It's that time of the year when marketers are firming up their marketing strategy and budgets, while some of us may have even progressed a step ahead to create the marketing calendar for 2023. 

For marketers, 2022, was undoubtedly a year filled with trepidation, limitations and 'making-the best-of-what- we-have' situation. The forecast for 2023, on the other hand seems to indicate that marketers who are agile and data-driven will experience better success in implementing market strategies, given the macro level uncertainties. 

The HubSpot Blog's 2023 Marketing Strategy and Trends Report contains data collated in a survey with 1,200+ global B2B and B2C marketers, indicating the following as big marketing trends to watch out for in 2023:

• Short form videos to yield better results 
• Influencer marketing to gain traction
• DM in social media to grow
• No substitute to a website SEO strategy
• Reflecting brands values in content will be a big win 
• Data is everything 

Interestingly, the above trends are also an extension of some of the areas of focus that grew during the pandemic where almost everything went to on to become virtual/hybrid. Given that the virtual world gained more followers, building online communities became critical to brand engagement. At the same time, companies with decent sized marketing teams have seized this opportunity to put CRM and data to better use as data-informed marketing strategies are vital to implementation. Finally, brands are focusing on customer experiences, creating and amplifying content to reflect their brand ethos more effectively than ever before. 

The report also reflects on certain technologies like NFT, Metaverse, VR/AR that Marketers may not invest as much in 2023. 

In terms of platforms, Instagram and Tik Tok will likely see an increase in usage for marketing campaigns given the rate of ROI they offer. The challenges with social media marketing that marketers are experiencing are creating new content, engaging audience, generating leads and tracking ROI, among others. 

The report also goes on to explore and present common challenges that marketers face and likely to continue - audience development, creating stickiness, alignment with sales and using CRM to its fullest potential. Among all these challenges, understanding or getting a pulse on the target audience has been a perennial challenge due to data privacy norms and regulations. 

The study also reveals survey data on other key topics like marketing goals, marketing budgets, metrics and KPIs, and marketing workplace trends. 

AV marketers, please feel free to drop in your thoughts and comments on the findings of this insightful survey report by HubSpot.

- What do you think are some of the key marketing trends to look out for in 2023?

- Which social platform(s) would you select for your organization?  Would Tik Tok be in consideration for your SM strategy? 

- Have you made a marketing plan B or plan C given impending recession trends or other potential disruptions?

- Are you betting big on marketing automation so that your team can take on high-impact tasks?

- Has your marketing budget shrunk, remained the same or increased from 2022?

Read the detailed summary of the study by HubSpot here