2023 promises to be an exciting year for digital marketing professionals and organisations alike. With AI becoming ever more sophisticated, digital marketers must stay on top of the latest trends and technologies to remain competitive. As digital streams replace feeds and personalisation becomes more prevalent for those that opt-in, digital marketing strategies must be adaptive and agile to keep up with the rapid pace of digital innovation.
Curation over creation
According to Zippia, 25% of businesses have integrated AI into their operations. Despite use by this low proportion of early adopters, 79% of sales and marketing leaders say AI has helped their companies increase their revenue (November, 2022). We predict only one direction of travel and this new technology will improve with use of AI to create images and text becoming the norm, transforming the creator to the curator.
A skills evolution
As demand for this innovation rises, it will eventually be integrated into video production, content publishing and automated repurposing. Increasingly marketers must become editors and curators of content generated by AI to ensure it meets their brand's standards. This shift will require a blend of digital marketing skills, research skills and soft skills such as creativity and empathy. Software budgets will increase, with marketing professionals becoming editors of AI content.
In this year and beyond, AI technology will be integrate further into CRMs and all social media platforms.
Streams over feeds
In 2023, we expect digital streaming becoming the norm. The digital landscape is already seeing a trend away from manual scrolling and towards streaming content. Mobile channels like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok will evolve into always-on personalised digital streaming channels, allowing users to view what's happening in real-time, like a broadcast. This will have a significant impact on digital marketing strategies, forcing marketers to become more creative in their use of video and audio content to engage and entertain viewers.
Content is evolving
Entertainment is the name of the game with more users looking for funny, clever and creative digital content. Consequently, digital marketers must keep up with the trends and produce real-time streaming content that resonates with their target consumer market to stay ahead of the competition. With digital streaming replacing feeds, marketers must become creative storytellers and visual artists to remain relevant. A good chunk of every marketers day will be spent researching trends, listening to thought leaders, talking to customers, taking polls and pouring over competitors' strategic moves to stay one step ahead.
Convergence of social platforms
With some evidence of this practice already happening, social platforms are increasingly adopting new features from another, blurring the difference between platforms entirely. We've seen it in portrait video in 2022 moving from Instagram to Facebook to YouTube to Twitter, and anticipate this trend to continue, with the most popular social media apps adopting technology from a whole range of platforms; a recent example is TikTok adopting the AI Portrait Filter from photo-editing app Lensa. Social media platforms that can't keep up with this pace of change will see their popularity falling.
Our prediction for the first major app to fail is an easy target: We predict Twitter to implode this year without a doubt.
"Above the scroll"
As google starts to transform from a page-based app with 10 (or fewer) results per search, the new endless list will put less emphasis on a Top 10 ranking and more emphasis on being above the fold - or in this case, above the scroll. Real estate at the very top of search is set to become more crowded as snippets will expand into different types of content and Google results will be crammed with top ranking media and ads. Does this mean the end of the acronym for search engine results page, "SERP"? Guess we'll have to start using "SER" for search engine results!
Voice search changes the game
Voice search will continue to grow in popularity this year, meaning that digital marketers must adjust their SEO and content strategies accordingly. As voice search is based on natural language formation, digital marketers who create content that accurately responds to user queries using keywords and phrases related to their product offerings will benefit from a huge SEO boost. Digital marketers should ensure their content is written in short sentences that are easily understood by voice search processes. Watch out for creative efforts disrupting SEO - it could be clever to use homonyms, acronyms and edgy spelling for your brand, but with voice search this could cause problems gaining traction on search engines.
Personalisation at scale...
In 2023, digital marketing will be focused heavily on personalisation. Marketers will need to develop sophisticated digital strategies that are not only tailored to individual customers and personas, they will need to "curate" at scale with unrelenting demand for content streams. This will be achieved through a combination of AI and automation tools which will enable digital marketers to optimise content for specific customer types.
...for those that opt-in
Regulations such as GDPR will continue to be enforced and digital marketers must abide by data protection laws. Consequently, digital marketing strategies will need to shift from using tracking cookies and personalised ads to opt-in campaigns. Those digital marketers who build digital trust will win the opt-in and be able to offer consumers a more personalised experience, resulting in improved digital marketing outcomes.
2023 will be a transformative year for digital marketing
In 2023, digital marketing will change drastically from what we know now. As digital marketers, it is important to stay ahead of the trends and prepare for a future that focuses heavily on personalisation and digital streaming. The convergence of social platforms will disrupt the digital landscape with platforms changing daily, and AI and automation tools becoming the norm to optimise content and save time. Regulations such as GDPR will continue to be enforced, requiring digital marketers to build digital trust through opt-in campaigns to offer consumers a more personalised experience.
Does your agency keep pace?
Staying up to date with the speed of innovation is a challenge, but it's one that we are passionate about. Always at the forefront of the latest news and media, count on Treat to provide an approach focused on the future, to keep your business top of mind and ahead of competitors.
Interested to learn more?
Get in touch with us today! Email hello@treatmarketing.co.uk or call 01803 220369.
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