What will happen to the world of marketing in 2023? With this question in mind, I contacted several marketing experts to hear their predictions.
Author Lisa Apolinski, who runs the agency Three Dog Light, has been called “a futurist for digital content in America.” In her face-to-face interview, Apolinski anticipated the following points.
1. Companies will be forced to respond to “customer expectations on digital platforms”
“Customer experience has evolved, and digital elements are now being incorporated in all aspects. When companies think about customer experience, the digital part is the key factor. How do you meet the changing expectations of your customers, such as how long it will take to complete the process?
2. Focused on making long-term strategies to become an “authority on the road”
Being an authority in your area of expertise is a great way to build credibility and position your brand. However, this is not a “whoever makes the first profit wins” scheme. “Establishing authority requires a more long-term approach, a slow fire,” says Apolinski. “With this kind of ‘digital firecracker’, we should be able to maintain an established position for a long time,” said Kimen Warner, vice president of product management at Drift, who also heads product and customer marketing at Drift
. In an email, senior director Aurelia Solomon provided the following predictions for 2023:
3. Growing Fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working 24/7
According to Warner and Solomon, one of the biggest challenges facing AI in B2B is the public perception of AI in use in B2C environments. As the introduction of AI to BtoC products progresses, consumers will inevitably become afraid of introducing AI to the BtoB environment. Therefore, it is very important to get rid of the image of AI as “a black box where you don’t know what’s going on inside” to get people to understand AI, gain trust, and promote its introduction in various companies. It is said that it will be
4. By 2023, AI will be much more accurate and more trustworthy
Warner and Solomon note that moving many AI models to open source has made data collection and training faster and more accurate. If this is applied to AI bots, it will be possible to increase user engagement in a way that better meets their needs, to be able to answer questions more consistently and to lead to correct results. As a result, confidence in the results derived by AI should increase. In addition, Josh Campo, CEO of Laserfish, a global leader in marketing transformation, emailed me and predicted the following trends:
5. Consumers and businesses alike will begin to shift their spending
Due to the continuing economic uncertainty, conscious consumers will shift their purchasing patterns in 2023, choosing products that maximize impact, usability, and convenience. Campo predicts. Correspondingly, marketing leaders will need to adjust themselves to match the current position of consumers. As buyers become more scrutinized, there will likely be more pressure to deliver real value.
6. Accelerate the physical/digital connection
Campo points out that the pandemic has accelerated the shift of experiences from physical to digital. 2022, meanwhile, has witnessed a resurgence of many of the physical experiences that consumers have long shunned. And in 2023, brand exposure in the physical arena will continue to be important, and Campo sees success for brands that strive to bring consistency and purpose to these moments of contact.
Alicia Pringle, senior director of online marketing at Newfold Digital, shared her predictions in an email:
7. Social commerce gains momentum
In 2023, Pringle predicts that social commerce will be heavily used by both brands and consumers. That’s because social commerce creates a smoother, more direct experience for users. Measures such as guiding prospective customers to “links in the profile section” will no longer be needed. Influencers and creative social content will be at the heart of marketing.
8. Video-text fusion content will be the best marketing strategy in 2023
Pringle believes websites still need text information. But adding product videos (and the ability to post to social media) will allow marketers to reach a wider audience for their products, he said. Cara Jane Moore, president of Hunt Big Sales, emailed me:
9. The time has come to re-examine the “selling process”
According to Moore, 2023 will be the perfect year to re-examine how consumers buy and how businesses sell. According to the company, if the service is reviewed according to sales design and staff allocation, it will lead to an increase in profit and improve customer support. “This has been happening since 2015,” Moore said.
Sandra Martini, founder of The Martini Way, predicted in her face-to-face interview:
10. More likely to prioritize retaining existing customers over acquiring new prospects
“If companies consistently demonstrate that they understand their customers, they will stay longer and be more likely to refer others.” Optimization is just such a scalable way to enhance customer relationships,” Martini said.
