3 Digital Marketing Tips to Action in 2023!

As we all wrap up another year and start to plan for 2023, the IR Global marketing team has put together some digital marketing trends for 2022, providing some useful tips to get your marketing campaigns ready and raring for 2023. 

1 – Google Analytics will become Google Analytics 4 (GA4)! 

As we all know, sometimes things aren’t as simple as they should be within the digital world. For example, certain naming conventions for different tools and software change their names more than the world changes its leaders! As accurate as this statement is, the fact that almost every business relies on Google Analytics, makes this a big deal.

Why should this be a priority for the new year? First and foremost, Universal Analytics will not carry over any historical data, so every account will start with a clean slate – we know, it’s highly frustrating!

What’s changed?

A lot has changed in the way Google presents your website data and also how it’s collected. You may be familiar with the term “sessions” when thinking about your standard Universal Analytics, however, sessions will be removed and everything will be based on users and “events.” Sessions are grouped interactions that happen on your website in a given time-frame, these can include views, events, social interactions and conversions. 

There are some useful guides that provide more in-depth information about the future of GA4

Backup your historical data

None of your historical data will carry over onto GA4! As daunting as that may sound for many reasons, the best thing to do now is to think practically and begin exporting your historical data. Due to the differences in data tracking, it’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges, which is the main reason why your data won’t carry over to GA4. There are some handy guides on best practices for migrating your historical data

Setup your GA4 account now

Setting up your GA4 property is really simple to do and we’d advise doing this sooner rather than later. This way your website can begin tracking instantly, instead of waiting until the rollout of GA4 at the end of June when you have to play catch-up. 

2 – Google’s helpful content update

Google launched its ‘helpful content’ update in August to “better connect people to helpful information.” The update focuses on rewarding content written for actual human users and devaluing content written mainly for SEO ranking purposes.

If you have a website that contains large amounts of unhelpful content, where the content is clearly aimed at aligning with search engines rather than helping humans, your website could see some negative implications.

Content for people first

Have you ever typed into Google only to land on a page that actually isn’t helpful to your search? The ‘helpful content’ update is designed to overcome this problem and help users locate high-quality content – at the same time rewarding websites that produce useful content written for humans to engage in. Google wants users to visit a website and gain value through learning about your business and products and at the same time, feeling satisfied with what they have read.

Google provided a list of questions that answering “yes” to, means your content is in good standing.

SEO best practices

With the above in mind, this doesn’t mean that SEO best practices should be ignored. Ensure that SEO focus remains an extension of your people-first type of content. 

Google has provided a list of questions – if you answer yes to most of all of these questions, that’s a big red flag to say that you should be reexamining your content strategy. 

3 – Video content is a must

Video marketing has evolved over the last few years and remains one of the most important aspects of your overall marketing strategy. Industry statistics say that a massive 80% of people prefer video content over written content – this makes it the perfect way to showcase your brand story, services and build relationships with your clients. 

Live video has increased since the global pandemic 

As we all know, the pandemic brought a halt to our usual in-person conferences and experiences, but that didn’t mean that all interactions had to stop completely. This is where the use of live video really made an impact in terms of staying connected. Even though life seems to be back to normal, live video content isn’t going anywhere soon! Have you tried live streaming a webinar or thought about setting up your own podcast? 

Our next Virtual Event is on the 6th – 17th of February 2023 – the event will focus on the trends and opportunities to be ready for in 2023. It will allow our members to connect with the right individual and firms, giving them access to virtually engage and network with high-quality, experienced advisors.

Smartphone video content

Nowadays it’s just as easy as picking up your mobile phone and shooting some content. Technology has caught up and now you don’t need thousands of pounds worth of video equipment to actually create some decent content. For some tips on how to get started on video content see here. Time to pick up the smartphone and use it to its full capability! 

Great for SEO

SEO isn’t anything new. But what impact does video have? According to some studies, video has the potential to outrank traditional optimised content and one of the reasons for that is down to the larger engagement rates videos receive. Thinking about using more videos in your SEO strategy? Check out this great blog on ways you can incorporate video into your current marketing strategy. 

We hope you’ve found our 3 tips for digital marketing helpful. If you’d like further advice on any of this, please contact our digital team: [email protected]