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When the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, you probably won’t be thinking about snooze-worthy stuff like popping a new bottle of bubbly or smooching your sweetheart — I’m sure the only thing on your mind will be this riveting question: “What marketing trends will emerge in the new year?”
Actually, there may be a hint of truth in that joke — economists predict an impending recession in 2023, and you may already be stressing about these tough economic conditions. It can feel daunting because, as you know too well, marketing budgets are often the first thing to go when times get tough. You’ll be asked to accomplish the monumental task of driving more revenue with fewer ad dollars.
Luckily, you’re not alone — your fellow marketers are in the same boat. To help marketing teams prepare for next year, we spoke with several of our innovative customers about their 2023 predictions throughout the year and compiled them in this post.
“Aspen sees marketing as a critical investment that both drives the long-term health of the business and fuels the short-term acquisition pipeline. But acquisition is likely to get harder and more expensive when patients have competing priorities. I think you will see us and other healthcare marketers redirecting some spending to ensure that every dollar spent at the top is paying off all the way through the business funnel.
For Aspen, that means getting more surgical, investing in data and testing to focus on offices with the most capacity and against messages and service offerings demonstrated to resonate with patients. We are investing in better online and call center experiences to drive conversion. We are improving CRM activities to get a scheduled patient into the office. And we are providing the offices with better tools such as expanded financing options to help the patient accept treatment.
For every incremental improvement we make at each step in the patient funnel, the initial acquisition investment works harder, and we improve our chances of seeing a patient that needs care.”
“The health care industry is running on razor-thin margins, so every opportunity to leverage first-party data, to leverage the scale of unified messaging, and to meet customers where they are, always helps to reduce the budget you spend on impressions through paid media. 2023 and 2024 invite the leaders to pay close attention to channel mix and customer journeys in order to maximize efficiency.”
"Marketers will be hit hard by the decline of third-party data and the demise of cookies. First-party data is going to be more important than ever to build customer profiles. I'll be interested to see how companies use CDPs to collect more first-party data.
I also think the user experience is going to get more important over time, especially as personalization improves. It's not going to be as simple as saying ‘Hi Anne’ on an email. Marketers are going to have to understand each customer on a deep level and serve them messaging that truly resonates.
And, of course, SEO will continue to evolve as well. Chasing Google is like chasing a moving target. SEO always evolves just a step behind where Google is. I'm real interested to find out where Google goes, and where it takes the entire SEO space."
"A big one is automation and leveraging insights from AI. Ten years ago we talked about ‘big data’ without being able to imagine the rich information that would be available today.
We recently watched a Disney movie called Rons Gone Wrong. The premise is that a robot connects all of your algorithms, online activity, and profiles to create the perfect ‘friend’ for you. It struck a chord with me because I think that concept is the future of marketing. AI and automation can see trends and insights that are invisible to us. It can anticipate things we need before we need them. Not just auto-refilling current purchases, but seeing a search for a topic and anticipating what our next step will likely be — whether it’s researching, calling, or purchasing. I think our biggest challenge as marketers will be figuring out how to get there."
"Ordering groceries and food off Uber Eats during COVID made our lives much more convenient. People have come to expect these seamless experiences in every aspect of their lives. Healthcare needs to adapt to that very quickly to keep up.
I think a lot of healthcare organizations are relying on virtual visits and healthcare organizations believe there's growth in these virtual markets, but it's really because we're forcing people virtual. From what I've seen, people don’t prefer virtual over in-person care. The numbers are growing because we're requiring people to see us virtually for certain things.
I think the overall change that needs to happen in healthcare is convenience-focused, not-virtual focused. When people have a healthcare need, not only do they need to go through an antiquated process to book that, but they also need to wait one to three months for care. I think that that's unreasonable and people aren't willing to do that. And I think that when people need care, they need it now. If it’s 60 days out, I'm much less likely to actually schedule that appointment or go to a doctor.
To meet the demand for convenient care, healthcare providers are moving to grocery chains like Whole Foods. So it’s as easy as getting your annual checkup or picking up your medication while you’re already out grocery shopping. Companies that invest in these kinds of convenience-based options will see huge growth in the coming years."
"Personalization is going to become more important than ever. Customers will expect personalization in every interaction and companies will need to find a way to provide it. That’s why Invoca is so powerful — because you can use it personalize experiences at scale.
I also think that marketers and companies will become more data-driven. Companies are collecting more data than ever before, which they can use to guide campaign messaging, paid search bidding, and high-level marketing strategy.
Another trend is that in the aftermath of COVID, consumers expect better experiences from brands. Companies humanized online and phone call interactions to make purchasing easier when social distancing measures were in place. People have become accustomed to this and expect brands to have more of a personality now. I think we’re going to see more marketers shift into, if our brand was a person, who would it be? Would it be Ryan Reynolds? Would it be a Tom Hanks?"
1. Consumers will continue to use all kinds of media to make purchase decisions. Segmentation is getting more and more complex.
2. Ad targeting through text messaging will become more prevalent. Text is the new email. Only 25% of emails are opened, whereas 95% of texts are read. Companies will communicate with consumers more through their mobile devices.
3. Personalized data-driven marketing will become easier to implement. Big data companies are learning even more about consumers and what they like which helps them become more effective at targeting products and communicating with consumers. Companies are figuring out that casting the “one size fits all” messaging net isn’t as effective as targeting people in a more meaningful way.
“As conversation intelligence technology advances, it will play an even bigger role for marketers. It will become easier to deploy AI signals and this will allow teams to get insights from customer conversations even faster. This will help them better align their messaging and strategy with what the audience cares about.”
"As AI continues to advance, I think it will help us better connect consumers to products. It will be able to understand purchasing habits, allowing companies to personalize buying experiences on a deeper level.
Companies of the future must be able to create dynamic campaigns to react to calls, emails, or texts 24/7. Your doors should always be open to respond to consumer questions and help them make buying decisions."
"Lots of new platforms have popped up over the years, from TikTok to Instagram to Facebook to Pinterest. Following new trends can be important, but you shouldn’t blindly follow them. You can’t lose sight of where your customers are actually finding you and taking action. I see a lot of marketers hopping on the latest trendy platform, even though it’s not the best place to reach their customers and drive results. Maintaining a presence on all these platforms is a huge time commitment and it can take away resources from other tried and true strategies."
We sat down with some of our top customers and asked them how they plan to use the Invoca platform to outperform the competition in 2023. Watch this short video to learn about their innovative strategies:
Want to learn more about how Invoca can help you acquire more customers at a lower cost in 2023? Check out these resources:
