The marketing industry is constantly evolving, with new technologies and trends emerging. As businesses look to connect with their audiences and build their brands in the digital age, they must stay abreast of the latest trends.
Namita Tiwari, who has spent two decades working across all marketing functions, and is a well-known name in industry, shares her insights on what’s trending in marketing. Namita is also a technology evangelist who continuously endorses the increasing role of technology in marketing , with one of her popular quote“Technology is a key driver of modern marketing, almost a twin to Marketing.” She truly believes with time, the role of technology in marketing will increase manifold.
In this article, she shares her take on the future of marketing , how technology trends are getting woven into marketing and what businesses need to know to stay ahead of the curve.
From the importance of purpose and influencer marketing to the rise of tech-driven marketing, Namita’s prediction offers valuable insights for businesses looking for high impact marketing programs in 2023.
1) Growing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
Artificial intelligence has become an indispensable component in a marketer’s toolbox. From writing emails to answering customer queries to creating images, AI-based tools, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, can help scale customer interactions, test marketing ideas, and grow business without increasing overhead costs.
While it is not recommended to outsource your entire marketing to AI, as accuracy, relevancy and brand alignment needs to be monitored. However AI platforms like ChatGPT— can help you get started on projects, maintain consistent customer outreach and save time. The potential of AI in marketing is vast, and brands can find that overwhelming. Start small — make a list of repeatable tasks you want to outsource and work from there.
2) Marching towards The New Frontier Of The Metaverse
For marketers, the metaverse represents an opportunity to engage consumers in entirely new ways while pushing customer experience and brand innovation in new directions. Marketers would miss the bus, if they don’t start exploring what the metaverse can offer.
The brands that adopt a test-and-learn mindset, are open to experiments in the metaverse, will move on quickly and capitalize on success.
Recently Namita shared her perspective on marketing in metaverse in her TEDx Talk, where she explained the 3Es ~ Emotion, Experience & Engagement and immense potential marketers have in metaverse. Click here to watch her TEDx Talk.
3) Success of Short-Form Video Content & Micro Stories
TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have gone popular as consumer’s attention span is getting shorter day by day. The challenge is to hook people in the first three seconds and keep their attention until the payoff at the end. This has been evidently achieved with short video content and telling micro stories.
4) Influencer Marketing becomes a Norm
The shift toward individual content creators is evident in the more than 50 percent increase in influencer marketing over the past five years on platforms such as WeChat and Pinduoduo in China and YouTube and Instagram in the Western world.
Long-term collaborations with creators on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are essential for building and sustaining brand awareness. With privacy changes shifting the marketing landscape, brands need those strong relationships with influencers now more than ever in order to communicate their product with messaging to target audiences.
Namita views influencer marketing becoming a popular approach for businesses to build brand awareness and credibility. By working with respected and influential figures in their industry, companies can reach new audiences and gain market and mindshare.
5) Evolution of Data Privacy and User Centricity
From the death of third-party cookies to Apple making significant changes to its privacy features, the management of data is becoming rapidly more user-centric. Brands are now giving the power back to the user and letting them control how much data they are willing to share. Namita thinks this trend is going to go strong in 2023.
6) Rise of Podcasts
The versatility that podcasts and audio medium offers, makes them a great opportunity for brands, where consumers can be reached anywhere at any time about virtually any topic.
A promising data point from Statista mentions “the number of podcast listeners [could] surpass 160 million in 2023 after increases of around 20 million each year.”
7) Proclivity for Purpose-driven Marketing
With awakened consumers and conscious employees , purpose has emerged as a key driver behind brands and organizations. Both consumers and employees have turned savvy on societal and environmental causes and are actively making choices based on the brand’s alignment with their personal values.
Purpose-driven marketing connects a company’s marketing and communications efforts around a social cause. It humanizes businesses and makes consumers foster a deeper connection with the brands they use and trust.
This trend is extremely evident with many big and small brands, bringing out their purpose in front of the world contributing to global good and sustainability. This trend will go further bigger in the industry as brands gain consciousness.
8) Social turns Platform for Commerce & Customer Service
Social media as a customer service tool is a trend that’s quickly gaining traction. More than a quarter of marketers use direct messages to offer customer support, and 15% of marketers plan to try it for the first time in 2023.
It’s a logical progression that this trend is emerging at a time when many social media platforms — namely Instagram and Facebook — are expanding its e-commerce capabilities. Hence, providing customer service on these platforms will become even more crucial.
9) Eternally Reinventing Brand Omnipresence
Namita feels it’s no longer a one-size-fits-all social game, and it is critical for every brand to harness the power of each channel & evolve successfully. Be cognizant of all social channels, and ready to pivot your brand and creatively flex. Brands should have an articulated voice for every channel, which vibes well to engage their target audiences.
As technology brings further platforms in picture , powered by Artificial Intelligence and Metaverse, brand omnipresence will eternally be an important charter for marketers.
10) Immersive Customer Experiences
Immersive technologies have the potential to radically transform how customers interact with brands, products, and systems. Consumers are enthusiastic about mixed, augmented and virtual reality and are particularly curious about the metaverse. The promise of immersive experiences gives brands a chance to differentiate their customer experience & strengthen emotional connect with the brand.
Namita recommends companies to note the key trends and adopt them early to have a competitive edge over other players. As we move further, we will find technology converging with marketing , as evident in most of the trends explained above.
Her valuable insights and acumen has driven many success stories in the ever-evolving marketing landscape.
To keep yourself updated on emerging marketing trends, follow Namita Tiwari on her LinkedIn, YouTube & Instagram.