2023 Marketing Playbook
Marketers have faced challenges in recent years, including the pandemic, supply chain shortages, changing consumer trends, and inflation. Despite this, many brands and retailers have adapted and driven growth. It's time to plan for a successful 2023. This 2023 Digital Marketing Playbook offers strategies for sustainable growth.
Start the Year Strong:
According to InMarket's 2022 Holiday Shopping InInsights report, gift cards are the most popular gift among holiday shoppers this year. 67% of survey respondents will be gifting gift cards, more than clothes, toys, and home goods. There's a chance to drive incremental purchases and strengthen loyalty as gift card holders redeem their certificates throughout 2023. 70% of gift cards are redeemed within 6 months of purchase. Retailers and brands can also benefit from gift cards. Offer rewards and threshold discounts to encourage redemption as certificate holders look to spend their "free money".
Lean Heavily on Value-Based Messaging
In 2022, the US economy experienced significant inflation, resulting in higher prices for essential goods. Consumers sought out savings opportunities to minimize spending and were motivated by promotions and deals when shopping for holidays, according to InMarket's reports.
In order to appeal to price-conscious shoppers, retailers and brands should focus on value-based messaging. This can include highlighting coupons, rebates, and sales events, as well as emphasizing larger sizes, smaller unit costs, and longer lasting formulas to maximize savings.
Navigate the Changing Privacy Ecosystem with First-Party Data
Privacy has become a major concern in the marketing and advertising industry. This is due to state regulations, industry and operating system policies, and consumer attitudes. Google plans to deprecate third-party cookies from its platform by 2024. In early 2021, Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which requires iOS apps to ask users for consent to tracking. Google followed suit with a similar privacy update for Android phones. This involves removing a device's advertising ID when a user opts out of personalization.
The utilization of first-party data is becoming increasingly important for brands in order to effectively engage with consumers across various platforms, channels, and devices. Furthermore, the use of advanced analytics, such as predictive targeting, can enhance targeting strategies and optimize messaging approaches.
With the deprecation of third-party cookies by Google, marketers should focus on strengthening their first-party data collection efforts and expanding partnerships with first-party data providers and publishers to ensure success beyond 2023. Several providers and organizations, such as LiveRamp, The Trade Desk, Yahoo!, and Tapad, have introduced alternative identifiers like hashed email and support for the interoperability of the Unified ID 2.0.
The industry has come to a consensus that no one solution will become as dominant as third-party cookies were, except within walled gardens. Different solutions are being developed with an aim towards interoperability. While some users will still share MAIDs and older technology will still work, fewer targetable IDs may exist in the traditional sense.
The advertising and media market is currently facing a challenge with no clear solution. One possible option being explored is the use of data clean rooms, which allow publishers and advertisers to share anonymized data in a privacy-safe environment that prioritizes privacy protocols.
During the next few months, it is recommended for brands, agencies, and providers to analyze the potential benefits of different alternative IDs and determine which ones are the most suitable and advantageous to prioritize and allocate resources towards.
Maximize Contextual Targeting & PMPs
In 2023, contextual audiences will become popular among marketers. They will use various methods, such as the IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy, to create and target alternative audiences. Real-time bidder targeting based on context will also be used. Data science will be used to create cohort-based audiences using various data, including zip code indexing and clusters. PMP and probabilistic expansion techniques will provide brand marketers with many options to buy programmatically at scale. Contextual PMP will allow marketers to build a collection of key inventory sources, including real-time geo-location inventory, to drive consumer engagement and results in a contextual, ID independent world.
Embrace Real-Time Geo-Contextual Advertising
With the industry landscape changing, marketers must turn to alternative solutions like geocontextual targeting, which engage consumers based on key contextual triggers while still maintaining consumer privacy. In InMarket’s 2022 Predictions survey, nearly a third of respondents expected to spend the year preparing for the end of third-party cookies by testing alternative solutions like contextual targeting—this trend will continue into 2023 as brands test and identify the best ways to incorporate geo-contextual strategies into their omnichannel marketing strategies. Real-time geo-contextual solutions like InMarket’s Moments suite do not require an advertising ID (e.g., ID Independent), and enable marketers to reach consumers based on critical contextual information like location to deliver timely and relevant messaging when consumers are actually in the purchase process. By delivering this messaging at critical moments during consumers’ shopping journeys, marketers have an increased opportunity to actually drive consumer action, which leads to greater engagement, purchases, loyalty, and ROAS.
