No Rules in 2023: Upcoming Digital Marketing Trends

Photo courtesy of Carlos Muza via Unsplash

Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Know

Over the summer, we made a few predictions about upcoming social media trends that caught our eye. Well, as 2022 draws to a close it was pretty clear that we didn’t go nearly crazy enough with our predictions to match the reality of the social media landscape. 

We’ve learned that billionaires can buy social networks on a whim and absolutely decimate the viability of that platform for advertisers overnight. We’ve learned that even behemoths like Meta are not immune to governmental oversight. We’ve learned that those funny dances might be cause for a national security risk. Yep, it’s been a weird and wild year here on the Internet. 

But, with 5 billion people logging on every day, there is only one place you need to be if you’re looking to market yourself in 2023. With unpredictability running the day, the only common rule is that there are no rules. In this lawless space, we have to make our own rules. Grab hold of your voice and create campaigns that can produce consistent results no matter the circumstances.

Omnichannel Marketing

While the term omnichannel marketing was only coined in 2015, the concept has existed for a long time. In short, omnichannel marketing is a communication strategy that improves the customer experience by taking advantage of multiple outlets. Originally, omnichannel marketing could have referred to a combination of radio advertisements, newspaper advertisements and billboards that reached consumers in different ways. However, the need to create a term arose with the advent of social media and the necessity for businesses to have a presence there. 

For example, a customer might have reached out with a complaint or even left a positive comment on a Facebook post. You respond with a solution that leaves the customer happy on Facebook, but in the time it took you to respond they dashed off a series of tweets complaining about your lack of customer service. As hard as it is to keep track of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and even your own website, it is imperative that you do so in order to control your own narrative.

Additionally, you never know where your next sale might come from. It could be from a retweet by a verified account on Twitter. It could be from an innocuous TikTok that goes viral. It could be from an automated abandoned cart email.

Taking Advantage of Google Analytics

With so many different platforms, it can be difficult to truly see where your conversions are coming from. Is the bump in sales thanks to a viral Instagram post? Is your new mobile app actually driving traffic to your web store? 

Google Analytics 4 holds the answer. This “next generation” of analytics has the ability to get incredibly technical while still easy to read for non-experts. The demographic targeting is getting more and more finetuned every day. The data taken from Google Analytics can be utilized to improve ads run through social media platforms and Google Ads, itself. The world’s largest online digital advertiser should be a key component of your digital marketing strategy in 2023.

Email Marketing

As the tide of social networks rise and fall, nothing can be taken for certain. Yes, at this point there are certain platforms that feel too big to fail, but as Twitter has shown us recently, you truly never know what might happen—and then, the thousands of followers that you’ve accumulated could disappear in an instant.

2023 is the year to decrease your reliance on platforms that you don’t control. The easiest way to do this is by building out your email subscriber list. Email newsletters are a fantastic way to reach your loyal customers and followers directly. You are not beholden to the daily changes of algorithms that boost certain posts while ignoring others. 

You can get especially creative while building your email list. An easy way to grow subscribers is by offering a discount code for first time visitors to your website by submitting their email. Of course, you can always use the emails collected from your online orders. A more labor intensive technique that is exploding in popularity is by writing an e-book that people can receive for free—in exchange for their email, of course. Writing an entire book might seem overwhelming, but these e-books rarely exceed 50 pages and have an incredible return on investment.

There are several schools of thought about how often you should send marketing emails. Twice a month is a great place to start and then up that number to once a week after six months to a year of consistent emailing. Then, of course, pull back if you are seeing your subscriber numbers drop with the added emails.

It is also important to keep in mind while creating email campaigns how people are seeing your marketing emails. 41% of views come from mobile devices and 19% come from tablets. Put that together and 60% of your views are coming from iOS or Android operating systems. Make sure your email is properly formatted for the majority of readers!

Podcast Marketing

It’s time to start thinking outside of the box in 2023. Everyone’s eyeballs are glued to their phones and social media, but what about their ears? While AM and FM radio listeners are down year over year, podcasts are becoming a booming business. 41% of Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month. Among those, the average podcast listener clocks in 6 hours and 39 minutes per week on their favorite shows. With numbers like these, it’s clear that running advertisements on popular podcasts—or even starting your own podcast—can be a great use of ad dollars.

Podcasts are a unique opportunity to reach people when they are otherwise occupied (commuting, cooking, cleaning, exercising, etc.) On top of that, the ads are typically read by trusted hosts, which give the content of the ads extra trust and authority.

Native Advertising

Finally, another avenue to look down for digital marketing trends in 2023 is native advertising. Native advertising is nothing new, but with the proliferation of ad blockers it is rising in prominence. 

Over the last few years, native advertising has mostly consisted of sponsored content. Even A-list celebrities have gotten in on the game. However, consumers are getting savvier and #sponcon does not have the same amount of juice it once did. Higher quality content that emphasizes education is much more effective. 

Blogging is going to continue to be a major sector for native advertising next year. You can improve the SEO on your website by posting regularly on a blog. You can also draw more attention to your website by teaming up with influencers or other companies for guest blogs. Positioning yourself as an expert in your field and providing helpful information for potential customers can pay dividends. A more informed customer is a better customer who will be more likely to return in the future.

Blogs and other native advertising is one are you will not want to miss out on in 2023.

Prepare for the Future of Digital Marketing

Are you looking to be on the cutting edge of digital marketing trends? Meerkat Media Group has you covered! With experience in ecommerce, hospitality, food, and more, we have the know-how to reach the audience you want. Contact us today for more information on taking your digital marketing to the next level.