As we enter a new decade and technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, these are the latest digital marketing trends and forecasts that we are excited to see in the coming year.

Digital marketing consists of a large number of moving parts. You can increase visibility and organic traffic via SEO, and build a brand with your presence on social networks. Marketing automation saves time and provides more personalized engagement. CPP management can mean “skip the line” in search engine results pages. These moving components, beside several others, area unit regularly dynamic as new technologies, techniques, and near-endless Google and Facebook algorithmic rule updates keep several digital selling groups on their toes (including us!).

We know that what worked in 2019 or 2020 might not work the same way in 2023, and to get the best possible results for our customers, we need to be aware of these trends. As we begin a new decade and technology continues to change rapidly, we want to take this opportunity to share the digital marketing trends that we are delighted to see more in 2023.

THE LATEST ONLINE SEARCH TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS

1) No Click Searches

2) Google Verified Listings

3) Voice Search

4) Visual Search

5) Online Reviews

6) Automated & Smart Bidding

7) Marketing Automation

8) Video Marketing

9) Chatbots

10) Content Marketing

11) Page Speed

12) User-Generated Content (UGC)

1) No Click Searches

Usually, if you have a question, you can enter it on Google, hit enter and choose the search result that gives you the most suitable answer or required information.

Sometimes, however, the answer is suggested in a paragraph at the top of the results page. These boxes, called Zero Position in search engine results, often come with an image, and all the information you were looking for is displayed in an easy-to-distinguish box. Consequently, it is unnecessary for you to click the hyperlink. This type of search is referred to as a no-click search, which is made possible by Google and other search engines. The purpose of such searches is to enable users to obtain answers swiftly while also keeping them engaged on their website instead of directing them elsewhere.

For business owners who want to attract visitors to their website, it can be frustrating to see less traffic as Google gives the answer to their potential customers. But these fragments do not always spell bad news. When search engines use your website to display information to search engines, it shows that you provide valuable content. The trick is to make sure that you add something to these snippets that will please the reader and attract them to click on their website for more information, and away from the search engine that provided them with a quick response.

Not displayed on search engines? Another strategy is to increase the relevance of your content by adding additional keywords and phrases that your target audience might be searching for. You can also work on building backlinks to your site from reputable sources, which will increase your visibility and credibility online. Ultimately, there are many different strategies you can use to improve your search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your website. There exist numerous methods to accomplish this task. Reflect on adjusting the titles of your pages so as to specify which search engines will see them when they visit your website. Could you expand the list of “procedures” in order to prevent fragmentary information from being cut off and not appearing on search engines? Another approach involves enhancing the relevance of your content by introducing extra keywords and phrases that may be searched for by your intended audience. Moreover, establishing backlinks from dependable sources can enhance both online prominence and trustworthy reputation. In summary, there are a variety of techniques available for advancing toward superior search engine rankings and increasing visitor traffic on one’s site. Is it necessary for users of search engines to click in order to see the complete list? Another way to enhance your content is by implementing schema, which includes information on the trustworthiness and expertise of your website, such as user ratings and reviews.

Not receiving clicks on search results can be advantageous for both readers and search engines, but it can also be used as an opportunity. If your content is being searched without generating clicks, it implies that people are curious about what you have to say. The next step is to lure them towards your website and provide them with additional information or resources beyond their initial interest.

2) Google Verified Listings

Your Google My Business listing is important for establishing the location of a small business that operates in a specific area, such as a vet clinic or plumbing company. It provides helpful information to potential customers.

This makes it easier for customers to find and choose your business over competitors. In addition, having a Google My Business listing will enhance your online presence and credibility. It is essential for local businesses to have a geographically defined service area with Google My Business to attract and retain customers. Users with varying identities.

To ensure the accuracy of displayed information, it is necessary to confirm and update your Google business listing.

There are advantages in verifying your business such as:

• You can manage your business information in Search, Maps, and other Google properties.
• Verified businesses are considered more trustworthy and reputable than unverified competitors.
• When you verify your business, you’re preventing fraud in the event that someone else tries to act as the owner and claims your listing as theirs.

If you are unsure about your listing, you can confirm its verification status on Google My Business. Otherwise, you can initiate a straightforward verification process for your business with Google.

