Applying AI to digital marketing can effectively help optimize the consumer experience, increase consumers' favorability for the brand, and directly affect the brand's revenue.
The following will describe the seven major marketing trends in 2023 for readers, as well as six tool applications that marketers cannot ignore!
The marketing field is changing rapidly, and popular tools are changing every year. This blog will take you to discuss the latest digital and online marketing trends in 2023, and how marketers can prepare and respond to these market trends.
2023 Digital Marketing Trends and Changes
Trend 1: Pay more attention to "customer experience"
The discussion of customer experience has greatly increased in recent years. From the rise of UI/UX, we can see that many trends have emerged with only one purpose: to improve customer experience. According to statistics, about 75% of people in the United States say that customer experience is an important factor in their decision to buy. Yet only 50 percent of US consumers feel they have had a satisfactory customer experience.
In India, a high percentage of companies have not yet paid attention to the importance of customer experience, such as failing to provide RWD responsive pages or launching apps that ignore UX design.
In modern times, customers can easily obtain a large amount of accurate information. Whether it is product reviews by people or internal brand news, consumers can easily search for them on the Internet. Therefore, it is far from enough for general brands to provide sufficient information on their own websites.
If you want to create differentiation and cultivate customer dependence, improving customer experience will be the best choice. Now that customers are actively collecting information, brands must be able to create differentiation on the service side in order to maintain their competitiveness on the Internet.
Strategy 1: Optimizing the flow of webpages to improve efficiency and convenience
The core of brands wanting to optimize customer experience lies in being able to design the shopping and browsing process from the perspective of customers. Consumers value "quick problem solving" and "efficiency and convenience" when shopping online.
Provide real-time online customer service, or automatic answering chatbots, and a complete set of frequently asked questions, all of which can solve consumer problems in real-time. The simple process design, such as one-click membership without filling in a large amount of member information, notification of order delivery status, simple and fast refund service, etc., will optimize the efficiency and convenience of consumers when shopping.
Others, such as web page flow design, intuitive operation, multi-device response, professional knowledge articles or audio-visual, the visual image in line with the brand concept, etc., are also channels to optimize the customer experience.
As can be seen from the chart below, the top three experiences that consumers value most are high efficiency, convenience, and friendly service. Brands can use this as an optimization direction to further enhance customer experience.
Trend 2: Personalized service
Personalized service is a further step in improving the customer experience. The concept of both is the same: to optimize the service to customers. With the application of AI technology and more advanced technology, it is no longer difficult for brands to provide personalized services to huge customers.
Personalized service can deepen consumers' liking for brands and prompt Buyers to actively interact with brands. In the past, we have tried to provide simple personalization services for shoppers, such as writing the customer's name on the card attached to the product or sending customers a birthday gift certificate.
85% of consumers said that they hope that brands can truly understand their needs. Adjusting sales content according to buyers' preferences will make shoppers feel valued and have a very positive impact on the brand. Personalized services can also encourage consumers to actively promote brands, or actively interact with brands through channels such as communities and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Strategy 2: Analyze consumer shopping journey and predict preferences
Personalization breaks the traditional brand-centric thinking mode. In the past, the planning of marketing activities was formulated according to the company's own brand planning or sales goals. However, the central idea of personalized service must be based on "customer preferences" to set goals.
Make good use of technological tools to collect customer information and make relevant applications. For example: analyze the shopping history of members to find the products that customers like, and then deliver different promotional information to appropriate consumers.
Or use AI technology to analyze consumer behavior, predict buyers' possible preferences, and push marketing information based on consumers' past behaviors on the Internet.
Trend 3: Visual reading habits
The visual reading habit led by pictures and audio-visual has been burned for several years. In 2023, visualization is still a trend that cannot be ignored. For example, The rise of Pinterest and the ubiquity of Instagram all show that modern people like to read images and audio, and video far more than pure text descriptions.
On the other hand, with the advancement of AI recognition technology, image search will become a very important search tool in the future. Amazon predicts that by 2024, brands that prioritize visual search optimization will generate 45% more revenue than the overall market.
Compared with text, visual content can bring more reading volume and interaction rate to the brand:
- The colorful visual presentation will increase people’s willingness to read by 90%
- Picture content will increase viewing volume by 94% compared to text content
- Posts with pictures will increase the interaction rate by 200%
- 90% of consumers After watching a shopping video, make further purchases
Strategy 3: Replace plain text introduction with Banner design
Make more use of pictures and audio and video to add richness to the content, for example: use design banners containing product pictures and product text introductions to replace pure text introductions; or make good use of design theories such as color psychology, font personality, and space configuration to assist Brands design graphic designs that are more appealing to consumers.
