While the holidays are all fun and exciting, the work never stops, and we’re already looking forward to what the next year will bring to the digital marketing industry. Technological advancements and the fact we’re all connected more than ever mean that trends are ever-changing, shifting from one to the next in what seems like no time at all. As the bulk of marketing is slowly but surely moving to the digital space, marketers need to keep up! Where the trends are, people follow, and marketers are not far behind. As we go through the remaining months of 2022, we take all 2022 lessons, file them for future use, and anticipate what 2023 has to offer. However, if you’re wondering how to best prepare for the coming year, it will help to know what trends might look like. 

So, what do you need to look out for?

Here are 5 marketing trends every marketer should look forward to.

LEANING INTO UGC

User-generated content, true to its name, is content that the users generate. Meaning it’s generally considered more authentic than company-generated content. Because users have no connection to the brand, it seems more authentic, increasing the trustworthiness of whatever comment or review they have of the brand or product. They’re not sponsored content; they are not tainted with the suspicion that the praises or positive reviews are manufactured. It’s a new-age word-of-mouth marketing strategy. For example, when a neighbor tells you that the cupcakes from that particular bakery down the street are excellent, you try them yourself. These types of recommendations have multiplied a thousandfold, even a millionfold, on social media because of the platforms’ reach. This all plays into the natural human tendency to look to others for guidance and the trust that a recommended product or service is not likely to disappoint. 70% of consumers would actually trust the recommendation of a stranger, which hikes up to 82% when it’s from someone they know. While the increasing popularity of video content on social media has also given way to the rise of user-generated content, it’s safe to say that content is moving towards more authentic content, in general. Marketing efforts have given great care to seem as natural as possible to relate to their potential customers easily. 

How to take advantage:

You can make several efforts to leverage user-generated and authentic content to your advantage. One way is to encourage loyal users of your products to use relevant hashtags, like #My[InsertBrandName]Story. The hashtags will help automatically compile all UGCs related to your brand and specific product and make them easier to find. You can acknowledge some posts by posting or sharing them on your brand’s social media accounts. Loyal customers would love that! You can also host giveaways for people who have used your hashtags or give rewards to help boost the user-generated content.

*Always ask permission when reposting user-generated posts or give proper credit. Making this a habit will go a long way in fostering trust between you and your followers.

MORE INTERACTIVE CONTENT AND MARKETING

In line with the “authentic” content mentioned above, people are much more drawn to interactive content and marketing strategies. People love getting involved. And you might have been engaging with interactive posts without knowing. It’s been known that the average attention span has shrunk to almost 25% in a few years, giving marketers only 8 seconds to hold people’s attention. No one has the time to listen to droning sales pitches; they have places to go and TikTok videos to watch. But don’t fret! Studies have also shown that while attention span has decreased, people can stay focused on things they deem relevant or has that little “something” that keeps them immersed. Now, that little “something” might be hard to capture and can differ depending on who your target audience is. Finding that is the real challenge here. How to best capture your audience’s attention and hold it enough to get your point across? Provide engaging and interactive content. Marketers need to provide dynamic experiences that call for two-way engagement.

Here are some examples of interactive marketing: 

• Interactive videos
• Quizzes and assessments
• Contests
• Interactive maps
• Interactive storytelling
• Live events

How to take advantage:

Since interactive content can only be successful or effective if your users or customers are interested, you need to get to know your audience better. A straightforward way would be to survey to know what they like or what they want to experience with your company. You can even give some sort of freebie or reward for answering the survey! You can also look into integrating interactive experiences on your website or VR-based tools and apps. 

REAL-TIME MESSAGING

Visit any e-commerce website, and guaranteed, there will be a real-time messaging option that customers can use to communicate with the brand. Message bubbles, usually seen at the bottom corner of the web page, make communication so much more accessible with no hassle. While email communication or the like is also a good way to communicate, the time element is not as attractive. Imagine going inside a Uniqlo and wanting advice. You go somewhere and have to write down your name and contact details, wait for some time to confirm your details, send your message, and wait again for their reply. Wouldn’t that be so frustrating? You want to be able to come up to a sales representative, ask questions, and get answers immediately. It’s the same on your website. Customers want answers, and they want them fast. Or as fast as possible. As Help Scout puts it, “Live chat answers customer questions before they become hesitations.” Having an integrated messaging option on your page also means that you can provide support nearly immediately, lessening the friction in the customer journey and humanizing your store because of the ability to talk to a real person. It’s not only beneficial for the customer journey, but can also aid you in gathering data from your customers and provide valuable insights into customer needs and behavior. 

