Posted by The dawn of a new year always sends many a digital marketing agency into a panic, scampering to try and gaze into the crystal ball to anticipate where the market is leaning to. For most, it means more of the same until such a moment when it becomes too little too late to even pull a Hail Mary. If you’d like to stay ahead of the trends so you’re on the right side of change right out of the gate, you need to pay attention to this guide that lays bare the most important ones. Get your year off to a flying start, SEO-wise, with the best digital marketing trends 2023 has up its sleeve.
- User-generated content set to blow up
Simply known as UGC, consumer or user-generated content is set for a popular year. Sure, no one’s reinventing the wheel here as this is a concept that has been around for ages. However, it’s destined to gain increasing relevance due to the following benefits that it provides:
- Excellent brand endorsement: UGC rubber stamps credibility impeccably
- High conversion success: Compared to traditional avenues, UGC boasts a tremendous conversion rate
- New age appeal: Millennials have taken a liking to UGCs, making them ideal to target modern-day audiences
The list of benefits of UGC knows no bounds. In 2023, we’ll continue to see brands encourage user-generated content by way of incentives like reviews in exchange for discounts. It’s a bandwagon that SEO services would do well to get on sooner rather than later.
- Web design will get even more interactive
Long gone are the days of having a static website with little to no life to show for it except for mundane pages. Interactive design websites are a great way to energize your brand and increase your appeal while crucially boosting audience engagement. If you’d like to build customer relationships that go the distance, then web interactivity should be your priority this 2023.
Inevitably, this begs the question, what makes a website interactive? Well, we have a few ideas that have worked wonders for our digital marketing agency:
- Image and videos: A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video, even way much more. Incorporating images and videos is a great way to bolster interactivity. However, moderation is crucial as you don’t want to kill your page load speed and hence hurt your SEO efforts.
- Animations: Of course, having a ton of animations can do more harm than good. But just a few animated elements such as cursor mods, hover-initiated pop-ups, and dynamic scrolling, among others, can be game-changing
- Web elements: Pricing features such as a calculator is also a simple but effective way to up your web design game. Consider simple yet useful web elements along this line
Whatever you do, we can’t stress enough that you need to keep tabs on SEO, page speed, simplicity, and mobile friendliness. You may require the aid of professional SEO services to help your website strike the right balance.
- Marketing set to get more conversational
In 2023, your average lead has grown weary of generic marketing that treats them like just yet another number for sales reps to check off their lists. Leads are yearning for connection with brands. They value companies that pay close attention to their bespoke needs and wants.
Over the past few years though, leads have been made to feel the exact opposite, having to fill out forms and waiting days on end to get a word back from businesses. Today, patience has stretched thin and leads demand for instant interaction with your brand. Snooze, and you most certainly will lose. Hence, in steps conversational marketing.
One way brands are refining their approach to conversational marketing is via intelligent chatbots. Some have pre-determined responses to various user queries and offer feedback almost instantaneously. Others go about business much smarter, using lead data to offer personalized suggestions and recommendations. Either way, brands are tapping into intelligent automation to widen their bandwidth when it comes to conversational marketing.
- More focus on first- and second-party cookies
The third-party cookies apocalypse is upon us. Google- and audiences- have had enough of highly intrusive advertising that seems to peep behind the digital curtain, tracking user activity at every step. Hence, the decision to get rid of said cookies within the next 12 months or so, after which, the search engine giant will begin to phase them out.
While Google is sunsetting third-party cookies by 2024, time is ticking fast and brands are beginning to jump ship and build foundations for a new way to collect data they need to understand their audience’s needs.
In light of this change of heart by the SEO heavyweight, marketers will now have to lean more toward the following:
- Zero-party data: This refers to data that your leads give out willingly to you. Most SEO services and businesses at large obtain zero-party data by way of polls, surveys, messaging, etc
- First-party cookies: Your website may create first-party cookies by default, and the good news is that first-party cookies don’t even remotely look like they’ll go away anytime soon.
- Second-party cookies: This refers to data – usually first or zero-party- that one brand shares with another. The moment this sharing occurs, the data becomes second-party cookies.
- Video and live stream will take over as well
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, you name it, are just but a handful of success stories that substantiate the power of video marketing. With video going strong into the new year as well, brands will incorporate a lot more of it to keep relevance with their audience.
But not just any video will do. In particular, we are seeing live streaming come out tops among digital marketing trends 2023 has thrown our way so far. If you’re on the fence about its appeal, let this fact sink in: over 6 in 10 people say a brand is more personal- hence easy to connect with- when they live stream more often. So if you’d like to shatter the barriers keeping you from your market, you need to embrace live streaming.
That also begs the question, what should your brand be live streaming about? Behind-the-scenes videos particularly took off in the past year and they will rise even higher in 2023. Product unboxing, live reviews, tutorials, Q&A sessions, and live challenges are also great ideas to consider for live stream content.
- The pod boom is now here
Does your brand podcast? Well, not many do and it’s understandable. It’s not a particularly great solution if you’re in purely because of business results for the short term, but there’s much your brand stands to gain when you nail this just right.
Of course, many businesses who say podcasting doesn’t work often shoot themselves, spending session after session going on and on about their services and products. Podcasts, however, should cater to the needs and problems of your audience first and foremost.
If you’re not sold on a podcast strategy, here are a few facts and figures that are sure to give you a fresh perspective:
- 6 in 10 podcast consumers don’t pay attention to radio commercials, billboards, digital ads, and TV commercials
- Podcasting can improve brand discovery by 89%
- It can also bump up purchase intent by 14%
With the right execution, podcasting is a way for your brand to connect at an even deeper level with your leads and make your business feel like a close friend.
- Gamification is taking on a life of its own
Most people inherently love games. They are a way to escape their difficulties and perhaps even relive simpler times, away from the burdens of reality. Games are huge, which is why many SEO services are also now turning focus to gamification to further make digital marketing as interactive as can be.
Some examples of huge brands that are tapping into gamification to spice up their marketing include:
- KFC: With a Fruit Ninja-like concept, KFC’s Shrimp Attack proved such a powerful marketing strategy that they had to halt it as demand for the product rose unsustainably
- Starbucks rewards: Starbucks had its gamified strategy to thank for playing a huge role in bumping up profits to the tune of $2.65 billion
- NikeFuel: Nike’s gamified fitness app, increased motivation for people to use their products. By providing validation and inspiration, this strategy has improved quality engagement for the long haul, giving players plenty of reasons to keep coming back- and thus keep on using their products
Its effectiveness is no longer in question. If you’d like to get into gamified marketing, we advise keeping the gameplay simple so as not to overwhelm players. Doing so will also cater to prospects of all skill levels.
Keep your eyes peeled. There’s more to come
The new year has only just set sail, and thus our digital marketing agency reckons we’ve not seen the last of new digital marketing trends 2023 will cast into the spotlight. Keep researching, keep learning, and your brand will rise to or secure its place at the top. Check out our blog regularly to always be in the know. We’ll leave you with a few other essential trends our SEO services estimate will grow even bigger this year. Be sure to also pay close attention to the creator economy, brand marketing, and voice search too.