Top Marketing Trends 2023; Moving at the speed of light
Jan 27, 2023
Change is inevitable. And consumer behaviour is bound to evolve from time to time. To survive in the dynamic environment, it is imperative for businesses of all sizes to periodically design, reshape and redesign their marketing strategies.
Marketing trends are in constant flux, and they are bound to change significantly over time, altering the mode of business conduct.
For any marketer, irrespective of their experience level, it’s not easy to keep abreast with all the changes. However, to excel in the fast-paced marketing world and maintain goodwill amongst the target audience, it’s vital to stay ahead of them.
The following are some of the marketing trends you must brace yourselves up for:
Influencer marketing and partnerships:
Influencer marketing, a modern form of word-of-mouth advertising, is gaining traction and is on the verge of being deemed a common marketing tactic of marketers. When marketers collaborate with influencers and industry-perceived leaders in their industry, they are in a better place to expand their brand awareness, generate deeper insights into consumer behaviour, target the right audience and gain loyal customers from the influencers’ follower base.
From mega-influencers to nano-influencers, influencer marketing is likely to remain a popular marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes in 2023 and beyond. Creators are going to be a significant part of a brand’s future, especially in B2C.
Collaborating with celebrities and renowned faces might charge you a hefty amount, that is where influencers come into the spotlight, helping you save for a rainy day. According to reports by Hubspot, 56% of marketers who opt for influencer marketing work with micro-influencers. Although they are social media influencers with a smaller following, their posts are more stirring owing to their higher engagement level with their followers. Having found a niche in their industry, they now play an eminent role in converting leads, boosting brand awareness and connecting with audiences. The audience feels a sense of belongingness, a higher level of resonance, and reliance on their opinions and recommendations with influencers than with celebrities since they are often considered ‘everyday’ people and are not hard to connect with.
While determining the right influencer for the brand, the true influence resides in engagement rates (clicks, subscribes, and purchases) and the quality of work of the influencer. As per Hubspot, an overwhelming 89% of marketers engaging with influencer marketing will continue to maintain their investment in 2023, and 17% of marketers are processing to invest in the domain for the first time.
Underscoring Social Responsibility and reputation:
Recent years have witnessed an escalated focus on social responsibility. With increasing awareness of the social and environmental impact of their purchase decisions, customers are becoming more mindful and prioritising brands that embrace these responsibilities by footing money-making initiatives with socially beneficial practices.
About 73% of customers are ready to pay more for a product from a brand that demonstrates social commitment. Consequently, many brands like H&M, Starbucks, Unilever PLC, PUMA SE, and McCormick & Company Incare embodying social responsibility as a crucial factor while shaping their marketing strategies. This kind of marketing comprises campaigns that focus on charitable proceedings, environment and social responsibility, and marketing professionals are religiously putting into such efforts to attract customers who make conscious purchases.
Brands have begun to pivot strategies to focus on comprehensive initiatives that highlight the causes or missions they support. While this may not deliver immediate results, showing mindfulness is effective in the long term.
Data Privacy Concerns: prompts marketers to amend strategies.
For marketers to personalize content and target ads at consumers, they require a wealth of data. But with growing privacy concerns of consumers, it’s going to be difficult for marketers to get access to such data. Almost 3/4th of Americans are ‘very concerned’ when it comes to their online privacy while 42% of people feel uncomfortable with personalised ads.
Many esteemed companies are fabricating practices and systems that ensure customer satisfaction and security to combat controversies in the context of their privacy and security, so they don’t feel uncomfortable sharing their personal information. While data breaches and identity thefts were always there, the advent of cyberattacks has made consumers feel unguarded and worrisome about their data. As per a Google survey, 73% of people use online tools to safeguard their privacy. In the mid of surging privacy concerns, Apple and Google are winding down third-party cookies, one of the leading ways for companies to collect consumer data.
Many customers avoid signing up for brands due to fear of data misuse, therefore, stringent data security enables customers to sign up for services, demos, whitepapers, etc sans contemplating data leaks and other thefts. To fulfil the goal of generating quality leads and winning consumers’ trust, it’s a wise choice to revamp the privacy software and business strategies. Instead of third-party cookies, marketers must rely on first-party cookies as it collects data directly from the customers and drives business value. Those brands who deliver the transparency that consumers demand, can in return expect data willingly get shared by the customer. As per a conclusion drawn from a research report by McKinsey, “a strong, trust-based relationship with customers may be the key to a sustainable, effective data strategy”.
Conversational Marketing and Chatbots:
Interactions with customers are the stepping stone for a successful marketing strategy. Once upon a time, sales and customer services were a formal process that was time-consuming, tedious, and slow. Fast-forward to today, sales and customer care service representatives, and bots are chatting with customers via instant messaging. These interactions are more personalised and human-centred.
Customers seek responses that are typical of their situation and needs and are quick. Conversational marketing enables targeted messaging and AI automation to engage customers when they are on a website. This trend assigns intelligent chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NPL), enabling a two-way conversation between customers with brands, that ensures instant and timely responses to customers.
With conversational marketing and a responsive channel like a chatbot, B2B will be strengthened as there’s going to be a free flow of communication with prospects, in a way that’s engaging and human.
Transitioning from an allochronic mode of marketing to real-time conservations is going to be a growing trend in 2023, imparting a valuable learning curve since AI-powered chatbots incorporate the personalization that consumers look for with the technology of the future.
Metaverse:
Defined as a 3D version of the Internet, the realm of Metaverse is projected to grow to an astounding $5 trillion by 2030. Currently being used by top brands, the possibilities of other companies to join the Metaverse bandwagon are endless, which is said to revolutionise the digital economy. Extending endless offerings to the target audience in a virtual world would bear real-life implications as well. It’s a sphere wherein people can live a digital life through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). While it’s in its nascent stages, tech experts envision it as a play where people will play, party, and socialise in the coming future. The traction of AR and VR is already blooming amongst youngsters. A plethora of metaverse marketers is emphasising establishing product placements, immersive experiences and selling NFTs. However, tech experts reckon there’s a huge probability for direct-to-avatar(D2A) sales, a new metaverse business model, as well. D2A will be all about dealing with a customer’s digital twin.
Metaverse is not just a usual online platform, it’s an excellent business framework for brands to do whatever they have been doing in the real-world scenario and is strongly gaining the traction of Gen Z consumers. As per a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global Metaverse Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 47.2%.
A gigantic rush of trends all set to conquer marketing in 2023:
Market trends come and go. The crux is to understand the needs of the audience and maintain communication with them in a way that can resonate with the brand. While most of the trends from 2022 will follow the suit in 2023, some other leading trends like Video Marketing, Content Visualisation, SEO word search, Personalisation, Experimental marketing, AI-based content automation, Chat GPT, Voice search etc are some of the other staggering trends that will rule the marketing domain. The world is going to witness major technological disruptions unfold in the coming years, which will overhaul the way businesses’ function.