13 Top Marketing Trends and Strategies

If you’re in marketing, you have to be comfortable with change.”

From newspaper ads to artificial intelligence, marketing trends come and go as technology and consumer preferences change. That means marketing leaders can’t always rely on tried-and-true best practices. Instead, anticipating future trends is essential to maintain your edge and develop effective marketing strategies. 

Discover the top 13 marketing trends and strategies to drive success this year. From AI to sustainability, stay ahead with these must-know insights.

Marketing at scale with AI

With the launch of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, it’s clear that artificial intelligence is changing the future of marketing. This year, marketers will continue to adopt new tech that helps teams drive revenue and bring strategies to market faster. 

1. Trendspotting and data analysis

According to research from The Work Innovation Lab,  30% of employees are already using AI for data analysis, and twice that number (62%) want to use AI for that purpose. AI-driven data models, algorithms, and machine learning can help marketers better understand their target audience, allowing businesses to: 

• Optimize spending and marketing efforts with smarter, more targeted advertisements.

• Make better plans with accurate trend spotting and predictions.

• Get a better understanding of buyer behavior.

• Increase customer retention and loyalty by serving targeted content to the right people.

2. Streamlining day-to-day marketing tasks

You can apply automations that help you deal with less drudgery, and help you be more productive.”

One of the biggest benefits of AI is that it can help marketers move faster by automating routine work. According to research from The Work Innovation Lab, 25% of employees already use AI for administrative tasks, and more than double (57%) want to use AI for that purpose. In other words, marketers are eager to take advantage of new AI technology so they can focus on more creative, revenue-driving work. 

AI productivity improvements are likely to include:

• Automations that help marketing teams instantly kick off, assign, and hand off work. 

• Virtual assistants that help craft messages, draft status reports, and synthesize marketing campaign information. 

• Improvements to generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) that help marketers draft content, create images and videos, and more. 

Building AI tools into your marketing tech stack is essential to take advantage of these opportunities. It’s also important to invest in training to overcome AI fears and help marketers use AI technology safely. 

3. AI-driven customer interactions and conversational marketing

Conversational marketing uses targeted messaging and AI automation to engage with customers in real-time. This digital marketing trend employs intelligent chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), allowing customers to have a two-way conversation with a brand. 

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are changing the nature of customer service, and many modern consumers are no longer willing to wait patiently for solutions—instead, they seek immediate gratification. To keep up with customer demand, many businesses are turning toward AI-driven conversational marketing to increase customer satisfaction and drive conversions in the new year. 

4. New targeting solutions

Google is set to phase out third-party cookies in response to rising privacy concerns. Cookies play a role in target marketing by tracking a user's behavior across the web so marketers can deliver a customized experience. In order to remain relevant, brands are testing alternative targeting solutions to continue developing highly personalized content and ads. With less access to data, these solutions are likely to rely on AI modeling in order to predict and understand buyer behavior. 

A new era of social media marketing

Social media, video, and user-generated marketing continues to expand. Here are the key types to look out for. 

5. Long-term influencer-brand relationships

Historically, one of the best marketing strategies is word-of-mouth advertising. People are more likely to try a product or service if someone they know and trust recommends it. Influencer marketing, which involves a collaboration between a brand and an individual with a specific niche and large online following, takes that concept and modernizes it for today’s new digital era.

While this form of social media marketing isn’t new, it is expanding. Influencer marketing has grown by 29%, becoming a $21.1 billion industry. It’s likely that trend will continue in the new year as more brands use influencer marketing to increase brand awareness, build trust, and even set new trends across their target audience. 

6. Live streaming and video-based content

Video-based content has become a key focus area in social media marketing because it can capture a viewer’s attention longer than static posts. From TikToks to Instagram reels, marketers are using short-form videos to drive engagement and increase brand awareness among millennials and Gen Z.

Live streaming is also proving to be an effective marketing trend. The global live streaming market has grown to $1.49 billion, marking a 20% increase from the previous year. When paired with influencer marketing, live streaming allows potential customers to engage with influencers familiar with the product, talk about the product, and make a purchase—all while watching the stream.

7. User-generated content

From TikTok trends to #OOTD posts, user-generated content (UGC) is the new word-of-mouth. This type of content is original and brand-specific, created by consumers rather than brands. Unboxing videos, makeup reviews, branded hashtags, and photo tags are all examples of how brands can take advantage of user-generated content. 

