Marketing trends change as companies learn to use new technology, from black-and-white newspaper ads to keyword analytics. Brands cannot just rely on their tried-and-true marketing best practices in this constantly changing environment. Effective marketing strategies have changed to reflect consumer attitudes and preferences.
2023 is expected to be a fascinating year for marketing due to emerging technologies and consumer trends. The best cost-effective marketing strategies listed below can help you stand out.
Regular influencer-brand partnerships
Historically, word-of-mouth promotion has been one of the most influential and cost-effective marketing strategies. People are more willing to try if someone they know and trust suggests a good or service. Influencer marketing takes that idea and updates it for the current digital era by partnering a business with an individual with a speciality and a sizable online following.
Influencer marketing is used by 93% of marketing professionals for the following reasons:
- Increasing brand recognition
- Establishing authority and confidence
- Getting their intended market
- Driving conversations
- Producing leads
- Establishing a new trend
- Reaching a larger market
While 2023 is not the first year for this type of social media marketing, businesses are utilising it to strengthen their ties with their target demographic by selecting long-term “brand ambassadors.” Influencers may maintain credibility with their audience by consistently supporting the same business while establishing long-lasting relationships with their influencer partners.
Video-based content and live-streaming
Due to its ability to hold a viewer’s attention for a more extended period of time than static posts, video-based content is increasingly becoming a primary emphasis area in social media marketing. Marketers employ bite-sized films to promote interaction and raise brand exposure among millennials and Gen Z on platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels.
Additionally, live streaming is proven to be one of the successful and cost-effective marketing strategies. According to one research, consumers streamed content on mobile devices for 548 billion hours in 2021. When used with influencer marketing, live streaming enables potential buyers to interact with influencers familiar with the product, discuss it, and buy it while watching the stream.
User-generated material
User-generated content is the new word-of-mouth, whether TikTok trends or #OOTD photos. Original and brand-specific, this kind of content is made by consumers instead of brands. Examples of how brands can use user-generated content include unboxing videos, makeup reviews, branded hashtags, and photo tags.
Anyone may produce user-generated material; therefore, incorporating it into your marketing plan can increase the credibility of your brand. Consumers are 2.4 times more inclined to trust user-generated content than brand-created content, demonstrating the importance of emphasising authenticity in your marketing approach.
New methods of targeting
Due to growing privacy concerns, Google plans to phase out third-party cookies by the end of the year. Target marketing uses cookies to track a user’s online activity so that they can provide a personalised experience. Brands are investigating alternate targeting options to continue creating highly tailored content and advertisements, which is, to date, one of the cost-effective marketing strategies.
Consistent customer interactions
Customers demand a personalised, individualised experience that speaks to their specific demands. Customers don’t interact with companies through a single technique or channel. Therefore, marketers must avoid viewing everything through a campaign-only lens.
Marketers need to be aware of individual interactions along the consumer journey and concentrate on the whole experience rather than a single campaign.
Making a map of your customers’ journeys is one approach is also one of the cost-effective marketing strategies to understand their user experience better. A customer journey map can be a valuable tool for designing a seamless experience since it visually depicts how a consumer behaves, thinks, and feels during purchasing.
SEO voice search strategies
Marketers are now using voice search as a search engine optimisation (SEO) technique. These digital assistants can answer short-answer questions. Nonetheless, they’ve also begun to handle more specific queries like “What coffee shops are open nearby me?” As a response, businesses are altering the way they frame information. Creators are choosing more casual question-and-answer forms to respond to readers’ inquiries based on their intent. In this approach, customers who use voice search will receive thorough, accurate results more rapidly.
Conversational advertising
Conversational marketing engages visitors while they are on your website using customised messaging and AI automation rather than sending them to lead capture forms and waiting for a response.
This digital marketing trend uses intelligent chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to enable two-way communication between customers and brands. As conversational marketing expands in 2023, transitioning from asynchronous to real-time communications creates a significant learning curve.
AI to improve trend-detecting
According to a recent Razorfish survey, three-quarters of marketers don’t use behavioural data for online ad targeting. The availability and cost of this data are being improved through new technology for small enterprises.
Within the next few years, artificial intelligence is expected to have a significant impact on a variety of businesses. Marketing professionals are now utilising AI techniques like data models, algorithms, and machine learning to understand their target demographic more effectively. By using this information, marketers may reduce costs, target and tailor their content, and enhance the customer experience.
VR tools and applications
Meta unveiled their future metaverse in 2021. The necessity for marketers to incorporate hybrid and mixed-reality experiences into their marketing mix has accelerated. With virtual reality (VR) technology, brands may use a simulated but realistic experience to market their goods or services.
Few companies have created fully immersive virtual reality experiences that call for a VR headset, even though numerous businesses have employed augmented reality (AR) strategies to draw in clients.
Virtual try-ons and customised Instagram effects will still influence the marketing scene in 2023, but more avant-garde VR marketing strategies should capture the spotlight this year.
The best practices and trends in marketing have changed dramatically over the previous few years. Consumers today value authenticity, transparency, privacy, and diversity more. Additionally, as cutting-edge technology like VR and IoT gain popularity, marketers can incorporate these values for creating cost-effective marketing strategies into their messaging in fresh, original ways.