The Top Work, Media, Tech and Marketing Stories of 2023
Phil Mandelbaum
Fractional CMO | Agency President + CEO | Brand, Digital, Social, Content, PR and Political Strategist | Head of Marketing, NP2 Pharma | Award-Winning Writer, Ghostwriter and Editor | Sold 1 Business
And My Predictions for 2024
I launched the Market Your Self newsletter in 2022, and released nearly 30 editions. In 2023, thanks to dedicated professionals like you, my subscription base surpassed 2,000, as I published another 40 articles (and 33% more than the prior year). In this final article of the year, I summarize my 10 most popular pieces — focused on simplifying the digital experience, user-centered design, the generative AI market, YouTube marketing, Pinterest marketing, public relations, disability inclusion, and more — and link to the additional 30, in case you've missed anything that could help you improve your digital marketing, customer experience, and/or HR strategy and DEI program. I also look back at my 2023 predictions, breaking down what came true and what did not, and share my top 10 predictions for 2024.
PHIL MANDELBAUM'S TOP 10 STORIES OF 2023
For each of my stories, I've leveraged exclusive interviews with industry experts, extensive online research, and/or my 20 years of experience leading digital marketing teams at Fortune 500 corporations, leading nonprofits, small businesses and agencies.
10. What Is User-Centered Design?
Why User-Centered Design is the Key to Lead Generation Optimization
Take a minute or two to think about your favorite websites. What do they all have in common? My guess: easy, intuitive navigation; straightforward, concise language; visual queues and interactivity; and clear, appropriate calls to action. Even with all these elements, though, there’s no guarantee a website will meet the needs of its target audiences. User-centered design (UCD) is that assurance; when applying the UCD framework in your web design, you don’t predict what your site visitors want, you learn directly from them and never settle, consistently improving the user experience. This not only benefits the user but also the brand, as the empowered user follows the designed path from awareness and discovery to interest and consideration and then onto making a purchase decision.
09. Why You Need Public Relations in Marketing
And the 11 Skills Your PR Manager Must Have
Even with the most imaginative content creators and most innovative distribution and promotional strategies, sometimes traditional digital marketing and digital advertising are not enough. ? Many of today’s smart consumer brands are leveraging influencer marketing and user-generated content to (sometimes exponentially) amplify their reach on social media. But not every viral post leads to viral business success, and not every business lends itself to TikTok shorts. For these organizations, especially, modern-day PR is the best approach.
08. 5 Phases of Facilitating Disability Inclusion Companywide
And How DEI Efforts Typically Fall Flat for Employees with Disabilities
One in four of us is disabled, yet only 1% of primetime TV ads represent people with disabilities and only 4% of companies are focused on expanding their offerings to disabled people. Nearly half of business leaders believe there aren’t enough job candidates with disabilities, but only 20% of disabled people are employed and there are a million people with disabilities looking for work in the UK alone. Among CEOs, at least 7% live with a disability, though eight in 10 “hide that fact,” which tells me the lack of disability inclusion starts at the top, with you — and does trickle down.
When I was in middle school, my classmates picked on their peers with disabilities. Kids with Down syndrome. Kids with autism. Kids in wheelchairs. Kids with glasses or hearing aids. Basically, anyone who needed “special” accommodations. In fact, it was one of my deciding factors in aligning with an anti-discrimination organization to create my high school’s first-ever diversity day a few years later. (Back then, I hadn’t even heard of diversity and equity and inclusion.)
Fast forward nearly three decades, and TikTok, the far-preferred social media platform of the so-called “liberal” generation, the fastest-growing segment of the workforce, actively suppresses content from “fat” and disabled creators and is inundated with so much toxic hate and extremism, exploitation and cyberbullying that political foes are co-writing bills to erase it from every device in the country.
As adults, we’d like to think we’ve done better, at least at work, than the kids on their phones; unfortunately, while it may now seem obvious that your property requires ramps for employees who use wheelchairs, most organizations are still less likely to hire someone with a disability and, as Kevin Mintz told me, “lack thoughtfulness in terms of how to reorganize and restructure workplaces so that they are truly accessible.”
07. Report: The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing
Everything You Need to Know to Make the Most of Every Major Social Media Platform, including YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Even Pinterest
There are nearly five billion social media users worldwide; only 7% of people who use the internet do not use social media. The average consumer uses seven different social media platforms per month. And, at two and a half hours per day, the amount of time the average user spends on social media has never been higher. As a result (and despite user trust in social media declining in 2022), businesses are now spending more on social media advertising than paid search for the first time ever. And then there's organic social media and influencer marketing!
