How to develop your own marketing trends in 2023
In a world full of places telling you what the latest marketing trends are, why not uncover your own?
You’ve probably seen memes floating past about what’s in or out for 2023. It ranges from self-affirmation stuff right through to community.
It’s made me think a lot about marketing trends and what we do with them.
So much so, I have written a blog on what I think will be the marketing trends (and why) for 2023. As well as what my marketing predictions are for what we leave behind.
Despite mucking about in the marketing trends pen, there are some limitations in reading what everyone else thinks are the next best thing. Including from me. After all, we’re a biased, excitable and often self-serving bunch. Just because we want something to happen doesn’t make it so.
So, if nothing you’ve read or heard yet helps you figure out what to focus on, this four-step approach may help!
Step one: Look around
We’re swimming in data and intelligence every day. Even if we want to buck trends, we need to know what is happening.
Some ways you can uncover your own trends to follow include:
1. Digging into your analytics. Social media analytics, Google analytics, your sales database, your customer loyalty programs, the demography data you collect, listening insights – all this information helps you understand your customers on a deeper level. Use it!
2. Understanding (instead of dismissing) new technology – e.g. the impact of AI or innovations within your industry, new ways to automate frontline customer service, your customers sentiments towards social media and existing or new platforms, and so on
3. Understanding the social trends that influence behaviour. E.g. what social concerns are motivating spending patterns, if inflation affects your pricing or positioning, what impact changes to cultural policy might have and so on
4. Looking at the industry reports and news as a way of measuring customer appetite
5. Checking out what your competitors and allies within the field are up to
6. Making use of analytics and trends on social media, Google and other search engines etc to see what consumers are looking for
7. Asking your customers what they want via research, polls, and social media and customer service exchanges.
Taking it further:
· What is the data showing me about how people interact and behave in relation to my products and services?
· Where are the gaps between what customers want and the business supply?
· How well are we responding to technology innovations?
· What do the changes in social and cultural trends tell us about how people are reacting and responding to the industry? How can we leverage that?
· When was the last time we reviewed our strategies and approaches?
· What innovations and ideas are emerging?
· What are the trends in well-being, community and behaviour in the target audience?
· Whose missing audience-wise that you would like to reach?
Step two: Get creative
It’s tempting to be risk-adverse when we’re facing inflation while recovering from the hard yakka of the last few years. But I put to you that creativity isn’t a risk, it’s an opportunity to learn. It’s about scaling that creative experimentation to match.
Look at your marketing, customer service and community management.
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What are we doing that works well?
2. What are we doing that is stale or needs a shake-up?
3. Are we following the industry trend or creating the way forward?
4. What could we try that might not work but could lead to better decision-making?
5. Are our teams supported, invigorated, and given autonomy enough to make solid decisions?
6. What can we learn from the people on the frontline?
7. What theories about our customers would we like to test in 2023?
8. How do those tests lend themselves to campaigns and activities in places like marketing, content, and social media?
Step three: Identify your constraints
Dreaming up a marketing campaign in isolation is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in a hammock (for a marketing geek like me, anyway!). But we all have constraints we have to consider making an effective splash.
That means considering the constraints you face:
1. Are we solving a problem and/or adding value with the work we are about to undertake?
2. What commitments have you already made re: campaigns, ideas and budgets?
3. How much time and money have got for marketing this year?
4. In terms of resources, who have you got and what is their availability? Where does their skill set lie?
5. Is there someone within the organisation that can spend time on the ideas you want to test to nurture them properly?
6. What kind of reporting do we need to monitor each experiment well?
7. Can you allow an idea sufficient time to work in front of customers?
8. How much work will we need to do to educate the audience about this campaign, product or service?
Step four: Zigging as they zag
It’s always better to be the person, company or industry that sets the trend wherever possible. But even if you don’t have the energy the trendsetter, you don’t want to be in the middle to the end of the pack.
That means looking at how you can use marketing trends to your advantage by:
· Challenging the current trends with your own. Take what is available further, reject it and poke holes, and introducing an entirely new trend can widen the scope in your favour
· Advocate for the ideas over marketing them. Explore what you are doing and lean in on transparency to connect with your audience
· Identifying the opportunities to newsjack. Use the momentum of the news or movements of the audience to maximise your impact can help ride that trend to the marketing shore
· Analysing the trend, its impact and how it works to demonstrate your knowledge. This is what thought leaders do all the time with their social media marketing, blogs and more.
Not sure how to start?
I can help you by adding a fresh pair of eyes to your business and researching, planning and strategising your way forward with the latest marketing trends. I’ve run workshops, written countless marketing plans and built all kinds of content strategies to help you set the trend.