If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is that nothing stays the same. Priorities change, technology changes and people change. Marketing strategies and techniques are continually progressing. As we roll into 2023, there are several emerging and evolving marketing trends your company can leverage to light the fuse to ignite your business.
Virtual and augmented reality are at the top of the list of 2023 marketing trends. Of course, there are many other affordable and less complex trends and tactics to add to your strategy this year. Here are just a few.
Switch to omnichannel marketing. While multichannel and omnichannel marketing utilize multiple marketing channels, including social media, website, direct mail, content and email marketing, omnichannel works from a customer-centered model. It involves the integration of the customer journey to create a consistent, personalized customer experience across all channels.
Get your brand voice heard with voice search. Customers often use voice search to locate businesses, stores or services near them, and companies need to optimize voice search to rank well in local searches. Research predicted that 55 percent of American households would own a smart speaker by 2023, and 55 percent of B2B voice searches are conducted from mobile devices. It is essential to stay current on voice search technology and trends and develop a sound strategy to be heard.
Engage your audience with conversational marketing. Conversational marketing allows for one-on-one interaction with your customers in real time. Some popular conversational marketing tools are chat, chatbots. messaging apps, virtual assistants, phone and personalized emails. When done well, conversational marketing helps you understand your customers better, ensures a better customer experience, improves lead generation and helps move buyers through your sales funnel faster.
Emphasize a better content experience. Most companies understand the importance of providing value-added content like blogs, email, social media, white papers and more. Focusing on the customer experience can enhance your content strategy and get your customers excited about and loyal to your brand. Add trending tactics like interactive content, user-generated content, video content and success stories to your strategy, and introduce empathetic content to your toolbox. Empathetic content centers around putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and creating content that speaks to them, where they are right now. It is the overlap between your expertise, products and services and what your audience cares about. Really get to know your customers and let them know what is important to them is also important to your business.
Embrace new techniques to obtain and utilize customer data. As people demand more privacy online, we are entering a new age of data marketing. Most web browsers have ended third-party cookies and Google is set to do so in 2023. Targeted advertising and personalized content are going to be more challenging, but not impossible. You simply must find new methods to collect and utilize customer data for marketing, like first-party cookies, and these methods need to focus on transparency and authenticity to gain insights on your customers.
There will always be change, but if you stay up to date on new technologies and marketing strategies, you will continue to gain traction in your industry and attract and retain loyal customers. ●
Kelly Borth is CEO and chief strategy officer at GREENCREST
