Digital Marketing Trends You Don’t Want Competitors to Know in 2023

Every year digital marketing trends change, and 2023 will be no different. Getting a handle on the changes happening in digital marketing early in the year, means you can build a digital marketing strategy that still remains current and effective throughout the year ahead.

This article will help any business plan for the year ahead and focus on the trends and data which is relevant to them.

With new digital marketing technology and platforms taking centre stage in 2023, innovative companies will want to keep on top of the changes to remain competitive, but also to get more from their previous and upcoming efforts.

Some of the key digital marketing trends that will dominate the next 12 months will be:

• Providing focused, targeted and helpful content around specific user intent using longtail keywords for greater return on investment and higher qualified online leads.
• Greater use of professional social media platforms such as the grown up in the room, LinkedIn.
• Increased use of chatbots with improved AI catering for basic customer support enquiries and support of online lead generation.
• Increased interest in branded communities to enhance outreach and brand awareness without the control of big tech (which in 2022 has shown users that they’re not fully in control of external events).

Digital Marketing Trends in Social Media

What a year 2022 was for social media. The “fall” of Facebook and the upheaval at Twitter with the Elon Musk saga has caused many to take a new look at social media in 2023.

Jack Dorsey, the original founder of Twitter, is working on something called “BlueSky“, which is aimed at decentralising social media. It will be in a beta release early in 2023 and it will be interesting to see what direction and impact this has on Facebook and Twitter. It’s not a direct social media platform but and as he puts it, “protocol” for social media.

Users have continued to jump across to lesser-known platforms such as Mastadon and Discord has continued to grow further in popularity thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is the latest on the state of social media platforms, social media trends and what we can expect in 2023 as the creator economy marches on into a new year:

Facebook Userbase Increases But It’s Lost the Cool Factor

Whilst the Facebook social media platform isn’t going away any time soon, the social media platform in its current form continues to appear as though it has peaked.

The events of 2022 left Forbes wondering if the face of social media had now irrevocably changed.

• Despite its interesting rollercoaster year, in Q3 2022, Facebook was still achieving 3 billion active users a month which meant it is still the largest app in the world.
• Compared to Q3 2021, they actually gained an additional 2.91 billion users. This was a push largely from India with 24% of its population now on Facebook and related services.
• In the UK, 66% of the population remain on Facebook or related service provided by Facebook and Meta.
• Around the world, 1.62 billion users still visit Facebook each day.
• Users aged 65 and over are the platform fastest growing demographic.

It’s fair to say the stock price took more than a battering in 2022, but despite the media noise, Facebook still gets used, and used a lot each day!

WhatsApp remains part of the Facebook family and WhatsApp marketing is seen as a growing tool for companies in 2023.

WhatsApp has completely revolutionized how companies contact their customers. You can now send very personal instant messages on an app that is used by all age groups and always checked constantly.

The same can be said for Facebook Messenger, but the mere fact Facebook Messenger still uses the Facebook name has left many jumping to WhatsApp even though it’s owned by the same company.

The danger when using real-time communication tools such as WhatsApp is that it becomes harder to manage and maintain multiple points of contact. It’s why many businesses have started to resort to omnichannel platforms to capture all inputs and respond back on the related platform.

Email is often the preferred point of contact for many businesses simply because they can better control it within business hours.

What will concern Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg will be the ageing user base. The “coolness” factor has well and truly left Facebook and isn’t likely to return any time soon.

WhatsApp will also come under pressure this year in part because a number of users have jumped to Telegram.  For a more secure service, you can also check out Threema.

The Twitter Rollercoaster Will Continue as It Changes Social Media Revenue or Dies (Perhaps of Bird Flu)

What a year 2022 was for Twitter. Not only do they now have a self-proclaimed “chief twit” Elon Musk in control, but the basis on which the platform generates its money from advertising has left many scarpering and threatening the existence of the platform.

Now that Twitter is owned by an individual, it of course no longer resides on the stock market so the daily ups and downs from that are for the moment, over.

