Marketing trends that are declining in 2023

Change is the only constant in businesses today. The ability to keep up with and exploit change has become one of the most sought-after skills in marketing, where the tempo of change is quick and sharp. From TikTok to chatbots, it's not easy to keep up to date with trends, especially when you're busy running your own business. Based on the State of the Connected Customer report, 66% of consumers expect organisations to understand their needs and demands. This brings our attention to marketing trends that are dying out and the latest shift in consumer behaviour that businesses need to consider when planning their marketing strategy for 2023.

For decades, public relations campaigns have been appointing celebrity ambassadors to endorse their brands in TV adverts and billboards to amplify their marketing campaigns. Fast forward to today, 61% of users prefer authentic and raw reviews from influencers instead as they find them more relatable. This disparity in the statistics stands as a testament to just how much consumer opinions have shifted.

The notion of authenticity also applies to social media content as users shift away from heavily filtered Instagram aesthetics. Gone are the days of consistent colour palettes and intricately curated mood boards; in the present day, influencers, brands, and users are pivoting towards unedited content as many users feel a sense of fatigue over the highly processed aesthetic that has dominated the platform for years. Unsurprisingly, these users now gravitate towards TikTok as the nature of bite-sized content advocates for raw, relatable, and authentic content over perfectly polished ones. Within the same context, the average attention span of a user on the internet is 8.25 seconds, demonstrating that the need for short-form content takes precedence over longer videos.

Award-winning movies like Inception, Avatar, or The Matrix have one thing in common - the idea of a Metaverse. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that marketers and strategists found the need to explore the scope of entering a Metaverse space, primarily due to the severe physical restrictions at the time. However, the excitement about the Metaverse is slowly dying out as more than a quarter (27%) of companies plan to stop leveraging VR and AR into their business and marketing operations. Despite Meta’s Quest VR headsets being the market leader, most buyers are not using them to enter Meta’s principal app, Horizon Worlds. Based on an article by The Guardian (2023), direct competitors such as Rec Room are thriving, with an estimated three million monthly users. The reason being is simply because they’re offering something that Meta doesn’t, namely better avatars, wider choices of games and bigger crowds.

On the other hand, paid and organic social are different beasts best harnessed for different goals, where one seems to be steadily declining over the years. In 2023 alone, research conducted by We Are Social demonstrated that organic reach and engagement on both Facebook and Instagram has declined by 40%. Eventually, projections show that brand organic reach could hit close to 0%. This statistic proves that for a brand to succeed in the digital landscape, it has to rely on paid social media content to supplement an organic social media strategy to see maximum returns. It’s how most social media platforms are currently designed to operate.

Do you remember when YouTubers would use headlines such as “You Can Now Land More Clients Without X” would go viral and garner a million views? Search Engine Journal (2017) found that many headlines with “clickbait-y” starting phrases generated the most engagement on Facebook. This technique, known as Clickbait, used to be one of the fundamental ways of enticing users to click on deceptive, sensationalised or misleading content. Yet this tactic has lost its charm in today's fast-paced world as most users have figured it out and don’t fall for Clickbaits anymore.

From print media and commercial radio stations to social media, the transition in user behaviour is very evident. It brings us to the main point of this article which is to be ready to pivot with evolving marketing trends. Our environment is constantly transforming, and with that, consumer behaviour changes too. Being aware and staying ahead of the curve is the keyway to ensuring cohesive and consistent results.

However, with that said, when planning your marketing strategy, it is essential that your plan supports clear business objectives and that you are not blindly participating in trends just to be trendy. Stay tuned for my next article to learn about current trends and tactics you can implement to generate better results. If your marketing strategy is not generating the results you want, reach out to me on zakia@zbcommunications.com, and I will be happy to support.