As we head towards the New Year, we thought we would talk about how you should prepare for business growth in a market place where change happens faster than you can say “digital transformation.” So let’s start with one of my favorite buzzwords: “customer experience.” The term has been used so much that it has become meaningless. It just sounds like another way to say, “we want our customers to be happy.” Which is true—but not very helpful. If you’re looking for an opportunity to improve your marketing strategy, here are several things to consider as you start building your 2023 marketing strategy.

Banish the buzzwords.

Buzzwords are an annoyance to both you and your customers. They’re overused, come across as empty promises and don’t help you understand your customers or make better decisions about their needs. They also stand in the way of your potential customers understanding what you offer and how it can help them!

Buzzwords have been around for decades, they’re still prevalent in today because people find it easier to say “growth hack” instead of “an easy way to increase sales by 20% in six months”. Buzzwords are usually used by marketers who want to appear smart without putting in the hard work of coming up with a well communicated description of the product or service. The result: You end up hearing some variation of these same phrases over and over again while trying to figure out whether or not this product or service is really the answer to your problems.

Let’s look at an example – “We use strategic visioning to help you growth hack your business.” What exactly does strategic visioning do anyway? It would be much better to say “We use our experience and knowledge to create a plan for your business that will help you stand out and generate more revenue” To me that sounds clearer, sexier, and more likely to work.

Take your loyal customers along for the ride.

Loyal customers are an invaluable source of information, and you need to take advantage of this. They’re the ones who know how your product works, what they like about it and why they love it. They can act as brand ambassadors, spreading the word about your product or service and helping you reach new customers.

In addition to providing feedback on products, loyal customers can help shape future iterations of those products through beta testing and market research surveys—but only if you ask them! If you aren’t asking for feedback from these people now, don’t miss out on these opportunities in the future by forgetting about them now either.

Start with consumer data.

The first step in crafting a winning marketing strategy for 2023 is to understand your customers. This sounds like common sense, but it’s particularly important when you’re making predictions about the future.

You need to know who they are; what they want; how they behave; what they think and feel on any given day. You also need to know what makes them tick—what keeps them up at night, why they like certain things more than others, etc.—and how these factors might change over time.

It’s a tall order but necessary if you want your business to thrive in the coming years. All too often in business we can overlook this because it is much easier to figure out what we like, what keeps us up at night and what our own preferences are. But you are not necessarily your customer, and even though this might be hard to hear, your customer is far more important than you to the longevity of your business.

Change the way you talk about customer data.

You can’t go wrong by starting with data. The more you know about your customers, the better you’ll be able to tailor your marketing strategy for 2023. Data-driven decisions are the key to building a winning business strategy in this digital age. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started or have been at it for years—the more time and effort you put into data collection and analysis, the better off your business will be.

Use real customer data: You should use real customer information as much as possible when designing your marketing strategies so that they feel authentic and personal to each individual person who receives them. This means that if someone has already bought something from you once before, then they probably won’t mind seeing more offers from that brand again later on down the line–but someone who hasn’t purchased anything yet might not respond well if their inbox gets flooded with ads asking them why they haven’t bought anything yet!

Guide decisions: Any decision made within an organization needs some sort of guidance in order for it not only work out well but also keep moving forward positively over time without any major setbacks. By having access or even just knowing what kind of data exists within our database, we can make informed decisions about how things should move forward accordingly.

Get very clear on your goals.

This is the most important step of creating a marketing strategy. You should be able to answer all these questions:

• What do you want to achieve?
• Who is your target customer?
• What are their needs, wants and pain points?
• How will you reach them in the best possible way?

Once you know what your goals are, it’s time to create a plan. And when I say “plan”, I really mean plan and then plan some more.

Be smart about new tech and channels.

As a business, you’re probably looking at how to best leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. And that’s great! These are exciting times for tech, and you should be looking for ways to use these technologies to your advantage.

