If we were writing an article about digital marketing trends, it could need a fresh perspective that better represents the changes we are now experiencing because of generative artificial intelligence (AI). In the spirit of these trends, here is an A/B test of our insights as opposed to the responses that were generated by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that combines “Chat”, in reference to its chatbot functionality, and “GPT”, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a type of large language model.
The answers ChatGPT generated will be in italics, and our analysis and evaluation of it will be in regular text.
Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends in 2023, as Written by ChatGPT
The ChatGPT opening paragraph stated, “The world of digital marketing is constantly changing, and keeping up with the latest trends is crucial for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition. In 2023, we can expect to see a number of exciting developments in the world of digital marketing, and I’ve rounded up the top 10 trends that are set to dominate the scene this year.”
The truth here is that this was the chatbot’s second attempt at writing a lead. The first time it was asked to “write a story about the top 10 digital marketing trends for 2023,” which produced, “Once upon a time, in the year 2023, the world of digital marketing was buzzing with excitement as the industry was on the cusp of a revolution. With new technologies emerging and consumer behavior changing rapidly, businesses were eager to stay ahead of the curve and adopt the latest marketing trends.”
It is important to remember that ChatGPT is very sensitive to minor tweaks to input phrasing. This means asking ChatGPT for a story will give you something you can tell the grandkids while asking specifically for an article will give you something you can submit to your editors.
Many people will thus assume they are the ones training the chatbot. Instead, it will be ChatGPT training you.
The model is optimized for dialogue, and people receive exactly what they are looking for on second tries. The much tougher part of the A/B test was still ahead.
Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning
ChatGPT wrote, “AI and ML are transforming the way businesses operate, and they’re also revolutionizing the way we approach digital marketing. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can deliver personalized experiences to their customers and automate tasks, freeing up time for marketers to focus on more strategic initiatives.”
People who can demonstrate their experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (otherwise known as E-E-A-T) should not try to select different top trends. Especially when this is the right choice.
For example, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has a set of features called Analytics Intelligence that apply Google’s machine learning models to analyze data and predict future actions end-users may take. Consider 412 Food Rescue, a nonprofit organization based in Pittsburgh that needed to recruit more volunteers to deliver food from retailers to people experiencing food insecurity.
Automated Insights showed them that weekends were somewhat slower in terms of volunteers and engagement, so they adjusted their social media campaigns driving traffic to their website. They ended up cutting their reporting time by 50 percent, freeing up an already limited staff to grow their impact throughout the community and expand to new cities, as demonstrated in “Google Analytics: 412 Food Rescue Case Study.”
Voice Search Optimization
ChatGPT wrote, “With the rise of voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, voice search is becoming increasingly popular. To ensure that their products and services appear at the top of the results when consumers search using their voice, businesses are optimizing their content for voice search.”
It was certainly surprising that ChatGPT selected voice search optimization as a top digital marketing trend. Recent articles on the topic showed that 33 percent of people in the United States were using voice search, there would be 8 billion voice assistants in use worldwide by 2024, and a business not focusing on voice search optimization could be missing out on sales.
In other words, ChatGPT was exactly right in its assessment. This meant that using the chatbot could help people see around possible corners.
Interactive Content
ChatGPT wrote, “Interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, and games, is becoming increasingly popular as a way for businesses to engage with their customers and gain valuable insights into their audience. By providing a more interactive experience, businesses can build stronger relationships with consumers and create a more memorable brand experience.”
ChatGPT’s selection of the trend was somewhat puzzling. According to the article “Interactive Content: 10 Types To Engage Your Audience,” “interactivity is extremely important in the online world, and it will improve user experience.”
This still left open to debate whether interactive content was more important to SEO than Google’s August 2022 content update. Answering this question required conducting a multivariate test within the A/B test to determine whether the chatbot spotted a trend that deserved more focus.
Get City Dealz, SEO-PR, and Business Wire won two awards for an A/B/C test that found a press release with a video earned 55.4 percent more release views and 36.1 percent more link clicks while a release with a photo had 4.6 percent more release views and 7.1 percent more link clicks than a release without multimedia. Business Wire also launched Interactive Media news releases that received 88 seconds of active attention compared to 30 seconds of passive attention for traditional news releases.
Business Wire said the interactive format engages audiences 30–50 percent more than its traditional news releases.
Micro-Moments
ChatGPT wrote, “As consumers are constantly on the go and using their mobile devices for quick information, businesses are focusing on micro-moments. These are the moments when consumers need information immediately, and businesses are providing relevant and timely information at exactly the right moment.”
ChatGPT’s selection of micro-moments as a top digital marketing trend for 2023 was somewhat baffling. This has been a trend for over a decade.
Again, ChatGPT’s knowledge of events after 2021 is highly limited. Keep in mind that back in 2021, people were just emerging from lockdowns during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
People only began using mobile devices again to search for “covid vaccine near me” or “Johnson and Johnson vaccine near me.” Such micro-moments may have prompted the chatbot to select the otherwise outdated trend.
Influencer Marketing
ChatGPT wrote, “Influencer marketing is becoming a staple in the digital marketing world, with businesses partnering with social media influencers to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness. By tapping into the influence that these individuals have over their followers, businesses can reach new customers and drive conversions.”
