Targeted marketing strategies to look out for in 2023
A lot has happened in the field of marketing. If we go way back, marketing was limited to an ad in a newspaper. Fast forward, and suddenly everyone is placing their ads online. Just a few years later, this is followed by social media campaigns, email marketing, and ad campaigns.
The reality is, marketing these days changes at a faster pace than ever. In 2021, 71% of marketers still had strategic keywords as their number one SEO strategy. Just two years later, keywords are less and less relevant because Google’s search is far more sophisticated. Their Hummingbird update pretty much does the SEO on its own, going through the content and deciphering the meaning.
If you got accustomed to keyword research and optimization, now you need to forget about it and focus more on content quality, internal links, and so on. To beat the competition in today’s business world, you need to know the most recent targeted marketing strategies and use them in your campaign.
That’s what we are here to do – tell you about the best practices for the new year. With new technologies announced for the months that follow and consumer behavior that’s changed a lot since the pandemic – we are looking at an exciting landscape for marketing.
That being said, here are the top targeted marketing tips that will give you a competitive edge in 2023.
1. Demand generation marketing
Demand generation is a marketing program driven by data and using inbound methodologies to drive interest and awareness – and maintain it throughout the entire customer lifecycle.
Data is the most reliable marketing tool these days and the success of demand generation marketing strategies has been tremendous. You can read more about this in the guide by Skale, one of the fastest-growing startups in digital marketing.
A proper demand generation strategy starts with the customer’s first contact with your brand and moves toward every touchpoint in the customer’s lifetime. This is what you need in 2023 to align your sales and marketing teams and drive growth for your company.
Skale’s in-house marketing team builds demand generation SEO campaigns to work alongside your sales team collateral, your customer journey strategy, and any other campaign you have set in motion. Here is how they scale it:
- Progressive profiling of your customers to deliver more personalized experiences
- Total SEO management with content modeling, competitor analysis, link building, etc.
- Technical SEO audits for higher Google rankings
- DG marketing strategies to generate more revenue for your brand and bring you more conversions
A smart combination of demand generation strategies can improve your digital marketing funnel. Skale helps businesses analyze the best generation channels, create user personas, get good collaborations, create free trials, etc.
2. Agile marketing
Have you heard of Agile methodology?
This is a method that focuses on rapid iterations. Also referred to as iterative methodology, it’s focused on iteration rather than big projects. These days, marketers use the Agile methodology in marketing, and the results have been excellent.
To use the Agile method, you must put focus on real-time collaboration and be flexible to respond fast to change. Some of the benefits of this form of marketing include:
- Increase in productivity
- Boost in collaboration through frequent touchpoints and visualized workflows
- More transparency
- Measurability and adaptability to change
- Improved internal communication
- Better customer satisfaction
- Ability to deliver value early
According to McKinsey, the most important item in agile marketing is the people. Your agile marketing team should possess skills across internal and external functions. They are usually colocated in a ‘war room’ like the example below.
3. Influencer marketing
If there’s a marketing strategy that’s shown unexpected results – this is it. Who would have thought that influencer marketing would become one of the most used strategies for brands in such a short time?
Today, influencer whitelisting outperforms social media ads by up to 50%, so this just might be one of those big changes we were talking about at the beginning.
It’s no wonder that this works. People are more likely to buy from a business that comes recommended by someone they know. Word of mouth has always been the backbone of good marketing. Now that we already have established influencers that people trust, this makes them one of the top mediums to invest in 2023.
Here are a few of the reasons why you should be using this targeted strategy:
- Builds authority and trust for your brand
- Increases brand awareness
- Helps you generate new marketing ideas
- Creates new trends
- Drives more conversions
- Helps you reach your target audience
Other marketers are already deep into this form of targeted marketing. About 93% of them now use it as a way to reach their audience and boost their ROI.
4. Video content and live streaming
Everyone on social media (all 4.70 billion of them!) has noticed a sudden rise in videos and live streams. People these days prefer video content over any other form of content. Quality videos in combination with engaging live streaming are a sure way to capture your target audience’s attention.
One report shows that consumers spent around 548 billion hours streamed via their phones in 2021. This makes it the top trend on social channels today – and an opportunity you shouldn’t miss out on in 2023.
Combine these with influencer marketing – and you get a double-win strategy!
Of course, the success of this campaign will depend on what your video includes, but also on where and when you post it. Here’s a Hubspot report on the most used social media platforms by marketers in 2022:
Think YouTube short videos, TikTok videos, and of course, Instagram reels.
5. Interactive content
Static posts and passive consumptions are also in the past now. Today, your targeted audience expects content that will demand their attention. In other words, they need quality, dynamic content that encourages engagement from the audience.
Around 81% of marketing experts have agreed that high-impact, interactive content is more effective than static content today. Here are the perks that come out of this:
- More engagement from your targeted audience
- Better customer learning
- Streamlined customer experience
- Increased conversion rates
- Better lead generation
- Higher brand awareness
Right now, technology is your best friend. You can use it to create interactive content that will convince people to take action. This can take all kinds of forms including quizzes, polls, contests, etc.
Below is a great example of Sephora and its use of gamification to promote the loyalty program. Sephora uses challenges to engage the audience and rewards them with makeup samples, discounts, and other perks.
6. First-party data priority
Search engine cookies are slowly going away. Firefox already removed them, and Google announced their demise by the end of 2024. If you want to thrive in a cookieless world, you need to prepare for this – and fast.
Companies that used to rely heavily on third-party cookies for marketing are entirely changing their campaigns right now. Around 47% of marketers are doing this with many more to follow as 2024 approaches. The focus today is on another type of data – first-party data.
First-party data includes information collected from the consumers through:
- Customer insights
- Surveys
- Analytics tools
6. Conversational marketing with artificial intelligence
AI technology is here to stay – and it is better than ever. Nowadays, marketers use it to access more data and analyze it. The results make AI irreplaceable. Thanks to AI algorithms, machine learning, and data models, we can now understand the target audience better than ever before.
As it continues to develop, marketers are starting to implement it more into conversational marketing. This is a strategy that simulates a human conversation with the help of AI. The most common result of conversational marketing and AI are, of course, chatbots.
Some of the benefits of conversational AI-powered marketing are:
- More effective targeting and higher ROI
- More intelligent advertising
- Increased customer loyalty and retention
- Better understanding of customer behavior
- Accurate prediction analysis
- Accurate trendspotting
7. Inclusive marketing
Customers are more culturally aware than ever. Forty-six percent of marketers now believe that inclusive marketing will get you ahead of the competition. To develop a good inclusive marketing strategy, promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in your campaign. If your brand is culturally relevant, especially on social channels, this will build up customer trust and bring you more leads.
There are two main steps to take for this:
- Do a cultural audit of your targeted audience. Gather information on their age, education levels, gender, and other demographics.
- Target your under-represented audience. Use your existing strengths and the demographics data to reach the audience that is under-represented in the market. If you share content that promotes equality and partner with the right influencers, this will bring an entirely new group of customers, as well as help you build trust with your existing audience.
Are you keeping up with these trends?
The end of 2022 is approaching fast, so roll up your sleeves and get your brand marketing campaign ready for the new year! These trends are just the beginning, but they sure have the potential to do great things for your business.
Author bio
Nadica Metuleva is a freelance writer who’s passionate about creating quality, original content. She holds a Master’s degree in English teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in translation. With 8 years of experience in the freelance writing industry, Nadica has become proficient in creating content that captivates the audience, drives growth, and educates. You can find her on LinkedIn.
