10 MarTech Trends That Will Impact Your Marketing Strategies

It’s going to be a year of continued change in digital marketing. Here are 10 trends for your business to take advantage of.

• Many businesses’ programs include digital marketing, and the technology supporting these efforts is improving all the time.
• Existing trends, such as long-form educational contents, chatbots and live chat, and the increased relevance of voice search, will continue.
• Google’s campaign for a cookie-free future is one of the new trends.

This article is for small company owners and digital marketers who want to understand the important trends and where to focus their marketing efforts.

While many marketing concepts have remained the same year after year, the tools businesses use to achieve marketing success have changed dramatically over time. Newspaper advertising used to be very frequent. Digital advertising and artificial intelligence are becoming an important part of a company’s marketing strategy.

Each year, more technological innovations emerge for companies to consider. Those businesses that stay ahead of the curve may even reach new levels of marketing success.

Let’s learn more about these trends and how they can help your company.

1. Truly long-form material reigns supreme

The trend in content marketing is toward long-form, educational content that tries to benefit people rather than sell to them. With improvements like Google’s “helpful content updates” introduced late last year, this trend will only continue. Content that fully answers people’s queries and guides them to the best options for their situation will do the best job.

Sharing information about issues of interest to your customers is a great strategy for increasing brand awareness and customer loyalty. You can gain trust by showing that you care about more than simply the transaction. Whether your material comes in the form of social media posts, blogs or email blasts, strike a balance between prominence and emphasis.

Long-form authentic marketing is a great way to boost interest and engagement among your target audience.

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2. Short-form video content is vying for supremacy

While long-form educational content is still valid for blogs or podcasts, short-form video content is becoming increasingly popular. Thanks to TikTok and Instagram Reels, users are increasingly accustomed to short, entertaining or educational video material. Brands can take advantage of this trend to quickly and effectively reach their target audience amidst the proliferation of other video content.

As viewers’ attention spans decline and their attention is pulled to several places at once, effective short-form video content may convey a brand’s message in a matter of seconds. To reach the widest audience, deploy long-form content for those who want to dig deeper and educate themselves, but provide short-form video content for those who want to get to the point quickly.

3. The adoption of Chatbots and conversational AI will increase

Chatbots, as well as more sophisticated conversational AI, will continue to enter the market and be increasingly embraced by small businesses. These tools can answer basic customer questions at any time of the day or night, even if you are focused on a different task.

The advent of ChatGPT, for example, suggests that the era of AI-driven marketing has arrived. Expect more small businesses to take advantage of the tools available to help generate marketing copy or connect with customers 24/7.

“AI-powered chatbots can be used for customer support to dramatically expand contact strategies with controlled messaging,” said Joey Penick, former vice president of marketing at Lumen Technologies.” These chatbots have become so lifelike that many customers don’t even know the difference, but they offer the added benefit of being able to collect, analyze and provide actionable data that can be used to improve the customer experience.”

According to the State of Conversational Marketing report from revenue acceleration platform Drift, nearly 42 percent of consumers use conversational AI and chatbots to make purchases. However, the majority of small business owners surveyed said they are not using this technology.

Customers respond positively to AI-powered chatbots because they provide a quick response 24/7.

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4. Voice search will continue to be a key focus

With the growing popularity of mobile devices and voice services such as Microsoft Cortana and Google Assistant, voice search is one area where your small business may stand out from the competition. If your company is online, there is a good chance that individuals will use voice search to find your website or content marketing materials.

According to Google, mobile search has surpassed 50 percent [of searches]. Marketers will need to start responding to voice search, which already accounts for 20 percent of mobile search and is predicted to expand at the same rate as mobile search.

With the popularity of voice-controlled devices, focus your content strategy on answering common questions consumers have about your product or service.

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5. Data analytics will provide deeper insights

Most brands are prioritizing data analytics, but marketers have a long way to go. Marketers have to learn how to use the data they get more effectively. Customers are constantly providing personal information to the companies they contact – from buying patterns to preferred items to the best ways to connect with them through advertising and marketing campaigns. Customers want something in return for sharing their data, whether it’s better customized marketing or targeted coupons/deals.

Marketers must do more than just collect data. Data must be meaningful, and firms must utilise it to better marketing strategies.

Current trends center around predictive data; smarter, scalable, and more flexible datasets; edge computing for quicker analysis; and hybrid computing, which combines off-premise and on-premise cloud solutions. Machine learning-driven solutions, such as augmented analytics, engineering decision analytics, and data visualisation, will also find increased use for better decision-making, company management, insights, and automation.

Data analytics can provide valuable information about consumer behavior, including their intent. Making the most of the information you collect from your website is an important matter for marketers.

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6. Social media marketing will continue to grow

With more than 4.26 billion people utilizing social media worldwide, social media platforms have become a fundamental pathway for digital marketers. This number is predicted to exceed 6 billion by 2027, ensuring the long-term viability of social media as an integral part of all digital marketing businesses.