Here’s Twitter 2022/23 in summary:

• On October 27th 2022, facing a potential lawsuit, Elon Musk begrudgingly bought Twitter for around $44 billion, carrying a kitchen sink into its headquarters for dramatic effect.
• Despite the “troubles”, Twitter still has around 450 million active monthly users as of 2022 (though the jury is still out on how many of these are actual humans and not bots).
• The majority of Twitter’s demographic is made up of between 25 to 34-year-olds.
• According to Hootsuite Twitter is the 7th most popular social media platform.
• Musk claimed in November 2022 that Twitter was losing $4 million a day.
• The wider plan for Twitter is to rely more on a subscription service than a revenue advertising model.
• In January 2023, reports surfaced that millions of Twitter user emails have been stolen in an attack.

Twitter now charge for the ability to have a blue tick next to your name – something that was free previously. What is interesting about the ups and downs of Twitter, is whether or not social media being free as we know it for users is here to stay, or whether by the end of 2023, Twitter will be the new model for social media.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Twitter may lose relevance and significance, but it’s a long way from that moment at the time of writing this, the platform is predicted to decline slightly in the next few years:

Instagram and TikTok Attract the Younger Generation But Competition Arrives from BeReal

With over 2 billion users, Instagram remains a force to be reckoned with. Don’t forget, that they are also owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Some key figures for the UK market to take note of include:

• 30.6 million of these users are based in the UK.
• 25-34-year-olds account for a 30% share.
• 57% of Instagram users are women.
• £3.59 billion is earned annually through ad revenue for Instagram from the UK alone.
• As of July 2022, they had over 1.45 billion, active monthly users.

Its popularity is partly on account of its short and concise nature, which makes it ideal for sharing quick snaps and videos. This increases audience engagement and gets them ‘hooked’.

Instagram Stories has helped propel the platform and compete directly with TikTok. It’s an easy tool to utilize, especially if your business is heavily reliant on photographs and video.

TikTok also continues to grow but with tensions high between the US and China, it will be interesting to see what, if any sanctions are placed on the platform in 2023.

This is because TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company and they even recently admitted to spying on journalists from Buzz Feed, the Financial Times and Forbes to get at their sources.

• Since its launch in 2016, it now has over 1 billion users.
• The TikTok app has been downloaded over 3 billion times.
• The average session length on TikTok is 10.85 minutes which is double that of Pinterest.
• Teens and children spend on average 91 minutes a day watching TikTok videos.

These stats for Instagram and TikTok show why influencer social media marketing is still a hot topic and targeted by businesses. These apps have simply become embedded in people’s lives and it’s hard to see it changing any time soon, but not if BeReal has anything to say about it.

BeReal Take a Bow

This is one of the newest social media apps available, and it’s making a stir.  How can this be used by businesses?  Well, employees have been checking in and showing people what they have been up to on a “real” level.  My immediate thoughts are security risk but that’s just me!

When I first heard of it I thought how odd, but it’s caught on. The app is already valued at $587 million and as of yet has no basis of revenue model such as in-app advertising.

It’s a simple idea, the platform allows its users to post the highlights of their lives with their friends and lately even share this publicly at a particular moment in time.

With Instagram and TikTok users obsessed with using filters and looking perfect, BeReal is all about … being real.

It encourages users to post unfiltered pictures of themselves once a day, but at the same time and it uses both the front and back cameras on a smartphone so people can see what you look like and where you are.

Here are some stats regarding the platform and why people took note in 2022:

• 10 million active daily users (up from 2.93 million daily users in April 2022).
• $90 million in funding was acquired.
• Used by 43% of 16-25-year-olds and 55% of 26-44-year-olds.
• 58% of BeReal’s users are women.

Time will tell whether 2023 will continue to see the gains it achieved in 2022 or whether it loses it’s relevancy through the year ahead.

What Are the Biggest Social Media Channels

Here are the biggest social media channels by the end of 2022 into 2023:

As you can see Facebook remains at the top, but video is right up there in 2023 with YouTube.

