For most people, the new year means embracing a “new you.” But for marketers steeped in all things digital, the new year is all about exploring and applying digital marketing trends you probably haven’t heard of yet.
Here are the top digital marketing trends you’ll see from 2023 and beyond — according to HX and digital marketing agency GO Digital, whose expertise covers a wide range: from web and app development to affiliate marketing and digital strategy including UI, UX, SEO, paid search, marketing automation, and social.
1. Influencer marketing 2.0
While influencer marketing has been booming in the past decade, the digital marketing sphere will see several shifts in how businesses and agencies interact with influencers. We now move from a number-based influencer game to one that gives more premium on quality. What does this mean? Simply, the number of an influencer’s followers will not be the only metric for determining their saleability. In the next few years, digital marketers will move away from influencer-centric marketing and spend more time thinking about who is actually influential in a certain audience segment.
These may be good ol’ influencers from macro to micro and nano scales, or even a business’ own employees or clientele. This will certainly involve employee engagement and conversational marketing trends. Digital marketers will now take on the challenge of determining what kind of influence will drive genuine or real, usable action from intended audiences.
2. Instant gratification via online interactions
Technology, the Internet, and handheld devices have only furthered audiences’ appetites for instant gratification; which is why this will become a defining digital marketing trend in the next decade. Marketers need to be more creative about ways online interactions can be rewarded instantly — with a promo code, fun filters, freebies, trial run, and real-time service, to name a few.
Plain and simple, if your intended audience doesn’t feel rewarded through online interactions with your brand, you will lose them to competitors whose instant gratification campaigns make the most of digital platforms. Time to get (even more) creative. A tip: How would you want to be rewarded almost immediately if you were in your audience segment’s shoes?
3. Real-time messaging as data hubs
With instant gratification comes real-time messaging. If targeted audience segments expect to be rewarded instantly with certain online interactions, all the more will they expect to be assisted in real-time — even when conversations aren’t face-to-face in the physical sense. Investing in a good real-time messaging platform, strategy, and campaign will also double as a data centre where businesses can gather information about their clients.
Real-time messaging platforms can also be a venue for companies’ knowledge bases to shine and evolve. Use them as your foundation for reliable real-time customer service. As real-time messaging continues to evolve through chat apps and virtual assistance, digital marketing practices will evolve, too. Stay on top of this digital marketing trend.
4. Holographic ads
You’ve been seeing them everywhere. There’s no denying that holographic ads are making waves and making their way into the mainstream — quickly climbing up to the top of digital marketing and marketing tech trends lists. To date, holographic ad campaigns have enjoyed the momentum brought about by the hype of new, exciting tech. Agencies have seen how 3D ad campaigns transform into tourism spots or must-sees in a certain locality. So far, holographic ads prove to be a failsafe way of boosting brand recognition by way of virality. Surely as technology advances, marketers will start to see the migration of holographic interactions from the public space to the personal setting. Mobile devices will catch up soon enough.
5. Voice and visual search
Voice and visual search have become increasingly popular, too, which will also alter the way digital marketing agencies approach SEO and metadata. Take, for example, keywords. The way they are phrased when typing them onto a search engine is vastly different from how a person will use similar keyphrases in a conversational tone when enabling voice search. Visual search, on the other hand, is a whole other ballgame. The trend is very much in line with the current theme and ideology of the future being highly visual. This, of course, includes the future of digital marketing.
As we move into 2023 and beyond, digital marketing trends are constantly evolving. From web and app development to affiliate marketing and digital strategy, including UI, UX, SEO, paid search, marketing automation, and social, HX and digital marketing agency GO Digital are experts in identifying the top trends in the field. Here are the top trends to watch out for in the coming years. Let us know!