3) Voice Search

Voice-activated digital assistants have consistently proven to be successful and it’s evident that for some households, they communicate more with Alexa, Siri or Cortana rather than their own relatives. The rise in popularity of voice searches conducted at home and on mobile phones has paved the way for significant transformations in the utilization of keywords.

Think of it this way: we tend to use different wording when making a search using Google versus asking Alexa for information. For instance, a person seeking the nearest Indian restaurant might type “Raleigh Indian Restaurant” into Google but may instead ask Cortana “Where can I find the closest Indian restaurant?” If you are creating content, make sure to include keywords that people are likely to ask when using voice assistants like Siri or Alexa. This will help improve your search rankings and visibility, as voice search is a popular trend that is not slowing down. Consider targeting these queries if you run an Indian restaurant.

4) Visual Search

Instead of inputting written descriptions into Google, users currently have the option to upload pictures and obtain information solely from the image. In instances where a photo of a plant is uploaded, the search will generate information concerning the plant species. Similarly, when an object is used as reference, historical data related to it will be provided. The search results for a specific product can also be returned by users. Various tools like Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and other related search options allow the user to transform their camera into a search bar for finding similar products and determining where they can be purchased.

How can your business leverage visual search?

You have the option to insert top-notch images alongside relevant keywords to your virtual stock, conduct a visual search and, if your intended audience is active on Pinterest, consider promoting your brand on this social media site.

Additionally, consider the following:

• Creating an image sitemap can enhance the visibility of your images on search engines.
• Ensure that the image filenames are appropriate and descriptive before transferring them to your website.
• All images should have an accompanying alternative text, commonly known as “Alt tags.”

5) Online Reviews

Online reviews have the power to make or break a business’s ability to attract new customers. While a company may speak positively about its products or services, it is the unbiased opinions of other consumers that hold more weight. Genuine feedback from credible sources can help elevate your business’s reputation. Begin establishing trust with your audience before they even visit your website by competing effectively.

The most useful opinion for receiving a business is via Google Business. These are the most reliable sources, they are the most visible, and your Google Business list allows users to call or visit the website. Facebook is another great source of online feedback, and you can use it to create a testimonials page on your website, while Yelp is suitable for restaurants, hotels, and leisure businesses.

To boost the quantity of feedback, provide your clients with an easy-to-use link to your Google Business advertisement so that they can leave a review. While having all 5-star reviews may seem desirable, businesses with only a few reviews are less likely to convert potential customers compared to those with over 100 reviews – even if some of them are negative.

6) Automatic and smart bids in Google Ads

To get the best results from a Google Ads campaign, ad specialists analyze all data and constantly modify and adjust keywords, bids, and ad phrases. While this psychoneurotic attention to detail gets results, it’s exhausting. A business owner who tries to launch a campaign can be completely overwhelmed and eventually fail.

Enter automated bidding strategies. They allow Google to use machine learning to analyze the huge amount of data it has about its users to adjust their bids in real-time.  Advertising specialists can adopt automated strategies while maintaining full control.   Automated bidding is nothing new, Smart Bidding made its debut in 2016, but most business owners are not aware of what it is or what it is doing.

It’s important to notice that there are still many human strategies involved in optimizing PPC performance. You can’t just set it up, forget it and wait for results, but you need to try everything, including checking automated bidding strategies with each other.

7) Marketing Automation

As a business owner, you don’t have time to email each new subscriber, chase out each abandoned cart, and block the time to post on sales and promotions on social media and email. That’s where marketing automation comes in. Marketing automation and email automation are software platforms that allow you to set up promotions and campaigns, set a “trigger”, or schedule a release in advance, and allow the software to work for you. In addition, it keeps tracking scans, so you can see what works and what does not work, so you can make adjustments and adjustments.

Small businesses use marketing automation for things like:

Lead Generation – Lead generation can be observed on various websites in the form of pop-ups that offer discounts or free gifts. If you provide your email address, you will receive your gift by email shortly afterwards. Afterwards, the business will begin to send you personalized emails that are automated and arrive a few days later. The promotion of products or services, through advertising and other strategies, aimed at attracting customers and improving sales.

Cart abandonment – Automated email or SMS notifications can be sent to customers who abandon their shopping carts, informing them that the items are still available for purchase or providing them with a discount to encourage them to complete the purchase.

Segmented populations – Dividing customer groups into segments enables personalized content to be created through automation.

Social media management – You can handle your social media presence effectively without spending all day on it by planning posts in advance and setting up automated responses.