In informative articles, visual charts can also be used to help readers absorb information faster and more clearly. However, short videos, image videos, etc., can more effectively attract consumers' attention, or achieve the effect of inciting purchases. You can refer to those videos that cause discussion, how they are presented, and what skills are behind them, all of which can help brands be handier in visual presentation.
Facing the trend of image search, because there is not much room for image optimization, brands should set the text of Alt tags more correctly to help search engines initially judge the content of images and guide them to the correct search results.
Trend 4: The transfer trend of social media
As a pioneer of social networking, Facebook has dominated this market for many years and has therefore derived many business activities and interaction models. However, with the popularity of more and more social software in recent years, coupled with the wavering of public opinion caused by Facebook itself on information security issues, some users have begun to look for new social channels or become different social software multi-dwellers.
Another problem that marketers need to face when using Facebook for marketing planning is the loss of young users. In 2016, about 55% of young people liked to use Facebook, but by 2019, this proportion was only 35%.
Although Facebook is still the leader of the community, as consumers shift, brands also need to start deploying different social software. For example Pinterest or Medium.
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, the user growth of these social platforms has come to a stagnation period. In terms of user growth, these platforms still have great potential, and different communities can bring different effects, such as Instagram and Pinterest through Pictures can be a powerful shopping guide, or YouTube can be a powerful video advertisement.
Strategy 4: Operating a new community that best matches the brand tone
Snapchat, Medium, Pinterest, Reddit, etc. are all gaining momentum, and in India, Instagram is the most important social media besides Facebook. Brands need to have an in-depth understanding and forecast of the places and trends of target groups, as the direction of future community layout.
Brands can start to operate these social media slots in advance in 2023. Although there are fewer users of niche social media, finding the platform that best matches the brand tone can maximize the potential of the brand. For example, women-oriented products such as clothing and jewelry can make good use of Pinterest, which has a large number of female consumers, to make new brand layouts.
Trend 5: Sentiment Analysis in Customer Opinion
AI technology benefits the public again! As AI can interpret increasingly complex information, analyzing consumers' inner thoughts is no longer difficult. Text sentiment analysis (Sentiment analysis) can assist brands in the market development of new products, or play a role in public relations monitoring.
The machine will learn the emotions conveyed behind the selection and composition of a large number of different texts, and conduct generalization to analyze the real thoughts behind consumers' words.
The choice of words, the method of punctuating sentences, the arrangement and combination of words, and even the application of emoticons can reveal the real thoughts of the publishers, and through the calculation of the database and artificial intelligence, a new set of ideas can be summarized. "Emotional Dictionary".
At present, in foreign countries, there are already tools capable of sentiment analysis, such as Lexalytics and Repustate. The purpose of sentiment analysis is to understand consumers' real thoughts more accurately. They do not always "like" or "dislike", or clearly express their views on the brand with only five stars.
Repustate describes how sentiment analysis is applied in the introduction of its tools. Through sentiment analysis, brands can know the tiny messages behind the language and use this as a direction for improvement and optimization.
Strategy 5: Make good use of community and comment tools to collect consumer opinions
Brands can start to try to use text sentiment analysis tools for further customer data collection.
However, the monthly cost of these tools is quite high, which may be difficult for many brands to afford. The purpose of text sentiment analysis is to gain an in-depth understanding of consumers' true thoughts. Before this technology becomes a popular tool, brands can make good use of tools such as communities and comments to collect more accurate consumer preferences than likes and dislikes. Opinion.
Although in the face of AI, people's data collection and interpretation are not so clear, real people will be able to convey the warmth that tools do not have, convey to consumers that the brand attaches importance to customer opinions, and often get real feedback from consumers.
Trend 6: Community and Live Shopping Guide
With the reduction of consumers' attention and the rise of social media, it has become increasingly difficult for brands to guide shoppers from multiple channels to online stores to complete shopping. And if you want to attract these consumers who interact in the community to complete their purchases, shopping guides will be the best choice for brands.
Nowadays, many social platforms are eager to develop shopping guide functions to help brands attract potential consumers in these communities and complete orders painlessly in the fastest and easiest way. For example, the product tagging function launched by Instagram can display product information and prices in the community. After clicking, you can quickly jump to the purchase page. Consumers do not need to go back to the search engine to search for brands and products to complete the purchase. The whole process is fast and convenient. Simple, effective conversion rate increase.
