The growth in demand and use of the metaverse, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and tumultuous world events made for a dynamic end of 2022. In 2023, business owners have their work cut out for them when it comes to staying on the cutting edge of digital marketing.
Here are seven digital marketing trends business owners should consider leveraging in 2023 for better brand awareness, greater customer loyalty, and increased revenue.
[Read more: What Is Digital Marketing?]
User-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) continues to grow in popularity for several reasons—it’s cheap, it’s authentic, and it gets results. Businesses with existing customers who create content about why they love a product or service have the unique and powerful advantage of word-of-mouth marketing that self-promotion campaigns can’t touch.
The use of UGC varies widely and can include images or videos of real customers interacting with a product, video reviews of a product or company experience, and live unboxings of products.
Artificial intelligence
The late 2022 advent of ChatGPT brings AI to digital marketing’s center stage. However, experts and amateurs agree that as powerful as machine learning has become, nothing can replace human intuition. Therefore, instead of relying on AI to do the marketing for you, let it do the rote, painstaking research and brainstorming in a fraction of the time it’d take you to do.
Examples of AI usage for marketing tasks include writing schema code, crafting content outlines, brainstorming a list of 100+ blog topics, and compiling keyword seed lists.
Short videos
It’s no surprise that quick, digestible content like that seen on TikTok, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Reels garners the majority of engagement on social platforms today. Consumers have busy lives and short attention spans — meaning marketers have mere seconds to state their message in a way that resonates with their target audience.
If your business hasn’t made a foray into short video content yet, start following the social media accounts of similar businesses to get an understanding of the content and format.
Interactive website
Webmasters have long wondered what the best balance of interactivity to educational content is. In 2023, businesses should consider experimenting with engaging, interactive elements on their websites to increase session duration and guide customers to complete a significant action before leaving their site.
Try to incorporate calculators, virtual product testing, interactive infographics, and intuitive quizzes to engage your customers and keep them on your website long enough for you to persuade them to take the next step in the sales process.
[Read more: Digital Marketing Checklist—All the Digital Tools Your Startup Needs Before Launch]
Consumers have busy lives and short attention spans — meaning marketers have mere seconds to state their message in a way that resonates with their target audience.
Conversational marketing
Using chatbots to level up conversational marketing will continue as a digital marketing trend in 2023. While many businesses have implemented chatbots, the conversationality of the AI helpers will become more nuanced in 2023, providing specific instructions and solutions to customers without the business expending time or additional resources.
Not only does conversational marketing make your business feel more human when the only interaction a customer has with you is your website, but it also provides a better user experience and, in turn, strengthens brand loyalty.
Social responsibility
With Gen Z's purchasing power and market share on the rise, the generation’s values are bleeding into every facet of the business world. 2023 is another year in which businesses should prioritize inclusivity and social responsibility in their marketing efforts.
The spectrum varies widely, but examples of ensuring your brand authentically represents its values include making your website accessible for differently-abled customers, transparently communicating about social issues, and using inclusive language across all your platforms.
Metaverse
Business use of the metaverse continues to be a trend in digital marketing. As the metaverse raises more private capital, more users will flock to the immersive, one-of-a-kind experience.
Businesses should start strategizing, if they haven’t already, about the ways they can take their first steps into the metaverse. Offering collectibles like custom NFTs, hosting an immersive event, or offering product trials might function as your first investment into the new virtual space.
[Read more: What Is the Metaverse?]
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