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The digital marketing industry is constantly changing, adapting, and evolving as the world around it does the same. In the last two years, we’ve seen plenty of significant changes in the digital marketing industry, including an increase in video content marketing and more widespread use of chatbots and live video services.

What will the next four years bring? In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most influential digital marketing trends that will be affecting marketers in 2023 and beyond. These trends are part of our estimation of how things will be 10 years from now, so keep in mind that they may or may not come to pass—but if they do, you’ll want to be ahead of the curve!

Short, DIY videos

Video marketing is one of today’s most effective ways to reach consumers, as it allows companies to engage in real-time conversations with viewers.

According to a study by Social Media Examiner, Facebook posts with videos get more than 2X engagement than those without video and increase customer conversion rates by 80%! As your customers increasingly move to digital channels, you can establish an instant connection through video.

Although it’s easy (and affordable) to capture low-quality, unbranded video footage using your smartphone camera, if you want your company’s content to be seen by more people and shared across multiple platforms then creating higher-quality videos is essential.

Check where your target customers spending time

A great way to predict future consumer trends is to look at how we spend our time today. And when you look at how people spend their time, you get a great picture of how we’ll be spending our money in five years.
For example, services like Netflix, Spotify, and Zipcar all have a massive influence on consumer spending by dictating which goods and services become more necessary in a consumer’s life. So it’s easy to predict that, as streaming content becomes more popular, advertising will focus on that medium. We’ll also see an increase in mobile advertising because of its popularity with younger generations.

Focus on your audience

Only by focusing on digital marketing trends that will impact your audience will you be able to capitalize on digital marketing and stay ahead of your competition. For example, how can you use social media or AI to improve your customer service? If you’re not sure what trends are going to be impacting your customers, focus on topics like augmented reality, smart home devices, and blockchain technology.

These trends are not just exciting because they’re new; they’ll change how consumers interact with businesses online and offline. And who doesn’t want a piece of that action?

Good ReadDigital Marketing Sales Funnel – Nurturing Marketing Strategically

Personalization

For quite some time now, big market players such as Amazon have relied on ever-increasing personalization to great success. Small and mid-sized businesses are catching up on the trend too, and over 90% of online advertisers will resort to some type of personalization. What’s more, we might even see an influx of entire personalized websites soon. Given that 70% of consumers now expect tailored content and product suggestions, personalization is not just some fad but a lasting benchmark in DM. Some ideas that you should consider incorporating into your business include:

  • Address customers by their first name in all forms of communication.
  • Analyze consumers’ behavior and recommend similar or related products based on their purchase history.
  • Use personalized email campaigns, which have been shown to receive 41% higher click-through rates compared to traditional emails. Consider using email marketing tools, such as MailChimp or Constant Contact, as well as automation engines, such as HubSpot and Pardot.
  • Collect data on consumer buying habits and interests through surveys or studies.

In fact, I’d argue that by 2023 or 2024 it will be virtually impossible to run a successful digital marketing campaign without some form of personalization (more on that in a minute). From smart refrigerators and washing machines to smartwatches and contact lenses, our physical world is becoming smart. The reason? Companies are increasingly building internet-like communication channels into these devices so we can connect with them without reaching for our phones.

Privacy, transparency, and trust-building

If you’re a marketer in 2017, you know that consumers are growing more and more suspicious of privacy policies. We live in an age where personal information is being harvested everywhere we go, from movies to smart fridges. It’s no wonder consumers want brands to be more transparent about how their data is collected, used, and shared.

The challenge marketers face here is that transparency and trust go hand-in-hand: Consumers will only feel comfortable sharing their data if they can be sure it won’t end up on a cybercriminals’ network or someone else’s Facebook page. In other words, building trust requires making privacy a priority, not something that gets sprinkled in at the last minute as an afterthought.

Artificial intelligence in digital marketing

AI has been continuously making dramatic shifts in the digital marketing world for the development of any brand. It is running parallel to any other marketing tactics and promises to offer you better marketing opportunities in the future.

It analyses the behavior of your users by reading their search patterns on various social media platforms to enable the brands to understand the demands of their users better and offer them the services accordingly.

AI can solve problems much more effectively than any human mind, and provides you with a defined output without any definite possibility of errors.

Repetitive tasks can be better handled by AI bots that reduce the load of the employees, further enabling them to perform better. It allows your marketing team to develop highly curated content that will be highly significant for the recipients.

The need to move faster and be smarter will cause a huge surge in artificial intelligence (AI) across digital marketing. There are already numerous innovations that can be attributed to AI, including IBM Watson as well as Google’s AlphaGo and Baidu’s DuDu. And while no one knows where it will lead, there is little doubt that AI-powered solutions will continue to disrupt digital marketing.

NFTs and crypto in social media eCommerce

In recent years, retail platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have capitalized on hype over blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies by rolling out non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces.

These NFTs can be used to buy and sell both physical products like sneakers or handbags, as well as digital ones such as gaming skin. While many consumers are still unclear about what exactly NFTs are and how they function, it is widely speculated that in future years we will see wider adoption of these types of trading vehicles.