You can still see how Meta continues to dominate the top of social media with Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. In what was a bad year for Meta, Facebook still comes out top at the end of 2022.

Not many would have predicted this given the media coverage and Mark Zuckerberg’s unrelenting vision and focus on the Metaverse.

Some further insights in terms of how social channels are used worth noting are:

• In the UK each person has on average 6 social media accounts.
• In the US the average is 7.
• In India, this average is a big 11.

So whilst businesses might focus on being the best on one platform (which is good advice if you are tip-toeing into social media), you can see how important it is now to have a presence on more than one platform and channel.

LinkedIn Quietly Becomes the Grown-Up in the Room

LinkedIn has been around now for many years but it’s quietly been growing through 2022 into 2023.

Within the next two years, it’s expected to cater for around 25% of all US business-to-business advertising. and what catches on in the US soon follows in the UK. This is quite a leap for the platform now owned by Microsoft.

In 2023, perhaps give LinkedIn a closer look to grow your content, audience and online authority. The platform has become the grown-up in the room and is now regarded as the go-to professional social networking platform for many social media users:

• Linked in has over 875 million users worldwide.
• Launched in 2003, it is the oldest social networking platform.
• LinkedIn saw a 22% increase in user engagement as more and more professionals got involved.
• 16.2% of LinkedIn users use it daily.
• It is used by 65 million B2B marketers.

Many social media marketers have started to pay more attention to LinkedIn towards the end of 2022 and have it planned into their social media strategies for the year ahead.

The ease of use of their app also has LinkedIn operating like many popular messaging apps, but on a professional online networking scale.

The platform can enhance your online presence and can help you attract mico influencers’ attention too.

Focused Content and Keyword Research Becomes More Important for a Greater ROI

Content marketing will continue to be a critical component of digital marketing and advertising, though there is a growing emphasis on the content of quality content.

With so much content online, the key is to get really focused in 2023 and build your content around what users are really looking for.

Not only will this mean you will be able to rank higher, but those that then land on your websites will already be interested in what you have to offer – because they’re looking for you online.

Ensuring you provide exceptional content online (accurate, in-depth and up-to-date) is still essential, but now the distribution of relevant content is more targeted and nuanced in accordance with the demographics and psychographics of the target market.

Google’s artificial intelligence is developing capabilities to interpret content more precisely on websites so it’s crucial for marketers to devise targeted strategies to improve their content.

Google advises focusing on website speed, links, and related content rather than chasing the newest SEO trends which might change in the blink of an eye.

The key to being successful with your content marketing efforts lies in understanding what keywords you want to rank for, providing content for every stage of your sales funnel and marketing funnels, and building engagement so your content becomes an ingrained part of your branding strategy.

This is the most efficient form of content marketing as it increases customer engagement, and will work for businesses of any size and in any niche.

Some of the key features that make this successful for any small to medium businesses are:

• You are able to compete equally against all businesses online.
• By using longtail keyword research you can provide content directly to your potential customers who are looking for products and services just like yours (from user intent).
• Learning what customers want to know more about and then providing them with the answers so that they come to you first.
• The ability to repurpose your content so that it becomes an asset to the business long-term (such as this article you are reading was written in 2021 but updated with more helpful content for 2023).
• Raising brand awareness by growing your organic search capabilities.
• Providing helpful support in a personalised manner direct to your customers and benefit from the SEO.
• Increasing your organic SEO ranking with keyword analysis and content strategies that increase your sales funnel leads.
• Providing carefully planned and targeted landing pages full of useful information relating to your business, product or services and keeping customers engaged in your brand.
• Growing your user base with targeted market segments as you learn what your market wants to know more about and adapting to market changes quickly.

In 2023, brands should focus on providing helpful content that customers enjoy but align this with what users are searching for too.

If the content isn’t optimised, then you may spend a long time writing content that no one can find.

On the 5th of December 2022, Google started rolling out another ‘Helpful Content’ Update.

