From brand loyalty to the “revolution of speech”: Evernine Group - these are the top 5 communication trends for 2023

There is a lot of buzz in the digital marketing market at the moment, and marketers also have a number of tasks on their plate for 2023. The Munich-based communications consultancy Evernine sorts out the most important topics here and presents the five communications trends for 2023 that communications managers will not be able to avoid.

1.    Brand Loyalty Marketing

A strong brand was and is more than ever crucial for companies to give customers and partners the necessary trust, loyalty and an authentic value proposition. And in an increasingly complex digital and political world, strong business relationships are becoming ever more crucial. However, new topics will be added in 2023. Customers, partners and even applicants are demanding answers to the topics of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), sustainability and inclusion more vehemently than ever before. Companies, whether in the B2B or B2C environment, are being asked to position themselves clearly - and to communicate this just as clearly! No wonder that some marketers have already started to replace the traditional meaning of B2B or B2C with B2H (business to human). But what is brand loyalty marketing all about?

Brand loyalty marketing deals with the challenge that customer loyalty, which is becoming increasingly important, must play a role in absolutely all areas of the company. This includes everything from PR activities, website content and HR communication (internal and external) to product campaigns. Possible critical questions posed by the company's increasingly scrutinizing and enlightened customers should be considered in all areas and answered as specifically as possible. As mentioned at the beginning, this primarily concerns issues in the areas of sustainability (such as the company's CO2 consumption), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), logistics and delivery as well as inclusion and equality. And it is not only customers and partners, but also applicants in particular, who have questions relating to the company's much-described purpose.

“Especially in more complex times, leadership through trusted brands that convey closeness and values is more important than ever. That's why it will be immensely important in the near future to strengthen communication with creativity and a dose of patience,” says Sven Blaukat, Director Strategy Consulting at Evernine. “Decisions will be made more consciously, purposefully and sustainably than in the past. This is where strong brands benefit. Where answers - which don't always have to be perfect, by the way - are lacking, medium-sized companies in particular will come under competitive pressure.”

2.    Social Independence

There has long been no question that social media is also indispensable in the B2B environment in order to reach potential new employees, strengthen business relationships and place products and services in a targeted manner. A lot will happen in the field of social media in 2023, that much is certain. Whether it will be a possible complete restructuring of Twitter, whether the metaverse will turn out to be a bubble, whether channels such as Instagram will increasingly offer B2B services, whether completely new channels such as Reddit will suddenly appear or whether the giant Facebook will lose relevance after all, we don't know exactly. What we do know, however, is that in 2023 it will be urgently necessary to develop a central strategy in order to then transfer this to the individual channels, where it will be necessary to experiment with what works best for the respective company.

3.    Digital Me

Of course, companies have long been aware that employees are relevant to corporate communications. What will be new in 2023, however, is that measurable and sustainable social media success will increasingly and perhaps even overwhelmingly be achieved via employees and will therefore play a decisive role in the context of all other social media activities. In order to successfully establish this in the company, it is no longer enough to “just” train employees in the area of social media. Instead, they need to be intrinsically picked up and taken along on this journey. The Evernine Group agency calls this “Digital Me”.

This means that if companies and business decision-makers are equipped with the necessary encouragement, the next level must be: Nurturing,” says Tobias Massow, CCO & Partner at Evernine. “We have seen that companies have understood that they need to communicate. What's missing now is the right strategy! The personal interests of social ambassadors must be linked to the interests of the company.”

4.    Revolution of Speech

2023 will see a revolution in digital marketing that many corporate communications managers have certainly not yet had on their radar, because the corporate language in marketing & co. is facing a new digital majority: the millennials. And they have their own expectations in order to be activated, whether as consumers or applicants. It is often overlooked that a new internet generation, born between 1981 and 1995, is now the loudest on the web - especially on the professional web - and is increasingly creating opinion leaders - whether in social media on the customer side, in applicant forums or on the intranet. Millennials have completely new expectations of language, content and storytelling. These are expectations that break with old standards.

5.    Target Groups Repositioning

As with the “Digital Me” trend, the aim in 2023 is to take an existing topic further and raise it to a new level so that it can also become a trend. The link between marketing and sales is crucial for the company's success, as those responsible are well aware. However, in order to do justice to the new buyer groups in the market, the topic has taken on a new urgency. What is meant by target group repositioning here is that classic funnel marketing is increasingly reaching its limits. The typical interfaces between marketing and sales are no longer sufficient to remain competitive. Both departments are now required to completely reorganize conventional approaches.

One example of this is the processing of prospective customers acquired through marketing activities. Whereas in the past, telephone calls were made or classic nurturing processes were initiated, which usually took place separately from marketing, other approaches are required today. However, there is often a lack of suitable tools and, above all, the right strategy. This is the challenge for 2023, because while many briefings for sales managers and tele-sales agencies still look like the classic “preconfigured leads” with a fixed approach, it is much more promising to present yourself with your own sales story based on data enriched with social monitoring and social listening. Special tools and CRM systems that can provide and record GDPR-compliant social selling information are already being used in modern agencies for target group repositioning. As a result, target companies are clustered in a meaningful way and individual approaches are optimized with the help of smart services. A task in which marketing can provide excellent support. And must.