this year and to hit $3 trillion by 2026.
5. An Experiential Marketing Comeback
The pandemic shut down any chances for brands to interact with customers live and in person in 2020, right as experiential marketing began climbing into relevance and brands began planning unique and viral experiences around their products.
Now, this trend appears to be coming back around. As people are more and more likely to return to these types of events and pop-ups, brands are bringing them back. Additionally, the rise of AR/VR technology, and the increase in its availability to the public, has seen businesses push for more virtual experiences, too.
6. Personalization and Conversational Marketing
80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from your business if offered a more personalized experience. The data clearly shows that people want and react better to personalized marketing which is why it’s crucial for businesses to do more personalized campaigns.
Whether it’s adding names to emails, sending curated content, or identifying specific pain points in their industry, showing that you’ve done your research and that you’re willing to go the extra mile to connect with them will put your brand firmly at the top of their mind when purchasing decisions are being made.
In 2023, increased amounts of data collection allows businesses to know more about their audiences than ever before. Be sure you’re using your data to make the best decisions for specific subsets of your audience to offer the most personalized experience that you can.
7. Voice-Optimized Search
Just like how businesses have now had to optimize their SEO for mobile searching, in 2023 they may do the same thing but with voice search as more people turn to Alexa and Siri to do their searching for them. 20% of searches are currently done via voice search and that number is climbing upward as more homes have smart speakers and other devices capable of web searching.
This is becoming especially prevalent on YouTube where people can now use their voice-capable remotes to search while lying on the couch rather than typing with their remote one letter at a time.
Shorter key phrases, adjusted phrasing, building branded voice skills, and other new tactics should be gracing your strategy meetings in 2023.
8. The Metaverse
The often-discussed metaverse seems like a constant looming challenge for marketers. For a while, it has seemed far off in the distance due to the cost and rarity of good VR goggles required to access it, but as technology catches up, the metaverse grows nearer.
So, in 2023, it will be worth discussing how your brand will utilize these digital spaces in your marketing. Typical uses so far have been branded spaces, digital clothing, unique metaverse experiences, and more, but this technology is just now beginning to blossom so its true uses may have not yet been discovered by creative marketers.
9. Interactive Content
Marketers agree that interactive content has major positive effects on marketing materials. Higher audience engagement rates, increased lead generation, more brand loyalty, and a better learning experience are just some of the benefits of bringing interactivity to your content strategies in 2023.
Creative types of content like the ones below will help your brand stand out and provide a memorable moment for those who come to your content.
Types of interactive marketing content include:
- Quizzes
- Interactive infographics
- Calculators
- Polls
- Maps
- Assessments
- Videos
- Games
10. Learning to Use VR and AR
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR and AR, respectively) have been a long time coming. The technology has been evolving for quite a while, but just recently it has reached the point of mass acceptance and brands are now tasked with using it to create unique and memorable experiences.
Creating simulated experiences that consumers can have in their own homes, or at an event, is a chance to unload your team’s creativity because, in the metaverse, literally anything is possible.
11. Marketing Around Privacy Concerns
Marketers everywhere know that we’re using more data than ever before, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that to get that data, people have to give it up willingly. The human element of data collection is not something that should be forgotten, though.
As privacy becomes more of a hot-button issue with users, businesses must assess their data collection strategies and stances and make them clear to their audience. A poor privacy and data policy or mishandling of data can severely impact user trust. A bad privacy experience is enough to make 43% of the people surveyed switch brands altogether.
In Conclusion
2023 will be another year of change and flux for marketers and the way they use technology to engage with their audiences. Future marketing trends are constantly changing and staying up to date on what’s coming is the best way to keep your strategies sharp and effective.
If you want to learn more about what leaders have on their minds this year, register for our on-demand webinar, Modern Business Requirements: 2023 Business Trends, to hear from our experts on the must-know movements in IT, business technology, cybersecurity, and marketing.