This type of commerce has been pioneered in part by companies like Shopin which allow customers to share their purchases with friends, allowing them to claim a percentage of rewards.

Content segmentation

Breaking your content into pieces that are easy to digest is a time-honored way of improving audience interaction and leads. In fact, some people think it’s one of the most important considerations in digital marketing. As we look ahead to 2023, different digital marketing trends make content segmentation worth paying attention to Segmenting by topic: This is a clear trend from now until at least 2023; segmenting by topic means breaking topics down even further and organizing them into different chunks. A simple example might be 10 Ways to Reduce Hunger Cravings or 7 Things You Need to Know About Sweating. These pieces are easier for audiences to find in an ocean of content than a single long piece.

Conversational marketing and quality interactions

Conversational marketing is already changing how people interact with businesses. Consumers no longer need to contact a business directly when they have a question or concern. They can talk directly to a brand’s chatbot, making communication faster and easier. This type of interaction will continue to grow in popularity and by the end of 2023, roughly 83% of consumers worldwide will own voice-activated assistants at home. This year, 74% of consumers are using them weekly—up from 58% last year—and that number is expected to continue growing over time.

Chatbots

Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, chatbots are becoming better at communicating with consumers by the day. Many even consider them superior to human customer support for the following reasons:

  • Chatbots are cheaper than humans. No further explanation is needed here.
  • Chatbots are also more efficient. They need no time to rest and can answer questions in real-time 24/7. That is particularly important in a global market with customers based in different time zones.
  • Chatbots save time. They don’t need as much time to think, formulate their answers, or consult with colleagues as humans do. They don’t forget and they provide quicker responses, thereby helping customers make decisions faster.
  • Chatbots are always in a good mood or, rather, appear to be in one. They always treat customers with respect and are to the point, informative, and unbiased.

All of the above leads to more personalized service, improved customer satisfaction, better ratings, and, eventually, higher profits. And with chatbot communication becoming more natural and sophisticated with every passing minute, it’s no wonder that companies will continue to embed chat windows or verbal interaction options on their websites.

Private Messaging Apps

The use of private messaging (PM) apps to communicate with customers has been gaining in popularity and is expected to expand even further in 2021. Businesses now commonly use PM groups and mobile apps, such as WhatsApp, Viber, and WeChat, instead of or in addition to email.

Furthermore, many brands plan to monetize PM apps and allow customers to buy products and services directly through them. The mobile app WeChat Pay has made paying online easier, and users of Venmo and PayPal can already use these apps to send or receive money.

PM apps also help businesses tap into the growing demand for personalized marketing. Their overall effect leads to:

  • Direct and fast communication with clients
  • Increased brand and product awareness
  • Better client relationship-building
  • More flexible customer support
  • Boosted sales

Voice-Powered Search

Technologies of Google Voice and Apple’s Siri have already made a big name for themselves in the digital world. Voice search provides precise answers to the customers without confusion, leading to the desired outcome for them.

Most successful marketers create a detailed voice script matching the customers’ requirements and offering creative solutions to their concerns. In the digital marketing world, people are looking forward to creating better voice scenarios based on surveys, internal data, and communications with real customers.

Voice assistants, such as Alexa, Google, and Siri, are now a standard feature of most smartphones and PCs. In fact, over a quarter of U.S. adults own a smart speaker, and 70% of all searches in 2023 will be voice-powered. Therefore, you should definitely consider using a voice search in your DM strategy.

In addition to being popular with consumers, voice assistants can add value to your SEO, speed up AI deep learning, and help build a mobile-friendly space. However, to make the most of voice-powered search, keep the following points in mind:

  • Use long-tail key phrases that mimic real-life conversation (i.e., “How to make broccoli cream soup”) instead of short keywords (i.e., “broccoli cream soup”).
  • Use full, grammatically correct sentences.
  • A conversational tone works best.
  • Think of common questions that people might have regarding your products or services and provide detailed answers.

 Insights-Driven Marketing

Insights- or data-driven marketing uses consumer analytics to boost performance. Companies that use analytics are 23 times more likely to both attract new and keep old customers.

While there are many analytics tools on the market, Voice of the Consumer (VoC) techniques is a particularly exciting development. These include building online customer communities and platforms that can deliver key insight into consumer preferences and behavior. A great example is Red Bull’s use of the insight platform Vision Critical.

Smart Bidding in Google Ads

Automation has long been a staple in digital marketing. However, the Google Ads updates that were officially announced at the Google Marketing Live event suggest that automation and smart bidding will continue to grow even further.

While Google Ads already relies on deep learning to optimize bids, the recent changes aim to maximize conversions by:

  • Optimizing bids by letting you choose conversion actions at the campaign level
  • Allowing you to optimize bids across multiple campaigns using a set of desired conversion actions
  • Allowing you to set bids to change automatically at the beginning or end of a sale

Augmented Reality

The technology related to Augmented Reality (AR) is still untapped in more than one way and is still in its infant stage. It offers great scope to your brand to get greater ROI with your digital marketing endeavors.

It is well-known that games like Pokémon Go that were AR-based became a major hit among the people in mid-2016. A large segment of manufacturers and developers are working to create wearable gears based on AR technology to enhance the user experience and create value for their brand.

