Top 12 Digital Marketing Trends for 2023

 1-Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Although artificial intelligence is still in the early stages of development, there were plenty of useful examples of AI-based marketing efforts in 2022.

While DALL-E and ChatGPT are yet still research tools for machine learning, there are plenty of free and paid solutions designed strictly for digital marketers. Example? Jasper uses AI for copywriting. While I don’t encourage you to fire your content team and replace it with AI, tools like Jasper can successfully accelerate your content marketing efforts. It’ll help you write social media posts or give you a hand with landing page copy when you lack inspiration.

How exactly will the AI develop, and what impact will it have on marketing? We still are to figure it out. One thing is certain – it will be one of the most significant digital marketing trends in 2023.

2-The new wave of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing used to be very straightforward. You find a profile with many followers, pay them to promote your product and wait for the results.

It’s not that simple anymore. Social media users are well aware of influencer marketing and do not trust that easy anymore anything they see in their feeds.

Becoming a social media influencer is now a way of life. To be a great influencer, you have to know how to generate engagement and need a lot of expert knowledge.

If you are curious about what top digital marketing influencers have to say about the upcoming trends, I highly recommend you watch the recording of our webinar. Here’s what experienced marketers think about the digital marketing trends in 2023:

3-Personalized marketing

Are you aware of how many ads you see on the Internet per day? There are too many brands fighting for your attention, trying to sell you their latest product.

As a marketer, you need to be more clever nowadays. It’s not enough to show your product or service to a broad audience and wait for the results. You need to address the problems of your potential customers and offer them solutions.

If you have a LinkedIn account, you probably get a lot of spammy messages from salespeople trying to sell you their products. Unfortunately, many of these messages are too generic and don’t address your potential problems. Here’s a chance for your team! Before you message another CEO about your brilliant tool, do a little research and think of the problems they may be facing – and offer them solutions, not just products.

Although Facebook is losing its popularity, there are still many active groups where users exchange information. It’s a chance for your brand to become more connected with your clients and shorten the distance.To boost your digital marketing efforts, you can also use LinkedIn groups.

Personalized messages can also be sent using email marketing strategy. This way of communication is still popular in 2023, and you can use email marketing to create a marketing funnel. Be sure to segment users properly before you start email campaigns.

4-Short-form video content

TikTok videos undoubtedly dominated as the most popular social media content type in the last year. They were so successful that many other major social media platforms copied the style – in the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of Instagram Reels (later copied to Facebook), YouTube Shorts, and even Twitter tried their luck with Fleets (removed in 2021).

One thing is certain – our attention span is getting shorter. Of course, there are still a lot of captivating videos on YouTube, but short-form video format is a completely different piece of content. You can just scroll TikTok on your way to work or before bedtime as a time-filler.

Here’s a challenge for you as a marketer. Use the first seconds of the video to grab the user’s attention and try to save your brand in their memory. Probably not every company is viral-worthy, but on the other hand, Ryanair and Duolingo are quite successful when it comes to views on TikTok.

Social media feeds are optimized for mobile devices. Keep that in mind when developing your 2023 digital marketing strategy.

5- Multi-channel social media marketing

Just a few years ago, you didn’t have to care much about other social media platforms than Facebook. Everybody was there, and everything happened there.

But not in 2023. Facebook is not yet shutting down, but if you truly want to be a good social media marketer, you have a lot of other different channels to maintain.

The platform that has been getting the most attention lately is TikTok. It has gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, and now the brands are seeing a lot of potential in marketing on TikTok.

The story of TikTok shows us that we must be prepared for any new platform that may appear on the market. Young people (Gen Z and the next generation) are particularly likely to jump ship to the new thing and never look back.

My advice is to observe how BeReal is growing and be on the lookout for any serious Twitter alternative that appears on the market. Right now, Mastodon seems like a potential competition for Twitter.

6- LinkedIn

Although LinkedIn is no spring chicken, its audience is growing year by year, and you can find a lot of potential customers on this platform in 2023.

Think of it that way – LinkedIn Premium is one of the most expensive social media subscription plans, yet 39% of all LinkedIn users still decide to pay for it. That’s an impressive result!

