2023 Digital Marketing Trends:
Prioritizing strategies to wrap around your marketing efforts to increase sales and lower acquisition costs in 2023

Brief: Once again, as we do every year, we welcome you to our annual event where we present the marketing trends, insights, digital goals and strategies including the latest ideas and tools for the online and digital marketing industry. This is our 27th annual report and we hope we can continue in our tradition of offering you great forecast of what is about to come.

Changes in business environment, such as higher interest rates, higher cost of borrowing, lower availability of funds in the equity market, diverging economies, and national conflicts once againg together bring on market changes that force companies and their business model strategizing to pivot and reinvent their new operations, marketing methodologies, and product strategies - all to find new business advantages and differentiations to improve their ROI, growth, and marketshare expansion.

In a recent survey conducted by Anaxstar.com with 753 CEOs and CMO’s, the respondents said they are continuing to shift their marketing implementation and execution towards digital marketing and online campaigns and promotions.

As predicted in the last year's report, AI (artificial intelligence) in marketing is playing a great role in changing digital marketing envionment with Microsoft and Google, and others, playing a crucial part. Also, Google Advertising platform as Microsoft Bing Advertising platform, both are seeing either a decline in the number of users, and a remarkable dissatisfaction from their advertisers because of cost increases in marketing expense and lower quality of leads and sales being generated.

Smaller businesses (less than 100 employees) are leveraging blog marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing through viable and profitable digital media channels to replace expensive online advertising on Google and Bing platforms as they no longer seem to deliver a profitable ROI.

As always, you can review Anaxstar.com’s previous years' reports: 2022 Digital Marketing Trends, 2021 Digital Marketing Trends, 2020 Digital Marketing Trends, 2018 Digital Marketing Trends and 2019 Digital Marketing Trends studies, released prior to the pandemic.

2023 Business Marketing Trends Predictions :
Content is KING of marketing, and AI marketing tools are the KINGMAKER


27th Edition of our Annual Online (Digital) Marketing Trends Report - 2023

As it has been our long tradition now, each year, we contact about a thousand online marketing experts and industry leaders, and top 100 Marketing Agencies, as well as the top PR company executives to conduct a 30-min phone interview to find out how they interpret the marketing trends and ask questions about their predictions for the upcoming year, and what changes or transformations they witness during the previous year. We then compile the data and have an in-house discussion among our own leading marketing experts, each of whom have at least 20+ years of digital online marketing experience. Once all the data is compiled, we produce our report: this Annual Online/Digital Business Marketing Trends and Predictions.

WE WELCOME ALL YOUR COMMENTS.


AND THANK YOU IN ADVANCE, FOR YOUR TIME.

And we also like to thank all the people who were involved and provided their expertise and knowledge for us to put this report together, and express our deep appreciation for their support.

FINALLY, see if you notice how we tried to make key points

EASY TO READ, QUICKLY,


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Contact us if you wish to discuss this report with one of our research experts:

10 Major Marketing Trends Predictions 2023

Digital Marketing Dominates The World of Commerce, and Content Marketing is the King

1. Useful, compelling content still continues to be the most effective

method of prospecting, AND still the best method of converting to

leads/customers.

Content attracts, engages, and converts audiences to customers and it keeps on doing this 24 hours a day, non-stop. The Customer Value Journey is the foundation of all the tactics and strategies adopted in marketing - and content marketing is the best form of "delivery of value".

Content marketing is king of marketing, both from point of view of effectiveness and ROI.

Today, most successful business owners and managers know and understand why 'content' is the key to online marketing success, and hence business success. We can no longer argue that businesses are missing out on achieving all the promises of content marketing. However, content development is still a huge effort and therefore costly. With the nearly 50% increase in cost of Google Advertising platform in 2022, and, reduction in the quality of the leads obtained through it, marketing departments can no longer avoid to have a serious content marketing development and campaigning strategy for their business to thrive, or even survive.