Social media is also changing. Brands will need to adapt to the changing landscape to stay relevant to their audiences and maintain high levels of engagement. This means better social listening to consumers and competitors. Brands will benefit from using social listening solutions that help shorten the process and generate better messages.

When it comes to social media influencers, the trend towards micro influencers will continue. Influencers with a specific concentration on a single issue will continue to rise in popularity. It is the niche that is important.

Customers like the chance to interact with companies via social media. The same concepts apply: good brand narrative, innovation, real interest in and connection with your followers, and ongoing growth of your sector experience and talents.

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7. DeFi technology is not yet extinct

E-commerce trends revolve around Web3, and companies are using the DeFi trend to take their profile to new heights. Decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” is associated with blockchain, cryptocurrencies and unforgeable tokens (NFTs). While these technologies have faced minor setbacks in the past, don’t expect them to go away anytime soon. As more use cases in the DeFi space develop, expect a steady acceptance of these solutions.

Technologies such as peer-to-peer ledgers make business faster, cheaper, more secure and transparent. Smart contracts on the blockchain can verify, guarantee and execute transactions. nft’s can do more than simply art, they can also be used to track and manage supply chains. Companies trying to solve their supply chain challenges should embrace these technologies.

8. The metaverse will rebound

The metaverse is today’s futuristic combination of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), forming a new 3D immersive experience that enables users to merge the physical with the digital. While metaspace failed to gain traction last year, broader adoption is expected as the technology improves and the company responds to user expectations.

Examples of metaspace include interactive ads, such as NASCAR’s ad for the interactive gaming platform Roblox. Users can create their own avatars that allow them to “feel” the experience without actually buying it. This has spawned the marketing industry’s newest term, “gamevertising,” in which marketers and companies use games to sell their products.

In retail, companies are using technologies like augmented reality to create hybrid shopping experiences where consumers can virtually try on clothing, sit in chairs, inhabit certain geographic areas, and more.

Metaspace is one of the largest marketing movements in recent memory, and we’re just getting started. It blurs the line between the real world and the virtual world, giving rise to a new direct-to-avatar (D2A) business model.

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9. A cookie-free future is (still) on the way

Google may have delayed its “cookie-free” intentions until 2024, but a cookie-free future is still on the way. Google hopes to roll out cookie-free tracking next year, although early testing is expected to begin much sooner. In building its cookieless tracking system, the company is now trying to combine the needs of users, marketers and publishers – no easy feat.

How does this affect businesses and advertising or marketers? With concerns about consumer privacy and increased legislation such as GDPR, prudent companies will want to plan for the future of cookies to give way to cookie alternatives. However, in order to make the most of their advertising campaigns, companies will need to become proficient at utilizing the cookie-free technologies that will replace the current norms.

10. Diversity, equity and inclusion are now critical

In recent years, companies have been debating their diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies, primarily as they relate to internal staffing and hiring strategies. In digital marketing, DE&I will become increasingly important. Users want to see marketing campaigns and ads that represent the diversity of the world around them, so consider DE&I when developing images and content for your marketing efforts.

Brands that involve a wide range of individuals in their marketing are found to have higher sales across all demographics. According to Adobe research, 61% of customers say diversity in marketing and advertising is important to them, and 38% say they are more likely to patronize companies that launch diverse marketing campaigns than those that don’t. The fact that Gen Z values racial and gender diversity in marketing and expects companies to engage in social justice debates suggests these trends are here to stay.

In summary

These trends are expected to influence marketing this year, but that doesn’t mean you need to immediately drop what you’re doing and switch to using different and more advanced technology to market your business effectively.

Changes in technology haven’t altered the core concepts of marketing, but the new technology does magnify every triumph and failure. Before, serving a bad burger to one customer might lead to the unhappy customer telling their friends not to eat there. Now, an angry Yelp review can deter hundreds of prospective customers.

You might not need to act on every trend discussed in this article. On the other hand, adding a chatbot or using more authentic content in your current marketing strategy mix may take your business to a new level of customer engagement and financial success.

How to decide which new marketing technique to implement?

Deciding which technology to implement in your operation depends on the needs of your business and the desires of your customers. You’re probably better off not adopting a new marketing trend, especially if you don’t understand the technology and are only doing so because other businesses are using it.

“While we are moving faster and faster toward a technology-driven world, small and medium-sized businesses need to prioritize the technology trends they can leverage to achieve greater business growth,” says Ryan Gould, vice president of strategy and marketing services at Elevation Marketing.” How do they do that? They need to ask the following four questions.

• Who is my audience?
• What are the gaps in my business and where are they?
• Will this technology help close the gap in my business?
• Do I have enough resources to sustain this technology over time?”

Use Gould’s questions as a check to make sure you don’t unnecessarily jump on a marketing trend that doesn’t fit your business.