The year 2022 has come to an end, and boy, was it ever an eventful one. Even though there is still a very long way to go, the globe was on its way to making a full recovery. Global brands and their perspectives on marketing in general have been put to the test and influenced over the course of the previous two years.
A little bit closer to home, we also saw the Marketing Automation industry grow considerably in response to an increasing demand from businesses all over the world to automate their marketing workflows in order to improve their ability to engage and keep their users.
This demand was fueled by the fact that marketing automation software was becoming more affordable. Here is a look at nine trends in marketing automation for the year 2023.
The market for marketing automation software is anticipated to continue expanding at an annual rate of 8.55% going forward through 2023, which would result in a market valuation of $6.4 billion by 2024. Emailmonday reports that more than 51 percent of businesses have already used some kind of marketing automation. Over five eight percent of businesses have it on their radar to implement.
The year 2023 will be all about the creation of one-of-a-kind, interactive experiences that add value to the evolving, to make user involvement seem super-connected, always-online consumer, and marketing automation will serve as a driving force in making all of this come to fruition.
Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the top trends that will have a significant impact on and lead the Marketing Automation market in 2023.
1) The expansion of marketing automation will go on far into the year 2023
The rise of marketing automation in 2023 is clearly shown by the statistics that were presented before. And it might be due to a very simple explanation: a rising number of marketers are starting to grasp the value and potential of marketing automation, which is allegedly causing them to increase their investment in marketing tech.
The following statistics should make your eyes bulge out of their sockets in that respect.
Opportunity
In 2023, there was a 27% increase in the number of suppliers offering marketing automation software, which is a strong indication of the growing market need.
Email Monday predicts that expenditure on marketing automation solutions would significantly increase, eventually reaching an annual level of $25.1 billion by the year 2023.
According to another finding in the survey, 75% of marketing professionals are currently using at least one kind of marketing automation technology in their overall plan. To reach success on par with that of market leaders, other companies might strive to model their strategies after those used by those leaders.
Over seventy percent of Indian marketers use marketing automation mainly to improve their lead conversion rate. This is the primary reason why marketing automation has come to be viewed as a crucial tool for enhancing bottom-line growth.
What exactly is the catch?
As long as certain decision-makers are still on the fence about the concept, it will be difficult to secure a sufficient budget and formulate a sensible plan for marketing automation. This will make the process more difficult. Some marketers still have the misconception that marketing automation platforms are difficult to understand and need a great deal of upkeep. These systems are sophisticated.
2) The king of the hill will be personalized content
It should not come as a surprise that people want individualized content in this day and age. The vast majority of the brand messages you get will not be personalized, despite the fact that you receive them from several businesses. And when you take a look at the data that support it (here are some from Instapage), you’ll have a hard time understanding why this is the case.
In the year 2023, context will become an increasingly important factor in the success of businesses. Consumers are putting increasing pressure on companies to provide them with experiences that are relevant to their needs. They anticipate that companies will be aware of their likes and preferences, and that they will provide insightful product suggestions that are worthwhile for them to consider.
Opportunity
Marketers have a tremendous chance to develop a highly accurate customer profile by integrating social listening, user characteristics, on-site behavioral variables, and data about previous purchases to create a comprehensive customer profile.
When companies get an understanding of the preferences and purchasing patterns of their customers, they will be able to transcend beyond the realms of segmentation and customization and reach the world of hyper-personalization and predictive suggestions.
In order for a brand’s retention marketing efforts to be successful, personalized content will be an essential component. It may assist companies in increasing their customer loyalty index, which in turn helps to ensure that their company is not lost to the competitors.
What exactly is the catch?
The true difficulty will be to develop and carry out hyper-personalized marketing campaigns at scale, with the goal of reaching a very large number of users. Platforms for marketing automation that can gather user data at many touchpoints and interact smoothly with online companies will be quite helpful in this regard since they will enable firms to effortlessly customise large-scale marketing campaigns.
3) Marketing Automation That Is Smarter Thanks to Machine Learning and AI-Assisted Platforms
In the year 2023, the golden reward at the end of the Marketing Automation rainbow will be found in the form of Predictive Personalization. Netflix and Starbucks both have have recommendation engines up and running. These engines employ AI and machine learning to generate hyper-personalized experiences for their consumers. Their expansion is more than sufficient evidence that predictive personalization is the way of the future.
Opportunity
The year 2023 will mark the beginning of marketers’ usage of machine learning in the process of content generation. The effectiveness of interaction will be improved thanks to the collaborative efforts of machine learning and data.
When a user clicks on an advertisement, the underlying user data and behavioral data will be absorbed by machine learning algorithms. This data will then be utilized in subsequent campaigns and touchpoints as the user moves further along in their lifecycle.
In a similar vein, AI-assisted platforms will become increasingly prevalent, and technologies such as Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning will be utilized to automate the study of user behavior and online activity in order to create hyper-personalized user personas. This study will focus on understanding speech and language patterns.
So, what’s the catch?