Marketing automation is becoming increasingly popular among small and medium-sized businesses, as it enables them to efficiently establish, sustain and convert leads. With this technology, it’s simple to create a seamless path towards achieving your goals. HubSpot offers an all-encompassing solution that includes customer relationship management and digital marketing automation. We highly advise that you consider it.

8) Video Marketing

In 2019, video has become one of the most popular forms of content, and it doesn’t look like this trend is going to slow down anytime soon. Consider the advantages of implementing video marketing strategies:

• Customers respond well to videos.
• They increase engagement.
• Presenting new and already available products in this manner proves to be highly efficient.
• Putting it together is simple and affordable, particularly when contrasted with the expenses of creativity and writing.

It is one of the most effective marketing strategies with a high conversion rate, making it an excellent choice. However, just like any other modern marketing trend, it is regularly updated. This applies to videos as well.

Live streaming tools such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live have the ability to attract more viewers than regular videos. This is due to the “fear of missing out” phenomenon that motivates people to watch in order to be among the first to hear significant news.

Personalized messages are made more effective and quicker to share by including custom video advertising within emails. This also helps prevent the risk of the message getting lost amidst a plain text format. According to statistics, emails with videos receive a click-through rate that is 8 times higher than regular emails.

Product videos increase customers’ confidence in their purchases and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the product’s specifications and scale compared to text and images alone.

9) Chatbots

Nowadays, along with the trend of frequently used pop-up text boxes on websites, chatbots powered with AI are also capable of gathering extra information about customers to learn more about them. This leads to offering recommendations and answering questions in a personalized manner, resulting in a customized experience for clients.

Compromising on the quality of customer support. Chatbots can empower businesses to be always available for their customers, even outside of normal business hours. Not only do they enhance the customer experience by providing instant solutions, but they also generate valuable data that can help organizations improve their products and services. With chatbots, businesses can streamline their operations, cut costs and boost productivity. Client service will not be compromised as businesses are forecast to benefit from a cost savings of over $8 billion annually by utilizing chatbots by the year 2022.

10) Content Marketing

We discussed the topics of marketing automation, email marketing, and video. Therefore, it is not surprising that content marketing will continue to be relevant for some time.

Content marketing offers a dual benefit, in which:

Enhance your search engine position by producing excellent content and incorporating targeted keywords in order to attract a relevant audience and achieve higher traffic.

By presenting important information, you will establish yourself as an expert, gain the trust of your audience, foster interaction, and attract devoted customers.

Several factors contribute to the success of your content marketing.

The key factors involve understanding and utilizing the keywords that you want to become recognized for. This means creating relevant content for all parts of your sales process, from first-time visitors to repeat customers, and fostering active involvement to establish brand advocates who will spread your messaging.

Several types of content marketing can be particularly useful in helping you achieve your objectives, including:

• This means creating blog articles or posts that disseminate relevant updates, news, and knowledge about your business or industry.
• New web pages have been introduced to aid you in dividing keywords into segments and also provide a more elaborate summary of your business.
• Videos and images to generate interest
• FAQs
• Stay connected and updated by sending out regular newsletters.
• Using case studies as evidence of your achievements.

11) Page Speed

The main cause for users leaving a website soon after they arrive (also known as bounce rate) is due to the page loading slowly. Even a small delay in the page upload process can have an adverse impact on their conversion.

You can conveniently enhance your page loading speed. To begin, enhance your images and check if there are any big image files. If there are, compress them, so they are below 100 KB.

To speed up your authority on Google and enhance your page load speeds, it is advisable to decrease the number of internal redirects that undergo several redirects before ending up on the correct URL as well as internal links that lead to redirects.

12) User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content that meets the necessary qualifications can be a powerful tool on your website, benefiting both search engine optimization and user satisfaction.

User-generated content (UGC) can be simple and straightforward, such as a product review on an e-commerce website, a comment on a blog post, or a Q&A section where users can ask and receive answers to their questions. It doesn’t have to be complex or detailed.