December’s update added new signals allowing the ‘helpful content’ upgrade to ensure that unoriginal, low-quality content doesn’t rank highly in search. This means in 2023, Google is prioritising content that answers a user’s question or query over content that has been purely written to drive search engine visibility and traffic. This means your content should include FAQs to help meet the new criteria too for a quick boost.

Websites that can deliver straightforward, uncomplicated and informative content which is matched their target customer’s user intent (search phrases entered into search engines) will thrive in 2023 and beyond.

Why not plan out your first quarter content items and then match them against what your potential customers are searching for?

You can then build this into a simple content calendar and it will ensure you have a host of targeted content that people in your industry are searching for.

A quick Google search might show that your competitors are already doing it.

Websites That Become Apps

One of the more interesting trends happening online is the growth of Progressive Web Apps (PWA).  These function like your website but are more app by design.  They look like your website but perform like an app.

We’ve already been working on this at OJE Technology for some time towards the end of 2022 and there are a number of benefits this can bring to your marketing mix:

• Instead of people visiting your website, they can just open up an app and pull down your online content.
• You can send out push messaging straight to phones and tablets.
• You can grow private online communities without the need to visit a website.
• You can grow your existing website into a wider, more dispersed service.
• You can have an app for your businesses without the high-end customer development required.

There are some caveats to making this technology work, such as optimising your website for speed, but once you have the content downloaded onto the phone, they function just like any ordinary app.

Responsive web design all but killed the need for an app – and a lot of people already have too many apps on their phones.  However, the push messaging and ability to build your own community via an app makes the technology a growing trend in 2023.

Apple has strict guidelines in place and won’t just accept a website as an app, but with some additional functionality, you can have an app in 2023 for your business.

Find out if you could have an app in 2023 here.

Video Marketing and Story-Driven Content Will Keep Growing

Video content is a huge component of any online marketing plan and marketing messages, especially if you’re attempting to build your empire on the internet.

If your business isn’t currently using video marketing, try to get moving on it this year. As you saw above, YouTube is the second-highest social media channel by the end of 2022.

Services are brought to life by using video.

People are now watching more videos than ever, utilizing smart devices to watch and share videos about absolutely anything, and learning a lot more about businesses, and what they offer. Take these stats for instance from OptinMonster:

• 85% of marketers credit video as an effective way to get attention online.
• Customers retain 95% of the information contained in videos.
• On average, 37% of viewers watch right to the end.
• 80% of people prefer video over written text.

Video marketing is very engaging, especially if it’s live video.  Short-form videos are also a growing trend and we will see more and more social media video platforms adopt this as their go-to format – mainly because internet users have short attention spans yet ironically can get hooked scrolling lots of shorter videos for longer.

Live streaming is a powerful method of digital marketing when combined with influencer marketing.

Whether it’s the new generation of social media influencers or traditional sources, such as celebrities, athletes, and musicians, having a live stream is the most effective strategy for engaging with your audience.

Video content and video marketing, don’t just have to be product videos either. you could start using video voice messages for that personal touch too.

We are all so used to getting emails, that getting a video email is a very personal way to keep in touch with people. It’s like a video voicemail and it helps add greater context to your communication, with tone and facial expression.

It’s much easier to recall a graphic or text that’s been integrated with visuals, images, infographics, video clips, and other such visuals than in a textual form.

Clearly displaying your data in the form of visuals can allow it to be much more memorable. If this wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t have road signs for example. Visual clues can convey meaning, emotion and action all in a fleeting moment.

Although plain text can be powerful, visual content continues to grow in popularity.

One way videos have been used successfully by brands, is in the support of long-form content.

Search engines love high-quality, helpful content, but to keep readers engaged, businesses can embed videos to break up the text and keep people on the page for longer.

This provides a greater user experience and an SEO benefit.

If you’re stuck for ideas in terms of what videos to create, then start with:

• Product demos,
• Video messaging,
• Webinars,
• Video events,
• Live media events.

See how they’re received, tweak and go again.

If you keep your video content evergreen you can keep using it again and again.

