We are seeing an explosion in the rate of transformation in every aspect of our lives from the daily developments in the Ukraine war, to the jockeying in position between Facebook and TikTok, and a Twitter shakeup that could blow up the service as we know it. There is a razor’s edge moment for smaller businesses, as digital marketing opportunities to gain mind share and market share have never been more accessible and fleeting. Make no mistake: smart nimble businesses will pivot, grabbing onto some of these trends, and ride a wave of growth in return.

What worked in 2022 is in many cases changing drastically in 2023. Advancements in technologies mean that digital marketing platforms can respond better to shifts in consumer needs and experiences. Changes feed more change, in a cut-throat competitive online market. As consumers respond to these different media changes, the platforms respond, new things happen, and innovation surfaces! So, it’s vital to understand how these trends are impacting your target audiences.

We’re going to serve you the most exciting Digital Marketing Trends to watch, along with some easy steps for you to capitalize on them as a smaller business! Hence why we took our time to predict what business should be looking to see in 2023 based on the outlook of the digital space in 2022. We hope these predictions will help small businesses to stay ahead of the competition in 2023.

It’s All About the Customer Experience

Advancements in technology are providing customers the ability to have more consistent and better user experiences. This change is driving us to be better at our craft as the line between sales, marketing, and service is blurring. What does that mean for your business? Sales organizations must become marketers and marketers must get much closer to the sales experience. There is a lot of work to be done in this area by most companies and the winners will have truly mastered the customer experience with their brand communications.

What can you do? As a small business accessing and making sense of all your data can be challenging. Yet to stay ahead, the businesses that know their customers best will generate more sales and advance in market share. How can you get to know your customers better?

Interview your sales team
Interview your customers
Conduct a customer survey
Get better at mining all your data
Carry out effective persona development

The Reinvention of Email Marketing

Over the last couple of years, businesses have rediscovered the value of Email Marketing. In fact, almost 90% of marketers surveyed consider Email marketing their primary tactic. Almost everyone has an email account which means businesses can easily engage with their consumers.

With the upcoming changes to data privacy, Apple is releasing a new privacy setting that will actually prevent businesses from knowing when users open their email. This of course if set in motion will make open rates far less reliable in 2023.

For email marketing to be effective, the content must be entertaining. One growing trend is toward a feature called “interactivity” and it’s helping boost email performance. Interactive emails include elements like carousels of images, games, or embedded videos that users can interact with without having to visit another page and leave their inbox. Users can change aspects in interactive emails without leaving their inbox or visiting another page.

What can you do? Besides beginning to use these new interactivity features, you need to be testing your emails on mobile. Research has shown that two-thirds of email opens occur on mobile, so you definitely want to make sure your email content looks great on a mobile device.

User-Generated Content Continues to Explode

One of the biggest trends was the influx of User-Generated Content. Platforms such as TikTok have changed their algorithm to favor two fun features: “Duets” and “Stitching”.

What are these two things? A “Duet” allows you to post your video alongside another creator’s video on TikTok and Instagram. While stitching is a TikTok editing function that lets users cut and modify other people’s films before incorporating them into their own.

What can you do? Explore how your brand can tap into the benefits of User-Generated Content on social media. The performance data are strong: you’ll see more reach, engagement, and action. All the good stuff you want on your social media platforms. Duets and Stitching can help you reach more audiences with engaging content and encourage them to act.

Conversational Marketing

In case it’s a new concept to you, conversational marketing is a customer-centered and dialogue-driven marketing technique. Conversational marketing is built on one-to-one interactions across channels in real time.

You may have seen chatbots on websites. Now we have Live Chat, which delivers a hugely better customer experience. Website visitors can have an actual conversation, getting their questions answered in real time. By interacting with customers and customizing interactions online, businesses can strengthen customer connections, improve their online customer experience, not to mention generate quality leads!

Conversational marketing will take center stage in 2023 in part because Google is set to end third-party cookies in Chrome. Instead of referring users to lead capture forms and waiting for a response, businesses will engage individuals while they are on your website with tailored messaging and AI automation.

What should you do? Adding live chat functionality to your website is a good way to start a conversation with your customer.

A Digital Throuple! SEO, Images, and Video Search

According to Google, more than 60% of searches are now conducted on mobile devices. That means where your site shows up in mobile searches is taking front-row center in hot new SEO trends in 2023.

This is a big change from the past when Google would index your website based on its desktop version. Businesses need to make sure their mobile version is up to date if they want their website to be properly indexed. This entails having a user-friendly navigation system, a responsive design, and quick loading times. We can help you get your mobile indexing to par if you need help.

Another important search trend is visual search. Instead of using keywords, this type of search looks for information using pictures. For instance, you may take a photo of an object to learn more about it using Google lens.

Video platforms are becoming important in search. In a shocker reveal from Pew Research, an incredible 40% of Gen Zers are using TikTok to search for answers instead of popular search engines like Google. They still use Google to verify whatever a claim, but the search starts on TikTok. Additionally, Google is also introducing tools to make it easier for consumers to access information quickly through videos.

What should you do? If you haven’t already, you should incorporate video and image optimization into your SEO strategy. Most importantly, businesses should develop websites for mobile and optimize them for desktop.

Video Marketing

As we predicted for 2022, video is still growing in leaps and bounds. An incredible 84% of consumer internet traffic comes from video AND consumption is growing 100% year over year.

But alongside this growth, we see decreases in the attention span of these video consumers. Given that customers’ attention spans are getting shorter by the day, videos must be brief and to the point.

In step with this trend, Vidyard reported in 2020 that 60% of all web videos are under two minutes in length. Fast forward to 2022, 58% of users report they’ll watch an entire video if it’s shorter than 60 seconds in length, they will watch the entire thing. Consumer product consideration is sparked by even six-second adverts that succinctly highlight the brand’s benefits.

What should you do? Video is an impactful medium for crafting engaging storytelling and short-form video trends will continue to grow in 2023. More businesses are testing the waters with video and figuring out what works best for their brands. The good news is that the brief is better!

Influencer Marketing Growing

Many businesses are having success with Influencer marketing, considering it one of the most effective marketing tactics. Influencer marketing grew in 2022 and is not showing any signs of slowing down in 2023. An effective influencer can build your audience and trust in your brand Studies predict that by 2025, the channel will have reached an all-time high, with investments totaling $24 billion.

However, the way customers interact with influencer marketing is evolving. With more influencers out there, the ones who are pushy, salesy, or insensitive and turning consumers off. Genuine authenticity is becoming a valued influencer quality.

What should you do? Small businesses and influencers will need to work closely to create content that is more engaging, and less salesy, and brands should tread carefully to avoid backlash. 2023 will see influencer marketing becoming more “niche-r” than we know it. Businesses will be required to make a sizeable investment to get the best out of influencer marketing, and are getting creative in finding synergistic collaborations within their community in sourcing micro-influencers for their smaller business.