01 Dec No Rules in 2023: Upcoming Digital Marketing Trends
Digital marketing • 2023 archive
Our late-2022 outlook explored a changing landscape through connected channels, measurement, email, podcasts, and useful content.
Photo courtesy of Carlos Muza via Unsplash
Digital marketing trends we watched heading into 2023
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.
Late 2022 brought major changes at Twitter, regulatory scrutiny of Meta, and concerns about TikTok. Yep, it was a weird and wild year here on the Internet. Those events set the context for the predictions in this original article.
Unpredictability made it especially important to hold onto your brand voice and build a marketing plan that could adapt. This was our outlook for 2023, preserved here as an archive rather than a current forecast.
Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing connects the customer experience across the channels you use. It is more than showing up in several places: your website, email, social posts, and customer service should work together so people can move between them easily.
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 can help you investigate. This “next generation” of analytics has the ability to get incredibly technical while still easy to read for non-experts. Useful reports depend on accurate measurement setup and the data available to your account. 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
Build a connection you can sustain. A useful email program complements your social channels and gives subscribers a clear reason to stay.
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. Invite customers to subscribe clearly rather than assuming an order email address means they want marketing messages. 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 can give readers useful information.
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.
Make emails readable on both phones and desktop screens. Test the layout, links, and buttons before sending, and use your own audience data to understand how people read your campaigns.
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. Podcasts offer a way to reach a focused audience through relevant shows. Evaluate the fit, cost, and measurement plan before buying sponsorships or starting your own show.
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 are areas 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.
