Experts say that digital marketing spend will hit an astonishing $682 billion in the coming years. If you spend any time on the internet, you’re familiar with the flurry of marketing efforts from companies of all sizes.
What are the top digital marketing trends to look out for this year? Because the industry is growing and changing so quickly, trends have come and gone in recent years. We’ve compiled six trends that experts predict will dominate 2023.
SEO Trends
SEO will continue to be critical to the success of any business. But SEO evolves as algorithms change, so your current SEO strategy must evolve.
Here’s what’s hot to implement into your digital marketing campaigns for this upcoming year:
- Artificial intelligence, or AI, such as:
- Chatbots for conversational marketing
- Email automation
- Website personalization
- Increased intelligence level of SERPs
- Real-time analytics and metrics tracking
- Mobile friendliness for a better customer experience
- Using structured data
- Think of the user experience and user intent
Localize & Socialize Your SEO
We all know we need to integrate local SEO into our content and website marketing. But what if we were to combine the two?
You can use local culture, lingo, and popular places to help SERPs find your website by incorporating them into the content on your website. And then – share, tag, and refine those words to help crawlers find them on your pages and be more likely to turn up the results.
Try including local keywords and phrases, like the names of local landmarks, neighborhoods, or events. You could also write blog posts about attractions or make videos showcasing your area.
It’s probably a good idea to run any phrasing through an SEO platform like Ahrefs, SurferSEO, or SEMRush to see what people are searching for. You could also try Answer the Public to brainstorm some initial ideas or cross-reference.
Stay Top of Mind with Community Outreach
Speaking of events, be like Fortune 500 companies: community outreach can be an effective way to stay in the news and drive your company’s presence to the top of search results.
Build positive relationships with local media outlets, influencers, and community members through sponsored events, donations, scholarship funding, charity gigs, and press releases. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
- Host an event, like a product launch, charity fundraiser, or open house, to generate media coverage and spread the word about your company in your immediate area.
- Partner with influencers in your industry or community to reach a larger audience and increase your visibility on SERPs.
- Create valuable content tailored toward your community and target audience. Then share it!
- Be active on social media and tell your followers about everything you do.
- Make friends with the media – pitch stories about your company, products, services, and upcoming events that you are hosting to engage your community.
It’s hard to go wrong when you give back to the community! You reap what you sow, so be a good “neighbor,” and your efforts will pay off.
AI Marketing Trends
There is one trend that is really gaining traction: AI, along with machine learning. While the concept of AI isn’t new, the technology has gotten much better and more powerful, making it imperative as a marketing tool.
In fact, Microsoft just announced a partnership with Open AI’s ChatGPT. Bing search engine will harness AI technology to provide search answers instead of just the standard list of links as early as March of 2023. There are also plans to incorporate DALL-E, a text-to-image platform, into Bing’s Image Creator.
AI-Generated Content
AI-generated content can take some of the legwork out of producing good content by accessing an extensive array of content sources for marketers.
However, while AI-generated content will grow, users and readily available software can detect this content. So chances are, search engines can too. It won’t be a substitute for the human touch in content writing and marketing.
With the emergence of AI-generated content, user-generated content will remain as vital as it’s ever been because it’s what the algorithms prefer.
AI-Generated Images
Yes, even AI-generated images are growing in popularity, too! Text prompts allow AI software to create images out of thin air.
You can use these images throughout various channels and marketing campaigns.
Social Media Marketing Trends
Remember the whole Clubhouse craze? The social media landscape changes rapidly as new platforms rise and fall. But that hasn’t stopped influencer marketing!
While Millennials were the driving force behind the rise of Instagram, now Gen Z is making TikTok the hottest platform. Of course, all bets are off if another social media platform emerges, but TikTok remains at the forefront.
The key takeaway? Social media is not going away anytime soon.
Social Customer Care
Because of the pandemic, the newest trend – social customer care – emerged from the shadows. As more customers turned to social media to ask service questions and voice their needs, businesses needed a strategy to handle all the inquiries.
Many companies now use video marketing techniques (such as live streaming) to deliver services directly to customers via social media.
Digital Ads / Paid Media Trends
Paid media initiatives, like PPC, will also remain important. But the focus is shifting toward better-optimized local ads.
Some of the best places to advertise locally are:
- Amazon
First-Party Data
When Apple decided to restrict data sharing with third parties last year, businesses got the push to engage in first-party data collection. With this data, they can reach customers in a way that is more personalized than before.
TikTok Advertising
TikTok is the first non-Facebook (Meta) app to surpass three billion mobile device downloads, making it a must-be place for your business. Companies that have tapped into advertising on the platform are already seeing exciting results.
New Platforms
Platforms focusing on augmented reality or immersive experiences will likely continue to rise in popularity. The Metaverse is especially something to look toward, as Facebook still has the most active users compared to other platforms.
Additional rising platforms include BeReal and Discord.
Content Marketing Trends
Creating quality content remains crucial. Ever-popular sources include:
- Articles and blogs
- Photos (including NFTs)
- Podcasts
- Video content
- Virtual reality content
- Webinars
The list is endless!
Long-Form Content
For 2023, long-form content (articles with 2,000+ words) are trending to earn higher rankings on search engines. This is because long-form copy answers questions and goes in-depth on a topic. You have more of a chance to integrate effective keywords into your post or article, and you also have an opportunity to provide more value for your potential customers.
Google ranks articles based on which ones answer a specific question best. So keep this in mind!
Mobile-First Optimization
Mobile-first optimization has been trending for a few years, and experts predict it will continue in 2023 and beyond. With the increasing number of people using mobile devices in everyday life, optimizing websites for smaller screens with mobile-friendly, touch-based navigation features is crucial for a good user experience.
Google announced an update to its search algorithm, which favors mobile-friendly websites – so it is all the more reason for prioritizing mobile functions for SEO efforts.
Tips to Optimize Your Website for Mobile
- Use a responsive design, which automatically adjusts the website’s layout to fit the device screen size.
- Use a mobile-specific version of your website. Some hosts automatically populate one. If your host doesn’t get one, that is accessible by a separate mobile URL or a link on the site’s desktop version if necessary.
- Optimize images and other media for mobile devices by compressing them and using appropriate file formats. (You should be doing this anyway for the standard version of your website.)
- Minimize things like pop-ups, as they’re difficult to close on small screens.
- Ensure your website loads quickly by minimizing HTTP requests and Flash and reducing the size of your code and assets. You’ll get penalized if your site loads slowly.
- Make site navigation simple and easy to use on a small screen.
- Make your call to action prominent, easy to find, and easy to click on and access.
- Leverage Google’s mobile-friendly test tool to check if your site is mobile-friendly and get tailored recommendations on how to improve it.
Digital Marketing Experts
Now that you know what trends are gaining traction in digital marketing, you know how to adapt your strategy.
If you feel overwhelmed by all the digital marketing trends, book a meeting with the friendly and “neighborly” digital marketing experts at Digital Neighbor to learn more about our customized solutions. We are happy to help you shape your digital marketing strategy to reach your customers with engaging, effective campaigns that drive an impact and deliver results.