First, let’s look at the benefits:

• Google favors fresh and revised content, therefore, when a comment, review or question is included, it facilitates the updating of the content.
• value to your content. UGC can come in various forms and doesn’t require extensive or complicated writing. It could be as simple as a user’s review of a product purchased from your website or a discussion on one of your blog articles. This means that even though the product descriptions may be brief, incorporating customer feedback can enhance the overall content quality. The increase of SEO requires a longer length.
• similar products when you use duplicate content. It is important to have unique content for your website in order to improve SEO. While it may be difficult to make your product stand out from other similar products, having unique product descriptions can make a difference. If you’re utilizing the manufacturer’s product descriptions, it’s likely that others are using them too. To increase uniqueness and improve search engine rankings, consider incorporating feedback from users.

Time-consuming. It is important to take measures to ensure that any content generated by users is monitored and filtered. Utilizing certain options on your blog can help reduce spam and prevent links from being posted, as well as filter out comments containing certain words. However, it may also be necessary to manually moderate any user-generated content, which can be a time-intensive process. It can become challenging when you receive a vast number of comments and reviews.

The most recent developments and foreseeable directions in social media usage are what this paragraph is about.

1) Interactive Content

2) Shoppable Posts

3) Social Media Messaging Apps

4) Social Media Stories

5) Social Media Contests

6) Personalized Content

7) Employee Engagement

8) Influencer Marketing

1) Interactive Content

Incorporating interactive components into your website is an excellent technique to offer benefits for your guests, encourage them to participate in your website, and gain knowledge about them.

Imagine that you are a representative or broker who has incorporated a mortgage calculator into your website. By doing this, you are providing useful information to your visitors and also gaining insight into their preferences and interests through the data they input into the calculator.

There are various instances of interactive marketing.

• Assessments like quizzes
• Polls and surveys
• Calculators
• Contests

2) Shoppable Posts

Possible in the purchasing process, so having a “swipe up” feature to directly link to your online store or product page is even better. This makes it easier for potential customers to make a purchase without having to navigate through multiple pages. It’s important to keep in mind that convenience plays a big role in consumer behavior, and providing an effortless buying experience can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty. It is now feasible to showcase products on Instagram without getting disturbed by ads. You can make use of Instagram’s Shoppable Posts feature to display or tag a product that users can view, become fond of, and purchase directly from your post without having to browse further.

These platforms noted that people use them to buy, and have made it easier for traders to sell through social networks. In recent years, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook have introduced ways for e-commerce stores to create affordable publications. Thanks to native integration, they made it easier to label and purchase products directly in their publications. For online retailers, this is a great way to direct traffic to product pages.

Using social trading, you are reaching out to new customers, reducing barriers to buying, and significantly shortening the sales funnel.

It’s easy to set up your business account for Instagram Shopping, and it’s a great way to improve your followers’ user experience. Before you set up purchase posts, your profile must be set up as a business account. You will need to connect it to your Facebook profile, which in turn must be connected to your product catalog.

Making your Instagram feed affordable will also grant you shoppable Facebook posts. To get affordable Facebook posts, you must first add a Facebook Store tab and import your inventory through Catalog Manager. Once Facebook has approved everything, you can start marking products to make it easier to convert social sales.

3) Social Media Messaging Apps

Every month, there are 1.3 billion active users on Facebook Messenger, and about 10 billion messages are sent between people and businesses through this messaging app. People like the convenience of buying and receiving services at home, but they still want fast service that is accompanied by face-to-face interaction in brick and mortar businesses. Messaging apps through social media can provide fast service.

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat all offer businesses an inexpensive and easy way to provide direct, personalized contact and improve their customer experience. Try these tips to increase customer loyalty by making messaging and communication convenient and customizable:

• Install a widget or plugin on your website so that customers can connect directly with you while they shop.
• Enable chat only when you know someone is available to reply.
• If there is no one to respond to, disable a message that tells your customers when you will contact them again and direct them to another type of contact.

4) Social Media Stories

Social media stories are easy to use and are an incredible way to deliver products, events, and even behind-the-scenes experiences. Considering that one-third of Instagram stories with the most views come from companies, it’s hard to ignore that Instagram Stories and Stories on other platforms are an effective form of digital marketing.

It is the exciting and ephemeral nature of this medium that makes it so powerful. Consumers must stay on top of following their favorite profiles if they don’t want to miss special opportunities or information. Once you offer a backstage look, discount code, or limited edition product via Stories, subscribers will be hooked to your updates as long as you deliver it.

