Although we can't predict what the future holds for 2023, we can confidently say that digital marketing will play a vital role in branding and advertising.

During economic uncertainties, the natural instinct is to cut back on marketing spend; fortunately, brands all over the country are resisting the urge. And instead, they're going full throttle with their marketing efforts to reach and connect with more customers.

After all, a New Year offers new ways to market your company. It also gives you an opportunity to step back and ensure you’re staying on trend with emerging technologies that improve your brand's interactions with new and returning customers, such as: 

• Building a responsive website design
• Improving mobile experiences
• Improving media efficiencies
• Leveraging AI/ML and voice search technologies
• Optimizing content strategies and short-form videos to increase reach and awareness
• Ensuring better data protection to build users’ trust and loyalty

Therefore, despite any fears of the unknown, business owners are taking it upon themselves to speed up their digital marketing efforts, so they don’t fall behind the competition. 

Are You Ready for 2023?

The digital world will continue to evolve in the coming years; therefore, marketers and businesses must adapt to stay relevant. To give you a head start on what to expect in 2023, here are 8 marketing trends that will make a significant impact in the New Year.

1) More Businesses Will Utilize AI/ML

There’s no doubt about it. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will continue to transform how we advertise to customers and manage business operations. It’s true that Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will gain more popularity each year. Nevertheless, you’ll want to keep your attention on pragmatic AI/ML technologies that aim to solve real-world challenges. 

Remember, AI and ML are already used to improve customer service, automate processes, and provide insights into unique user behaviors—think Chatbots, Conversational AI, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). 

Such technologies allow brands to:

• Interact with users
• Streamline services and customer support
• Increase sales
• Improve efficiencies
• Create a personalized experience

Today, more marketers are using AI tools to automate email campaigns, generate trending topics for blog articles or to post on social media, and display relevant ad campaigns that target customers based on interests (i.e., ones who are more likely to convert). 

As more marketers become familiar (and comfortable) with utilizing AI/ML to improve the user's experience, we can expect to see new products and ML capabilities emerge in 2023 and beyond.

2) The Rise of Voice Search Will Continue

Alexa, Siri, Google Voice Search, and other voice-automated assistant tools continue to appear in homes across the country. In fact, 71% of customers prefer to conduct their search queries by voice, and 75% of American households are expected to own at least one smart speaker by 2023. 

So naturally, marketers must ensure their websites and apps are optimized for voice search to create a seamless shopping and search experience.

3) Businesses Will Increase Focus on SEO

The best way to market your business online is through SEO (search engine optimization). This involves ensuring your content (i.e., pages, images, videos, meta tags, URLs, etc.) is optimized for search engines and relevant to users.

It's important to remember that Google doesn't just look at how many times your site appears on the SERPs; it looks at how relevant your content is to the keywords used in a particular search query. Therefore, the more value you provide to users, the higher you'll rank. 

We recommend performing an SEO audit of your website to ensure you're managing foundational and on-page SEO correctly and efficiently. 

4) Short-Form Video Content Will Dominate

Video content creation is still one of the most powerful marketing trends. It’s an effective way to connect and engage with customers personally and its popularity is only expected to increase in the New Year.

TikTok, for example, will experience more growth in 2023, as 56% of marketers who currently leverage the platform are planning to increase their investment in 2023—the highest of any social media app.

From how-to tips to brand storytelling and social influencers, short-form video content is a great way to communicate ideas and provide value to your customers. It also helps businesses stand out from competitors by humanizing your brand so it’s more relatable. 

The best part? You don’t need a massive budget to create user-friendly content that helps you engage with more audiences.

5) Brands Will Need to Streamline Media Efficiencies

Utilizing paid media can significantly enhance the reach and effectiveness of marketing messages, influencing the attitudes and behaviors of target audiences. As paid media is often a significant component of digital marketing budgets, it's important to continually seek ways to improve efficiency to optimize the return on ad spend. 

One approach to enhancing efficiency is to optimize website structure for paid media campaigns, including creating relevant and clear landing pages and designing custom landing pages with effective calls-to-action. It is also advisable to organize the campaign structure in a way that facilitates easy segmentation and analysis, such as by key performance indicator (KPI) goals. 

Utilizing real-time data to target high-demand areas through tools such as heat maps can also improve efficiency. In addition, social media campaigns should focus on building relationships and producing relevant and engaging content, rather than solely relying on algorithm-driven ads.

Regular testing and optimization of paid media efforts, using data and insights to inform decisions, is crucial for improving media efficiency.

6) Users Want Improved Experiences Across All Devices

Most users will either search or land on your website using a smart device. Therefore, your site must be responsive for mobile and tablet—not just desktop.

Slow loading speeds, poor navigation, or any type of disruption in a user’s experience will ensure customers leave your site and find someone else. Therefore, if you’ve been putting off UI/UX design, make sure 2023 is the year you prioritize it.

7) Customer Privacy Will Be Non-Negotiable 

The internet has become a significant part of our lives, and we rely on it for everything—from shopping to banking. However, like anything, it’s certainly not perfect. 

Therefore, customers will want to know how you collect and use their information to ensure you're not selling their data. They also want to feel confident that their information is safe from potential data breaches and cyber-attacks.

As a result, you'll need to ensure you're implementing the best security practices and tracking tools to protect their information while still providing a personalized experience. And since Google will be phasing out third-party cookies, now is the time to get serious about utilizing other tracking tools that keep your customers’ data secure and protected.

Read our latest article for more tips and strategies on how to market in a cookie-less future. 

8) Users Will Want Memorable Content

Blogging will remain a staple in 2023 as it’s one of the easiest, and most effective ways, to improve SEO, including helping brands rank for relevant keywords and keeping websites updated with fresh, relevant copy for Google to crawl. However, you'll also want to consider adding other content options that engage users and keep them on your site longer.

Interactive content, for example, helps create a fun, memorable experience. It may include:

• Quizzes
• Polls
• Calculators
• Contests
• Augmented reality (AR)

For instance, if you offer a particular service, such as paving commercial parking lots or installing solar panels on homes, consider adding a calculator tool that allows users to share information about their project and understand what type of investment they're taking on. 

Again, this provides your company with valuable data and ensures you're always getting quality leads more likely to convert—saving your sales team time from estimating a quote that is outside of a customer’s budget.

Stay on Trend with East Shore Marketing

At East Shore Marketing, we can help you build, or refresh, your marketing strategy with competitive media buying, paid advertising, and content marketing solutions for video, social media, audio streaming, and more!

We invite you to request a consultation today to learn more about our capabilities. Let us help you build a creative marketing strategy that means business—and a better ROI—in 2023 and beyond.