Top Small Business Marketing Trends for 2023

Marketing is an indispensable component of your business. Through marketing, you get to make your customers aware of your products or services, engage them and help inform them with their buying decision-making.

Marketing however is not a clear-cut science. It involves trends and gauges of customer sentiments and business actions.

According to the Marketing Insider Group. these will be areas that small businesses will be pivoting their marketing efforts toward in 2023:

• Customer experience
• Employee engagement
• Content visualization

Do you want to know what some of the biggest marketing trends are for small businesses in 2023?

Are you a small business owner and want to know what marketing trends to look out for in 2023? Read on for our top picks.

Content Marketing Trends

Businesses are ever more looking to get more organic engagements with customers and prospects. They recognize that content marketing helps:

• Build trust
• Develop relationships
• Improve conversions
• Generate leads.

Customers today expect high-quality, consistent content from their favorite brands.

Businesses are taking note and are beefing up their content production. According to the B2B content marketing report, some 47% of businesses are planning to hire or contract content producers in 2023. These include writers, designers, videographers, and graphic designers.

Organic content is outpacing paid advertising

Interestingly, the percentage of marketers using one or more paid distribution channels in 2022 has gone down by 67%, compared with 81% the previous year.

Of those who are using paid channels, 85% use paid social media. 2022 also saw a slight uptick (26%) in businesses using branded online communities to distribute content over 2021 (22%).

Influencer Marketing Trends

In recent years more and more businesses are looking towards influencers to help leverage their brands and products. Besides enriching your content strategy, influencers add another layer of credibility and access to audiences.

In 2022, micro-influencer whose social media presence is between 1,000 and 100,000 followers became a popular category of influencers among small businesses.

The lure of micro influencers is they are more connected to their fans. And those fans who frequently engage with their posts trust their recommendations. Accordingly, they come with smaller fees for their services. Most average less than $100 per post.

Employees can be a great source of quality content. They are at the front lines interacting with customers and know the pain points that customers experience. By empowering your employees with the authority and tools to engage you can create your own in-house influencers.

In-person events are back!

Lockdowns are now a thing of the past and businesses are looking at events to reconnect with their customers. According to the report by Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs:

• In 2022 alone almost half (49%) of businesses surveyed have used in-person events to get in front of their audiences
• Compare that to only 19% in 2021

Email Marketing is Here to stay

Many people give email marketing a bad rep. Despite it being around for over 30 years, it remains a potent tool for marketing. Email marketing gives users more control over what kinds of information they are sending out and when it will be sent.

Email lets you engage with a chosen segment using highly targeted content. With email marketing, most businesses on average see a Return on Investment (ROI) of $41 for every $1 spent. For you to succeed with higher email open rates and engagement, be more creative in your outreach. Resist the urge to use those standard pitches that nobody will open and see.

Videos Remain Invaluable

The popularity of streaming video in the era of TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube is expected to continue through 2023. With live streams, businesses can better connect their brands with their audience creatively in real-time.

The payout for businesses is that they not only have a cost-effective tool but also help them connect with potential leads and nurture their loyal customers.

There are relatively very few barriers to starting a live streaming service for your business. All you need is a great idea for your live session and:

• A good camera or smartphone
• Access to the internet
• A streaming app.

If you stick to a winning strategy, you can use live streaming as your most cost-effective but profitable marketing tool.