Live shopping has also become a new trend. The biggest difference between live broadcasts and ordinary videos is that they have more immediacy and interaction. Brands can use live broadcasts to break the spatial distance between consumers and solve problems for customers immediately.
According to a New York Magazine survey, some 85% of respondents would rather watch a live broadcast than read an article; 87% of respondents said they would rather interact with a post on a community, and I prefer a live broadcast. The live broadcast shortens the hesitation period of consumers when shopping, breaks the restrictions of e-commerce, and becomes the best weapon for shopping guides.
Strategy 6: Enable the Facebook store function, and open live broadcasts to reach consumers
According to the survey, about 60% of consumers will use the brand's Facebook to research the brand and its products. Brands can start to use Facebook's store function for shopping guides, providing visiting buyers with an opportunity to shop.
As for Instagram's shopping guide function, according to Instagram's official documents, stores approved by the Instagram shopping function can already start using this shopping guide service. However, India is currently only a "hosting partner" and has not yet opened up to all accounts. If your brand has not yet been licensed, you can wait for the official news.
In addition, one of the conditions for the shopping function to be enabled is that the brand needs to be linked to the Facebook catalog. It is strongly recommended that the brand first run the brand store on Facebook to prepare for the activation of the Instagram shopping function.
Through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, brands can easily start any live broadcast. The live broadcast enables the brand to become a small self-media, to have first-line contact with many consumers.
However, to guide customers who interact on the live broadcast to the official website to place orders, most brands still guide them manually or through URLs. At present, some tools can directly jump to the purchase page, and brands can use this to start planning live marketing strategies.
Trend 7: The Rising Generation Z
Generation Z generally refers to those born between the mid-1990s to the 2000s. This group of people is quietly changing the rules of the market game. Consumers after 1995 were born in the age of the Internet and are influenced by technological products such as the Internet, instant messaging, and smartphones. There is a difference between the virtual reality of technology and the reality of life. Unique values in the past.
This group of people is very good at filtering and mastering information, and they also care about the accuracy of information. These characteristics will greatly affect the considerations and choices of Generation Z when shopping. According to the survey, by 2023, Gen Z will account for 50% of all consumers, which is enough to make the market change the rules of the game for this group of people.
Gen Zers have the following traits, and you will find a lot of marketing or communication aligned with these traits:
- Pay attention to the truth
Generation Z has grown up with an explosive amount of information since childhood and has a much better grasp of correct information than other generations. Excessive promotions or untrue descriptions will make them lose trust in brands.
- Diversification
Generation Z can accept a large amount of information at the same time and has a very high acceptance of text, images, audio, and video. They are also very accepting of new shopping methods, such as the live shopping mentioned above.
- Difficulty concentrating
Explosive information also brings counterproductive effects. To be able to receive a large amount of information at the same time, Generation Z has greatly reduced their concentration on things. As a result, it has become difficult for advertisements and copywriting to attract consumers immediately.
- Highly dependent on mobile devices
Generation Z is used to solving all problems on mobile phones, including shopping. In recent years, it can also be seen from the market that consumers are increasingly adapting to and relying on the shopping environment on phone devices.
- High reliance on community and communication
Generation Z obtains information mostly from search engines and social communication, and builds the connection between Generation Z and the world through "people, friends talking and searching".
- Pursue a small fortune
Unlike the previous generation who put most of their income into savings and investment, Generation Z is more willing to spend money on life experience and material enjoyment, making them a high-potential consumer group.
Strategy 7: Follow up on the trends from time to time and connect with the new generation
Generation Z is highly receptive to information and can quickly adapt to highly changing trends. Brands need to keep up with the latest trends to ensure they can connect with the new generation. According to the characteristics of Generation Z, brands can prescribe the right medicine: choose what they like on the brand's external web pages, communities, copywriting, and picture materials.
Among the responses to Generation Z, many are the current trends: such as community effects, high dependence on smartphones, new demands for copywriting and picture materials to attract consumers’ attention, etc., are all future trends, brands should plan strategies early to capture the hearts of Generation Z consumers.
Must-Have Tools for Marketers in 2023
Tool 1: Voice Search and Featured Snippet
In 2023, SEO still shoulders heavy responsibilities, and it is one of the important indicators for marketers to expand their brands and shape their brand image.
However, the rules of the game have quietly changed in recent years. In the past, in the field of SEO, we always pursued the number one ranking to ensure the visibility of web pages. However, voice search and featured snippets may replace this search ranking, which has become the primary goal pursued by marketers.
