The top digital marketing trends for 2023

Mobile marketing makes content and services available on mobile devices. What’s crucial is that the design of digital content aims to optimally display content on a mobile device, be it a computer, smartphone, or tablet. There are several ways you can generate a mobile website, but the most common is called responsive web design. By adding the right CSS or HTML code, your website is automatically adapted to mobile screens which boosts the user experience.

Interactive content is a great online marketing tool for engaging customers and strengthening their bond with a brand. In addition to sweepstakes, quizzes and surveys, there are numerous other strategies that are becoming popular. Two of these are augmented reality and voice search.

The former is a popular web design trend that combines reality with digital components. In other words, a technical device such as AR glasses or a smartphone is used to add information and/or graphical elements to a person’s view.

AR technology has previously been implemented by Nintendo, for example, by using AR cards for 3DS to create 3D characters and minigames. Companies like Apple are using the technology to give their customers an impression of the appearance and size of their products. This is also the case with the latest iPhone 14 series.

The importance of social media platforms and influencers in online marketing continues to grow. The former are long established marketing channels that enable brands to reach a large consumer base and to offer a wealth of (product) information.

There are many ways to successfully employ social media marketing. Beside social media advertising on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, social shopping is currently among the most popular social media marketing trends. Social media is a place where users converge to exchange information about products, get purchase recommendations, and enhance their shopping experience.

Popular platforms that offer social shopping include Instagram, where online sellers showcase their products photographically and users can comment and like them. Another example of social shopping can be found on Pinterest, where users can place Pins of shoppable products in the shopping category.

Another component of social media marketing is influencer marketing, also called corporate or micro marketing. Individuals who have a strong online presence in social media use their notoriety to promote certain values and/or products. People are more likely to buy something if a charismatic or likeable person gives them good reasons to do so. For example, how about a tutorial that explains how to use a product in detail? Or an unboxing video followed by a review? There are many ways in which influencers can put your product in the right light and increase traffic to your website as a result.

Kim Ji-soo, a well-known influencer in the US, regularly promotes products on her Instagram feed. Due to the number of subscribers she has on her channel, she’s considered a mega influencer. Smaller businesses and brands of niche products may be more interested in working with micro influencers (5,000 to 100,000 subscribers).

Artificial intelligence, AI for short, sounds like science fiction, but it’s a technical achievement widely used in marketing. In online marketing, for example, the technology analyses and evaluates campaign data. Companies gain important information about the purchasing tendencies and trends of their customers, their behavioral patterns, possible churn, and more.

In addition, artificial intelligence is used in the form of chatbots in online marketing. These can communicate with customers, answering questions, advising them on the checkout process, or referring them to a support agent if necessary. All the while, the AI continues to “learn” and improves its performance over time.

An example of a chatbot is that of Swedish fashion company H&M. Customers can access customer service through the website and click on the speech bubble in the lower right corner. This opens an additional window in which the H&M chatbot provides them advice and assistance.

Another online marketing trend that is gaining increasingly more attention is the metaverse. This digital space, which users can access with the aid of VR glasses, offers the opportunity to implement all the aforementioned trends in virtual form. This makes communication with users more immediate and more personal.

In the metaverse, users have a 360-degree view of products, which allows for a significantly more realistic representation of an object. The assembly and functionality of a product is also easier to communicate in this context. For example, a furniture company could show someone how to assemble a piece of furniture virtually.

Another example of how the metaverse can be used to enhance shopping experiences comes from Gucci. The iconic fashion house used the online gaming platform Roblox to create a virtual store.