As we start 2023, it’s important for digital marketers to get ahead of the newest trends and technologies that will be shaping the industry in the new year. From the ever-evolving artificial intelligence and its continued impact on digital marketing to the need for more human-crafted unique content, there is no shortage of ideas and tactics for marketers to take by the horns in 2023. Let’s dive in and see what the future holds.
Artificial Intelligence is the Powerhouse of the Digital Marketing Cell
Although not exactly new, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is truly the quiet powerhouse behind all marketing. Almost every single digital marketing channel is somehow integrated with AI, helping to make marketing smarter. The ads you engage with on social, the search results that appear after making a search and the sometimes-incessant ads that follow you while surfing the web are all powered by extremely intelligent algorithms working to connect the right messaging with the right audience. Recently, we have seen the emergence of new AI tools that could impact marketing, like ChatGPT. In short, ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that can take instructions and accomplish tasks like writing a blog or essay. For content creation, this could be an extremely helpful tool to help spark ideas but will likely not replace human-generated content for a couple of reasons. There will always be the need for personalized creative content that only humans have the magic touch for. Most importantly though, search engine algorithms have been working to prioritize helpful human-created content while nullifying any AI generated content as it’s largely been used to dupe the system and boost search rankings.
The Reincarnation of the Digital Marketing Funnel
It’s been reported that the digital marketing funnel as we know it is dead. However, “death” implies that it’s completely gone, which isn’t exactly the case here. Instead, it seems more that the marketing funnel is evolving to adapt to a new age of consumers that are fully immersed online from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep. With this being the new normal, consumers are now more than ever in contact with thousands of data points every single day about a variety of products that they may never even buy. Doesn’t that seem tiring? Because of this, consumers’ mindsets and behaviors of how they engage online has changed, forcing marketers to let go of the idea that their journey is linear.
So, what does this mean for marketers exactly? Considering this and other current economic factors that will likely carry into all of 2023, marketers should focus their efforts on demand generation over lead generation. This means that marketers should start building out or building upon their current content to create valuable resources that will make users want to come to them when they are ready.
The Need for High Quality, Human-Generated Content
Today, there are more humans active online and more content available online than ever before. As humans, whenever we have a question, the first place we typically go to is to our preferred search engine to get an immediate answer.
As we know, this sometimes involves some information sifting and site jumping to get the exact answer that we are looking for. Some resources are better than others but may have been harder to find due to how they were ranked based on other technical factors that search engine algorithms usually like.
However, the game is now changing. We are now moving into a new world where keyword density and “quantity over quality” are no longer the main driving factors of getting your content onto page one. Search engines, like Google, have released updates to their algorithms in order to prioritize high-quality and informative, human-made content that aims to help people. The goal is to get better content, written by people, for people, online and easily findable to mitigate the amount of content solely created to boost search rankings and site traffic.
This trend ties into the first two trends in a couple of ways. First, AI tools like ChatGPT can help with bringing new content ideas to the table, but will likely never replace human writers. Even if search engines allowed AI-generated content, there are still so many hang ups including how the AI is programmed and built-in biases that would take away from the content.
Secondly, with the digital marketing funnel reincarnating as a result of consumer behavior changing, there is a need to create stronger content that aims to educate and engage people rather than come off like a used car salesman just because they may have seen an ad on LinkedIn before. Brands should be playing the long game and creating quality content that consumers are seeking out and consistently engage them with it so that in turn, customers will come to them when they are ready.