87% of respondents said they use content marketing to get website traffic

84% of respondents said they use content marketing to collect emails from visitors (landing page)

81% of respondents said they use content marketing to get website product promotion or engagement

73% of respondents said they use content marketing to get search engine (SEO) ranking to produce organic search traffic which they also claim are the best quality leads compared to all others

69% of respondents said they use content marketing to reduce cost to acquire a lead/subscriber or customer

67% of respondents said content development of blog posts/articles/social posts for the purpose of SEO is still the cheapest form of marketing and an incredibly cost-effective way to grow your brand while it is 6 times more cost-effective to find customers than PPC ads through platforms like Google and Microsoft Bing

TIP: Content marketing is not about "amount of content" produced, is about the quality and effectiveness of content, or often referred to as "compelling content". Think of it this way: great content is not about YOU, or your brand, or your vision, or your objectives. It's about delivering the right information, sought-after and valuable, to your prospects at exactly the right time in the customer journey.

The Good Content marketing produces 6 times as many leads, and is 67% less costly than other methods of marketing (e.g. PPC).
The Bad Don't make a mistake of talking to the wrong audience, instead of your potential customers. Content has to be targeted.
The Ugly Content is king, but content development has become expensive, almost as much as ineffective PPC platforms like Google and Microsoft Bing.

2. The year 2023 will be known by digital marketers as the year of AI-powered marketing

Every marketing professional needs help with data that indicates where the customers are and what they want, and when they are ready to buy. Only one powerful tool can go through that much data and give you the answers fast enough for you to implement a strategy to reach and sale to your customers: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Marketing Tools

Increased efficiency and effectiveness of AI marketing tools can help analyze huge amounts of marketing metrics and campaigning data to identify patterns and insights that can help strategize and implement calculated marketing strategies and executable plans.

AI marketing tools can deliver on improved targeting and personalization to help identify and target the right audience with an effective message that is based on personalized experiences of consumers to improve engagement, build brand loyalty, and achieve an effective call-to-action.

AI Marketing Tools are being used for:

  • - Search Engine SEM or SEO
  • - Predictive Customer Service or Helpdesk
  • - Speech Recognition in voice calls
  • - Ad Targeting for Effective Marketing
  • - Dynamic Pricing based on Campaign Results
  • - Re-targeting Existing Customers
  • - Marketing Automation
  • - Content Curation
  • - Propensity Modelling
Human intervention (be it customer service or helpdesk or sales calls, etc.) can be integrated with AI marketing tools to achieve a very effective interaction with highly personal service for customers.
The Good 24/7 Availability: AI marketing and support tools can be available to customers around the clock to provide assistance and answering their questions.
The Bad High Cost: for small or even large companies implementing AI marketing tools can be expensive, particularly for the first couple of years of implementation.
The Ugly Malfunctioning or unintended consequences: this could include either breakdown giving incorrect results or contributing to a loss of or damage to a property or person (emotionally).

3. OmniChannel Marketing with AI Support:

The right message at the right time, using AI Marketing Tools.

Customer-centric messaging.

Marketing professionals understand the important of "customer journey" and the "customer funnel", but what about "messaging" and how do you achieve this with a world of data which cannot be analyzed fast enough?

Well, you use AI Tools. Omnichannel marketing takes a consumer-centric view of marketing tactics. But it could hardly deliver as data analysis was often too time consuming and too much of a burden. Customer journey is all about sending the right message, at the right time. Right message at the wrong time will not work, neither will wrong message at the right time. But how can you do that if it takes so much time to analyze the data?

AI Marketing Tools is the answer.

Omnichannel marketing is the seamless integration of branding, messaging, content marketing, social media engagement, and online touchpoints as consumers move down the sales funnel process, enabling a more impactful customer experience. When performing an omnichannel content marketing campaign, let's say through article blogging or the social media networks, you need to respond to your audience promptly when they reach out to you, otherwise you will lose their interest and their loyalty. If you have performed a marketing campaign and they have signed up as a new subscriber, then establish your authority and explain to them the value you provide with your products and get them excited about you and your brand.

