7 Fresh Ways To Up Your Marketing Game for 2023

Okay people we’re now in the post-covid, inflation-deflating, omnichannel multiverse, and people-back-to-retail-shopping economy - which means brain-exploding time to fully re-think what you’re doing to market and sell your products. I promise it will feel awesome to take a de-e-e-e-p breath, maybe light a bit of incense and move into some yoga stretches, throw out the baggage of the past few years and start anew! So, with that here are some suggestions to power up your 2023 thinking and optimize spend:

1.??????THINK BEYOND PERFORMANCE MARKETING.?I started with this first because it's getting so much buzz and traction. And it’s a solid strategy for some brands looking for online growth and playing it safe but… you’re never gonna really scale just by adhering to #performancemarketing principles. Why? In large part because by bidding on optimum digital ad placements you’re driving costs insanely high (yes, I’m simplifying). Sure, it’s been all the rage – largely because it’s neatly measurable – heck people even boast titles proclaiming “Sr. Director, Performance Marketing” – but c’mon, this is limiting to real growth and just so 2021. For tomorrow, you want to be?that?person in charge of “whatever-the-fuck-I-need-to-do-to-grow-my-business” marketing, which means applying any and all short and long-term strategies to build awareness, generate trial and acquisition, satisfy customers if you’re in retail and then – drive velocity and profitably like nobody’s business.

2.??????MANAGE DOWN YOUR RMN SPENDS.?Okay burn me at the stake but by and large most of the retail media networks are really expensive revenue grabs, and some with questionable attribution. Unless you have super deep pockets for driving your commerce marketing like the big CPG’s, spending across the major and minor #RMN’s is pretty unaffordable – plus coordinating and managing and executing across this spiderweb of networks needs an army of people (which you likely don’t have either). Best advice: cherry pick the few that can have a scale impact on the business and satisfy sales and merchandising (without consuming your entire budget). THEN... challenge your smarts by building out nimble programs using social, third-party apps, digital media, in-store POS, demos – even promotions - whatever will convey your brand equity while impacting on shoppers quickly, efficiently and measurably.??BONUS SUGGESTION:?the more you do your own marketing vs going through RMN’s the greater the opportunity to build/enhance your own consumer database, and in the new world order to come, owning your own first party data could come in pretty, pretty handy!!!

3.??????EMBRACE A LITTLE OLD SCHOOL.?Yep, all the cool kids are TikToking and influencing and AR-ing and QR coding, but the ol’ marketing playbook is so much richer, more fun and potentially more rewarding if you’re willing to crack it open. How about some #OOH (that means things like billboards and transit which today can integrate many of the cool kid technologies – they’ve even become measurable) or alternative media like skywriting (think summertime at the beach), or messaging on pizza boxes and in urinals (okay a little gross but hey – captive audience!). Remember #radio ? It works perhaps better than ever thanks to the ability to reach audiences not just on terrestrial stations but through Spotify and Pandora and even, podcasts (technically not radio but you get the idea). BONUS: it’s a really creative medium for messaging.?

4.??????BRAND EXPERIENCES ARE BACK, BABY!?Covid put the kibosh on #experientialmarketing but in the past year it’s been coming back strong. Consumers more than ever are craving fun experiences, and a more emotional brand connection – you can give them ones as engaging as your imagination whether at local events, from your own pop-ups or mobile marketing activities, showing up in high-traffic venues to put a little surprise in people’s lives, playing around in the #metaverse or even through #augmentedreality activated from packaging. New ways to apply attribution also make it a more comfortable investment for risk-averse marketers - so go for it!

5.??????STREAMING ISN’T DREAMING.?Whether it’s called #OTT or #ConnectedTV, running ads on streaming services is big – and getting bigger with the recent entrance of Netflix and Disney+ ad-supported tiers offering a lower monthly fee in exchange for having to watch ads. Interestingly, subscribers to ad-supported services are proving to be largely okay with the ad viewing experience (they better be since they’re captive to watching them), which means a chance to highly target, run specific offers, deliver QR codes for richer engagement and so much more to capture brand consideration from this huge audience. The #fast services are also, uh, growing fast – about 55% of consumers use at least one of these “Free Ad-supported Streaming TV” services like Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, Tubi (catch their interruptive Super Bowl ad?) and Freevee. I say, “tune in and turn on”.

6.??????USE OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.?I know some of my marketing friends will give me the evil eye on this one, but the truth is, working with a brand, service or experience that complements your own equity can quickly jumpstart consumer engagement, thrill sales and retail, and help make your spend play way bigger than it is. Ideally #strategicpartnerships bring something you each don’t have to the table while expanding your common audience, giving a cool halo to your brand and maybe even bringing you into new mediums and sales channels. But a word of caution: while borrowed equity doesn’t necessarily come with a cost, it WILL require fair if not equitable marketing spends by both parties to communicate the partnership and leverage the shared engagement. And please make sure your brand doesn't get wallflowered if you have a pretty partner!

7.??????TEST LIKE A MUTHERUFFER?(keeping the subheads PG).?If ever there was a time to test-and-learn, test-and-learn – it’s now. While every dollar you spend from your budget is precious – I mean like every Benjamin today is scrutinized to within an inch of its life – why not allocate a small budget to test smart and test often (I like this thought better than the popular "fail fast" ethos) to uncover new ways that work at a both a brand and sales level. The risk is nil, the impact on your overall spend minimal, heck the truth is no one knows what’s really the right marketing mix for your brand in the new world order. And if you think you had it figured out in Q1 – by Q3 it will probably change. Another imperative to test: with #AI technologies fueling the emergence of new marketing tools and mediums, if you’re not at least trying them out - your competitors are -which mean they're uncovering new marketing opportunities that could make you sorry, all for the sake of a few bucks. To quote David Ogilvy, “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:?Howard Davidson is a Co-Founder and the lead Creative Strategist for Butter, a commerce agency focused on helping optimize the marketing efforts and budgets of #SMBs through a solutions-neutral model. With over 30 years of brand and shopper marketing experience, Howard has worked in virtually every CPG category and every channel of distribution. Called the Marie Kondo of Marketing (purely by his close colleagues) for his annual obsession with marketing housecleaning, he invites your comments @?[email protected]?and hopes you can help “Spread the Butter”!