Every marketer faces different challenges.
Maybe you’re struggling to keep up with the latest trends. Or perhaps your team is finding it difficult to pivot your marketing strategy due to major global events.
Today, marketing is so fast-paced that it can be difficult to identify which areas you’ll want to focus on to facilitate stronger growth in 2023 and beyond. Which is why we asked 500+ marketing executives to predict the top challenges they expect to face in 2023 — so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
Below, let’s explore the global issues marketing leaders believe they’ll struggle with in 2023, according to new HubSpot Blog data from 500+ marketing executives. Additionally, hear tips on how to combat these challenges from experts at Microsoft, ZoomInfo, and Sprout Social.
Law told me, “We’re all feeling the pressures of a possible recession and almost every company will face challenges with revenue growth and marketing spend in 2023. With potentially fewer dollars to put towards campaigns, adopting a data-driven marketing strategy will ensure that every effort is as impactful as possible.”
To adopt a data-driven marketing strategy, there are two big levers you’ll want to pull in 2023. Let’s take a look at those now.
Godoy says, “Marketers feel the pressure to win the ads race in a wild WWW. During this race, it’s worth mentioning that consumer media behavior is changing, and advertising strategies, too. With the cookies deprecation coming (although it has been delayed by Google), it should be on our radar that at least 40% of browsers today don’t get signals.”
He adds, “Shaping your strategy by leveraging 1P or 3P trustable data becomes necessary to expand potential reach and start piloting your data strategy for the future.”
Once you’ve defined your audiences and properly segmented them, you’ll need to develop unique messaging that resonates with your prospects.
As Law puts it, “You’ll need to figure out how to convey your ability to alleviate their challenges in a unique way to penetrate the significant market noise. Practice consistency in your overall theme, and include contextual personalization when applicable.”
You’ll also want to use data to reach the right buyers at the right companies. For instance, Law told me it’s helpful to use technology to identify and engage at the contact or persona level, and automate workflows that allow you to reach people across channels. Finally, you’ll need to test, measure, and iterate.
Law advises, “Before you launch your campaigns, set up metrics to help understand their performance. Use the data to confirm that your messaging is reaching the right people at the right time through the right channels. Data should drive this process and its iterations — and it should fuel your entire marketing strategy if you want to see success in 2023.”
Ultimately, preparing a powerful data-driven marketing strategy in 2023 will be essential for outperforming competitors — especially since data can help your team remain flexible and adaptive as trends or consumer preferences shift over time.
Staying up-to-date on marketing trends wasn’t just a challenge in 2022. 14% of marketers believe keeping up with the latest marketing trends will continue to be their biggest hurdle in 2023.
Alternatively, consider asking your consumers what trends matter to them. For instance, perhaps you create a social poll to ask consumers about their favorite TikTok reels — this information can help you better understand the topics that currently matter most to your audience.
Once you have a list of interesting marketing trends, you can try implementing them on a small scale to see how they perform for your business. Testing is critical here. You can read about the effectiveness of short-form video content all day long — but until you try it for your own brand, you can’t know for sure whether it actually matters to your audience.
Competition isn’t a new concept for businesses, but it’s a major concern for many marketers when they look ahead. As social media and the SERPs become increasingly saturated with branded content, many marketers struggle to create content that stands out.
In our HubSpot Blog survey, 13% of marketing leaders report increased competition from other brands as their biggest concern for 2023.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to ask your team to flag any interesting tactics other businesses are leveraging. Your social team, for instance, can assess competitors’ social channels to identify any gaps in their current strategy. Alternatively, your blog team might highlight their personal favorite blogs, and share takeaways they can apply to their own content.
Hosting regular team brainstorms around new, innovative ideas can help you ensure your business is ahead-of-the-curve.
However, you don’t want to just follow along with your competitors’ strategies. It’s a good idea to test out new platforms to see what resonates with your intended audience, even if your competitors aren’t using those social channels.
12% of marketers believe their biggest challenge in 2023 will be leveraging their CRM to its fullest potential.
A CRM can be an incredibly powerful and effective tool for marketing, sales, and service — but it can be intimidating and time-consuming if you don’t know how to use yours.