ChatGPT’s selection of influencer marketing as a top digital marketing trend this time seemed to be right on. Data from the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report shows that more than 82 percent of brand marketers planned to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2023, 67 percent of marketers intended to increase their influencer marketing expenditures, the influencer marketing industry was expected to be worth $21.1 billion in 2023, or a 29 percent growth year over year (YoY), and 83 percent of marketers believed influence marketing was an effective form of marketing.
Video Marketing
ChatGPT wrote, “Video content is becoming the dominant form of content on the internet, and businesses are incorporating video into their marketing strategies to reach consumers in new and engaging ways. Whether it’s through social media, video advertisements, or product demos, video is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their customers.”
ChatGPT’s selection of video marketing as a top digital marketing trend again seems to be spot on. There will still be questions about the need to refocus attention on it now.
During Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call on February 2, 2023, CEO Sundar Pichai said that YouTube Shorts surpassed 50 billion daily views, which was an increase from 30 billion one year ago. One day earlier, YouTube had enabled creators to share advertising revenue from short-form videos.
All of this marks a good reason for companies to refocus their attention on video marketing. Even though several industry analysts will be more focused on TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube has steadily remained a leader in short-form video.
Chatbots
ChatGPT wrote, “Chatbots are becoming more sophisticated, providing instant and personalized customer service. This technology is freeing up time for businesses to focus on other tasks, and it’s also making it easier for consumers to get the information they need quickly and efficiently.”
David Leonhardt of The New York Times had listed ChatGPT as one of the Seven Surprises of the past few months. His colleague Kevin Roose said ChatGPT was still young at only two months old, yet we were already getting a glimpse of the many ways such AI chatbots might change our lives.
If ChatGPT only has a limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021, how could it know that chatbots would be one of the top digital marketing trends for 2023? Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said, “In 2021, we shared next-gen language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA). Coming soon: Bard, a new experimental conversational #GoogleAI service powered by LaMDA.”
Personalization
ChatGPT wrote, “With data becoming increasingly accessible, businesses are leveraging this information to deliver personalized experiences to their customers. From targeted ads to customized content recommendations, personalization is key to delivering a unique and engaging customer experience.”
ChatGPT might be a bit off with its selection of this trend. Personalization was probably a top digital marketing trend in the distant past.
It now faces strong headwinds from consumers who are using ad blockers to avoid intrusive or repetitive ads. This is also not to mention many privacy regulations, like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as well as privacy changes by key players like Google and Apple.
The number of growing privacy concerns means consumers are rethinking the data they are willing to give to any brands, and it is also forcing marketers to change their perception of personalization. In 2023, we should probably should shift more to predictive audiences.
Social Media Advertising
ChatGPT wrote, “Social media advertising is continuing to grow, with businesses leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to reach their target audience and drive conversions. Whether it’s through sponsored content, display ads, or influencer partnerships, social media advertising is an effective way for businesses to reach new customers and build brand awareness.”
ChatGPT is somewhat right with this trend. Social media advertising is only going to continue to grow.
Many advertisers may want to move their ad budgets out of places like Facebook and Twitter into YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn instead in 2023. Advertisers might also want to move more of their ad budgets out of display ads and into social video ads.
Video is now accounting for more than half of all social network ad revenues, according to Evelyn Mitchell of Insider Intelligence. She said that it was not expected for video to hit the 50 percent milestone until after 2024, but advertisers preserving more of their social video budgets during the downturn meant the trend was accelerated.
Social video ad spending is now expected to increase 21.2 percent in 2023. Perhaps the biggest growth driver in digital video ad spending will be connected TV (CTV), which is expected to grow 27.2 percent this year.
Virtual And Augmented Reality
ChatGPT wrote, “Virtual and augmented reality is becoming more widespread, allowing businesses to create immersive experiences for their customers. From virtual product demonstrations to augmented reality shopping, these technologies are providing a new way for businesses to connect with their customers and create a more engaging brand experience.”
Virtual and augmented reality might be a reality one day but still seems a bit far off. They could become top trends in a few years, but not right now.
This means that while virtual and augmented reality could become top trends a couple years from now, other formats like short-form and long-form or stories and live streaming will continue to be popular on many devices.
The ChatGPT closing paragraph read, “In conclusion, these are just a few of the digital marketing trends that are set to dominate the scene in 2023. By staying ahead of the curve and adopting these new technologies and strategies, businesses can reach new customers, build brand awareness, and stay ahead of the competition.”
None of this was too terrible for a chatbot.
ChatGPT Help in Houston, TX
Is your company currently toying with the idea of using ChatGPT? You will want to make sure that you are using it the right way, and SERP Matrix will be able to assist you in ensuring that you are still getting the best efforts from your digital marketing efforts.
You should know that working with SERP Matrix will mean that you can get fresh material from our content writing team, so you will never have to worry about Google penalizing you for using material crafted by a chatbot. We employ real writers who can create strong and compelling material.
SERP Matrix is also particularly adept when it comes to local SEO concerns. You can also take tremendous comfort in knowing that we support our work with an SEO services guarantee.
Do not waste any time wondering how ChatGPT might hurt or help your company because SERP Matrix can answer all of your questions. Simply call (713) 287-1134 or contact us online to take advantage of a free consultation.