Walgreens saw a 379% increase in store traffic using IBM AI Marketing Tools with native ads in blogs and website content. The AI tools helped Walgreens to identify the right consumers and reaching them in the right moment and hence experienced a huge increase to its store traffic, and sales.

With the speed never experienced before by marketing professionals, customer data can be analyzed and hence strategized and re-targeted to achieve incredible results over many channels - thanks to AI Marketing Tools. The messaging is now reinventing itself based on performance and results-driven.
The Good Seamless brand visibility and customer engagement.
The Bad Complex and expensive to implement.
The Ugly Risk of data breaches if not properly secured.

4. Cold email marketing is nearly dead. Only customer

opt-in email marketing is effective and makes sense.

With increased email filters and spam blockers preventing cold emails from reaching their intended recipients, and with most everyone sick of these unsolicited emails cluttering emails inboxes, it was a matter of time that cold email marketing would reach its end of life.

People of sick of cold email marketing and generally much more cautious about opening an email that potentially would have embedded virus, trojan, or some other online security risk or phishing attacks.

Most people receive so many emails per day that they just don't have time to read unsolicited emails anymore and they just don't trust them either.

Consumers are tired of being bombarded with unwanted, unsolicited emails that are irrelevant and potentially a threat to their computer, while businesses can now focus on improving the quality of their email list to help their marketing department target their customers with better quality of engagement and information for a higher conversion rate.

Most consumers these days are much more likely to respond positively to relevant and personalized marketing messaging targeted to their interests than receiving unsolicited email spams.
The Good Businesses can focus on building relationships with potential customers through more effective strategies, such as opt-in email marketing or content marketing.
The Bad Businesses that relied on cold email marketing have to invest on new techniques like content marketing which is expensive and time consuming to learn and adapt.
The Ugly End of cold email marketing may result in businesses to rely on other forms of spammy or manipulative marketing techniques which they find a low cost option.

5. Video & Blog Article/Guides Content Marketing will continue to be the

leader among all methods and remain the most cost-effective

Video and Blog articles content marketing continue to grow

Video/Blog marketing are the center of all successful digital content marketing campaigns. Even though content marketing methods such as blog posts and articles are very cost effective and generate leads, they almost always perform better when accompanied with videos that convert.

By end of 2022, 84% of marketers used video and blog content marketing because they found it to be cost effective and produce results, especially helping SEO organic search results. In 2023, it is expected that this trend will continue to grow. According to Social Media Week, majority of consumers want to see more video content as long as they are short and concise. Blog articles in the form of guides and informational lists, are hugely popular because people can quickly study it to see if the content is relevant before they invest time in reading it - something they cannot do with watching of videos.

Video and blog content marketing can be highly engaging for your customers and an effective way to communicate with audiences that are interested in the subject. It can also be easily shared in social media, which can increase its reach and help to attract new customers.
The Good Video and blog article content can be used to build brand trust and authority by providing valuable informative content.
The Bad Creating high-quality content can be expensive and time-consuming, which can be a barrier to entry for small businesses.
The Ugly Poor-quality video or blog content can do more damange than good, as it destroys the reputation of a brand or product.

6. PPC is slowly dying: Facebook Ads down 53%, Microsoft

Bing Ads down 18%, Google Ads losing advertisers and

now in a lawsuit with U.S. Dept of Justice

PPC is slowly dying because of 1) rising costs, 2) poor ROI, 3) Ad blindness, 4) Increased competition, 5) limited targeting, 6) increased complexity, and 7) U.S. Dept of Justice looking into Google Ad unfair practices and advertising platform manipulation.

PPC (pay-per-click) is fast losing favor with business owners and marketing professionals.

