With privacy concerns increasing, new channels popping up across the market and an increased demand for relevant content, it can be difficult as a small business to know where to put your marketing efforts. We dissected Google’s key findings to give a recap and share how you can apply these learnings as an SMB owner.  

1. Cross-Channel Marketing 

With more digital platforms than ever before, it’s increasingly important to meet your customers where they are at online. 78% of marketers said that consumer expectations and preferences for relevant content is one of the most important customer behavior trends of the year. This means that being on the right channel, at the right time, with the right message is increasingly necessary to gain the attention of customers. How can you do that? Widen your creative strategy. Think beyond content production and pivot some of your efforts to a holistic creative strategy, ensuring the right mediums are going to the right channels. 

2.  Targeting without Cookies  

Ever-growing privacy restrictions put today’s marketers in a unique position to either pivot their targeting or fall flat. 83% of marketers said that ad automation tools are the most important offering from big tech partners like Google, Amazon, and Meta. 61% of marketers are investing and partnering with technologies that offer first-party data, and 57% of marketers are consolidating media within first-party data providers to get a single view of the customer. Any route you choose to go to acquire first-party data, it’s clear that to stay connected to your customers, it’s necessary to go beyond traditional targeting methods in today’s highly digital world.  

3. Video 

66% of marketers think the rise of digital video consumption is one of the most important trends for marketing strategies. What does this mean for small-to-medium businesses? Investing in creating video content is key to grabbing customers attention where they are online. It’s important to remember that high production videos are not always necessary. Platforms like TikTok and Reels rely on quick, lower quality videos to gain market share on social.  

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, getting your brand in front of customers is more challenging than ever. Cross-channel marketing, turning to cookie-less targeting options, and incorporating more video content into your strategy can boost your marketing in 2023 and beyond. Want to talk about how you can implement these changes into your advertising efforts? Let’s connect.