A Branded Community Provides a Cunning Marketing Tactic

Community and branded communities are a growing trend in 2023 for digital marketing.

The nervousness around social media services such as Facebook has led to many businesses creating their own online communities. The reason is that it’s effective. There are effectively two types of online communities you can build.

The first is via creating a shared social community using something like Facebook or Discord where you have no control over the platform.

The second is to build your own community which you have complete control over. This can help make members feel more exclusive.

Here are some of the benefits of building your own online community in 2022:

• You control the platform not a third party like Facebook.
• You build trust and transparency and gain increased customer insights.
• You can gauge opinions about your products and services from user-generated content.
• You quickly build brand loyalty and a happy customer who can find solutions quickly.
• Customers remain engaged with your product or services.
• You can enable greater customer success through an online community.
• The content becomes user-generated and deals with the information that they wish to discuss most.
• Your customers feel like they belong to something bigger than just the product.
• You can support more customers faster by providing answers once.
• You build an online knowledge base of customer experiences and problem-solving.
• Creating more loyal customers and increased engagement rates.
• You get to control the conversation and marshal your own rules to match your brand and its values.
• You can provide a special VIP private members area for the most important clients.

If you’re a business owner, then building your own community will be one way to reap rewards from engaging directly with your customers frequently and in a fun way.

It also gives you another option to the standard social platforms which will help you stand out from the crowd and make you be seen to go the extra mile.

You will also be engaging directly with your target audience too and be present long after a sale has been made.

The Metaverse Will Continue to Intrigue and Evolve Beyond Meta Alone

Whilst Facebook’s core platform might have had its day in the sun for the moment, their new ecosystem coined ‘the Metaverse’ may just be the new internet experience this year which will likely continue to grow year after year.

With Apple releasing their own headset in 2023, it’s not something you can completely ignore, and it’s growing past just a gimmick too.

Businesses need to begin thinking about this virtual space moving forwards, especially as the platform and technology evolve.

More companies will be providing the hardware to access ‘the metaverse’, and given that the Oculus headset was one of the most popular Christmas presents back in 2021, there are already a lot of people in this new universe experiencing virtual realities in whole new ways.

Companies need to understand what it is so that they can assess what can be achieved within the Metaverse and tailor the customer experiences accordingly.

Big companies have begun to get involved. Starbucks launched their Odyssey and the ability to buy collectable stamps (NFTs) that unlock access to immersive coffee experiences. Their goal is to allow their community to engage more with its partners and fellow members.

Nike released their NIkeLand hosted on Roblox and provides a fully immersive experience for all its users and many other brands followed suit too.

Given that people might work, play and socialise in this new universe, it’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked long-term. It can be fun and engage new customers and market segments for your business.

Whether virtual reality really catches on remains to be seen, but it does look like a new dawn of computing experience is going to gain popularity through 2023 and the metaverse as we know it will mature.

It’s more than likely that we will see a halfway house with more augmented reality taking shape.

With Meta focusing hard on becoming the go-to platform for anything Metaverse related, they will soon have some big competition and big hitters on their tails. Market forces might be the judge and set the direction of the metaverse for years to come in 2023.

Artificial Intelligence Will Emerge from the Shadows and Improve Content Creation and Customer Support

Until now, artificial intelligence (AI) seemed almost gimmicky to many, but the AI bot ChatGPT has changed all this for 2023. It’s why chatbots could become defacto for customer service in business and may, some are predicting, ultimately replace Google search.

AI is slowly becoming integrated across many digital marketing channels and it’s a digital marketing trend which is set to grow year on year.

It is already being used heavily by companies to work out when the best time to post is on social media, which content is most appropriate to particular customer segments and ofc to use, can now write even academic standard articles which are difficult to spot whether human or bot wrote it.

To my mind, it’s not quite there yet, you can still spot mistakes, but it is highly valuable when used as a framework and to provide ideas on how to structure content, or provide inspiration for topical items of interest.

For any business, you can use it today to quickly make better decisions, collect valuable insights and to help support and expand your digital marketing efforts online.

