The world of marketing is changing fast. If you’re not keeping up with the latest trends in marketing for small businesses and technology to give your digital marketing strategy the X factor, you could be missing out on a lot of opportunities to connect with customers and grow your business.

In this article, we take a look at some key developments that will shape the future of your digital marketing. We’ll also look at how you can adapt your digital strategy to give your marketing the X factor.

Why you need to up your content game

You already know that content is the cornerstone of digital marketing. But let’s be real: you may not have given it the attention it deserves. It’s time to change that!

Content is king, and you need to up your content game in order to stay competitive and increase your marketing X factor in 2023.

Content is the most important part of digital marketing. You can’t build a brand without good content. Neither can you build an audience without good content. And you can’t attract new customers without good content – the list goes on!

It’s also the driving force behind SEO, which means that if your site doesn’t have optimised web copy, isn’t producing quality blog posts or videos regularly and linking back from them, then Google will penalise your rankings until those things happen.

Build your web presence with optimised email marketing content, blog posts, press releases, and many more.

Connecting with your customers

 One of the most important things for your digital marketing strategy is to get to know your customers. The more you know about them and their needs, the better able you’ll be to provide what they want.

There are several ways that this can happen. Ask questions and actually listen. When someone buys from you, ask them how they heard about your product or service and why they decided on it over other options. If a customer has a problem with something in their order, follow up with them to find out what went wrong and how we can fix it next time around.

Be accessible at all times. We live in a world where people expect instant answers (and quick responses). Ensure your employees have access via smartphone during working hours, so no one gets left out of conversations with clients because they weren’t able to pick up their desk phone during the day.

Make the most of social media

The key is knowing how to use each platform in an effective way helps build connections with potential customers.

Understanding how to get the most out of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest will make for a successful digital marketing strategy.

Have a consistent voice across all platforms. It’s important that you maintain a unified tone across your social media so people can recognise your brand no matter where they encounter it; online or offline.

This means using similar language and personality in every post. It also means keeping up with trends in content creation e.g., by sharing video clips more often than photos.

Make sure all posts have consistent hashtags. Hashtags make it easier for others to come across your post when searching archives or browsing posts in their feeds.

A small business needs to be able to respond to any direct messages through social media at any given moment too. Social media has become way that customers ‘contact us’ and they’ll often be looking for a very fast response.

The importance of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a great way to reach new customers and increase brand awareness. Social media accounts of influence have large followings meaning they can quickly get the word out about your brand.

They’re also trusted by their followers, so if they recommend something, people will listen. You can use influencers in many ways. Ask them to review your product, create giveaways and competitions, give you a mention in their newsletter, or ask to an invitation to an event.

They are an excellent way to give your marketing strategy the X Factor in 2023 and beyond. Reach out to them via the platforms you find them on.

Ensure that the influencers you choose are:

·      topically relevant to your brand

·      geographically relevant to your brand

·      producing content that resonates with your brand values

·      followed by an audience that would be interested in your products or services

Use technology to support your strategy

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used by many businesses to target customers more accurately. Businesses can use AI to analyse a customer’s past purchases and then recommend similar or related products to them.

AI can also be used to track a customer’s online behaviour and target them with specific ads. This allows businesses to personalise their marketing messages to individual customers, which is more likely to result in a sale.

There are a number of online free trial tools such as audience segmentation software Ortto, or customer behaviour tool Seventh Sense.

You can also invest in AI to write content for you in the same tone means you can get the bulk of a message written. Simple free tools like Grammarly will work wonders for those who don’t class themselves as writers. Beware though, this form of AI needs the human touch grammatically and creatively as well as adding your brand personality.

Conclusion

Marketing is a constantly evolving discipline. If you want to give your digital marketing strategy the X factor and stay ahead of the game, you need to keep up with new trends and innovations.

By keeping up with trends and innovations, your strategy will elevate from good to great. But it’s also about speaking to your customers in ways that suit them. This will help them to feel connected with your brand and feel that they’re dealing with a trustworthy company.