06. 9 Steps to Implementing AI Without Being Racist
Eight Experts Weigh In on How Artificial Intelligence and DEI Intersect — and How to Overcome Human and Algorithmic AI Bias
A New York City man signed up for LinkedIn and used artificial intelligence to create a fraudulent profile for an AI-generated white male in his 20s or 30s: a Stripe alum and the founder of a non-existing startup. Within 24 hours, the fake founder received a message from a venture capitalist interested in investing. Notice the line, “A few ex-Stripe buddies of mine had great things to say about you.” Unfortunately, the “you” in that statement isn’t real. Never was. And no other story I’ve heard better demonstrates the dangers of AI — to security, to privacy, and to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
On the other hand, AI tech can enhance business productivity by 40% — and businesses that employ AI will double their cash flow by 2030 while brands that don’t will see a 20% reduction. Already, more than 75% of businesses are using or exploring AI; nearly three in four executives believe AI will be their greatest future business advantage; and the global AI market is pushing toward a trillion US dollars.
05. 7 Steps to a Triumphant Pinterest Marketing Strategy
And the Top 17 Tips for Optimizing Your Pinterest Profile, Marketing, Advertising and Sales
Once upon a time, even our most strategic social media marketers had no use for Pinterest. Or so they thought. Quietly, steadily, this image sharing and social networking site has amassed a mammoth base of nearly 500 million active users, growing 262% in the last seven years. And it’s no longer only for middle-aged women (or only for stay-at-home moms) — with the number of Gen Z and male Pinterest users skyrocketing 40% year over year.
Pinterest’s largest cohort is social media users aged 25 to 34, the tech-savvy, mid-career demographic most commonly targeted by brands. And that’s not all: The primary reason people use Pinterest is to follow or research brands and products (in addition to planning their own projects) — and nearly half of all Americans with household incomes above $100,000 use Pinterest, positioning the app alongside LinkedIn as one of the top social media platforms for targeting senior-level influencers and decision makers.
For brands seeking a sliver of virality — or a competitive edge in their niche — Pinterest trends take off 20% faster and last 21% longer than trends on other social media platforms.
04. Your Guide to Simplifying the Digital Experience
7 Stages to Securing Customer Success
Nearly 80% of Americans shop online. More than 80% conduct online research before making a purchase. And 93% say online reviews influence their buying decisions. For SaaS and other digital businesses, every stage of the customer journey occurs online; for everybody else, the digital experience is no less integral to sales success.
So what makes the digital experience successful? Simple. Simplicity. Simplicity in message and language, simplicity in design, simplicity in sales execution, and simplicity in support. Of course, “to achieve external simplicity,” we must “embrace internal complexity.”
03. Generative AI: Will the Bubble Burst Like the Metaverse?
How to Make Smart, Unbiased AI Decisions + 90 AI Tools You Need to Try
When OpenAI released its first iteration of the large language model (LLM) that powers ChatGPT, venture capital investment in generative AI companies totaled $408 million. Five years later, analysts are predicting AI investments will reach “several times” last year’s level of $4.5 billion. “It is undeniably a major inflection point, and great products and companies are going to be built,” said Matt Turck, an investor specializing in AI at FirstMark. However, “as in prior hype cycles, a lot of this will not end well,” he continued. “The market cannot sustain, all of a sudden, a million different companies with half-baked ideas. It feels like the gold rush.”
Indeed, investors are “jumping into AI startups even when it isn’t clear how they will make a profit,” reminiscent of the last (minor) tech bubble to pop, the metaverse, which caused lots of big brands to waste big budgets. The question, then, is: Will AI go the way of the metaverse, or withstand the overhype and streamline everything from content creation to “movie production to customer service to grocery delivery?”
Only time will tell, but I believe there’s ample evidence AI is here to stay — and well worth the investment, when there’s a sound business case behind it.
02. 9 Essential Digital Marketing Predictions for 2023
The Digital Marketing Strategies, Tactics and Tools You'll Need to Outperform the Competition in 2023 (and Beyond)
By the end of 2023, your competitors will be delivering unforgettable predictive, personalized experiences to customers and prospects, based on each individual’s pain points, needs, goals and values, ascertained via the smart collection, management and use of data.
That was one prediction, and I had more:
领英推荐
(For an analysis of my 2023 predictions, continue reading.)
01. 15 YouTube Marketing Tips to Boost Engagement and ROI
And 10 YouTube Statistics Proving Marketing and Advertising on YouTube Can More Than Benefit Your Business
If video marketing isn’t part of your digital marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a captive audience of more than three billion video viewers — and falling behind the 86% of marketers currently using video to promote their brand. Already, eight in 10 consumers have purchased an app or other software after watching a brand video, and 91% actually want more video content from companies. Good thing, since video marketers achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness; 66% of video marketers generate more leads per year; and 93% of marketers say they’ve landed a new customer from a video on social media. Of course, like every other digital marketing strategy or tactic, whether you should invest in video marketing depends most on profit potential — and 92% of video marketers now say video marketing provides “good ROI” (versus only 78% a mere five years ago).
