Ever since the pandemic, there’s been a digital transformation. A lot of new features were added to platforms and some were removed. One overall truth is that it’s constantly changing! Today I’ll cover what still holds true and some of the new features, and my forecast for 2023 digital marketing trends. Let’s dig in…
2023 Digital Marketing Trends Webinar Recording…
Internet Usage Stats
- In the last 22 years, Internet usage increased by 1,355%!
- Most popular web browser: Chrome with over 65% of global Internet users.
- Google has 92% of all global search.
Volatile Market
I’m sure you’ll all agree that we are living in a volatile market. You need to keep up with the news as it applies to …
- Your Industry
- Global market conditions
- Supply and demand
- Economic outlooks
- Statistics, analytics, and insights
- Digital marketing
Figure it Out
- Familiarize yourself with the different channels available
- Figure out which social media networks are best to reach your target market niche
- Determine which forms of content — blogging, video, animations, podcasts, graphics — you are going to produce that will be of interest to your target audience.
Digital Marketing Trends:
Video Marketing
Not all videos need to be professionally done!
- Professionally done:
- Website explainer video
- YouTube channel trailer
- Landing page sales video
- Create videos as often as you like.
- Do short, casual, how-to videos on your smartphone (Reels, Shorts, Stories)
- Do voice-over recordings of PowerPoint presentations
- Determine which format works best for you…
- ease of creation and editing
- your abilities
- your audience
- Fact: Videos Convert!
“In fact, when video is prominently featured on a landing page, conversion rates can go up by a whopping 80%.”
~ Convince and Convert
Short Video Tips
- State your benefits in the 1st 15 seconds!
- Tell a story
- Clear, concise, compelling, & customer-centric
- Nostalgia & comfort – tap into emotion
- User-generated content
- Testimonials
- Call-to-Action (CTA) at the end
Podcasting
- 19.1% of marketers use podcasts
- Of those who do, 37.4% found it to be most effective
- 43% of marketers plan to use this type of content
- People-first not Keyword-first: It’s the customer experience.
- Google still looks for the freshest, most relevant content that matches the search
- Keyword research – discover other phrases with high search volume
- Use the list of suggested keywords as blog topics
Coming to Mobile Search…
- Tappable shortcuts at the top
- Fast results in the search bar
- Refine your queries
- Google Web Stories
- Endless discovery feed
“We’re also reimagining the way we display results to better reflect the ways people explore topics. You’ll see the most relevant content, from a variety of sources, no matter what format the information comes in — whether that’s text, images or video.”
~ Google
User Experience 1st!
- Mobile Friendly and Responsive
- No Immediate Pop-ups
- Useful content
- HTTPS – SSL Security certificate at the hosting level
- Core Web Vitals
It’s all about the user experience or UX. Mobile friendly and responsive. Everything has to work on a mobile device. Over 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. In fact, this past Black Friday, 48% of all purchases were ecommerce & done on a mobile device. Google looks for the mobile version of your website first. Make sure it works well on all mobile browsers.
Local Search Updates
- Search for restaurants by dish
- Discover restaurant specialities
- Support for digital menus
- Better Google Maps Live View
- Aerial views of famous landmarks
- Immersive view – for certain cities
- Neighborhood vibe checks – The Neighborhood vibe is rolling out — which means not everyone sees it at the same time… A new “neighborhood vibe” cities are featured in Google Maps, which will give you a feel for a neighborhood before you visit. Google will highlight what’s new, what the local gems are, and what’s worth exploring. Helpful photos and information from the Google Maps community will appear on the map while browsing the neighborhood. Google says it uses a combination of AI and user-submitted information to power the neighborhood vibe feature, which starts rolling out globally on the Google app in the coming months on Android and iOS.
- That gives you time to enhance and optimize your listing, and encourage user-generated content and reviews.
Local SEO Tips
The problem is bad SEO copy. Check this out…
Voice Search
- Answer the questions your target is asking
- Review the content on your website
- Look at your Meta Tag descriptions for each page & blog post
- Are ALL your pages and posts optimized?
- Keyword Research
Social Media News
- Schedule posts and reels up to 75 days in advance in the mobile app.
- More Ai content
- More Reels – fastest-growing content format
- Gifs generated from Live Photos
- Live shopping
- LinkedIn Personal:
- More data insights for jobseekers
- Improved video connection tools & viewing options in the app (LinkedIn TV?)
- Bigger focus on audio
- New Messaging “Focused Inbox” — less spam, brings relevant messages to the top.
- LinkedIn Pages:
- Templates for posts on Company Pages
- Pinning comments
- Page commitments
- Elon Musk hired a specialist to fix Twitter search. He’s got 3 months to improve it.
- Over 2 million new users/day have been joining Twitter — a 66% increase since 2021!
- Longer tweets
- More videos
- Relaunch Blue Verified
- Advertising as entertainment
- More advertising choices
- Bigger subscriber push
- Authenticate real humans — eliminating bots
- More posts recommended by Ai
- More visibility to videos
- Digital avatars
- Click-to-message ads
- Share-to-Reels VR (virtual reality) option
- International expansion
- Refined search & discovery
- Improved Buyable Pins for merchants
- Improved AR (augmented reality) capture & display options
- Live-stream shopping
Blogging Stats
Blogging should be a core part of your content strategy…
- 71% of bloggers agree that SEO is critical to getting more traffic
- 51% of companies measure the success of their blog based on organic (non-paid) traffic.
- 49% of bloggers say getting traffic is their biggest challenge.
- 42% say that search ranking is the most important metric.
- Only 27% of bloggers always research keywords!
- 37% of those say they get “strong results” from their posts while those who don’t do keyword research get only 11%.
- 77% of marketers say that blogging brings results.
- 56% of shoppers purchased something after reading a blog on an ecommerce site.
Data, Analytics & Insights
- Determine your key metrics before you start – What are you trying to accomplish?
- Visits to your website
- Conversions: list growth or sales
- Have Google Analytics set up on your website. Track…
- How many visitors both new and returning
- Where they came from
- How long they stayed
- How many pages did they view?
- Where you ranked
- Your click-thru rate
- Social media insights & demographics of your followers
Forecasting Digital Marketing Trends for 2023
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball to see into the future? Unfortunately, what the last 3 years have taught us is that it’s difficult to plan in an uncertain economy. It’s scary. You can have high hopes and then fall flat — many times through no fault of your own. So what do you do? Here’s my advice…
- Work with a business mentor — SBDC.
- Set SMART goals not just for the full year, but month-to-month goals.
- Make sure your analytics are set up on your website and your social media platforms.
- Check your analytics at the end of each month to see what worked and didn’t work.
- Adjust your strategic and tactical plans accordingly.
- Keep up with business, industry & and marketing news, and be prepared to pivot.
Additional Resources:
- https://www.wpbeginner.com/research/internet-usage-statistics-and-latest-trends/
- https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-statistics/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ways-improve-local-seo/460569/
- https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/just-in-time-supply-chains-dead/637492/
- https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/32-predictions-for-social-media-marketing-in-2023/635297/
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