Where Should I Spend My Marketing Budget in 2023?

With the current cost of living crisis, there have been lots of comments about whether businesses should cut back their marketing spend as a precaution. Whilst we understand why people may panic and think this is a logical step to take, we strongly advise against doing just that. And no, that’s not because we’re a marketing agency, but because it’s the best advice in order to reduce the damage that can be done to businesses who suddenly cut spending or stop marketing activities.

When things get more expensive businesses aren’t the only ones who think to make expenditure cutbacks. So, with consumers looking to reduce their spend they are more likely to question and weigh up their purchases. This is why the customer buyer journey is longer and more complicated, or in some cases ‘messier’. With this in mind, it’s more important than ever for businesses to continue to build a brand that consumers can discover, trust and purchase from.

So if your business needs to keep spending, how can you spend it wisely? Here we look into what marketing channels and activities you should be investing in in 2023.

Search Visibility

As the consumer buying journey gets ‘messier’ and consumers look for more information before making purchases, businesses should ensure they invest in their online search visibility. Whether they do this through paid search (PPC) or organic search (SEO, content and digital PR) or both, will depend on budgets and specific goals. However, both these channels can ensure your business is found when consumers are searching for your products and services.

Investing time, effort and budget into having a strong search strategy built around relevant keywords your target audience uses will ensure your brand is at the top of Google. Investing in content marketing can also support this as you can create content that answers the questions your target audience is asking. Then when they find your content through Google searches, you can showcase your expertise and build their trust in your brand before they make a purchase.

Email Marketing

On average people receive over 100 emails every single day. So if you want your email marketing campaigns to stand out you need to invest your time, resources and budget wisely. From creative and eye-catching subject lines to interesting content and engaging CTAs which encourage your audience to take the actions you desire, there’s more to email marketing than just sharing your latest news using a standard MailChimp template.

Before 2023 officially starts we recommend you assess your email marketing data, not only to check that it’s up-to-date and accurate but also to see if you have segmented your audience correctly. By segmenting your audience you can also segment your content and messages to ensure you generate the best results.

It’s also important to look at the content you’re sharing, if you’re sharing too much content just to fill out your template you’re likely to be watering down your important content and distracting or confusing your audience from what they should actually be engaging with.

Still don’t think you should care much for email marketing? Well, Statista found that revenue from email marketing will reach almost 11 billion by the end of next year. Now, do you want to miss out on that?

Video

Video marketing has been on the rise for years, and I’m sure when you saw this you thought ‘shock horror’. However, it’s true. Video especially in short form that can be shared on social media will continue to increase in popularity in 2023 and drive engagements and results.

The growth of platforms like TikTok which had 1.2 billion monthly users in Q4 2021, is predicted to reach 1.8 billion monthly users by the end of 2022.

This is why brands that don’t want to get left behind should be investing in video and especially that for the purpose of sharing on social media. Your videos can help demonstrate your products and quickly grab the attention of your audience as they’re scrolling through the different platforms.

Our key piece of advice though, just because you should incorporate social media video in your marketing activities doesn’t necessarily mean you can film anything and hope for the engagements to come flooding in. A lot of social videos have success thanks to trends. This is especially true for TikTok which has a trending sounds section helping creators to join the hype and get the content discovered by a wider audience.

Brand & Values

As consumers look to scrutinise their purchases more harshly and carry out more research into brands that they want to buy from. Businesses should look to invest more in brand awareness activities. However, to do this and see successful results businesses need to ensure their brand is established and truly the business they want to be. More often than not, you find businesses that think a brand just means a logo and perhaps some fonts and colours, but it’s much more than that. Your brand is your business’s identity, it should include what you believe in, your standards and everything else you want your consumers to know or think about when they interact with you.

An authentic brand that showcases what it stands for will be extremely powerful in 2023. One example that demonstrates this is Twitter. The social platform used to be one of the most popular, until Elon Musk purchased the platform and started making changes. With these changes not resonating with users, it’s not surprising that the platform has seen many deleting their accounts.

Another example is sustainability. Research from Google found that 55% of UK consumers believe it is more important for companies to behave more sustainably since Covid-19.  They also found that 72% of consumers say that having a brand’s values align with their own is a deciding factor when making a purchase. Stats like these show just how powerful your brand and its values can be for success in 2023.

So there are a few areas we believe you should be focusing your attention and budget on next year. Though if you’re still undecided as to how best to invest your marketing budget, get in touch with one of our experts who can discuss ways to improve your marketing activities and achieve the results you deserve.