The key is to use it wisely and not get carried away with it. People will know when you’re posting content which has not been written by humans.

The last thing you want to do is replace your team of customer support agents in 2023 with a bot which may give outrageous answers such as this:

Voice search thanks in part to the acceptance of Amazon Alexa will continue to play a key forwarding factor. Voice search has become the second most popular channel for mobile search (according to search engine land).

A survey conducted by PWC stated that 57% of users used their mobile for voice search over other devices. I actually think some of this is down to people performing voice searches via hands-free devices whilst driving too.

It’s also likely that after all, we use phones (or used to primarily) for talking, so it seems more natural to speak to a phone than a tablet, though many have stayed using voice search more when using smart TVs too.

The chart above from Microsoft shows that digital assistants are still the most used form of voice search. It is also becoming part of search engine optimisation too which means your website content needs to remain easy to use and understand.

Personalising Your Customer Experience Makes the Difference

Reviewing search insights into what your customers are searching for online, is one of the fastest ways to determine your content strategy direction.

If you can become the trusted source for valuable high-quality information, then you will get greater throughput on all your digital marketing efforts. Consumers clearly and specifically explain their needs, preferences, and desires in search queries and in-store interactions.

By responding with direct answers to questions, and providing clarity or clearer product information, you will help them on their journey with your business.

According to theedigital.com, over 90% of marketers from the US industry stated that personalization strategies were beneficial, and more than half acknowledged that the boost in profits was more than 10%.

What normally takes hold in the US has a habit of hitting the UK shored soon after.

Building Frictionless Digital Customer Experiences Will Remain Important

Whether they’re conversing with a client services bot, talking with a client on the phone, or serving customers face-to-face, customers expect the support agents to have full access to their information.

They expect that one interaction will pick up where the other left off so that they won’t have to begin from scratch in each new encounter with the brand

The experience provided by one company to a customer also impacts their experience and expectations of others. In essence, if a customer has a fantastic digital experience with one company and then goes to a competitor and finds it out of touch, then your reputation takes a dent even if you did nothing wrong.

Even Google now places more emphasis on ranking websites that provide a high level of user experience over those that don’t as well as providing helpful content to support the web visitor.

Focusing on your entire customer’s online experience can benefit you in more ways than one.

Take a moment and look at your contact and communication touchpoints, website and social channels and make sure everything is as easy to use as possible. Simple is best.

Email Marketing Will Continue to Grow

Email continues to be a highly effective method to stay in touch with everyone.

This is why email marketing remains an essential facet of the digital landscape. If you’re running a business, you may have witnessed the power of email marketing in action. It can be used to market products, grow and enhance your business, and create customer loyalty.

The one place most of us still visit every day is our inbox, which is what makes email marketing still so powerful.

There’s another reason too why email marketing continues to rise in business. Website aside, your email list is something your business owns. It’s customers, leads and partners that you have built up a reputation with.

No matter what happens across social media channels and the companies behind them, you will still retain your email list.

However, email marketing is evolving, and generic marketing e-mails are not as impactful as they once were. Now it is a combination of automation and personalization that makes email marketing essential for 2023. Timing is also everything. Your newsletters need to remain current.

However, in 2022, there were many privacy changes such as those made by Apple. What this means is that privacy will become a greater focus for users in 2023.

This, unfortunately, has a knock-on effect on the way email campaigns are tracked making it more difficult to know when an email was opened, where the email was opened (which county) and the device they were using. This makes judging campaigns on open rate alone a little less reliable than it used to be.

This means that clicks and click-through rates should be looked at more closely (but again with a pinch of salt as the same tracking issues can occur) and look at the overall metrics, not just one particular stat.

Email marketing should definitely be one of your core digital marketing channels and at best you should send out a newsletter at least once a month just to touch base.

Just like performing keyword research for content, you should clean up your lists and make sure the audience is segmented so that you target them with relevant newsletters of interest to them.

The key to email marketing this year, is also to ensure you don’t take unsubscribe rates too personally. People will unsubscribe much more frequently during the year, but, are also more likely to jump back in too.