Voice search
With the development of smartphones and the rise of smart home appliances, voice search has gradually become another search method besides text when searching. Voice search is fast and intuitive. People can easily talk to mobile phones and smart home appliances, and quickly find answers to questions in them, without having to pick up the phone to enter questions.
This emerging trend will become more and more popular. According to predictions, by 2023, 60% of searches will be conducted by voice. Voice search is colloquial and informal, and Google only presents one search result to people. This "0 position" above the search ranking of 1 position will win more opportunities for the brand.
Featured Snippet Featured Snippet
has long been one of the important indicators of SEO optimization, and this phenomenon will become more obvious in 2023. Sparktoro did a survey, and in 2021, there were 75 no-clicks for every 100 search results.
No clicks mean the reader left the search page after seeing what he was looking for in the featured snippet with 0 search positions. The construction of featured snippets will only become more and more important. While creating high-quality content, marketers should pay attention to the clear and reasonable structure of the content and structure, so as to ensure the position of search results ranked 0.
The featured snippet that appears in search results 0 when searching for how to boil a hard-boiled egg
Tool 2: Chatbot
Nowadays, there are already many web pages that provide online chatbot services. This function seems simple, but it can quickly and instantly solve some problems for consumers. Bots can solve common consumer questions, such as how much to shop for free shipping, or what payment options are available online.
Providing consumers with a shortcut to solve problems can not only greatly improve the brand's service quality, but also improve operational efficiency, preventing brands from spending too much time answering simple questions. With the amazing learning ability of AI, the services and general applications that chatbots can provide will become more and more extensive, becoming an indispensable and important marketing tool for brands.
Tool 3: Internet celebrity Influencer effect
Internet celebrities have become the new darling of brands and often bring huge economic benefits because of the "authenticity" they present to consumers.
As we described in the Gen Z section, the authenticity of information is increasingly important to consumers. Compared with the brand's advertisements or traditional endorsements, the contact between Internet celebrities and shoppers will be closer and at zero distance. This trend has combined with e-commerce shopping in recent years, bringing huge business opportunities for brands.
In 2023, Influencers will also continue to spread, and the effect of KOC (Key Opinion Consumers, that is, key consumer leaders) will also begin to appear. Compared with Influencers with stable and large fans, Influencers have small traffic, but because they have no relationship with brands. Any commercial endorsement or connection, on the contrary, can persuade consumers who are waiting to invest in consumption.
Tool 4: Smart Advertising
Advances in machine learning are also affecting the serving of ads. Among several changes Google announced at Google Marketing Live 2019, the application of smart bidding will make it easier to place ads.
Through machine learning, the system will determine the best bidding mode, which can be more helpful to the conversion of the brand. And this function may also subvert the model of traditional advertising agencies and bring about a new change in the ecology of digital advertising.
Tool 5: Interactive Electronic Direct Mail(EDM)
Email is still influential in the distribution of messages and advertisements. Its construction cost is low, but it can bring a very high return on investment. And in 2023, beautiful EDM will be more effective than traditional text or large amounts of information.
EDM will become the future trend and optimization direction of EDM through well-designed emails and button designs that can interact with consumers. Other general uses of emails, such as shopping cart unchecked reminders, personalized emails, inserting videos, interactive image design, etc, are all good optimization goals when designing EDM.
Tool 6: YouTube Video Planning
In the past, we may regard YouTube as a part of community management, but in 2023, YouTube's business planning deserves more attention from marketers.
According to the 2022 YouTube Digital Survey, approximately 95% of customers discover new brands on YouTube. YouTube can well combine modern people's dependence on video and audio, as well as the acquisition of information. This powerful feature makes YouTube one of the sharp tools for brands to expand brand awareness.
Consumers may discover a brand new brand when they follow their favorite internet celebrities on YouTube; or when they search for anything on YouTube, such as cat litter selection reviews, they see recommendations and make purchases from brands. As one of the channels for brand expansion, in 2023, YouTube deserves brands to invest more resources and implement a more complete marketing plan.
Applying AI to Optimize the Customer Experience Helps Brands Succeed
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence and the maturity of the concept of customer management, 2023 will be the year when AI will be greatly applied and the ultimate goal of the user experience strategy will be improved. With the optimization of tools, consumers' shopping or browsing methods have become more and more convenient, and the focus points that brands need to respond to have also increased.
However, these trends are not all challenges. Grasping the major trends mentioned in this blog, as well as updating and optimization of concepts on tools, and planning for marketing strategies in advance may become rare opportunities for brands! Bless all marketers and brands to shine in 2023!