How to take advantage:

Hiring live agents might be out of the question if you’re a smaller business. Good thing is, you don’t even have to worry about that! There are options to outsource customer chat support. It ensures that a team of people handles the support focused on that specific task and knows what they’re doing. If you do want to do it in-house, there are also number of live chat apps that might make it easier for you. Delight Chat rounded up their 15 best live chat apps. If that’s still difficult for you, there is another option! Chatbots are very popular, for example. They might not provide the “humanity” a live agent does, but they still fulfill the role of having some frequently asked questions answered immediately. 

WEB CHANGES AND EMPHASIS ON CONSUMER PRIVACY

As the internet and the web continue to evolve, changes are expected, even welcomed at times. Many changes have gradually started in recent times, and we expect more. We are at the dawn of web 3.0, for example. This change in the web is expected to change many things, such as a higher emphasis on consumer privacy and decentralization of information found on the internet. While the extent to which these changes will affect how we use the web remains to be seen, it’s expected to address privacy and security issues that many platforms are grappling with today. While talking about increased privacy, it’s worth mentioning that the analytics landscape is also changing as Google Analytics 4 is set to replace Universal Analytics by July next year. The changes in privacy have brought about some difficulty in marketing and the need to be able to measure performance amidst ad blocking and the decline of third-party cookies, which informed many of the changes for GA4. 

How to take advantage:

Keep a look out for the changes on the web and adjust accordingly. Especially in terms of changes in privacy and security measures, it’s important to be well informed to avoid complications. Optimize your company for current and future changes to keep up with consumers’ changing needs and demands. In the case of GA4, use the current beta version in conjunction with UA to familiarize yourself with the platform without sacrificing the insights provided by the latter. By the time GA4 completely replaces UA, you’d have had a lot of time to be comfortable with the new analytics platform. 

LEVERAGING MORE MARKETING AGENCIES

Do you want to get more done? Outsourcing has become a common strategy for many companies, mainly to do more without shelling out more operating and labor costs. Marketing is one aspect of company operations that would benefit from outsourcing. Marketing requires a lot of time, effort, and money. Instead of keeping up with marketing trends and changes in-house, outsourcing and leaving the marketing to the experts would make much more sense. Marketing agencies are companies that specialize in helping companies strategize for the biggest impact of their marketing efforts. They offer services that range from planning a general marketing strategy to implementing and evaluating the performance of specific campaigns. Hiring marketing agencies (like ourselves) help small to midsize, even bigger companies to maximize their return using their expertise. 

Here are the top three reasons you should work with a marketing agency:

Save time and money

As mentioned, outsourcing is usually done to cut operating and labor costs compared to doing it within the company. There will also be less trial and error, given that you’ve hired the right one, contributing to less spending and more positive results. 

Work with the experts

These agencies focus on one thing and one thing only: marketing. This means you can leverage expertise you otherwise don’t have. They have worked with other companies and seen the shifts and trends in marketing. This gives them the ability to evaluate your brand and decide who and what strategies will work best with your brand. 

Access to the best possible resources

In line with being experts, their experience will also guarantee that they can tap into excellent resources and contacts that would pair very well with your brand and the strategy that you’ve come up with.

We’re here to help. We are a full-service marketing agency specializing in media buying, lead generation, and customer acquisition. We’ve been here since 2013 and, thus far, have generated over $1 Billion dollars in sales and revenue for our clients. Will you be next? We even offer a free strategy session!

Marketing, especially with the advancements in information and communications technology, has steadily grown as an industry. Marketing is everywhere! From the cereal you eat in the morning to your social media platform of choice! In 2021, and North America alone, marketing spending amounted to 297.5 billion US dollars! In 2022, the budget for marketing has increased to 9.5% of the total company revenue. Needless to say, the marketing industry is thriving and is showing no signs of slowing. In order to keep up, you need to look out for new trends and marketing changes that could help you shape a more fruitful future for your company.