In our discussion today, our attempt is centered on identifying not only the trends but also the idea that leads us to follow the trends, the why of following them, and how to keep in the loop to trace them. Hence our present discussion today will unfold on:

1. Why focus on market trends?

• The bandwagon effect 
• Forecasting 
• Keeps the brand fresh
• Early warnings
• What do consumers want from marketing?

2. Ways you can identify market trends

3. The marketing trends to focus on

• Employee advocacy 
• Personalization 
• Voice search optimization  
• Local marketing  
• Micro-influencers 

Why focus on marketing trends?

Focusing on marketing trends can be central to many positives (sometimes negative too). But there are reason/s to why we undertake any trend. 

The Bandwagon effect

Have you ever heard the term? To help you here, the bandwagon effect can be simply put to the idea of ‘Herd Mentality’ in layman’s terms. By definition, it is a psychological occurrence where people follow what others are doing irrespective of their belief systems. 

According to Investopedia, the word has its root in politics, where campaigning in bulk triggered the phenomenon. But today, it also applies to the consumer behaviour. Because they are consuming the ‘trend.”Leading the industry to serve them this.

Apart from this, trends are focused because of reasons like

Forecasting 

This is one of the strongest giveaways when you stick to trends. Because then you develop a pattern to predict what’s next to come and plan accordingly.

Keeps the brand fresh

Setting or following trends is a significant plus in keeping your brand fresh. In terms of recall and presence in the minds of consumers. 

Early warnings

Similar to the pattern you experience with forecasting. Trends serve as a source to rely on when the change gets apparent. It acts as a siren to what will work for you and what won’t. 

What the consumer wants from marketing 

You can do ten new things and still miss the bus of consumer engagement. But you won’t unless you ensure:

• 24/7 availability on the mediums your customers are most active. Because a doubt or question can spring up any minute. And they want someone to solve it for them at that hour.
• Calibrate your plan according to the opinions or words your consumers bring to you. If you have a loyal base, addressing their interests is crucial in shaping your decision with a trend. 
• Options. Options. Options. They need it. As a brand, it becomes central to your ideas that anything you put forward for the consumers has to have options. Because they are picky and they want to choose. So the choice is important here. 

Ways to Identify Trends 

Alright, so hopping on a trend is important. But how do we identify something as a trend? And why?
First off, identifying a trend is vital for long-term business planning. 

Second, they are nothing but ideas emerging from customer behaviors

And third, you get an edge over your competitors with this.

So to tap into trends, this British Library suggests:

• Absorb industry research and reports on trends well.
• Use your analytics to understand the industry’s behavior. 
• Observe your competition. 
• Track the influencers of the domain.

This now leads us to our next and main topic of discussion, The top marketing trends of 2023. 

Also read: How to set up a perfect marketing plan.

Marketing trends to focus on

Employee Advocacy 

The messages you circulate today have a greater impact if brought up by your employees. The reason is they are trusted more. Since they are, the direct and authentic connect to the consumers. 

Moreover, 46% of people will leave a brand if they don’t find the employee base knowledgeable and reliable. 

So your call is to train and give them the freedom to propagate. As this will not only lead to employee advocacy but employee activation. 

Personalization 

According to McKinsey reports, 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions. And this serves as a massive opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to grow. 

Combined with automation in conversational messages ( a plus now with ChatGPT), personalization will only grow. The distinctive experience that it brings to the customers contributes to its popularity. 

By this, we mean to not only share messages with their names but also tailor messages basis on their interaction and pain points. 

Voice search optimization 

It was yesterday. We saw one of our colleagues use voice search for something very simple. Quick came to the prompt results! When asked, you could have just typed. She said, “Why? It’s convenient like this!”

Moreover, voice search is going up with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Bixby. And to add to it, Statista claims that by 2024 around 8.4 billion digital voice assistants will be in use.

Therefore preparing content that is optimized for voice search is the deal-maker now. 

Local Marketing 

People are using the shopping “Near Me” feature, and here’s the proof. Between 2016 and 2018, Google Statistics reported a usage increase of 200%.  The local markets will never fade out of the scene. Because they have localized content and material based on geographic particulars.

So much is importance that bigger brands find it tough to compete with local marketing. 

So focusing on local marketing is a big win today.

Micro-influencers 

Micro-influencers are making a lot of noise for companies today. They aren’t as huge as the big-league influencers. But strong enough to mobilize a huge crowd in your favour. Because people trust them and find them more relatable.

Besides, if you go by Statista, we are spending 144 minutes a day on social media and messaging apps.  So why not leverage this aspect?  

Furthermore, micro-influencers (<= 1,00,000 followers) help easily reach a particular demographic, doubling the mega-influencer engagement rate at times. And they are cost-effective too! 

But these are not all. There’s more to the bucket with omnichannel marketing, mobile optimization, direct messaging to user-generated content.  However, we found these accurate and ongoing for you to try and grip the market. As we said, as we did. We absorbed the research. 

Concluding

With these disrupting top marketing trends of 2023 that we had in here. Our attempt was to highlight the value behind these trends. Just blindly getting into a trend for the sake of it won’t lead to any growth. And it will only cause you to be a part of the flock no one is going to notice. 
So streamlining is necessary in terms of why the trend, for whom, and what to follow. We hope this helps, and in case you got suggestions for us, please feel free to write and connect with us. We would be happy to help.

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