In times of economic uncertainty, retail has always been the first to suffer. Between supply chain issues and inflation raising the prices of all goods, retail brands are entering the new year with new prices and new strategies to tackle this time of change. Brands and their marketing teams must now develop new approaches to keep consumers engaged and supported in the new year, all while keeping budget at the forefront of every campaign and advertising decision. It’s actually been reported that 75 percent of marketers will be under pressure to create and implement new digital marketing strategies that will deliver results and revenues in 2023.
With consumers more digitally entrenched than ever, marketers will utilize social media even more in the coming months to acquire and maintain relationships with their customers as consumers become stringent with their spending habits. However, it’s important to note that traditional social media advertising is starting to become overwhelming and falling short amongst online users. On average, consumers now receive about 4,000–10,000 advertisements daily in emails, social media, and websites – making it imperative that marketers find ways to cut through the noise and stand out amongst other brands. As we enter 2023, here are three digital marketing strategies and tactics brands can implement to ensure consumer retention and customer acquisition during this uncertain economic climate:
User Generated Content
Today, consumers can easily identify paid or sponsored social media posts and after the past few years of influencers pushing out sponsored content from brands, many are beginning to find them untrustworthy and inauthentic. In 2022, it was found that 85 percent of consumers want more authentic content from companies and would actually prefer to see content that was created by real customers through original experiences. This type of content is known as user-generated content (UGC), and offers a more natural way for brands to connect with new and recurring customers than sponsorships with traditional influencers.
The same report found that if brands incorporated UGC into marketing initiatives, 84 percent of consumers would be more likely to trust the brand and 77 percent would be more inclined to purchase their products or services. This is because UGC allows brands to build confidence and trust with consumers on their purchasing decisions by showcasing how a relatable, every day person is benefiting from their product or service, similar to receiving a product recommendation from a friend or family member. Brands can begin building up their arsenal of UGC by tapping into their existing customer base and incentivizing them with low-cost discounts, rewards and other prizes to upload and share photos and videos of them interacting with their brand.
Web Galleries
In 2023, the ability to quickly access and archive marketing content will be crucial to pushing out different campaigns. To help manage and ensure that all content is displayed properly, brands can begin integrating web galleries within their digital marketing campaigns. Brands can further profit from this by offering direct purchasing from their galleries. Displaying web galleries can also boost brand ROI in different ways. For example, marketers don’t have to worry about mistakenly showing brand-damaging images or captions. One can approve all assets and text in your gallery before publishing, add captions, and reveal or hide the creator’s social accounts. From a technical point of view, web galleries require less coding and depending on which program is used to create a website, some have a web gallery widget that can be easily installed. This will save time and money on hiring and communicating with a web developer team.
Personalized Marketing
It’s important that marketers understand that 71 percent of people are disappointed and frustrated when they can’t customize their buying experience. Digital marketers must invest in learning how to target the brand’s correct audience and should be able to make advertising messages and product experiences feel unique to each customer. In fact, more than 74 percent of consumers now claim they will refuse to interact with a website if it is not personalized to some degree. In 2023, brands that deploy more individualized marketing messaging on their website, social media and email campaigns will have more success in engaging consumers and building brand loyalty.
Retail brands must begin crafting their 2023 marketing strategies with personalization and authenticity in mind. Consumers will continue their search for brands that offer individualized and engaging content that is real and organic, compared to campaigns that we saw this past year. Retailers will need to begin moving away from the traditional influencer model and prioritize their own customers for marketing campaigns to stand out amongst competitors.
Adam Dornbusch is the Founder and CEO of EnTribe, one of the first SaaS platforms helping build a community of creators for brands.
