As technology innovates more quickly than ever, new trends are expected to emerge as every industry prepares for the difficulties of the upcoming year. In  2023, overcoming the anticipated economic slowdown by using breakthroughs in AI and marketing tech, to leveraging first- and zero-party data is important; here are some factors to keep in mind:

Marketers Will Have to Work Harder for Less

Marketing teams will be confronted with sustaining performance with fewer resources as customer confidence suffers due to inflation concerns. As businesses seek to save expenses, marketing teams and budgets will get smaller, but expectations for achieving ambitious marketing goals won’t.

Customer retention will be crucial this time. After all, keeping an existing customer is much less expensive than finding new ones. A platform for brands to keep repeating the value your brand delivers to them, loyalty programs are an affordable and more cost-effective way to reward your most loyal customers. 68 percent of consumers claim that if a brand interacts with them personally and builds relationships with them, they are more likely to remain loyal clients, and 33 percent claim that these programs make them more likely to spend more money.

Email marketing and mobile marketing, two popular tactics used by marketers, will keep producing impressive results. However, in order to continue connecting with consumers, businesses must also maintain their tried-and-true marketing strategies while also pursuing new marketing opportunities. In 2023, as mobile-driven programs gain relevance, they are set to have their best year yet, while already-in-place programs develop to become more sophisticated and tailored to stand out from the competition.

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Understanding the Data Privacy Landscape Will Be Crucial

With new technologies dominating the market, there is a greater chance that any security holes will be discovered and used by hackers to steal customer data. As lawmakers work to increase citizen safeguards, the level of government inspection of internet corporations will rise. Companies would do well to anticipate trends in order to allay public and political concerns.

With the introduction of its General Data Protection Regulation regulation in 2016, the European Union established a precedent for the entire world. The United States still lacks a comprehensive national law that governs data privacy as of 2022. Instead, the United States has selected state-level legislation, which many critics claim is inferior to the GDPR since it is too weak to have any real impact.

Outside of a few states, it might be a while before this has a significant impact on consumers and businesses, but major internet companies like Apple and Google have already implemented new privacy measures in response to consumer demands for greater transparency regarding the use of their data.

Many marketers’ current methods of operation will be disrupted by these changes, which will force them to switch to first- and zero-party data sets. However, the changes also open up fresh options while providing users more control over their security and online activities, especially as new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) become more prominent in marketing tactics.

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Providing AI a face: will increase acceptance

Unfortunate images of the future ruled by AI, like HAL 9000, probably come to mind. We should make every effort to allay customer concerns about unleashing Pandora’s box if advertisers want consumers to accept AI. It can be beneficial to humanize AI, and doing so has never been simpler than it is now.

Brands may eliminate the creepy element and increase customer confidence by utilizing only zero- and first-party data that was provided with user authorization. The next stage for brands is to reassure customers that AI follows the same rules for data privacy that employees do. AI may be a very effective personalized sales associate, advisor, or customer care agent after trust is built up among your end users, assuring its ethical implementation and ensuring a seamless user experience.

Another frequent problem that can undermine customer confidence in AI is bias. Marketers frequently make AI bias worse by audience segmenting customers into a small number of erroneous categories. However, developments in AI are resolving this problem and giving viewers that were previously cast into demographics they might not have well suited to new opportunities. Marketers can lessen bias by offering individualized marketing information based on how each individual behaves rather than on characteristics like age, gender, and location. Additionally, this strategy is more adaptive as a person’s tastes and behaviors evolve.

AI can automate personalisation, eliminating human error and giving marketing teams more time for strategic and creative projects. This increases value on a one-to-one basis and contributes to the creation of lasting relationships and value. They may be able to adjust their tactics more quickly and directly to criticism.

Companies who remain adaptable and adapt to the difficulties thrown their way will emerge as the victors as we enter a new year and see new trends take over. Marketers will be in a better position to negotiate uncertainties while fostering strong customer loyalty by utilizing new technology like AI, taking into consideration new legislation, and respecting your consumers and their data.

**The primary author of this article is our contractual staff writer – Sakshi John.