The times when ads in newspapers and commercials on TV were the most powerful tools for business promotion are already in the past. Today the main channel or promotion is the internet and all the services that it offers. That’s why when you are building your own company, planning to launch a new product, or want to expand your client base, it is highly recommended to pay attention to the new opportunities ensured by digital marketing.
The digital advertising market is actively growing, being boosted by the increase in ad spending. In 2023, it is predicted that ad spending will be almost $680 billion. It means that the growth from the previous year is over 10%.
In this article, we will provide you with a couple of ideas that will help you understand what the main trends in digital marketing are. You can take them into account while building your business marketing strategy in 2023-2024.
Video marketing
With the skyrocketing popularity of TikTok, the short video format seems to be one of the most engaging ones in digital promotion. Though it can be really a good idea to consider Reels on Instagram or TikTok videos for your brand, we also recommend you think about establishing cooperation with a video streaming company. What formats of promotion are available in this case? The most widely used variant is over-the-top (OTT) advertising. It presupposes creating ads that will be 10-15 seconds long and running them over the top of other videos. If you have ambitious plans and a relevant brand, you can create your own show that will run on a video streaming service. However, this initiative requires a lot of effort and money. Moreover, it doesn’t always correspond to the business goals of companies. That’s why it suits only a very limited group of organizations.
Influencer marketing
Social media today is a very powerful marketing tool. Nowadays Instagram is much more than just an app where everyone posts photos to let others know what they have eaten or what a beautiful life they have. Instagram has been transformed into a cool business platform and you should use it, as well as other popular apps like TikTok or YouTube. And now we are talking not only about targeting, ads, and sponsored posts. What about working directly with influencers?
This model of cooperation is built the following way. You need to find bloggers whose audiences can be potentially interested in your brand, provide bloggers with free samples of your products, and wait for their reviews and recommendations that they will share with their followers. However, not all influencers will agree to tell their followers about your brand for free. That’s why very often you will need to pay for their services.
Do not concentrate only on bloggers with millions of followers! Their services can be very expensive but it doesn’t guarantee successful promotion. You can also consider micro-influencers with 1K-10K followers. They can target precisely their niche audience which can bring excellent outcomes to your business.
Email marketing
You may think that emails often remain unread and you are right. However, you should understand that here, everything depends on the value of the emails that you usually send. If your clients are accustomed to getting from you just ads with no value, they won’t read your emails (and will even reject their subscription). Nevertheless, when you share interesting information, tips, promo codes, and bonuses, that’s already absolutely another story.
Moreover, you shouldn’t ignore the significance of client segmentation. When you have defined different groups of your clients based on their interests and preferences, you can make your emails to them more personalized and, consequently, more valuable. As a result, you can not only drive sales but also enhance the loyalty of your audience.
Conversational marketing
Today people like it when they have the possibility of building a direct dialogue with a brand. That’s why it is important to think about your approaches to establishing and supporting this conversation with them. Hiring people and creating a big client support team does not sound like a good idea, especially when we have so many tech tools today.
The introduction of an AI-powered chatbot or a virtual assistant that will be able to process inquiries received from clients 24/7 is a much more feasible initiative. Such tools will be available at any time of the day and will be able to provide a lot of useful information about your brand, the algorithm of action for placing an order, or the payment methods. However, it is vital to remember that today AI can’t fully replace customer care specialists. The most complex tasks can be solved only by humans. However, AI is a great supportive tool.
Final word
What main conclusion can we make? Despite the fact that today the process of digitalization is going on and we can observe that many processes get automated, the value of human communication is still very high. That’s why quite often an influencer’s recommendation can do much more for your business than just an ad banner that a lot of people will see on a popular website.