Drive Budget Efficiency with Real-Time Campaign Optimization
Marketing budgets have been scrutinized more since the start of the pandemic. Gartner's research found that marketing budgets as a percentage of total revenue decreased to 6.4% in 2021 from an average of 10.9% in 2019 and 2020. Although budgets have increased to 9.5% in 2022, they remain below pre-pandemic levels, causing marketers to do more with less. Fortunately, attribution solutions like InMarket's Lift Conversion Index® offer real-time campaign optimization capabilities. This enables marketers to identify the top campaign success factors and make adjustments to in-flight campaigns accordingly, by audience, channel, creative, and more. By optimizing campaigns in real time, marketers can maximize campaign effectiveness and efficiency, ensuring every dollar is spent wisely.
Utilize Household Attribution
One proposed method to replace third-party cookies is the household ID. It is useful for CTV/TV measurement and can link multiple devices to a household. This maximizes a brand's ability to understand the impact of an ad exposure. Household IDs provide anonymity at the individual level, but enable finer targeting using IP addresses and geographical targeting. Marketers should leverage household attribution to measure campaign performance at the household level, including overall household lift. Without third-party cookies, household attribution provides critical insight into the success of campaigns in reaching individuals and driving purchases.
Tap Into Immersive Experiences
Marketers face the challenge of balancing consumer engagement with data privacy concerns in a cookieless and ID-independent future. To achieve this, they are turning to top- and bottom-of-the-funnel platforms and personalized experiences, including AR and digital experiential campaigns. Bottom-of-the-funnel tactics involve 360º product experiences and interactive VR environments for real-world purchases. Research shows that brand videos lead to 32% of respondents researching a product and Tik Tok users spending 8.5% more on average. Brands should test platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram to find the most engaging content for their consumers in 2023.
Leverage Full-Funnel, Closed-Loop Measurement
Data and measurement are crucial for successful marketing strategies, especially as consumer behaviors change rapidly. Without actionable data, executing marketing strategies, maximizing ROAS, and driving growth is challenging. Real-time closed-loop visit and sales attribution solutions tie messaging to store traffic, online visitation, and sales dollars to quantify campaign success. Armed with this data, marketers can make smarter decisions about both current and future campaigns.
Maximize Your 2023 Success
To succeed in 2023, it's important to set up your marketing strategies now. A crucial factor for success is your team. You should create cross-functional innovation teams from marketing, analytics, client relations, sales, and technology. The goal is to share best practices and learnings across your organization. This ensures success is replicated and improved. You should also establish quarterly business reviews with key partners to share successful strategies, critical learnings, and market intelligence. These insights can help you quickly address any changes in consumer behavior to maximize program success.
To summarize, the 10 key strategies for 2023 success are:
To increase sales, consider encouraging gift card holders to make additional purchases during the first half of the year.
During times of inflation, it is recommended to use value-based messaging to attract price-conscious consumers. This can be achieved by emphasizing coupons and rebates, promoting value sizes, and introducing product innovations.
Maximize access to first-party data by partnering with providers who offer comprehensive consumer location, intent, and purchase data in response to the evolving privacy landscape.
As the industry considers the adoption of alternative IDs, it may be beneficial to assess potential opportunities and make strategic investments to ensure readiness for the future.
Utilize contextual audience targeting and contextual PMPs to enhance consumer engagement.
Utilize real-time geo-contextual advertising to engage consumers through contextual triggers such as location, resulting in increased engagement, purchases, and return on advertising spend.
Maximize budget efficiency by utilizing measurement solutions that allow for real-time adjustments to campaigns during their flight.
Improve campaign performance by utilizing household attribution measures and lift solutions at the household level.
Utilize top and bottom-of-the-funnel platforms and incorporate interactive AR and VR technology to engage consumers in immersive experiences.
Employ full-funnel, closed-loop measurement techniques to make the most of valuable data and enhance campaign performance throughout the year.
