Digital marketing is a dynamic field that gets more sophisticated and advanced every year. It also puts a lot of pressure on us as agencies to adopt best practice strategies faster. The more we understand these changes, the better we can cater to our clients.
There are many things to be excited about for the new year, and here is a breakdown of our top few.
Brands will focus on leading with purpose and impact
Leading with purpose and impact is important because every organisation runs because of people. People, by nature, are driven by purpose.
According to Forbes, “52 per cent of purpose-driven companies experienced over 10 per cent growth compared with 42 per cent of non-purpose-driven companies, and this included growth in purpose-driven companies benefiting from greater global expansion (66 per cent compared with 48 per cent), more product launches (56 per cent compared with 33 per cent), and success in major transformation efforts (52 per cent compared with 16 per cent).”
The organisation’s purpose starts from the hiring process all the way to the business’s day-to-day operations. Employees are starting to introspect and soul-search more when reflecting on their purpose in life, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Work is also no longer a place to solely make profits. It is a place where positive social impact can be made. This brings us to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles which more and more companies are looking into. This could mean taking measures to produce positive social outcomes, such as making efforts to lower pollution and CO2 output and also reducing waste.
It could also mean creating a diverse and inclusive, well-rounded workplace. As time-consuming and expensive philanthropy is for an organisation to undertake, it will create deeper connections both internally within the organisation and externally with customers, which will be rewarding for the business in the long run.
More and more companies will start figuring out ways to help employees feel more fulfilled and supported both purposefully and impactfully because if they get this right, the potentials are endless.
How brands will onboard Web3, creating utility for NFTs, metaverse
I am excited to see how marketing strategies will innovate to adapt to Web3. I’ve seen a lot of luxury brands onboard the metaverse and showcasing their craftsmanship in creative ways, and it’s fun to see how Web3 will take shape.
Building more relevant and personalised content experiences for customers
Brands can issue NFTs for collectors to gain access to new product launches (aka “drops”) and physical entry to clubs, events, and shows. They can also personalise the entire funnel and create a unique experience for individual collectors since it is built on blockchain, a decentralised network. And as this is still in the infancy stage, the possibilities for brands to be creative are endless.
Creating scarcity
Brands can also create exclusivity through NFTs to target a new generation who are constantly seeking to boost their digital presence. This can be done via investing in digital clothing like avatars, skins, and gliders. Think about it, we are living in an era of material culture and identity, and digital identities are becoming more of an extension of oneself.
Fortnight made US$9 billion in revenue in its first two years. Roblox boasts a collective US$1.2 billion on their in-game currency, up 171 per cent from last year. The more embodied one feels in their avatar, the more likely they are willing to pay to improve their appearance in the virtual space.
What does this mean for brands? It all comes down to how they decide to converge tokens and Web3 to drive business goals.
Interacting with customers in the metaverse
Decentraland and Sandbox are currently the top two leading metaverse platforms, and big brands are already heavily investing in this space. Brands can buy real estate in the metaverse to greet and communicate with their customers in a shared virtual space, which brings about a new form of “direct-to-avatar” marketing. It is pretty exciting to see how brands can personalise experiences to interact with individual customers in the metaverse over time.
A shift from Web2 marketing strategies to community building
Community building has also become the foundation of Web3. It’s time for brands to inspire people to join and engage by creating an inclusive space where they ideate, contribute and make a difference for them to thrive in the Web3 space.
There are many competing versions of what Web3 will look like for businesses when it’s riper, and only time will tell.
SEO voice search
Voice search technology has advanced over the years due to improvements in natural language processing. It is becoming more exciting because it represents a new way for people to search for and find information online.
With the increasing popularity of speakers and other voice-activated devices, more and more people are using voice search as their primary method of accessing information.
A survey by PwC found that 40 per cent of adults use voice assistants on their phones at least once a week. This shift presents a new set of challenges and opportunities for brands to look into so that they can reach potential customers.
Google reports that 27 per cent of the global online population is using voice search on mobile devices. So while it is still in its infancy, voice technology is getting to a point where it has become mainstream.
Also Read: How to leverage personalised advertising in 2023
We’ve been carefully considering the advantages of ranking for voice search when it comes to SEO optimisation as part of our client’s digital marketing strategies. The goal is to gain a competitive edge because, soon enough, voice search will become more widely available, with a growing number of people using smart speakers, phones, and other devices featuring voice search capabilities.
The growth of AI and automation
Automation
Automation is evolving and becoming more and more sophisticated as it helps brands personalise their communication to audiences better while also improving on cross-channel integration. This will enable brands to deliver more seamless and cohesive experiences to customers while saving time with monotonous, mundane tasks.
Artificial Intelligence
Then comes artificial intelligence (AI), which essentially takes broad rules outlined by humans but determines its pathway. These include analysing customer data, predicting customer behaviour, and even automating certain marketing processes.
Our agency has been using Jasper.ai over the past year for our first layer of generating content drafts, but recently we’ve been fiddling around with Elon Musk’s Chat GPT, and it is pretty amazing what AI has evolved into.
Its been trained to engage conversationally so you will be able to ask mathematical questions, code, create content and also summarise content, acknowledge errors, refute false assumptions, and more.
We need to start thinking about the potential of AI and how we use it to improve business strategies and marketing efforts.
It is exciting to learn about new innovations and market trends, and I am looking forward to technological developments that can improve the way my agency operates.
As an entrepreneur, you always need to be readily available to pivot to new changes because the business environment will constantly evolve. Having a growth mindset is key because it will help my team stay agile and responsive in a constantly changing business environment.
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