Because anyone can create user-generated content, adding this tactic to your marketing strategy can enhance your brand’s authenticity. Eighty percent of consumers prefer seeing photos of real customers over stock photos, and look at ratings and reviews before making a purchase. That means there’s high demand for UGC, and a large opportunity for companies that haven’t invested in it already. 

An additional benefit of UGC is that it outsources marketing to your customer base. This can be beneficial for teams with restricted budgets—an all too common occurrence, since 36% of marketing budgets were reported to decrease. 

Improving customer experience

Customer experience will likely be a main focus, with 80% of customers saying the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. Here are some key aspects to focus on. 

8. Hyper-personalization 

Ninety percent of consumers say they find personalized marketing appealing. Thanks to big data and analytics, today’s customers expect a personalized experience across all touchpoints, including brand websites, emails, apps, social media platforms, and even physical stores. As a result, brands are leveraging ever-improving machine learning algorithms to create targeted content, product recommendations, and advertisements that are customized to individual consumers.  

9. Improved user experience across devices

User experience, or UX, refers to how a person feels when interacting with a system. Good UX design provides a positive experience that fulfills a user’s needs and keeps them loyal to the product or brand. 

Your website (and/or app) is arguably your most valuable marketing asset, and great UX can make all the difference when convincing top-of-funnel consumers to become customers. When designing your site, keep the layout simple, include easy-to-use navigation, and don’t overwhelm users with too much information on the main landing pages. You should also be optimizing your website for mobile, especially since more than half of users worldwide use their phones to browse the web.

Some examples of current UX design trends include:

• Minimalism and “blanding,” or websites free of intrusive advertising and popups  

• Voice-activated interfaces

• Hands-free controls

• Animated elements to add intrigue

• Block web design

• “Scrollytelling,” or telling a story as the user scrolls 

• Bold colors

• Video content

10. Voice search tactics for SEO 

Marketers are beginning to leverage voice search as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. These digital assistants are designed to answer short, informational queries such as “Who sings Bohemian Rhapsody?” and “What’s the weather in San Diego?” but they’ve also started to process more customized searches, like “What coffee shops are open near me?” and ”Do they serve chai lattes?”

Businesses are responding by changing how they frame information. To answer reader’s questions based on intent, creators are opting for more conversational question-and-answer formats. This way, when consumers use voice search, they’ll get high-quality, accurate responses more quickly. 

11. VR-based tools and apps

Research suggests virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have the potential to deliver a $1.5 trillion boost to the global economy by 2030. This up-and-coming marketing trend allows brands to promote their products or services using VR technology to create a simulated but realistic experience. 

While many brands have successfully used augmented reality tactics to attract customers, like Sephora’s Virtual Artist app and Ikea’s VR showroom, few have designed a completely immersive virtual reality experience that would require a VR headset. Virtual try-ons and branded Instagram filters will continue to have an impact on the marketing landscape, but expect to see even more innovative VR marketing tactics take center stage this year. 

Bringing your brand identity into your marketing 

As AI technology grows, it’s more important than ever to create a trustworthy brand identity—speaking customers as human beings first. Here’s where to focus, according to data. 

12. Authenticity, especially with AI

As AI technology evolves, customers increasingly want to trust that companies are still speaking to them as human beings—not leaving every interaction up to AI. In fact, 89% of customers agree that it’s important to know when they’re communicating with AI or a human, and only 37% trust AI to be as accurate as a human. 

This presents an opportunity for marketers to lean into authenticity by incorporating a human touch in their messaging and content—instead of relying purely on generative AI for content creation. It’s also important to communicate to customers how your business is using AI responsibly, and double-checking work done by AI to make sure you’re providing the best possible customer experience.

You need to consider people first, then AI.”

13. Emphasis on trust and consumer privacy

Eighty-nine percent of consumers say they want more control over their data. That’s a very high number, and a big opportunity for marketers to work on building trust and distinguishing themselves from other, less trusted brands. Many reputable companies are developing new systems to ensure customers feel secure when providing their personal information. While identity theft and data breaches have always existed, the rise in cyberattacks has consumers realizing just how vulnerable their data is.

Communicating about data security allows customers to sign up for apps, services, emails, demos, white papers, and more without worrying about data leaks or identity theft. 

Stay ahead of your competitors with marketing trends

Today’s consumers value authenticity, transparency, and privacy now more than ever before. And with advanced AI technology becoming mainstream, marketers have an opportunity to tie these values into their messaging in new, innovative ways.

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