The statistics speak for themselves. While preparing a marketing strategy for 2023, you cannot ignore LinkedIn. It’s still relevant and a perfect place to start social selling

7- SEO

The latest Google updates show us we are approaching the end of an era when it comes to keyword-stuffing SEO. The AI algorithms in search engines are getting clever and can now clearly see if the landing page or article was crafted by a real human who genuinely wants to help the reader or if it was a work of old-fashioned SEO who just paraphrased some other content and added more keywords.

Don’t get me wrong – keywords are still important, and you should still care about SEO. You just need to change the perspective. Google and other search engines promote sites that thoroughly answer users’ questions, not the ones that have the most backlinks and the exact keyword in the meta title.

If you are still buying spammy links, stuff keywords, and using other black-hat SEO tactics, 2023 is the time to stop.

Another digital marketing trend in SEO is zero-click searches. We all want to hit that first position with perfectly optimized content. But sometimes Google decides to use our answer as a featured snippet, and traffic significantly drops. There’s, unfortunately, no remedy for that.

If you want to avoid zero-click searches, be sure your writing is so captivating that the users want to read more. On the other hand, if they are just looking for a quick answer and the featured snippet gives them what they want, there are low chances they would become your client anyway.

8- Customer experience

Because we are increasingly moving to the digital world, the customer experience has become an even more important part of business strategy. Now you can find reviews and opinions about almost everything in a matter of seconds.

If a company offers a bad customer experience, the word will quickly spread out. Customers will quickly start to avoid their products and look for alternatives.

There’s just no excuse for poor customer service in 2023.

Your digital marketing strategy should put focus on giving the customers the best experience. Your webpage should be easy to use and fast. Do not hide vital information from users. Work on clear site structure. Use chatbots or other solutions to make customer contact easy.

Improved customer experience will definitely be a huge digital marketing trend in 2023.

9- Ethics in digital marketing

Oh yes, in 2023, there’s no place for unethical marketing strategies. Conscious choices are trending.

Your potential and existing customers are now much more motivated by ethics and morality than ever before. Consumers know about global warming and the impact of mindless capitalism on it.

That’s why you need to be honest in your communication. Don’t be afraid to lose customers if they are not your main target. Sometimes it’s better to admit you are not the best choice for them and spare the disappointment (and negative reviews). Users will appreciate your honesty and remember the good advice.

More and more companies pursue CRM (Cause-Related Marketing). They use their social media channels and other marketing materials to promote philanthropy and similar behaviors. Yes, corporate giving often is done purely for tax-deduction purposes, but at the same time, they are really helping the planet.

The bottom line is you just need to stay ethical in your digital marketing strategy. Otherwise, even your loyal customers will turn on you sooner or later when they see your bluff.

A tip for you: sustainability is a trending topic.

10- Inclusive marketing

With the rise of consciousness, there’s a much higher focus on inclusive marketing. Long gone are the times when brands didn’t care about minorities in their marketing messages.

This digital marketing trend is strongly connected with points 3, 8, and 9 in this article.

When crafting your marketing messaging, please think of inclusiveness. If you are a SaaS or other online business, make sure your website is adjusted for people with poor sight. If you have a physical store, adapt the space for people with disabilities.

But inclusivity is not only about disabilities. A 2022 study by Nielsen shows that 59% of Black viewers are more likely to buy from brands that feature someone from their identity group in advertisements. Think about that in your 2023 digital marketing efforts.

Minorities are also your customers, so you cannot simply omit them in your marketing messages.

11- Google Analytics 4

If you are using Google Analytics, you will be making the switch to the newest version this year. Google announced GA4 would fully replace Google Analytics Universal on July 1, 2023.

If you are still using the old GA, it’s high time to test the new version. You can already install it on your website. There are tons of free and paid courses on the new iteration of Google Analytics, so if you encounter any problems, you can seek expert support..

Alternatively, you can try some analytics alternatives. Most of them are, unfortunately, paid, but offer some additional features unavailable in the Google tool. Before you decide to make a switch, check if the tool is compliant with the latest GDPR and other data collection regulations.