PPC advertising use to be a very effective way to drive traffic to a website or a landing page and get attention and audience for your products and campaign. But then with Facebook falling flat on it face as a result of December 2021 privacy issues, losing almost half of its advertisers in a matter of months, and Microsoft Bing not able to take advantage due to poor customer support, resulted in Google Ad platform increasing their Ad cost so dramatically that overnight it was not longer a viable marketing method with a decent ROI.

Google's arrogance and increase pricing also went hand-in-hand with business owners experiencing irrelevant clicks which resulted in wasted advertising budget.

PPC advertising is quite complex, requiring business owners to have a thorough understanding, often highly technical knowledge and experience to manager campaigns to avoid wasted marketing budget.
The Good PPC can result in bringing customers to a business pretty fast.
The Bad Complex, competitive, ad fatigue, and vulnerable to click fraud.
The Ugly Complexity results in poorly optimized and waste of advertising spend.

7. The year 2023 will be known for Engagement and Interactivity.

Metaverse (a catch-all word) and traditional marketers

will join prehistoric life on Earth: Mass extinction.

2023 is the year that will finish with the online platform for connecting and engaging with consumers and companies in fully immersive 3D virtual settings.

Marketers in 2023 have to adapt to a new audience expectation where consumers want to have a more memorable experience.

 

For the past 25 years, the Internet and faster PCs have been used essentially to facilitate connection, networking, simplification and alleviation of user frustration and limitation of applications or access. Now this year will be the year of faster and better engagement and interactivity.

While change can be intimidating; unlike the dinosaurs, digital marketers should be confident and embrace this next evolution targeting capabilities (AI tools and interactivity) based on page content and consumer mindset and measurement solutions built on measuring real people, and their choices, across platforms.

Trends towards more engaging and interactive marketing will increase dramatically as consumers demand personalized, immersive experiences from brands and their marketing departments. This would include new tactics in social media engagement, gamification, and experiential marketing.
The Good Meaningful connections between consumers and brands.
The Bad Time-consuming and resource-intensive and hard to measure ROI.
The Ugly Can lead to frustration and disengagement if poorly designed campaign.

8. Gamification of Content marketing: 6 times more leads

Adding interactive features to content on your website is a very effective way to give visitors more of what they want and keep them interested and engaged so they explore your products and your website helping you gain insight into your audience.

The use of interactivity and game elements on a website or aspects of your social media account is called gamification.

Many online websites are incorporating game design interactivity to boost visitor engagement. Consider that about 80% of smartphone owners play games on their devices and this is what companies want to use to pull these consumers into an ecommerce experience, and to increase brand visibility.

Gamification is a huge aspect of marketing in 2023 for companies that can implement this, despite its costs. It helps with consumers learning about products and engaging in an enjoyable way so companies can achieve retention and higher levels of motivation with social and business connection.
The Good Increase brand loyalty and customer engagement.
The Bad Costly and time-consuming and can be too condescending.
The Ugly Can lead to negative consequences of frustration and poorly incentivized behaviors.

9. Personalization is the demand of consumers to engage with brands. Influencer marketing will skyrocket since it is best positioned for personalization.

Personalization in marketing campaigns will lead to more engaged and loyal customers, increase conversion ratios, and better understanding of your target audience.

By tailoring your marketing campaigns and the intended messaging to coordinate your content to individual preferences and desires, brand marketing can create more relevant and effective marketing that resonate with customers.

Creating customized content that speaks to individual preferences and interests can increase engagement and improve the quality of engagement, for instance offering customized pricing based on individual preferences to increase conversions and loyalty.

Mapping out the customer journey and identifying their interests and preferences can help tailor messaging and marketing efforts at each state of the journey.
The Good More relevant and effective marketing campaigns.
The Bad Time-consuming and resource intensive to implement.
The Ugly Can backfire if not done well and results in loss of trust.

