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5 Key Marketing Trends For 2023 And Beyond

Forbes Agency Council

Kathryn E Strachan is managing director and owner of the award-winning B2B content marketing agency, Copy House.

Now that we’re firmly in the throes of 2023, you might be starting to think about different marketing strategies to help boost your business throughout what may be quite a difficult year for many. While it can be nerve-wracking to think about spending money during a time of financial difficulty, it’s more important than ever to keep your brand on your target consumers’ minds and provide them with the products and services that they need.

While marketing trends are ever-changing, there are a number of key focuses emerging that are worth considering as part of your marketing plan for 2023 and beyond.

Driving Connections With Content

While content has always been a hugely important part of any marketing strategy, it’s now absolutely essential for driving leads for your business. But while your content marketing plans may previously have felt a bit like a one-way street of information for your audience, they are now a great way to build connections and communities.

There is a huge drive for consumers to focus on the values of brands they buy from, so the more content you can put out that centers around who you are as a company, what your ethos is and how you help your customers, the more people are likely to seek you out.

When it comes to recessions and financial downturns, many people are more likely to purchase from brands that continue to communicate with them. When making a purchasing decision, it’s important that they can get answers to any questions they might have, so the more information that you can put on your website and social pages, the better.

Interactive Marketing

One of the most prevalent changes to the way consumers learn about brands, shop around and ultimately make purchasing decisions is how they interact with brands. Quizzes, polls and questions are nothing new—especially in the world of social media—but we’re now starting to see an even bigger shift when it comes to how audiences expect to engage with the companies they’re keen to purchase from.

Offering tools such as calculators or interactive infographics that allow your audience to interact with you on a number of different levels can encourage them to learn more about you while also building a deeper level of trust that you may not have been able to build otherwise.

If it works for your brand and audience, it may be worth considering elements of gamification to increase your presence, stand out from the crowd and promote your business offerings. This could include something like creating an online community where users could compete against each other in various tasks or earn points by completing goals.

Focusing On Customer Experience

While it’s all very well to have a great product, unless you can deliver an outstanding customer experience alongside it, it’s unlikely you’ll see much in the way of repeat business. In fact, a study found that 76% of the consumers surveyed would stop doing business with a company after just one bad customer experience.

It’s important to remember that customer service isn’t just for people who have questions or a complaint; it starts as soon as someone lands on your website or social media channels. Every communication you have with them, whether it’s over the phone or through emails, automated chat or any other touchpoint, is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine and give them the best experience possible.

This is where omnichannel marketing really comes into its own, helping you to create standout, personalized experiences that keep your customers wanting more.

Artificial Intelligence

AI has been all over the news recently, with the technology constantly improving at a mind-blowing rate. While tools such as ChatGPT and Jasper may have some marketers running for the hills, there’s actually a huge opportunity to use them to your advantage.

While I don’t currently advise relying on AI bots to write whole streams of content for your business, there’s no reason why you couldn’t use them to help you build out your content plans and get ideas for the type of topics your audience is interested in hearing more about.

You also can use AI to analyze large chunks of data to help you quickly identify trends and patterns and build personalized content strategies.

Useful, High-Quality Content

It’s no secret that Google now focuses on rewarding websites that prioritize useful content for their audiences. Gone are the days when you could fill page upon page with repetitive keywords and show up on the first page of the search results. Nowadays, it’s all about the value that you can provide.

This means that if you’re creating content, it’s more important than ever to keep the reader in mind. Answer their questions, and provide insights they can’t find elsewhere. This will have a hugely positive impact not only on your Google rankings (and hopefully leads) but also on the level of trust and authority you hold with the reader.

No matter what your marketing plans are for 2023 and beyond, it’s worth doing your research and understanding what methods will work best for your business. This year may be a challenging one for many, but with so many new trends and ideas shaping our sector, it’s also set to be one of the most exciting yet.


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