Simple ideas for adding value to your social media stories are:

• Search for customer content that your business is tagged on and repost it to your Stories
• Upload live videos for people who haven’t seen it live
• Utilize polls, Q&As, and quizzes to engage viewers with your brand and encourage their involvement in your content
• Create simple animations and short videos of your product or service in action

5) Personalized Content

Content is everywhere: videos, blogs, emails, social media, etc. To make your content stand out from “noise,” you need a personalized inbound marketing strategy for your users. From calls to action to copying a landing page, the content you use must be hype directed to the exact client you are trying to reach, otherwise, it will go unnoticed. Creating and using buyers can help you create content that directly attracts every segment of customers, increasing engagement and loyalty, and stimulating sales and conversions for your business.

So, how to create personalized content?

First, integrate your customer relationship management software (CRM), such as HubSpot, to your CMS or website. You can start segmenting your customers and potential customers into populations, including:

• Location
• Interests
• Behavior
• Referral
• Products or pages recently viewed
• Name

Simply by sending an email on behalf of a customer or using your location to send specific emails (such as weather-related things, national holidays, or sporting events) can build rapport.

Almost 90% of US sellers reported seeing measurable improvements after implementing customization strategies, and more than half reported an increase of more than 10%. Be sure to make custom content concise and not to get into too detailed details about your interests or behavior.

6) Social Media Contests

Social media contests can be an effective way to engage your audience and encourage customer buy-in. Think of the jersey cannot during a baseball game. The mascot runs around the pitch, causing the crowd to pump for a free t-shirt. And it works because everyone is on their feet asking for the prize.

After all, they are already there, excited, and who does not like things for free?

You can use this same principle for contests for your online community: the audience is already there, they want to cheer you up, and they just need a little incentive and a shaking little hand to get excited and make noise.

When organizing a contest on social media, be sure to think carefully about the whole process. There are many factors to consider, including:

What goal do you hope to achieve?

What platform will this run on and how long will the contest last?

What is your offer and how much will it cost to end?

What do you ask participants and how will you manage your tickets?

How is the winner chosen and how will he receive the prize?

What do you intend to do with the information you collected as part of the contest?

Don’t forget to be honest and reliable when organizing a social media contest. Everyone loves free things, and most people are willing to give up a little bit of their time or personal details to get it from brands they trust and support.

7) Employee Engagement

If you have a company with several dedicated employees, committed and enthusiastic about the work they do, this can be a great asset not only for your business as a whole but also for your online reputation.

When employees love their work and the company they do it for, they tend to talk about it. And they should be encouraged to talk about it online while they label or mention the company and share interesting stories.

Employee engagement helps build your online community in a natural and relaying way. LinkedIn is a great example of how it works. You can have a corporate page where you can post events and share articles, but for even more traffic and interaction, ask your employees to share and comment on these posts.

The LinkedIn algorithm values personal connections, so it spreads the news to more connections, pointing to LinkedIn that the people behind the post are active and committed to your business. You can also consider setting goals and rewarding employees who often share your content, so people who work for you are even more excited to share your company news with your network.

Before appointing dedicated employees as torchbearers or ambassadors for your company, it is important to check your personal pages and profiles to confirm that they comply with company standards. Check if they are verified, that your profiles are populated and that your current and past content supports the overview of your business.

8) Influencer Marketing

An influencer is someone trusted in a specific field, such as professional athletes, scientists, and even successful dog coaches. These people have online tracking to promote their business, services, or messaging, and influencer marketing leverages these communities that are often large, active, and very loyal to the influencer they follow. Here are some examples: paying a local chef to publish about the use of products from their urban organic farm, or send his new shoes to a basketball player to use them in the photos they publish.

For influencer marketing to be effective, you don’t always need to work with a big star or local hero. Search for people with a growing audience on new platforms and see how they interact with their subscribers. Having a small but dedicated audience is more beneficial for your marketing purposes than having a large but disconnected audience. It is also important that their values are aligned with those of the influencer so that their message and mission are appropriately communicated, and that they can be sure that both work together to achieve the same goal.

This type of marketing is well known, but it is accompanied by many rules and stipulations. For example, it is necessary to reveal these types of financial relationships, so influencers use the hashtag #ad or sticky label in social posts. Be sure to carefully review your state’s rules and apply them to you, your team and the influencer you work with so that the public knows they are marketed and the laws are not violated.

Digital marketing is constantly changing. We believe that the above tactics and ideas will be huge changes in the game in the foreseeable future.