The development of an AI and machine learning system that is both economically feasible and comprehensive is currently ongoing. Larger companies have the personnel and financial resources to design their own system, but lesser firms will have to wait till they discover a simpler plug-and-play system before they can implement it. If you are aware of any software of this kind that is already causing a stir in the business world, please let us know about it in the comments section below.
4) Chatbots will keep making waves in the industry
In the years to come, chatbots will play a significant part in the provision of customer support and in the engagement of customers. In the future, chatbots will be able to provide behavioral suggestions, in addition to having deeper connectivity with software developed by third parties. They will also grow smarter overall.
Opportunity
In this particular survey, over 54% of respondents said that they would rather interact with a company’s brand through a chatbot than an app. The user engagement potential is simply enormous, assuming that chatbots are sophisticated enough to carry on a meaningful discussion with a number of different users at the same time.
Since allowing brand integration, chatbots have been a major hit on messaging systems such as Facebook Messenger, which has led to their widespread adoption. According to the findings of the study, more than sixty percent of Messenger users who were pinged by a chatbot interacted with the message.
WhatsApp will soon make it possible for marketers to integrate chatbots with their application programming interface (API), which will open up a whole new channel for user interaction with brands. With over 1.3 billion monthly active users (MAUs), this presents an incredible potential for companies of all sizes.
It is anticipated that there will be 3.2 billion users of messaging apps in 2023, which means that the market potential for chatbots is enormous. Chatbots are an excellent method for capitalizing on this large quantity, which marketers can no longer ignore because of its size.
According to a poll conducted by Oracle among 800 senior decision-makers from across the globe, over 80% are currently utilizing chatbots for their company, or have plans to begin using them for their business by the year 2023. Marketers are increasingly looking to chatbots as a viable solution for problems related to customer engagement.
So, What’s the Catch?
In their most basic form, chatbots are computer programs that have been taught by humans to comprehend and imitate human communication. Chatbots still have a ways to go before they can fully comprehend the context of human conversations. This is because every person has their own distinct manner of communicating. Chatbots are unable to convey information in a fluid manner, which is something that people are naturally adept at doing.
5) Marketing on Social Media Through Automated Platforms
The average amount of time spent on social media each day has risen to 143 minutes in 2019, up from 135 minutes in 2017. In 2023, companies are planning to compete for an even larger share of your screen time spent on social media. In order for brands to reach out to the appropriate audiences with their messaging at the appropriate time in the lives of users and maintain a high level of contextual relevance, intelligent automation of social media marketing will be on the agenda.
Opportunity
Facebook’s organic visibility will continue to decline in the future. To combat this, companies are boosting their spending on social media marketing in an effort to enhance their return on investment (ROI). By imitating Google’s AdWords framework, the targeting of advertisements on social media will become much more specific.
The population of people in generation Z is growing, and with it comes an increase in their purchasing power. They will eventually be able to compete with millennials in terms of their spending potential. Because they spend the most time online, consumers are the target audience for the social media strategies that companies need to develop for their brands.
The social media marketing budgets of brands saw a significant increase in 2022, and those budgets are expected to see an even larger increase in 2023.
Video content will dominate social media. The growth of 130% in social video advertising will prompt a number of brands to investigate the use of video as a powerful instrument for fostering social engagement.
So, What’s the Catch?
It will be fascinating to observe, over the next few years, the level of success that advertising campaigns achieve through the use of social media. As the largest social media platform in the world tries to get back to its roots and promote content from immediate friends and family, Facebook’s new rules are going to make it more difficult for publishers and advertisers to get their impressions seen on the platform.
6) Marketing throughout the Lifecycle Using Predictive CLV
According to Forbes, companies that are able to provide their customers with the most satisfying and interesting experiences throughout the course of their relationship with the company will have higher conversion and retention rates. Users are less likely to make additional purchases if they feel that the customer experience they received during any given stage did not meet their expectations.
Opportunity
When it comes to creating customer segments, companies will look to make the transition from a static to a more dynamic and behavioral approach in order to better accommodate a user’s ever-shifting requirements and preferences in real time.
An increasing number of companies will make an effort to investigate and evaluate the online behavior of their customers, with the goal of better comprehending the manner in which their customers conduct business and navigate the internet, as well as the reasons they search for and buy products.
The predictive customer lifetime value is going to be the standard in the future, as companies will strive to optimize the amount of money they spend on advertising in accordance with the anticipated revenue from their customers in real time.
With the help of advanced segmentation, companies will be able to determine which users have a high, medium, or low CLV and will be able to create highly personalized marketing campaigns with a marketing cost that is justifiable and does not exceed the value that each user subset is perceived to have.
By analyzing user attributes, behavioral patterns, and previous purchase history, marketing automation software will make it possible for brands to easily create user profiles that are highly accurate. This will allow for an accurate CLV assessment.
What exactly is the catch?
The most challenging aspect of this endeavor will be obtaining the appropriate kind of data on a consistent basis, in particular for larger businesses that dabble in multiple product and service categories across markets. Additionally, forecasting metrics such as revenues and costs is notoriously difficult, which can adversely affect the outcome in the event that mathematical errors are present in the calculations.