In the upcoming scenario, traditional advertisements will give way to AR-based 3D advertisements, allowing the users to stream 3D content directly to get an advanced experience. It enables the users to connect with your brand offering on a much deeper level emotionally.

It also enables your marketers to augment your brand awareness, leading the customers to test your products well before they move towards placing the orders.

Marketing Automation

The various mechanisms related to marketing are getting accelerated by data-driven technologies. Marketing automation enables marketers to establish better relationships with their customers by automating some of the repetitive tasks such as e-mail reminders, social media postings, and lead generation.

It is especially beneficial for the new market entrants and small companies that are competing with the top-notch companies by saving their effort and time. Customers are attracted to the brand in a better way when they receive e-mails that cater to their particular requirements.

The process of marketing automation requires the use of software that is needed to be uploaded with the necessary data related to the user’s personalized data. It is a complex technology that can be better managed by partnering with a professional.

Impactful Stories on Social Media

Social media platforms are ever-evolving and present brands with unlimited opportunities to grow their business with digital marketing efforts. It enhances customer engagement in a big way.

Also, it enables marketers to keep the online audience updated with all the current developments taking place in your industry domain. It gives way to daily promotions of your brand by posting marketing content on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Visual Search

Brand optimization with visual search is a great way to offer focused and defined results for your users. It allows the users to click a picture or upload a picture related to the product they are looking to find online.

It directs them to the items without any hassle. Even though it is in its nascent stage, it holds great potential to become a leading digital marketing technology to deliver perfect results.

Influencer Marketing

Under this marketing trend, brands use key figures to promote their brand offering among the online audience. Instagram is rapidly growing up the ladder to become a major source of becoming platform used for influencer marketing.

As the network of social media is scaling up every single day, there is a rapid increase in the number of influencers as well. Users tend to listen to these well-known celebrities and popular figures ardently.

With the increased use of hashtags and promotional content directed by the influencers on their social media handles, smart brands are taking the content reference from these mentioned posts, and locating the precise on-brand engagements, thereby enhancing their performance of better user engagements. It also plays as a great medium to enhance human-to-human connections and showcase your brand creativity.

Programmatic Advertising

An extension of AI to improve the efficiency of your marketing endeavors. Previously, the ad industry was managed manually by publishers that controlled and ran the ad industry on the basis of hectic meetings with middlemen and unending negotiations.

With the multiplication of online publishers on a daily basis, it has turned out to be a challenge for advertisers to keep up the pace with it. The solution is bringing in automation in the advertising industry to take better control over things.

It allows your brand to cut out the middleman and make the advertising procedure simple. Marketers are developing target-oriented ads that are produced by using and analyzing the personalized data of online visitors.

It has enabled the brands to promote transparency in their advertisement campaigns and curtail the instances of fraud, created by middlemen. It also makes the process of advertising quicker which leads to increased conversions, better ROI, and a decrease in the cost of spending. This digital marketing trend is definitely here to stay.

Video Marketing

It is one of the ever-growing trends in the digital marketing world. Over the years, visible growth has been seen in user engagements led by pre-made video posts and live videos.

It channelizes the information of a particular product or service to the audience in a much clearer manner, making a direct connection between the audience and your brand.

Directly dealing with the audience via Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels with the help of personalized messages and video content enables you to improve the consistency of lead conversions, thereby leading to better opportunities for your business development.

User-Generated Social Media Content

It has been on the trajectory of growth in recent years in the digital marketing world. User-generated content is any type of brand-related content that is shared by the brand audience on their social media channels like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Attention is better directed towards producing and promoting more and more user-generated content, as the targeted audience looks forward to getting validations from social and digital marketing platforms.

It also enhances customer engagement with your brand. It creates a chain of customers that brings closer the potential leads with the existing customers smoothly. It is a growing trend among the millennial generation and needs to be used to its full potential to get better access to lead conversions and brand promotions.

Brands will depend on Custom Content Marketing Campaigns to monetize their organic efforts.

Content marketing campaigns will continue to enhance customer engagement and boost organic results in favor of creating more relevant, inspiring, valuable content that influences customers without pretending to sell. Hence, smart marketers are likely to use dynamic content to deliver a highly personalized online experience that can help in targeting the right audience at the right time. Besides this, marketers will understand that content marketing is no more a one-time process and is rather an ongoing process that needs planning and strategy. Instead of relying on already tested solutions, businesses will start paying heed to exclusive customer experiences while curating targeted content in a clearer and client-oriented way.

Conclusion

The Future of Digital Marketing in 2023 The trends above are what we see as digital marketing companies in India. While these may not be 100% accurate, they do give a good indication of where digital marketing will be headed. Tools such as AI, next-generation SEO, hyper-targeted ads, interactive content, and consumer analytics can truly level up your business and skyrocket its performance and I know that with AI and big data, things could change even more than we expect. Therefore, all of us should keep an eye on these trends and make use of them to gain more profit from our online businesses or learn something new to become better marketers. As you can see, you don’t need much time to start working on a very successful business model – only 2-3 hours per week during your leisure time is sufficient for launching one or two successful projects a year!