The only questions, then, are where, when and how to host and promote our videos — in addition, obviously, to posting short-form vertical videos on TikTok and Instagram. The answer: YouTube.
PHIL MANDELBAUM'S TOP STORIES OF 2023 (11-40)
11. Why Consumer Brands Must Commit to LinkedIn Marketing, Too: Demystifying the LinkedIn Algorithm for B2C and B2B Brands: Your Guide to Marketing and Advertising on LinkedIn | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-consumer-brands-must-commit-linkedin-marketing-too-mandelbaum
12. Report: The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing (Pt 2): Artificial Intelligence, the Customer Journey, Influencer Marketing, Social Media Marketing KPIs, and Everything Else You Need to Know to Develop, Test, Analyze and Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy and Campaigns | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/report-ultimate-guide-social-media-marketing-pt-2-philip-mandelbaum
13. Litter-Robot, and How to Learn from Customer Complaints: 5 Tips, 7 Steps and 9 Tools for Successful Customer Complaint Management | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/litter-robot-how-learn-from-customer-complaints-philip-mandelbaum
14. Why a 4-Day Work Week is Completely Unnecessary: A four-day work week can help with employee burnout, depression, racial and economic inequities, and even the climate crisis — but it’s only useful if your HR strategy sucked to begin with | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-4-day-work-week-completely-unnecessary-philip-mandelbaum
15. How to Recruit and Retain the Best Digital Marketing Team: All the Digital Marketing Job Titles, Employee Survey Tools, Quirky Perks, DEI Tips and HR Software Solutions You’ll Ever Need | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-recruit-retain-best-digital-marketing-team-phil-mandelbaum-3xzcf
16. Why Customer Reviews Have Never Been More Important: The Future of SEO, and How to Leverage Google's New AI SGE (Search Generative Experience) to Improve Your Branding and Sales | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-customer-reviews-have-never-been-more-important-philip-mandelbaum
17. What We Can Learn from The Apple Marketing Philosophy: 9 Ways Apple Keeps On Winning, and 9 Requirements for Your Digital Marketing Success | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-we-can-learn-from-apple-marketing-philosophy-philip-mandelbaum
18. 5 Fundamentals to Applying AI Only As Appropriate: Marketing Automation is the Preamble. Here’s How to Leverage the Best AI in Marketing, Sales, CX and Even Employee Experience. | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/5-fundamentals-applying-ai-only-appropriate-philip-mandelbaum
19. Why Your LinkedIn Outreach Is Not Working: How to Make the Most of LinkedIn Ads and Content Marketing | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-your-linkedin-outreach-working-philip-mandelbaum
20. Optimizing the Customer Journey Using Consumer Psychology: Why Customer Sentiment, Customer Intent and Customer Values are at the Core of Customer Success | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/optimizing-customer-journey-using-consumer-psychology-mandelbaum
21. Instagram Algorithm Solved: Your Instagram Marketing Guide: The Top 10 Instagram Hacks for Businesses | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/instagram-algorithm-solved-your-marketing-guide-philip-mandelbaum
22. Digital Marketers, Don’t Delete Your Twitter Just Yet: Believe it or Not, Even with Mass Migrations to Bluesky and Meta’s Threads, Twitter Advertising and Marketing Still Offer Lucrative Opportunities | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/digital-marketers-dont-delete-your-twitter-just-yet-philip-mandelbaum
23. TikTok Untangled: Your TikTok Videos are Only the Start: The Top 12 Tips for Mastering TikTok Marketing | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/tiktok-untangled-your-videos-only-start-philip-mandelbaum
24. Branding is a Big Deal. Nobody Told the Execs at HBO.: With a Rebrand to ‘Max,’ Warner Bros. Discovery Kills an Iconic Name in Entertainment — with No Clear Benefit to Customer Experience | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/branding-big-deal-nobody-told-execs-hbo-philip-mandelbaum
25. Why That $7-Million Super Bowl Ad Was a Waste of Money: How to Use Your Net Promoter Score and ‘Earned Growth Rate’ to Measure True Customer Success | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-7-million-super-bowl-ad-waste-money-philip-mandelbaum
26. UX Design: How to Never Need Third-Party Cookies Again: Your Guide to Optimizing Your Zero- and First-Party Data Collection and Usage via User-Centered Design and the Customer Data Platform | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ux-design-how-never-need-third-party-cookies-again-phil-mandelbaum-6ii6e
27. Planning a Conference? Follow These 13 Steps: Use This Convention Checklist to Plan, Create and Pull Off a Killer Conference — In Person, or Online | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/planning-conference-follow-13-steps-philip-mandelbaum
