9 Marketing Strategies & Trends Defining Success for Businesses
Award-winning marketing expert, academic researcher, and CEO of BBSA.
WWS contributor 
Marketing has evolved and changed over the years, but some marketing strategies are still effective and expected to drive more success for businesses this year.
Most business leaders thought their focus last year would be on growth. However, threats of inflation and recession instead emphasize retaining talent, digital skills, and energy sourcing.
To help your business navigate the downturn and what will be challenging this year, here is a list of marketing strategies and trends that are defining success for businesses you should leverage in 2023 to grow your brand and develop your business.
Biggest Trends & Strategies in Marketing
1. Companies are outsourcing more
Marketing has evolved and become more complicated over the years. Competition demands more diverse strategies and multi-channel marketing approaches.
Marketing outsourcing allows your company to gain instant access to experts experienced in different markets. These experts can help your company do more and faster by taking charge of developing your customer relationships, winning new business, and company growth strategy, leaving you to focus on your company's core activity.
2. Influencer marketing is still growing
The concept of influencer marketing allows brands to appoint long-term "brand ambassadors" who are digital influencers to market their brands.
By working with influencers, your brand can use trust build and word-of-mouth to forge a more authentic connection with your target market.
Additionally, the collaboration with influencers allows you to forge a lasting relationship with your brand ambassadors, while allowing your ambassadors to maintain trust with their followers as they promote your brand over time.
3. Consumers trust user-generated content
User-generated content is the latest version of word-of-mouth. From research, customers are 2.4 times more inclined to trust user-generated content (UGC) than one created by the brand.
Product reviews, branded hashtags, photo tags, unboxing videos, to popular TikTok trends such as #OOTD (outfit of the day) posts are some of the original user-generated content that you can use to improve the authenticity of your brand to a new level.
4. UX design is paramount
User experience, or UX, refers to what someone feels when engaging your system. A great UX design enables users to interact easily with the system while fulfilling their needs and maintaining loyalty to the product or brand.
When creating and updating your website or app, ensure to design a simple layout with easy-to-use navigation. Do not populate the landing page with too much information, as it will overwhelm and make it hard for users to shop.
Also, consider optimizing the site for mobile since more than half of mobile users globally prefer to browse the Internet through their phones.
5. Dynamic content beats static
Today's consumers want content that commands attention, which is where dynamic content comes in.
Dynamic content in the context of websites is simply a web-page or website component that changes based on user signals, inputs, and other parameters. This means the content of the webpage may differ for users because of different user signals and inputs.
Research shows that 81% of marketers agree dynamic content is compelling and great at grabbing consumers' attention. It is also great at meeting other marketing objectives, including:
- Improved user engagement
- Customer education
- Creating more leads and conversions
- Maximized brand loyalty
- Improved customer experience
6. Optimizing ad targeting with AI
In a study by Razorfish, three-quarters of marketers cannot use data behavior to target ads online successfully.
Artificial intelligence is expected to impact many industries in a few years, and data will become more affordable and accessible for small businesses.
Marketers can invest in AI technology such as algorithms, machine learning, and data models and use the data gathered to target, optimize sending, and personalize not just their ads but also their content and customer experience.
7. Virtual events remain common
During the pandemic in 2020, 49% of marketers moved some of their in-person events to be hosted virtually, while 19% moved most of them. Out of the 32% remaining, half of them were still deciding whether to replace or not, while the other half had no plans of moving any events virtually.
Marketers used live events to get customers and connect with buyers before COVID-19. Even though it is now post-pandemic, most marketers and businesses still prefer hosting virtual events.
8. The Rise of Social commerce
Social commerce has changed how people shop online. By connecting e-commerce to social media, social commerce has provided consumers with a one-stop shopping experience. Brands should relish this opportunity to connect more with customers and sell quickly.
Some popular ways brands use social commerce to drive traffic to their business include comprehensive marketplaces, in-app promotional campaigns, and creating small shops from different social media platforms.
9. Welcome to the metaverse
The metaverse is gaining momentum among Web 3 marketers. It creates virtual communities and offers a unique brand experience. Brands and customers can meet, collaborate, attend events, buy products, tour virtual spaces, and do countless other activities.
The virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) market is showing much potential in Europe from $2.8 billion in 2021 to reach a forecasted value of $20.9billion in 2025.
Even though the metaverse is still a new concept and is in its nascent stages, its global value was already at $180 billion as of 2020 and is expected to reach $400 billion in 2025.
