Marketing Trends for 2023

1. World Class Customer Experience

Every year is the year of the customer. We’re seeing a massive shift in beliefs about what
marketing actually is. It’s no longer about trying to convince people to buy from or work
with your company. Instead, the priority has moved towards providing fantastic customer
experiences that will keep people coming back for more. When you focus on building a
positive business culture and providing great service, the marketing almost takes care of
itself.

2. Employee Activation: A Giant Leap Beyond Engagement

If efficient and friendly service is the cornerstone of great customer experience, how do you
ensure you’re providing this? The answer, of course, is in your employees. The previously
mentioned research also found that 46% of consumers will abandon a brand if its employees
are not knowledgeable, and bad employee attitude is the number one factor that stops
individuals from doing business with a company.

3. Story-Driven Content Visualization

Story-driven content visualization is a new way of telling a story through data. It is an

interactive and visual way of storytelling that uses data to illustrate the story. It is also known
as 'data visualization' or 'information graphics. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
While advancements in voice search are certainly influencing the way that we’ll create
content now and in the future, you shouldn’t neglect visual content and the basic elements of
brand storytelling.

Research has shown that people prefer visual content to plain text. You just have to look at
the growth of image-focused platforms Pinterest and Instagram to see the proof of this.

4. Personalization: Your Key to Their Heart

When a customer has two relatively equal products in front of her, and she needs to decide
which one she’ll buy, my money’s on the brand that won her heart. One of the ways to
engage your customers’ hearts as well as their heads is to personalize marketing to meet their
needs. Google is set to phase out third-party cookies by the end of next year due to rising
privacy concerns. Cookies play a role in target marketing by tracking a user's behavior across
the web so marketers can deliver a customized experience. In order to remain relevant, brands
are testing alternative targeting solutions to continue developing highly personalized content
and ads.
5. Conversational marketing

There was a time when sales and customer service were formal processes. Representatives
used “sir” and “ma’am,” and making an inquiry required significant time — a phone call, a
visit to the store, and in recent years an email or online form.

Today? Sales and customer service reps (and bots) are chatting with customers through
instant message. The interactions are like those you might have with a friend. It all centers
around other trends, some that we’ve already talked about, like the need for personalization
and more human-centered interactions.

6. Strategic Marketing Transformation

When you’re reading about up-and-coming trends in an article like this, it’s all too easy to
think that being successful in marketing can be simplified to following a list of best practices
and making sure you’re using the latest techniques and technology. Strategic marketing
transformation is the term used to describe the process when a business operating without a
strategic marketing plan evolves by changing its fundamental business processes and
procedures.

Undergoing a marketing transformation can help companies to improve customer service and
experience, boost brand awareness and reputation, and ultimately increase revenue and
profits.

7. Push Notifications

Two things are driving the emergence of push notifications as a digital marketing trend. First,
the email marketing landscape is becoming so saturated that it’s only getting more difficult to
truly connect with your audience through that channel. Second, people are increasingly using
mobile phones for all types of online activity — including brand search and online shopping.

It makes sense, then, that brands are turning to push notifications as a more effective way to
capture customer attention. Today, more than half of consumers are allowing push
notifications on their phone so brands can get in touch with them.
8. Featured Snippets in Google Search

SEO will continue to be an important aspect of digital marketing as we move into 2021, but
we’re now seeing one of the most major shifts in the SEO industry in the last decade.

With the growth of mobile and voice search, people are changing the way they use search
engines like Google. Being number one in the search engine result pages or SERPS is no
longer necessarily the primary goal your business should be aiming for.

9. Social Commerce

Social commerce isn’t new, but it is finally becoming a mainstream form of shopping. Brands
are becoming savvier than ever about leveraging influencer marketing, creating ads that fit
seamlessly into social media feeds, and integrating their ecommerce platforms with social
media channels.

Instagram and Tik Tok have been particularly influential in accelerating the social commerce
trend. Instagram Checkout makes it easier than ever for brands to advertise and sell their
products directly through the platform.

Tik Tok is absolutely changing the game when it comes to influencer marketing with tools
like Creator Marketplace, where brands can find creators that align with their products and
interests, and Tik Tok Shopping, which allows brands to more meaningfully engage with
customers right through the app. Research by Statista shows that social commerce is on the
rise for 2023 and not slowing down any time soon.

10. Influencer marketing will continue to boom.

It’s no surprise that influencer marketing will continue to boom throughout 2023. As of now,
it’s responsible for bringing in, on average, $5.20 for every $1 spent on this type of
marketing.

What was once only used by a handful of marketers is now being used by almost every
business that exists digitally. Some influencers’ influence, whether through Tiktok to,
Instagram or YouTube, or companies collaborating with these users, can generate a great
ROI. Businesses should be careful when understanding exactly what type of influencers they
need for their brand. Marketers can fall short with this type of marketing because they’ve
chosen the wrong individuals who don’t have the relevant audience or reach.