Starks adds, “Rinse and repeat to show how implementing additional CRM tools can make the teams lives easier. Over time, this will increase adoption and eventually lead to a compounding effect, as a more connected process increases the ROI of your CRM purchase.”
If you’re instead struggling with how to structure your CRM, or which data is most critical, Starks suggests you get head of your data by figuring out the core questions you have of your data.
She says, “Imagine you have the answers to those questions. Now, think through what next-level questions you might have after you receive those initial answers. Taking time to map this out can help align the team around the ways your process may need to shift to ensure the necessary data is available and structured properly in the future.”
The past couple years have required businesses to demonstrate new levels of flexibility and adaptability.
Similarly, political turmoil and recent changes in the economy have required businesses to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly to ensure they’re continuing to meet the needs of their customers.
While it can feel risky to invest in new strategies or pivot as a response to major events, it’s oftentimes worse to stick to the status quo. As the world changes, your consumers’ behaviors and needs change in response, so it’s vital you keep up with global trends to understand what your consumers’ needs are on any given day.
Plus, your marketing could seem tone-deaf if you don’t pivot accordingly.
All of which is to say: It’s no surprise that 11% of marketing leaders believe pivoting their marketing strategies will continue to be a roadblock for them in 2023 and beyond.
Godoy is familiar with the challenge of pivoting your strategy appropriately. Fortunately, he has a solution.
He says, “The pandemic has brought changes in our lives and in our work schedules — and hybrid work opens possibilities to balance work and personal responsibilities at the same time. Before, we were determined to do certain tasks at certain hours … but in the world of today, we all live in the missing middle.”
Understanding your prospects’ behavior and intent is a critical component of ensuring you can shift quickly if your marketing efforts aren’t working. This is also where agile marketing comes into play. Agile marketing helps you execute by working in short sprints, which helps marketers quickly shift their focus, adapt to customer needs, and change priorities.
Agile marketing can help your team become more adaptable when global events upend your previous plans and force your team to shift focus. And it can help teams rebound more quickly from potential revenue losses.
Essentially, Doordash pivoted quickly to support their customer needs, and dropped their pre-planned marketing approach to adopt a new, more timely one.
Finally, it’s critical you keep an eye on both marketing trends and global events to ensure you’re pivoting your strategy when necessary.
Most marketers are goaled on two metrics: Traffic and leads.
Which is why it makes sense that 11% of marketing leaders expect that generating traffic and leads will remain their top challenge in 2023.
Even if marketers are doing well with these metrics, they’ll always want to improve them.
Ultimately, marketing leaders are struggling to produce demand for their content. Plus, they’re unsure which platforms will prove best for their business — and how to promote their content effectively.
To combat the challenge of creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience, you’ll want to use effective tools to properly track the types of content that performs best with your audiences.
Once you know you’re creating the type of content your audience wants, the focus shifts to promoting it in a way that makes your audience take notice.
More than ever before, people are being flooded with content. Consumers don’t even need to use a search engine to find answers anymore. Instead, articles fill their news feeds or buzz in their pocket via mobile notifications. To keep up, consider exploring alternate distribution methods — like SMS or podcasting — to increase brand awareness.
Gilpin says, “As a discipline, marketing is ever evolving, which requires candidates with unique, more varied skill sets. Social media in particular is playing a larger and larger role in every brand’s marketing strategy and requires highly skilled professionals with in-depth knowledge of social media’s shifting landscape.”
She adds, “With new platforms, features, and more consumers preferring to interact with brands on social, marketing teams are tasked with hiring and developing talent across their marketing function who understands the total impact social media can have on your organization.”
To attract top talent, you’ll want to focus on your employer brand.
As Gilpin puts it, “To attract talent with unique skill sets, our company has worked incredibly hard to build a strong employer brand that clearly communicates our values and culture to current and prospective employees. One way we’ve been able to amplify that message is by leveraging the social influence of our own employees.”
She continues, “By going beyond our own social channels and by helping our employees become brand advocates on social, we’ve seen the visibility and authenticity of our content grow. Whether we’re announcing a new product, sharing a company culture initiative, or promoting a job opening, our employees have become our greatest asset in building the type of brand awareness that will help us continue to grow our team in 2023.”
