Three Important Marketing Trends For 2023

Get ready to make 2023 your most successful year yet

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2022, it’s a great time to look ahead to the new year and take stock of the many ways that digital marketing has evolved over the past twelve months. 2022 has seen the real world continue to re-open, with most businesses and consumers returning to pre-Covid operating practices. That said, the trend towards online shopping (and marketing) continues to grow, and that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future, with spending on digital advertising expected to hit $870 billion by the end of 2026 (it’s sitting at $600+ billion at the time of writing). 

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at three areas to consider as you look towards making 2023 your most profitable year to date.

1. SEO remains key (but with some tweaks)

Search engine optimisation is by no means a new strategy, but it remains one of the most important marketing strategies in the online world. After all, if your website is invisible to potential customers, it can’t convert. Google’s algorithm updates have already been pushing digital marketing strategies to evolve away from keyword loading and into creating relevant, helpful content that prioritises matching searcher intent. That trend is going to continue in 2023.

Forbes mentions the importance of focusing on customer experience in the coming year, and using that metric to guide your SEO strategy. “All algorithms are based on improving the user experience,” says digital marketing expert Krista Neher, “so this helps protect you from future algorithm updates.”

Hubspot concurs, and notes that writing helpful, shareable content increases your chances of building your backlink profile. “"Of the 48% of SEO marketers that use backlinking and link building,” writes Pamela Bump, “63% say it’s their brand's most effective SEO tactic." She also recommends that you keep blogging in 2023: “"Ultimately, sites with robust blogs have more search potential and can implement SEO strategies much easier than sites that don't."
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If SEO’s got you all at sea, check out this post for some tips on how to get started.

2. Keep the message brief to stay engaging

As the meteoric growth of shortform video content continues, Hubspot predicts it will keep shooting for the stars in 2023. And the stats are mindblowing: “"A staggering 90% of marketers using short-form video will increase or maintain their investment next year,” writes Pamela Bump, “and 1 in 5 marketers plan to leverage short-form video for the first time in 2023."

Video sharing platforms are on the ball and leveraging the content explosion by improving their advertising options, writes The Digital Marketing Institute’s Clodagh O’Brien. Facebook and Instagram are not exactly lacking in monetisation opportunities, but TikTok starts the new year with an improved advertising dashboard, and “the new targeting options they've launched for their ads [...] are brilliant,” says Alison Battisby.

The key takeaway is brevity. “With short-form video taking over and attention spans constantly dropping,” writes Krista Neher, “businesses have a bigger challenge than ever. Businesses must be able to communicate in short, quick soundbites to earn attention.”

Of course, keeping your message snappy and exciting is something copywriters excel at. Just saying…

3. Focus on the "social" in social media

So, yeah, Twitter is probably… yeah… for the short-term at least. But while that platform works through some stuff (and, as marketing expert Neil Patel says, you wouldn’t want to bet against Elon Musk making a gargantuan success of it in the long-term), the other major players will continue to play a huge role in digital marketing strategies for 2023.

One of the platforms you might not have considered – and you probably should – is LinkedIn. As Krista Neher points out, LinkedIn “is expected to account for 25% of B2B advertising in two years. There is a growing opportunity for businesses to use the platform for growth.” But, she adds, “very few businesses take advantage of this.” Her advice? “Jump in early to disproportionately win.”

Elsewhere on social media, you’ll want to keep the focus on engagement rather than sales. The Digital Marketing Institute predicts growth and change in the creator economy. “It can be a challenge,” writes Clodagh O’Brien, “for brands to create content that engages customers in a time-starved world. That’s where content creators come in and that doesn’t mean high-level influencers. It can mean employees, customers, or even subject matter experts in a niche area.” 

O’Brien’s colleague Neal Schaeffer concurs: “Since COVID we've seen a new social media culture that focuses not on the number of followers, but on the content itself, in this era of what they're calling ‘recommended media’.” The message is clear: engagement is key.

Hubspot takes this a step further and looks at the kind of content that has engaged audiences in 2022 and will play an increasingly important role in social media strategies for 2023: namely social responsibility. A staggering 89% of marketers “"who create social responsibility content plan to increase or maintain their investment in 2023,” writes Pamela Bump, “which is almost double from the year before." She continues: “50% Gen Z-ers and 40% of Millennials want companies to take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender inequality, and climate change. When companies advocate for these issues, it has a strong impact on their purchase decisions." 

She also predicts that native advertising will feature heavily in social media campaigns in 2023 – again, the focus is on engaging rather than overtly selling. “"The purpose of native advertising,” writes Laura Kloot, “is to blend in and not disrupt the viewer’s experience with the given content and media. Native ads engage new audiences through a third-party with an established audience. It’s a method for distributing content, rather than the content itself. This might sound similar to content marketing, but the goal differs." Like matching searcher intent as an SEO strategy, the move towards native advertising is about positioning your brand as a partner in problem-solving, rather than directly trying to persuade the customer to buy.

Which is, in a nutshell, what 2023 will be about, from a digital marketing perspective: easing off the sales pedal and switching into a more customer experience-focused gear. Most of the above will be a slight variation on the theme of what you’re already doing – and, as Hubspot says, “As long as you’re keeping a thumb on the pulse of marketing trends — and always remain open to change — your business won't fall behind." But if your digital marketing strategy could do with a helping hand in 2023, give me a shout. Together, we’ll make your marketing dreams a reality.

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