Leaders are constantly reevaluating their marketing strategies to stay ahead of the curve. The rapid pace of technological advancement, changing consumer behaviors and shifting industry norms have prompted business leaders to reconsider their approach to marketing tools, channels, tactics and trends.
Below, 20 Forbes Communications Council members explore the marketing strategies that their companies have either embraced or avoided and delving into the implications they hold for the future of marketing.
1. Comparing X And Threads
We have seen decreasing referrals to our website from X over the last couple of years. With the advent of Threads, it will be interesting to compare engagement and referrals and see if it merits a shifting of social media resources in our department. – Kathy Sucich, Dimensional Insight
2. Reducing Text Messaging Efforts
Although text messaging can be a highly effective marketing tool for certain consumer-focused campaigns, it is not the optimal channel for our B2B lead generation efforts. Additionally, strict regulatory guidelines demand individuals’ consent and opt-in to receive such marketing communications, further reducing its appeal as a viable option. – Cord Himelstein, HALO
3. Focusing On One Social Platform
We have ditched trying to master every social media channel. Instead, we are focusing on one social media channel at a time. After we’ve mastered our primary channel, we will move on to the next one. Gone are the days when you have to be “killing it” on every social media channel. – Dana Nowick, The Spaventa Group
4. Reassessing Touch Points
As the economic winds change, and as consumer trends evolve, all marketing leaders need to frequently reassess their media mix to ensure that it’s meeting both their business and brand objectives. You need to be where your consumers are in order to have meaningful conversations and, as such, you should constantly keep an eye on how these touch points evolve (whether that’s on new or old platforms). – Nina Etienne, SumUp
5. Reimagining A Successful Strategy
Our events have always been crucial for building strong customer and prospect relationships. This year, we’ve evolved our event approach. Instead of one big annual event, we’re taking our event “on tour” across key cities like Berlin, Amsterdam, Sydney and New York, hosting intimate gatherings and experiences. Our event strategy is now more tailored, repeatable and impactful. – Adriana Gil Miner, Iterable
6. Creating A Comprehensive Tech Stack
One thing we’ve been implementing is creating a comprehensive tech stack for AI and leveraging ChatGPT. It’s been a game changer for our marketing team in terms of efficiency, output and overall visibility. – Hannah Nieves, HN Haus
7. Using TikTok For The 65+ Audience
It has been really effective for us. We’re now considering all of our social media channels as feeding into each other and extending the age reach of our TikTok campaigns as they have been the most successful. – Alexia Bregman, The Bureau Of Small Projects
8. Experimenting With LinkedIn
We’ve leaned into the powerful potential of LinkedIn and have seen promising results in terms of growth and engagement. By actively experimenting with different post types and LinkedIn-first content, such as newsletters and articles, we’ve uncovered effective strategies to resonate with our audience. Marketing isn’t just about the messaging you put out, but how and where audiences engage with it. – Alyssa Kopelman, Healthline Media
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9. Embracing AI Tools
We’ve really embraced AI as a tool and continue integrating it into our product offerings. AI has massive potential for communicators, and 84% of marketers have already begun integrating it into their daily workflows. AI can help marketers analyze social data more effectively, elevate how they target their audience, create content, free themselves from repetitive, tedious tasks and much more. – Jamie Gilpin, Sprout Social, Inc.
10. Utilizing An In-House Tool
The marketing team at our company adopted our own tool for strategy. It enhanced collaboration, content storage and schedule visibility. The ‘Find Content’ feature especially revolutionized our repurposing — taking Instagram Reels with trending audio and resharing them across platforms, improving efficiency and work-life balance. – Brittany Garlin, Vista Social
11. Launching A Company-Wide Blog
This year we went back to the basics and launched a company-wide blog that shares stories of individuals across the organization. Not only do these blogs help us create evergreen content that can be shared across all of our digital channels, but it has also helped us drive traffic to the site organically through social media and personal shares. – Victoria Zelefsky, The Menkiti Group
12. Adopting A Privacy-Centric Marketing Strategy
In response to the growing data privacy concerns and the phase-out of third-party cookies, we are pivoting to adopt a privacy-centric marketing strategy where we gather insights directly from customers. It involves first-party data collection tactics like progressive profiling, lead magnets and interactive content. This addresses privacy concerns and helps us build stronger customer relationships. – Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz
13. Showcasing Expertise Through Cross-Promotional Blogs
One marketing tactic that works well for our industry is cross-promotional blogs. By sharing our expertise in SEO and digital marketing across popular channels with high readerships, we are able to showcase our expertise and stand out from the competition. As more and more companies fight for space on social media channels, our informative blogs provide usable value that builds trust and loyalty. – Asad Kausar, Dabaran
14. Adopting Partner Marketing
We’ve adopted partner marketing to scale our business development efforts more efficiently. Accessing our partners’ client bases allows us a much wider reach, but this also works well for us because leads come to us warm and therefore are more likely to convert and have faster sales cycles. Additionally, we don’t have to hire a ton of business development representatives to do outreach. – Roshni Wijayasinha, Prosh Marketing
15. Connecting Via Email Newsletters
Email newsletters have been bigger than ever for our clients this year. As social media becomes a more crowded space, the one-to-one relationship of email marketing is uniquely enticing as a platform for connection and growth. – Melissa Kandel, little word studio
16. Creating Focused Customer Communities
We’ve found that this approach allows us to build stronger relationships with our customers and create a more personalized experience. We also encourage referrals within these communities, which has been a successful tactic for expanding our reach and acquiring new customers. – Sowmya Moni
17. Improving Customer Engagement And Experience
Recognizing the power of entertainment to build engagement, we recently rolled out custom video programming in our lobbies. Instead of competing with customers’ phones for their attention, we are integrating surveys, trivia, QR codes and more to improve their experience and make the most of their queue times. – Colin Jeffries, BrightView Health
18. Leveraging Influencer Marketing
As a gaming marketer, we have recently adopted influencer marketing as a key tactic. Influencers offer an authentic connection with gamers, driving engagement and brand awareness. Their ability to reach niche audiences aligns perfectly with our target market. We dropped traditional banner ads as they are less effective in capturing attention and driving meaningful engagement. – Jonathan Shroyer, Arise Gaming
19. Prioritizing Conversion Rate Optimization
We adopted conversion rate optimization for our website over the paid campaign landing pages. We prioritized selecting a conversion rate optimization platform with our consolidated company website and maintaining rankings and traffic from the old brand sites. Implementing an ongoing testing program improved our new site’s conversion rate. We are on track to surpass lead generation goals for 2023. – Anthony Kennedy, ION
20. Developing A Podcast
We recently wrapped a beta podcast that we developed to build out the executive profile of our new CEO. We wanted to use this tool in a unique way — kicking off the initial phase by having our CEO interview employees about topics close to our mission (virtual walkabout), sharing monthly as part of our internal comms program and engaging external audiences and promoting thought leadership. – Catherine Anderson, Cityblock
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