We made it through another orbit around the sun. Good to see you!
Around this time last year, I made some predictions about the top factors influencing marketing in 2022. You can read the full blog here if you like.
But did they hold true? Was I right? And what are my predictions for 2023?
Read on to find out what I’m forecasting for marketing in the coming year and how you can make the most of it to maximise your profit-making.
Last Year’s Prediction: Hybrid Working = High Email Uptake
Since the pandemic, more companies than ever have had to welcome home-working with open arms.
In the years following the birth of COVID-19, people working remotely from home or managing hybrid roles had more free time to spend using their phones and looking at emails, and BOOM. Conversions by email skyrocketed.
And guess what. My prediction was right! The Pandemic Effect is here to stay.
Hybrid and remote working is no longer a necessary change borne of national lockdowns, but an active choice. Plenty of employers now recognise the multitude of benefits that come hand in hand with their people knuckling down from home, like higher productivity levels and a better work/life balance, and it’s the new normal.
But how does email marketing continue to thrive in a world full of social streams, you might wonder?
Well, the primary reason for the sustained success of one of the oldest methods of digital marketing comes down to its accessibility. Social media as a communication tool is both more practical and functional than email, but the privacy rules and filtering of posts make it difficult to tap into your audience.
What Does The Cost Of Living Crisis Cost Mean For Marketing?
The fact that everything is getting more expensive also lends itself to email marketing’s sweet success.
Why? Because it’s cheap.
Email is a low-cost, high-return method of marketing and is super simple to start doing. The bad news is that with lower-cost marketing methods gaining more attention, everyone will be email marketing. This means that your subscribers will likely be receiving even more emails than they were before. So it’s more important than ever to make a difference and stand out.
The good news is that mastering standing out from the crowd brings with it a huge reward. So go – start designing those templates and writing that content NOW. Make your emails intriguing to open, interesting to read and, above all, super strategic.
Video - Based Content Continues To Thrive
Let’s travel back to last year’s blog of marketing predictions.
At the beginning of last year, video was really starting to become a statement content piece for most businesses. And for good reason. Audiovisual content is easy to add to your emails and fits right into our virtual world, where platforms like TikTok are gaining users at a rate of knots.
Video sells, and it’s here to stay. If you haven’t already, GET ON IT!
A Little Help Goes A Long Way
This one’s a new prediction for 2023.
User-based content, meaning online material not created by you or someone who represents you or your brand, is going to come into its own this year.
A customer could write a review and share it on her social streams, for example. Or a current (or even past) employee might share an awesome story about how great you are.
The point is that it’s not your content. And boy, oh boy, can user-based content enhance your status and boost your business.
Why does it work? It’s very simple. Trust.
We consumers aren’t very trusting. We work hard for our money, and we want a good deal, don’t we? We know that people who sell stuff are trying to make money, and that marketing is essentially a form of manipulation. We’re not stupid. I’d go so far as to say that we’re suspicious of strategy.
We want to be in control! And the beauty of user-based content is that it puts the power back into the hands of the consumer.
A story from Jane, a current client, about how much you’ve helped her this year holds a whole lot more credibility than you telling the same tale. User-based content shines a light on the positive aspects of your business or brand and is easy to trust because it comes from people who aren’t getting paid to write it.
Using referral systems within current networks is another angle of user-based content that I predict will thrive in 2023. A referral network is a group of individuals and organisations that agree to refer each other to boost each other’s businesses. It’s low-spend marketing on a larger scale, but it can work well and is something you should consider looking into if you haven’t already.
Reciprocity is the word for this year. We can all use a little help from our friends now and then, right?
The Round - Up
So there we go.
Whilst social media is the perfect place for organic, user-based content to prosper, don’t let it fool you into thinking email marketing is done for. Invest time and money into getting your emails right because they continue to be the number one low-cost digital marketing method in a world where prices are rising.
And make those emails really, really good. Impeccable. Weave some video content in there to pack a punch and draw people in with some of the best subject lines ever written.
Whatever 2023 throws at you, I am here to support you! Marketing in the current economy is achallenge, but you can do this. Want to read more about marketing dos and don’ts in hardeconomic times? Click here for my recent blog.