A common trend within email marketing is the conversational marketing approach. You often see this from emails that are talking with you rather than newsletter-style layouts which are a little too impersonal for many.

Here are some tips for your email marketing campaigns in 2023:

• Email marketing remains one of the most important digital channels and should remain part of your advertising strategy (along with list building).
• You should begin to focus more on conversion rates (such as click-throughs) rather than just open rates to get a broader picture of campaign performance.
• Where possible, use personalisation in your email (just not in an awkward or creepy way).
• Keep your email titles catchy yet relevant to your audience.
• Use some humour to your advantage especially if it can make someone smile.
• Use an emoji sometimes in your subject title to catch your reader’s eye.
• Keep people curious and make use of your content calendar to keep people looking forward to what you will be sending next.

Push Notifications Are A Continued Way of Getting Quiet Attention

There are two things driving this new digital marketing trend.

The first is that the email marketing landscape has become so saturated that it’s becoming more difficult to reach audiences through it and stand out (unless it is optimised and meets SEO standards so it can be found).

The second is that people are increasingly using their mobile phones for various kinds of online activities.

Businesses are finding out that push notifications as a more effective way to capture customer interest in a subtle and unobtrusive manner.

At present, over half of consumers enable push notifications on their devices, making it a suitable way for brands to speak with them.

Browser push messaging is also providing popular, because as people browse the web and are not on your website, you can send a nice popup message to remind them of an offer or new content you may provide.

It keeps them connected to you even though they might not be on your website.

There are some fine lines that users of this technology must avoid crossing throughout their marketing campaigns.

Research has shown that in virtually every industry, push notification unsubscribe rates to remain low when not many push notifications are sent.

Start sending numerous push messages a day and the unsubscribe rate climbs rapidly!

All this means is that when you have something important to say, use push messaging. When you don’t, use a different medium to communicate through.

People don’t like to be distracted, and they are wary of random popups that have no relevance to them appearing on their computers or mobile devices.

Push messaging is highly effective, however, when used right. It drives open rates and sales conversions more so than social media due to how direct the content can be.

If you have a strong community that wants to stay in touch, then push messaging is a must for rapid response and conversion.

Some interesting statistics are starting to emerge regarding push messaging too. Here are just a few:

• Almost 9% of push message users had increased their site traffic as a result of using web push.
• Sign-up rates for internet push notifications are higher than newsletter signup rates.
• According to PushPushGo, there was a 3% increase in click-through rate due to rich push notifications.

This is mainly due to the simplicity of sign-up and the fact you are not handing over any personalised information to the degree that you are with email marketing.

With browser push messaging you just approve the opt-in for push messaging and you’re done. The marketer on the other end cannot see your personally identifiable information.

OK, they might see an IP address and device, but they don’t see your name or email address. You can also unsubscribe easily via the browser at any time too which is a win-win in terms of the business-customer relationship.

Online Reviews Will Become an Essential Buying Criteria

Like them or loathe them, online reviews will continue to grow and form the basis of your customer’s social proof to other prospective leads.

There are many ways in which a business can compare its products and services to others, but providing real, unbiased reviews can help your enterprise distinguish itself from competitors.

The more customers or clients you have, the more likely it is that online reviews will be helpful to your operations.

Google listings can be useful if you want to get an opinion, and these are generally the very best trusted sources. They’re easy to find, and they’re the best way to make contact with people to check out the site.

Facebook is another excellent source of online reviews, and you can use them to publish a testimonials section on your website as you can with TrustPilot reviews too.

You can of course embed any review into other marketing material and campaigns to increase your social proof relating to your business, product or service.

Digital Marketing FAQs

Here are some common questions which people often ask relating to digital marketing and the direction it’s all moving in:

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the name given to any marketing you perform online.  This includes your website, social media activity, lead magnet, lead generation, email marketing, eCommerce and more.  As more and more of us use technology in our lives, digital marketing is only set to grow and become more and more dispersed across numerous devices including TVs.