28. The Top 19 Tips for Mastering Snapchat Marketing: A Brief History of Snapchat, and all the Reasons Big Brands and Digital Advertisers are Using Snapchat to Generate Sales Leads and Build Brand Awareness and Engagement | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/top-19-tips-mastering-snapchat-marketing-philip-mandelbaum
29. Facebook Marketing: Still Not an Option: Facebook for Business is More Than Just Facebook Ads | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/facebook-marketing-still-option-philip-mandelbaum
30. The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Killer Content Marketing: Featuring 9 Steps to a Successful Content Strategy, 29 Must-Track KPIs, 3 Free Templates, and 118 AI-Powered Tools for Content Marketing Optimization | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ultimate-guide-crafting-killer-content-marketing-philip-mandelbaum
31. Bed Bath & Beyond, Bankruptcy, and Nostalgia Marketing: How Nostalgia Marketing and Nostalgia Advertising Leverage Consumer Psychology to Create ‘Nostalgic Brands’ that Don’t Go Bankrupt | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/bed-bath-beyond-bankruptcy-nostalgia-marketing-philip-mandelbaum
32. Have You Migrated to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)? | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/have-you-migrated-google-analytics-4-ga4-philip-mandelbaum
33. OpenAI, ChatGPT, and Safeguarding Your Content Marketing: ‘It’s as if the AI system were going into your factory and stealing your machine’ | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/openai-chatgpt-safeguarding-your-content-marketing-philip-mandelbaum
34. 7 Steps to Customer Success (and Outperforming Your Peers): How to Master Customer Service and Achieve Customer Centricity by Capitalizing on Customer Complaints | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/7-steps-customer-success-outperforming-your-peers-phil-mandelbaum-j5e3e
35. The Ultimate Guide to Digital Advertising: The 11 Types of Digital Ads + 22 Digital Advertising KPIs + 5 Digital Advertising Trends Changing the Industry | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ultimate-guide-digital-advertising-phil-mandelbaum-kpeje
36. Why SMS May Be Your Best Growth Marketing Opportunity: The Ultimate Guide to SMS Marketing | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-sms-may-your-best-growth-marketing-opportunity-phil-mandelbaum-kfrqe
37. 29 Must-Measure KPIs for Every Stage of the Customer Lifecycle: How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Digital Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience Strategies, Tactics and Employees | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/29-must-measure-kpis-every-stage-customer-lifecycle-phil-mandelbaum-5n0pc
38. Optimizing Customer Journeys with the Email Drip Campaign: Why You Can’t Master the Marketing-Sales Funnel (or Email Marketing) without Email Automation and Drip Marketing | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/optimizing-customer-journeys-email-drip-campaign-philip-mandelbaum
39. Email Isn’t Dead. Spam Is.: Your Guide to Converting Leads, Building Loyalty and Boosting ROI with Email Marketing | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/email-isnt-dead-spam-phil-mandelbaum
40. 7 Steps to Digital Transformation with a DXP: Why Your CDP Needs a Digital Experience Platform | https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/7-steps-digital-transformation-dxp-philip-mandelbaum
THE TOP 10 MOST SLEPT-ON STORIES OF 2023
Following are the articles you probably missed but should definitely read:
LOOKING BACK AT MY 2023 PREDICTIONS
Nearly 365 days ago, on January 20, I published my first article of 2023, 9 Essential Digital Marketing Predictions for 2023, highlighting my expectations for the coming year. Therein, I predicted the following:
Did my predictions come true? Let's find out.
MY TOP 10 PREDICTIONS FOR 2024
Agree? Disagree? What are your predictions for 2024?
Thanks for mentioning us! ??
Corporate Director of Marketing at Harrison Group Resort Hotels & Restaurants
9 个月Great predictions for 2024! Will be interested to see how the year plays out!
Socials, Brand and Growth @ Misfits | Ex Head of Brand Marketing @ PrepInsta | Freelancer
9 个月Agreed! ?? High emphasis on the Pinterest part- brands who lack realisation of Pinterest’s supremacy of being a fuss-free engagement platform and fail to utilise it in the best possible way would just be missing out on some great outcomes, especially something which every B2C business needs, building a loyal community for their product.
Fractional CMO | Agency President + CEO | Brand, Digital, Social, Content, PR and Political Strategist | Head of Marketing, NP2 Pharma | Award-Winning Writer, Ghostwriter and Editor | Sold 1 Business
9 个月sources: Zendesk Usercentrics datapine Techopedia RTInsights CNBC Zety: Resume Builder & Career Website Marketing Brew exchange4media