With a new year coming, many business owners are curious about the next best thing. Every year there are loads of predictions; however, I don’t necessarily read them and do an about-face.
Here are a few that I have seen that genuinely sound right on. Of course, anything could happen, but I thought it would be helpful to share them with you.
User-generated content is the new word-of-mouth.
What is UGC? I am glad you asked.
It is published content from an unpaid contributor. For example, an unboxing video, a product review, photo tags, and more.
How are you connecting with your audience to ensure they are sharing about your brand?
You can prompt them to do so on your social posts, emails, or inserts you may mail when you send out a product. It is helpful to recommend that your customers create that UGC because some won’t naturally think about how that will help your business. When you have happy customers, many times, they are so glad to help!
Cohesive customer experiences
I don’t think this is new to 2023, but it is something business owners and marketers must be reminded of. When considering your marketing efforts, it is more important to place an enormous amount of focus on WHO YOUR CUSTOMER IS!
If you focus solely on your bottom line, you are most likely working from a place of fear or scarcity instead of serving your customers with your product or service.
According to Asana, customers expect a personalized, tailored experience that speaks directly to their needs. At the same time, marketers must avoid looking through a campaign-only lens since customers don’t interact with brands through a single method or channel.
Marketers must understand specific interactions in the customer’s entire journey and focus on a complete experience, not a point-in-time campaign. Creating a customer journey map is one way to understand your user experience better. A customer journey map is a visual representation of how a customer acts, thinks, and feels through the buying process and can be a valuable tool for creating a cohesive experience.
Conversational Marketing
I have been shouting this from the rooftop for YEARS! We can no longer write copy that is technical, stiff, and hard to understand. Writing in a friendly and professional way, as it relates to your specific audience, will provide another level of marketing that will undoubtedly level your business up.
This is not to say there is no room for AI, but most buyers are wise to that in this day and age. It would benefit your business to spend the necessary time to write copy that will convert, specifically for your audience.
“Think of your marketing in 2023 as a back-and-forth conversation. Create a goal to build relationships, and when you do that, customers will come and stay loyal to you, producing results and making a difference in your bottom line.”
Jamie Samples, Founder of Yellow Barn Media
Marketers will continue to humanize their brands.
Yes, please! One of my favorite business-building authors, Mark Schaefer, wrote a book called Marketing Rebellion. It is about how the most human company wins, and I cannot recommend it enough. My copy has writing all over it, sticky notes sticking out of the pages, and highlighting all over the place.
According to HubSpot, 30% of marketers are currently creating content that reflects their brand’s values, making it the third most popular trend right now.
It has the 5th biggest ROI of any trend and will see growth in 2023. 16% of marketers plan to leverage content that reflects their brand’s values for the first time in 2023, and 89% of those already investing in it plan to increase or maintain their investment.
The top marketing channels for 2023
According to Hubspot, marketers leverage an average of four social media platforms in their roles. Facebook is the most used social media platform, leveraged by 64% of marketers, followed by Instagram (58%), YouTube (57%), Twitter (43%), TikTok (42%), and LinkedIn (33%).
Hubspot also reports YouTube will see the most growth of any platform in 2023. YouTube’s currently used by 57% of marketers and ties for 2nd in ROI with YouTube and TikTok.
YouTube will see the most growth of any platform in 2023, with 91% of those using it planning to increase or maintain their investment. At the same time, 29% of marketers plan to try YouTube for the first time, the highest of any social app.
Final Thoughts
This is a ton of information to take in and consider; however, as with all the advice and strategies I share, the most important thing is to KNOW your own business.
Review your insights and numbers from 2022.
Where did you spend your time and money?
Do more of what worked and less of what did not.
You don’t have to jump on the newest, hottest trend. You certainly want to pay attention to recent trends, but it’s ok to take your time to consider how or if YOUR audience will respond to it.
If you are new to business and only have a small amount of data, talk to those in your industry, get a mentor, and do your best to create a consistent strategy that will yield the best results. From month to month, review that data and continue to ebb and flow with the knowledge you have at the time.
Maybe you have been in business for years, so take adequate time to review your data. If you only send a few emails, but the results are fantastic, do more. If you don’t like doing emails, maybe now is the time to outsource that task if it yields you consistent results.
Whatever you do, do it with authenticity and consistency.
Start with the end in mind and your customers at your strategy’s forefront.
2023 will be your best year ever, so buckle up, do the work and get ready! 😁
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