11. Voice Search

I’ve mentioned voice search a couple of times already, so you knew it was going to be on this
list. Voice search shows no sign of slowing down and will continue to be a major influence
on how brands create content and market themselves online.

We’re not quite at the commonly cited prediction that 50% of searches will be driven by
voice in 2021 (we’re currently sitting at about 20% according to Google), but this statistic is
probably not that far in the future. The smart speaker business is booming, with around a
quarter of US households now owning a Google Home, Amazon Echo, or another smart
speaker.

12. AI-Based Automation

Will 2021 be the year of the rise of the robots? Maybe (but hopefully not in the Terminator-
style of dystopian science fiction movies!)

We’ve already seen huge advancements in AI over the last few years, and a great increase in
the number of businesses using AI-powered technology and automation to assist their
marketing efforts.

AI is one of the major technologies behind voice search and smart assistants. It’s also made
chatbots possible, which are now popping up on more websites than ever before.

13. Video Marketing

Research by Cisco found that video accounts for 82% of all online traffic. Videos
are 53x more likely to generate first-page SERP rankings than other SEO tactics.
Today, 84% of consumers have been convinced to purchase a product after watching a video.

Not to mention that nearly all digital marketers — 93% — say that video is currently a core
part of their content strategy.
14. Focus on Customer Retention, Loyalty and Advocacy

A huge part of providing a great customer experience is making sure that CX is ongoing and
focused on keeping your existing customers, rather than just attracting new ones.

Recurring customers are more valuable than new customers. Studies have found that it costs
five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep a new one, so it’s definitely
worth putting in the effort to keep your customers happy.

15. Live Video

The live video industry is expected to be worth over $70 billion by 2021. Live video is
incredibly popular with consumers, and people spend three times longer watching live
video than they do watching pre-recorded video.

Video is also the most popular way for consumers to learn about new products.

16. Representation and inclusivity

Marketing and advertising professionals have made great strides in diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) efforts in the last couple of years, but it’s still an issue that will need to be
improved in 2023. It’s more important than ever to ensure your marketing tactics don’t
alienate portions of your target audience.

17. Emphasis on consumer privacy

Among recent controversies regarding privacy and security, many reputable companies are
developing new systems to ensure customers feel secure when providing their personal
information. While identity theft and data breaches have always existed, the rise in
cyberattacks has consumers realizing just how vulnerable their data is.

18. Gen Z Will Continue to Influence Marketing More Than Millennials

The marketing industry has been obsessed with Millennials for the past two decades. In fact,
a Google search currently yields around 129 million results for the search term “millennials”,
compared to only around 7.2 million for the previous “generation x”.

19. Growth in Emerging Markets and a More Diverse Audience

Emerging markets in Asia have grown significantly over the last decade and are expected to
continue to grow over the next ten years.

Over a billion new middle-class consumers from countries like China, India, and Indonesia
will be added to the global pool of consumers.

20. Growth in Emerging Markets and a More Diverse Audience

Emerging markets in Asia have grown significantly over the last decade and are expected to
continue to grow over the next ten years.

Over a billion new middle-class consumers from countries like China, India, and Indonesia
will be added to the global pool of consumers.

21. Responsible Consumerism

Today’s consumers are more aware than ever before of the effect their buying habits have on
the environment and society.
People are taking more care over the products they choose to buy and the brands they choose
to associate with.

22. The Internet of Everything

In 2020 the Internet of Things (IoT) has already made significant changes in how consumers
interact with brands.

Over the next decade, this trend will ramp up even more as it becomes the norm for everyday
devices to be connected to the internet.

23. The Internet of Everything

In 2020 the Internet of Things (IoT) has already made significant changes in how consumers
interact with brands. Over the next decade, this trend will ramp up even more as it becomes
the norm for everyday devices to be connected to the internet.

Smartphones, smartwatches, and smart TVs are already commonplace. The technology is
becoming smaller and cheaper all the time. In the not-too-distant future, it’s likely that almost
every electronic device will be “smart” in some way. Even more striking, smart microchips
are already being implanted in humans.

24. Hyper-Local Marketing

Along with the growth of IoT devices and increased expectation for personalized customer
experience comes increased used of geolocation data in marketing.

Local marketing is certainly not a new concept. Even the largest global brands recognize the
value of customizing their marketing messages on a local level. And search engines like
Google have become very good at serving up businesses in the local area whether you’re
looking for a coffee or a new pair of shoes.

But geolocation services are due to step things up a notch. Eight in 10 marketers currently use
location data in their marketing strategy and 94% plan to do so in the future.