But before you get too excited about the next big thing, remember that there are plenty of other options out there—and many of them are already familiar to your customers or your target audience. It’s important not just to look at what’s new and trendy but also what’s authentic, effective, and trusted by your target market. I can assure you that AI and other emerging tech has a place in business, but it is still relatively new, and you need to ask yourself does being an early adopter really help you grow your business, if the answer is yes, then dive right in. If not then stay with the proven methods, such as social media, search and advertising.

Companies are taking a long view on their marketing strategies.

Companies are taking a long view on their future marketing strategies, and for good reason. In this digital age, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of your business, but if you want to make sure your company is successful five or ten years down the line—and therefore able to compete with new start-ups that have popped up during that time—you have to plan ahead. That means investing in your marketing strategy for longer than just the next quarter. The best businesses know what they want out of their marketing plan in 2023 and beyond and are working towards achieving those goals today.

You want to be the go-to brand for your industry. This means that you need to have a strong marketing strategy in place, including a strong website that represents your brand well and provides value to potential customers.

Social media is a must in marketing, but it’s not the only way.

You need to be on social media. It’s a great way to reach a wide audience and build relationships with customers. You can also get customer feedback on your products and services, which can help you improve them. But don’t think that social media is the only way to market yourself!

You must remember how organic social media works. You build an audience and based on the algorithm and your audiences engagement, only a very small portion of that audience sees your posts. For example, if you build an audience of 1000 people and a good portion of that audience engages with your content you can expect maybe 60 people will see the post. Then as people engage with the post the amount of your audience that sees it will grow. On the other side of the spectrum if you have low audience engagement on a post only 10 people may see it. So, if you assume that every time you post, it is in front of tons of people, I’m sorry but you are wrong. The only way to get your post in front of a lot of people is to go viral or run ads.

Content matters, so invest in producing good pieces.

Content is king, and you need to invest in producing good pieces. Good content will be relevant and useful, easy to find and easy to read, engaging, shareable, entertaining—and educational.

Producing good content takes time and effort. It’s not enough to just write something and post it online—you must make sure that what you produce is relevant, useful, easy to find and easy to read.

It’s not enough just to write something and post it online. You have to make sure that what you produce is relevant, useful, easy to find and easy to read. The more time you spend on producing good content, the less time you need to spend promoting it—and the higher your chances of success will be.

Advertising your content, not just your product or service.

You’re going to need to focus on the quality of your content, not just its quantity. Advertising is going to become even more important than it is now. This is because content marketing has been getting less effective as people have become more aware of what they’re seeing and what they’re reading, which means that they avoid it because they don’t trust it. Advertising will be able to get through this problem because it’s based on targeting people with certain interests, so you’ll reach them directly with your ads instead of trying to trick them into watching or reading something that isn’t relevant to their interests.

Expertise and education will be crucial.

To share authority with your customers and build trust, you must first understand your product. If you don’t know it inside and out, how can you educate consumers about what makes it so great?

Provide relevant content that educates people on the ins and outs of your industry. This could be anything from a blog post with information on a particular topic or an infographic explaining how your product works.

Share your expertise by providing insight into what makes you unique in comparison to other companies within the same field as well as those who offer similar products or services. Showing that you’re knowledgeable about what goes on behind-the-scenes will help convince customers that they can trust both you and whatever products or services you offer. Trust me there are tons of hacks and fly by night companies out there looking to make a fast buck with no experience or credibility. Sharing authoritative content is the easiest way to stand out and show your value and expertise.

Plan your marketing strategy now, so you are ready for 2023.

As a business owner, you know the importance of planning ahead. The future is always changing—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse—and it’s important to be prepared for any eventuality. You should also be ready to change course as needed, based on what happens in your industry and society at large. The best way to do this is by being flexible enough to adapt quickly when changes are necessary.

And finally, if you want your business to grow over time, then you need open yourself up to new ideas and opportunities that will help make it happen!

With the right approach, you can keep up with your customers’ changing expectations and needs. You don’t need to reinvent yourself or your company every year—just find ways to make what you have built be even better.

If you find you don’t have the time or could use a little help with your marketing, Reach Out, We help small business just like yours marketing themselves and grow their businesses everyday. We can help you too!