10. Review sites like TrustPilot, Yelp, ScamAdvisor and others

are being seen as anger tantrum based fake reviews turning

businesses into punshing bags for profit in an

adversarial society

Trustpilot has faced criticism and regulatory scrutiny related to its review practices and handling of fraudulent reviews, there have been several investigations and legal disputes related to fraudulent or deceptive practices on Yelp, and others.

Business owners have accused Trustpilot and others of being a "pay-to-play" platform, where businesses that pay for subscriptions or advertising receive preferential treatment over those that do not.

Accused for allowing angry, irrational, disturbed individuals use Trustpilot to demonize business owners, creating an environment where review websites like Trustpilot make money off of the reputation destruction of businesses.

Trustpilot, ScamAdvisor and other review platforms, have faced countless issues related to fraudulent and fake reviews by angry individuals using these platforms to exert pressure to sooth their anger tantrum psychotic episodes, which can damaged, may be forever, the credibility and usefulness of these platform. Profiting from unpleasant and disruptive behaviors or emotional outbursts by emotionally sick individuals consumed by irritability, has made these sites lose credibility with the rational public.

Trustpilot has faced legal disputes and regulatory scrutiny related to its fradulent fake reviews and "pay-to-play" practices, and angry vindictive individuals villainize business owners they cannot bully into submission to their will.
The Good These so called review sites no longer have any credibility as they have shown their true face of greed, fradulent fake reviews, and "pay-to-play" bullying of business owners.
The Bad Trustpilot has been accused of allowing the manipulation of reviews and scores through various means and therefore faced class action lawsuits for fake negative reviews.
The Ugly Promotion and capitalizing on online anger based on exaggerated negative reviews of narcissist consumers who turn their anger tantrums into hostile demonization of businesses.

 

SUMMARIZED KEY POINTS

1. Content marketing, Video, and Blog articles in native ads will continue to be the best and most effective marketing method of 2023. This method of content marketing is relatively much lower in cost, (than Google Ad platform), and offers much better ROI, and with as much as 6 times more leads, and substantially lower cost - especially now that Google Ad platform is facing U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit for fradulent advertising manipulation of ad results and/or reporting

2. AI-powered marketing tools will be adopted by small and large companies and lead to conversational marketing, and there will be more AI search features, and AI tools for interactive website engagement, and for social media posts featuring videos of real people enjoying a product

3. Video marketing, streaming, usage, searching, and viewership will continue to soar (even more) in 2023, and introduction of short educational videos as well as video testimonials of customers talking about their recent experience with a company or brand and there will be live stream of videos of people unboxing products

4. Review sites like Trustpilot, Scamadvisor, and Yelp will continue to face backlash of the public and the business community as well as the authorities for allowing fradulent reviews and using business owners and irrational angry disturbed individuals to make money off of an adversarial society - "pay-to-play" bullying of business owners and deceptive practices has resulted in regulatory scrutiny, but reviews on Google will continue to grow

5. Marketing personalization will continue to grow and increase profitability by offering interactive website features like personalized quizzes and tools for answering questions for site visitors

6. Social messaging Apps will be used by business owner even more than before, in 2023

7. AI speech searching, will continue to grow as search engines will leverage AI

8. Gamification will be in widespread use by end of 2023

9. Voice search, will continue to grow, and can help conversational marketing to enhance interactions with customers online

10. Instant messeging integrated with conversation marketing will continue to grow exponentially, allowing businesses to help customers and website visitors with questions they have

11. Metaverse growth is slow will continue to diminish as it is difficult in both adoption and use, as long as it is difficult to implement and challenging to incorporate into a logical ROI within marketing

12. Interactive content marketing will be introduced to the public and will be used more and more, in 2022, including augmented reality ads

13. Omnichannel Marketing will continue to grow, the strategy as ripe, effective, and relevant as ever

14. Influncer Marketing will be probably the most effective way to blend content marketing, interactive marketing personalization, and cost-effective ROI promotional campaigning

15. SEO the most effective, the best quality leads, the only logical long-term approach to sensible marketing, and the smartest marketing strategy for almost all businesses

 

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