The Top 8 Marketing & Content Trends SMEs Should Watch in 2023

Marketing is one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks a small to medium business has to do.

But, if we don’t do it, then we don’t bring in new clients. Or increase the spend of existing ones. Or grow in the way that we want to grow.

Whatever your business goals are for 2023, successful marketing will need to be at the heart of them.

Here’s my top 8 trends in marketing and content for 2023 – because understanding what’s going on in the world of marketing and audiences will help you make good decisions about where to put your time and energy to achieve your bold business goals.

Trend #1
Hello YouTube. You’re looking good.

I say this every year (I really, really do) – but video is growing. Again.

In 2022, YouTube moved from #4 up to #2 when it comes to the ranks of the most popular social media channels.

And I’m not seeing enough small and medium businesses put content on the platform.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m a massive believer in making sure you’re not overcommitting on your marketing (which means you don’t have to do all the things).

But if it’s not already a part of your content strategy, you’re going to want to look at how you can incorporate YouTube into your content calendar for 2023.

Especially now you can claim your handle without having to have 100 subscribers on your channel.

In other video trends, while short form video is still performing well, and TikTok is growing, it’s still not appearing in the Top 5 most popular channels for video content (which according to the HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Report for 2022 are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn).

This doesn’t mean that TikTok isn’t worth exploring. It’s just about deciding how you want to use your resources, and I think this year, YouTube is a better choice – especially because of its massive power as a search engine.

Trend #2
Demand for Mobile Friendly Website Design

In the marketing world, we’ve been banging on about the importance of mobile friendly website design for what feels like a decade.

But lots of small to medium size businesses are being very slow to take a mobile first approach to their website design.

Consumers are getting more demanding. If your website doesn’t work seamlessly on mobiles and tablets, you could be missing out on opportunities.

Your website is still the #1 marketing tool you have in your online marketing arsenal. It’s an owned asset which means you’re in control of it. And you need to make sure it’s working harder for you.

If you’ve not looked at your website on a mobile device lately, then please take the time to do it. Are your forms easy to fill out? Can users access the most important information easily? What could you do to improve the experience for your user?

Trend #3
Brand Awareness will (still) be the Key to Marketing.

The HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Trends Report for 2022 showed the top source of website traffic is direct.

This means that your customers are typing the name of your brand into Google to find you.

That’s why in 2023, brand awareness will be more important than ever when it comes to your marketing.

Good brand awareness is about being consistent with your brand story, and making sure our brand is showing up in the places where your customers are.

If you don’t have a brand story strategy, and if brand building isn’t part of your marketing and content plan for 2023, it should be.

Trend #4
Influencer Marketing Will Come Under the Microscope

Influencer Marketing was the #1 emerging marketing trend in 2022.

But while audiences are embracing it, I think we’re going to see them viewing influencer marketing with a much more critical (and possibly cynical) eye.

During 2022 we saw an increase in the performance of authentic content, and content that reflects brand values. Off the back of this, we’re going to see more of a push towards brands sharing authentic content that reflects their brand values – this is the type of content that’s going to perform well as we move forward into 2023.

If you’re considering Influencer Marketing as part of your tactics in 2023, make sure you only partner with influencers who share the same values and who have reputable expertise in the industry you’re in.

I’m not saying that the creator economy isn’t valuable – but I am saying that that brands will need to be increasingly savvy with who they choose to partner with, and how they go about it, so they don’t risk upsetting their audience.

Trend #5
Virtual Events

While we’re seeing a happy return to live events, virtual events are still a top marketing channel from 2022 and I think we’ll see this continue in 2023.

Many brands (and networking groups) have turned their event calendar into a hybrid model, where some live events and conferences make up some of the delivery, and virtual events make up the rest.

The popularity of virtual events is good for clients AND brands – giving people access to knowledge from sources they may not have been able to access before, and giving brands access to audiences they may not have been able to tap into before.

Trend #6
Continued growth of interactive content

Interactive content is one of the three “I”s of great content creation (all content should Inform, Inspire or create an Interaction).

Polls, games, quizzes and other interactive types of content grew in popularity in 2022, and are going to continue to be influential with audiences 2023.

Trend #7
Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is where lots of small and medium brands should be focussing their attention throughout 2023.

It centres around building a relationship with your customers across the whole customer journey cycle, by simply having an understanding of what they need through each phase of their journey with your brand.

As with most marketing terms, there are lots of variations on what the stages in the cycle are.

To keep it simple, I like to envision your customers going through three stages - Awareness, Action and Advocacy.

How are you serving your customers at each of these stages? What do your tribe need from you as they’re becoming aware of your product or service? What do they need as they start to take action? What do they need to become advocates of your brand?

It’s all about building a relationship. Ask the questions about your customers that you perhaps haven’t asked before and link the answers to your customer journey cycle to create marketing and content that speaks to them based on their stage in the journey.

Your customers want you to get to know them. And relationship marketing is how you can show them that you know them.

Trend #8
The downfall of Twitter

It might be a big call – but I think we might be seeing the end of Twitter as a valuable platform to brands by the end of 2023.

Big advertisers have already pulled their accounts from the platform since Elon Musk took ownership, and I’m boldly predicting that this might be the beginning of the end for the platform.

This is despite many marketers investing in Twitter Spaces, the platforms challenge to ClubHouse (and while Clubhouse became popular early, it has plateaued in usage).

Twitter is more popular in the US than it is in Australia – so you might be wondering why this prediction is important for everyone.

The reason is that if Twitter keeps spiralling, then we’re going to potentially see a shift of users spending more time on other platforms. And this will change the landscape for all brands across all social media platforms.

I’m keen to see what happens in the next 12 months with so many changes happening with Twitter.

Check back in then and see if I was right (you can subscribe below)!