A simpler way of looking at digital marketing is that it is all the marketing you do which involves the Internet.

Why is Digital Marketing important?

As more and more of us connect to the Internet, we move away from the offline world into the digital world.  This works well for businesses in a lot of ways, as the Internet is still really an infomediary source.  This means that people still visit the Internet for information.  Find out what people are searching for and you can answer their questions across your digital marketing channels.

Are Websites Dead?

No, far from it. Websites now are more important than ever.  They become the basis from which people check up on you and seek to find out more about you.  Your website is now the anchor to all your other digital marketing activities (at least it should be).

It is also one of the few mediums you can control.  You can do so much with your website from sales and marketing, and operations to eCommerce. It’s also the first place people will go to check you out and to get verification that you’re genuine.  Find out more in our insight “Are websites obsolete?” here.

Do I Need an App in 2023?

Building and developing apps are expensive.  This is because you need programmers and highly skilled tech individuals.  It’s all doable though if you can afford it.

With so many people plagued by apps on their phones, responsive web design more often than not covers you.  However, if you do have an app, it means you can keep connected to customers much more easily.  For example, people can book your services easier, receive push message updates from you and perhaps join in private VIP discussions.

If you run an eCommerce store, then an app could be a great way to go this year.  Get in touch with our team and we can tell you more about what’s possible.

How Does Digital Marketing Work?

Digital marketing is broad and it encompasses a number of different channels including social media, content marketing, website marketing. SEO, PPC and email marketing to name a few.

Digital marketing aims to reach customers, educate them, increase your brand awareness and be the go-to product or service when a customer wishes to buy.  Choosing the marketing channel for your market is key.

Digital Marketing Trends Summary

There are a lot of trends highlighted in this article and unless you’re a large corporate business hiring thousands of employees then it will be impossible to implement all of them in 2023.  However, hopefully, it has given you some insights on where to focus your online digital marketing efforts.  Below are some quick tips to get you up and running this year.

Quick Digital Marketing Tips for 2023

For any small to medium-sized business, cutting through all the hype the key focus points should be placed upon:

• Maximising any of your marketing content efforts by researching what people are looking for in your industry online.  Don’t waste time in 2023 writing content that no one can find once the email newsletter has been sent or the social media campaign has run its course.  Try to get as much return as possible by repurposing content across all your marketing channels.
• Make a few key videos and then integrate them with your social media marketing and optimised blog content.  This will help keep readers engaged and on your website for longer giving you a greater user experience.
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are all still major players in the social media world.  Unless one falls over in 2023, keep posting your content across these channels to get as wider exposure as possible.
• Email marketing is still viewed by some as the golden ticket.  Look after your readers and keep them informed and nurture your list-building through the year as best you can.  Unlike social media, you have control of your email marketing lists.
• Look to building your own online community so that you can stay better connected with your customers in an environment which is familiar to them.  You can find out more about what your customers are looking for from your business and services too.
• Take a look at your website and look at ways you can simplify the user experience.  This doesn’t mean removing information, but perhaps including your navigation, making page layouts less cluttered and improving the overall look of the site to make sure it looks 2023 and not 2015.  You could also make sure your call-to-action buttons are clean, polite and easy to find.
• Keep your eye on the potential this year for chatbot technology.  In their simple forms chatbots were animated human-looking forms, but the latest updates will make these more personable in the near future and they may replace a lot of the mundane tasks for your team so they can take an 80/20 view in the near future and focus on the customers that really need help.
• Try to get some authentic online reviews.  It’s always awkward trying to get reviews but if you can get some genuine feedback they’ll make you star.
• Finally, make sure you update your Google My Business profile to help you with your business’s local search results. This can simply be making sure your opening times are listed and shown correctly and you have some nice new photos up.

No one has a crystal ball, but based on the digital marketing trends for the backend of 2022, many will continue to gain pace and traction through 2023 and help marketing teams make sense of the noise out there and enable them to optimise their marketing activities.

If you have any questions about anything in this article, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.