With 2022 coming to an end, it’s an excellent time for us to reflect on the digital marketing trends that have emerged this year – and help you map out your small business marketing strategy for 2023.
For starters, 2022 has been the year that made short-form video content marketing. TikTok, the birthplace of these short video formats, dethroned Google as the most popular search engine, especially for Gen Z.
In general, social media had a great year in digital marketing: it made up 33% of all digital ad spending in 2022, with trends such as influencer marketing, video advertising, and social media shopping substantially contributing to increased brand awareness, customer retention, and ROI.
Albeit the social dominated the online advertising scene, PPC remained one of the most ROI-efficient digital marketing strategies, with a $2 return for every $1 spent. That’s a whopping 200% ROI, mind you.
Once a powerhouse, Twitter experienced an overnight flop in its post-Musk era. As advertisers paused spending on the platform due to growing fear that misinformation and hate speech would proliferate, Twitter’s ad revenue dropped, causing mass layoffs.
So, 2022 was a year of bops and flops in the digital marketing industry. 2023 already looks promising, yet, with so many trends to choose from, we outline the best online marketing strategies for your small business in 2023.
#1 Practice Local SEO
Local SEO is perhaps the most impactful marketing strategy for small businesses. In essence, local SEO is a small-scale, small-budget SEO, focused on increasing website traffic, leads, and brand awareness within a specific local area.
If you’re new to local SEO, cover the basics by creating a Google My Business profile for your small business, and building “NAP” citations (name, address, phone) on relevant local directories.
GMB profiles have become quite a thing when it comes to making first impressions and converting customers. Namely, stats suggest that 90% of consumers read reviews before purchasing, with 6 out of 10 users finding local businesses’ contact details on GMB.
In 2023, your small business’s local SEO strategy should include tasks such as:
- find business-relevant keywords with local intent (e.g. digital marketing agency in Boston)
- optimize your Google My Business profile:
- add correct business info, keyword-focused description, and compelling images and videos
- ask customers for reviews and respond to them
- publish Google posts and updates regularly
- answer business FAQs
- build landing pages with local-friendly URLs
- incorporate local keywords into your existing and future content
- use Schema’s geographic markup
- build backlinks with local keywords as anchor texts
- get local online coverage
#2 Turn to Video Marketing
Video – either as long-form YouTube content or short-form TikToks – has dominated the digital marketing landscape of 2022. In 2023, the trend is set to grow further. Thus, small businesses ought to integrate this medium into their digital strategy.
Video content is actually an amazing marketing trend for small businesses to leverage. In contrast with the common conception, creating quality, useful, and engaging videos don’t require large teams, expensive gear, and generous budgets.
For instance, video publishing platforms such as TikTok and Instagram’s Reels provide you with lots of features to polish up your videos. In addition, there’s an abundance of desktop and mobile apps for creating and editing videos, where even the biggest newbies can create professional-looking video content.
Besides, videos need not be visual marvels – instead, they should answer customers’ questions concisely, accurately, and interestingly. If video has yet to be an element of your marketing strategy, in 2023, it should definitely become one.
So, to help you get started, here are a few tips on video marketing for small businesses:
- base video content on SEO keywords
- be consistent in publishing
- create a variety of content for existing customers, prospects, colleagues, and industry professionals
- optimize video using keyword-focused titles, descriptions, and tags, add subtitles/transcripts, and create eye-catching (but adequate) thumbnails
#3 Partner with Influencers
With nearly four and a half billion social media users globally, social media influencers are still one of the most powerful marketing methods out there.
And while big names in the influencer industry request up to $1,500 per Instagram post, there’s still room for small businesses to leverage this trend.
Small businesses can opt to partner with micro and nano influencers, which have a smaller following but are affordable for companies with shoestring marketing budgets.
In fact, nano and micro-influencers are regarded as wiser marketing choices, as they have established more meaningful communication and connection with their following. Thus, their followers are more likely to trust the products these influencers advertise, answer most comments, and provide honest answers to followers’ questions.
2023 will see the rise of more genuine, unfiltered social media celebs, and your task as a small business is to uncover the next big star to endorse your brand.
#4 Invest in PPC Advertising
PPC advertising is a choice for around 45% of small business owners. And it’s quite understandable why – PPC ensures top-ranking positions, increased site traffic, greater brand awareness, and sales boost – all on a minimal budget.
Besides, stats across industries suggest that paid advertising returns $2 for every $1 spent – a staggering 200% ROI.
Pay-per-click is a fantastic way for businesses to achieve great performance in the shortest time possible. However, PPC is flawed in the sense that, looking long-term, it’s a rather costly marketing strategy; plus, it’s not really long-term as your visibility vanishes as soon as you stop paying.
Nevertheless, 2023 will see the continuation of the trend of SEO and PPC going hand-in-hand. PPC advertising is a wise option when:
- your website is brand new and SEO still doesn’t yield great results
- you want to promote new services/products
- SEO still doesn’t give effects for specific keywords
- your products/services are in high demand during a particular period
- your competitors are going heavy on the PPC activities
To Wrap Up
2022 has been an amazing year in digital marketing. In 2023, we can expect more opportunities for small businesses to create their brand presence and build an audience of loyal consumers.
In the next year, small businesses should maximize their presence on social media, and focus on building recognizability and brand equity among local customers.