7) The retention of users is going to be an essential factor in the growth of the business
Perhaps the year 2023 will be the one in which we all see a greater emphasis placed on retaining customers as opposed to acquiring new ones. The reason for this is that by the year 2023, the customer experience campaign will have developed into a cross-function of marketing and will be responsible for dictating future campaigns based on user engagement and response.
Many companies will make a concerted effort to gain an understanding of the journey taken by anonymous users who have not yet completed a transaction on their website. Keeping track of their progression from an unidentified user to a recognized one will deliver significant value in terms of business expansion. According to a report by Bain & Company, an increase in customer retention of just 5% can have a positive effect on profitability that is greater than 75%.
Opportunity
The cost of acquiring new customers is still five times higher than the cost of keeping existing customers, and the customer lifetime value (CLV) of established customers is significantly greater than that of newly acquired customers. Because of this, the majority of companies will need to have a hyper-focused attention on retention in 2023 in order to maximize their bottom line.
According to Forrester, companies that provide their customers with a more satisfying overall experience will enjoy five times greater revenue growth than competing companies. This will be the next major battleground, as companies compete to provide users with a highly personalized experience in an effort to win their commitment and increase the number of loyal customers they have.
Users who are satisfied with a product or service are more likely to advocate for that product or service to their immediate circle of friends and family. Consumers in today’s society put a LOT more stock in the opinions and suggestions of their peers than they do in advertisements. This will be sufficient motivation for brands to maintain their customers’ satisfaction and keep them as customers.
What exactly is the catch?
It will be necessary for companies to move quickly in order to align their interests with the “Experience Economy.” It will be difficult for brands to continually innovate, execute, and deliver maximum value to their users at scale because the primary differentiator in the market will be a personalized customer experience.
8) Mobile first approach
Mobile marketing will be a major growth driving factor for businesses as mobile devices quickly become the primary device used by users to communicate with the online world. In the future, marketers will strive to develop sophisticated mobile engagement strategies for the brands they work with by making effective use of tools such as push and web notifications, SMS, mobile wallets, and in-app notifications.
The use of marketing automation software will be the instrument that creates a complex web around these campaigns and ensures that they are able to function cohesively at scale.
Opportunity
The year 2022 marked the first time that mobile ad spends exceeded those of desktop, and it is anticipated that this trend will continue in 2023, with mobile ad spends expected to increase by 8.5% year over year. In the coming year, mobile-based advertisements and campaigns will likely become much more prevalent.
The mobile-first index that Google plans to roll out in 2023 will compel a great number of brands to optimize their websites for mobile use. By 2023, mobile will have established itself as the channel of choice for marketers in terms of engagement and retention.
In order for companies to make the most of the popularity of the mobile medium, they will undoubtedly be looking to concentrate on developing mobile-specific content and unique mobile engagement strategies.
Because of the sudden surge in mobile usage, companies will be rushing to collect and examine data regarding their mobile users and the ways in which those users interact with the company’s brand. This data, both behavioral and transactional, will be essential for understanding the user’s intent as well as their purchasing behavior, which will pave the way for personalized marketing campaigns in the future
So, What’s the Deal Here?
It will be challenging for marketers to create mobile campaigns that are highly engaging, personalized, and contextualized consistently on mobile devices. A poorly timed campaign or a message that is poorly worded can immediately lead to user churn or dissonance if the margin for error is very small when considering the personal nature of mobile as a medium.
Tools such as Office24by7 come into play at this point in the process. Your company can gain the ability to send campaigns that are timely and personalized with the help of WebEngage. These campaigns can be sent on mobile-specific channels such as Push notifications, In-app messages, SMS, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
9) Integrated cross-channel marketing will be the most important marketing strategy
When compared to working in individual silos, the use of a multi-channel marketing strategy will result in increased chances of success for marketers in the years leading up to 2023.
Opportunity
According to the findings of research, the utilization of two or more communication channels as opposed to single-channel outreach models results in an increase in engagement levels of over 166%. Marketers will be eager to take advantage of this factor in order to maintain their customers’ engagement across a variety of touchpoints.
More than 53 percent of consumers in the UK use more than one device when they are browsing the internet. Because of this, a trend known as webrooming has emerged, in which users conduct extensive research online before actually making a purchase. The multi-screen approach will be utilized by marketers in order to guarantee engagement across all touchpoints in which the user is active.
So, What’s the Deal Here?
It will be interesting to see how marketers evaluate data and decide which mediums are going to be the most effective for their marketing campaigns. A multi-channel campaign will have several layers of user engagement and action, and in order to identify key insights that positively affect conversion and engagement, data intelligence will be required.
All of these aspects will have to be incorporated into these multi-channel campaigns in a seamless manner in order to guarantee that the brand message is kept relevant and offers something of value to the end-user.
Summing it up
Your user is no longer willing to wait and will immediately switch to a competitor that better meets their needs. This decision will not be made lightly. As a result of this, marketing automation is going to play a significant role in the business world in 2023, as companies will scramble to provide their users with an experience that is more engaging, targeted, and personalized.
