2023 Marketing Automation Trends to Expect

Narrator 0:00
You’re listening to the off systems go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot. Learn how to deploy automated marketing and sale systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris Davis 0:33
And we’re back. Welcome.

Chris Davis 0:36
Welcome to another episode of The all systems go podcast. As mentioned in the in the intro, I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And it’s been a little bit it’s been a little bit. As you all know, I launched the premium podcast, I’ve been adding so much value over there. And for the for the vision of next year, I said, You know what, there’s no way I can’t address this publicly what is going to happen in 2023. With regard to marketing automation, I’m seeing a lot of trends. And let me say this, I’m not 100% right all the time. I think I’m on the record of maybe last year saying that this would be the year segmentation. I said this year, last year will be Yeah, this year, last year would be the year of segmentation. We still haven’t seen that come to the forefront, there’s still a lot of people struggling with it don’t really understand how it works. So I’m not 100%. But I’ve got to be in the 90s with my predictions on trends and things to look out for. So that’s what I want to do in this episode. And let me just say, if you haven’t subscribed to the premium podcast, you can still do so. And go get all of those episodes for free. I went over some of the top tools in my tech stack, answering questions that people have submitted, if you just go to all systems go podcast.com I believe it will take you right there to where you can register for the premium podcast. It’s been a good time, it’s been a good time. And there’s some findings and things that I actually want to share with you all at the end of at the end of this podcast. But first, let’s jump right into it. First trend, first trend that I see that you should expect in 2023. Artificial Intelligence is that I’m not surprised anybody with that one. Listen, chat GPT copy.ar. Jasper, you name it.ai. It’s here. Artificial Intelligence is here. When I say here I’m talking about in the marketing world. It’s been around hovering in other industries. But it’s here. It’s it’s writing content. It’s answering questions. It’s it’s giving you recipes. If you like people are having real, like full on conversations with Chet GPT. Right. People are using Jasper to write articles and blog posts and ads and everything. Right. And there’s all kinds of Canva just released magic riders, I think that’s the name of it magic, right? That is start helping you fill out your, your your documents. Artificial Intelligence is here, everyone. Now what we’re going to start to see is the intersection or overlap of artificial intelligence and automation. Who’s going to be the first platform to have aI write an email within their software? Right? Is it going to go so far as to recommend, if you should use a tag or custom field? Hey, this, somebody built an automation just like this? Here’s how they did it? Is it gonna build an automation for you? I mean, it could write code right now. I saw somebody use chat GPT to write a Python script. Are we getting to a point where we could expect artificial intelligence to build out an automation? Or at least tell us how to Hey, Chet GPT, how do you build an automation Active Campaign that delivers a lead magnet and and make sure that they download it? Well, we would first start with the form did it is that real? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m looking forward to seeing the intersection between artificial intelligence and automation. But we’re just going to see more of it in 2023. All right. That’s my first one. Second one. Communities if you’re not paying attention, not coming already building was of the past, paid community building is of the now and the future. You want me to prove it to you. I’m just going to name off some platforms, Patreon. Patreon literally exists just for people, people to monetize their community. That’s it. When I’ve seen artists, crafters, content creators, right there I say only fans. Listen, I wasn’t familiar with only fans. And then how I got familiar with it was through a artists. And I was like, Oh, that’s cool. Somebody’s using only fans to, to like, monetize their art and this, this and that. And I said it and everybody looked at me crazy in this room that I was in. And I was like, What did I say? And then I realized how the other majority are using only fans. And I was like, whoa, whoa, slow down timeout. Didn’t know. Sorry. Right. But even in that use case, it still shows how now I could go to these big publication companies, and try to make it big in those types of movies. Or I can create a community of people that want to see me engage in that way. Still community may not be of integrity, it may not be of your liking may be that of perversion a bit right? Still community, right? So much. So. And these are just two platforms. By the way, there’s others. So much. So you two has a community feature. Now, if you haven’t seen that YouTube as a community feature, where you can post images and text posts, right. They’re like the reverse of Facebook, where Facebook was images and text, text posts, then they added video, YouTube was video. Now they’re adding text and image posts. Because of trying to create community, you can already pay to subscribe to get premium content on YouTube. It’s not unrolled to everybody. It’s not an it’s not launched, rolled out. There it is. It’s not rolled out to everybody. But it’s there. Guess what? Instagram, Instagram has subscriptions. I don’t know if you knew that. But they’re there, you’re going to see more of it. Community is going to be the key. It’s not even about there was a time where it was like, I’m not using Facebook anymore, I’m going to build my own group. We’re not even talking about that. Because a lot of these communities still use a free Facebook group, they still use social media in some way to get people into it. What we’re talking about is a you’re going to see a trend of monetized followings by means of community. It used to be you monetize your following your audience by email. Right? We’re seeing a shift everyone, I’m just telling you, I’ve seen the software companies making this shift. I think circle is probably the most widely used amongst internet marketers or info marketers. And that’s because you know, they have the Pat Flynn’s and whoever else is using it and really promoting it, they’ve got big audiences. And when you look at the software, it really is built for that low design. It is just enough to look clean for you to have a community but it’s got a lot of functionality that marketers need with respect to one of the other top top options and mighty networks who have just gone through a major overhaul that really gets them more in line with how circle is offering their spaces and everything mighty networks just launch spaces. But they take a different approach. They take more of a design heavy approach, they want it to look beautiful and want it to be an entire experience and they don’t have a lot of features for marketers. So you’re gonna have options that will fit what you need it to do the community I think there’s another software called tribe there’s another one I think call click or something for marketers all in one. It doesn’t matter. Can I be remiss without mentioning buddy boss for all of you all who use LearnDash and Buddy boss theme and win and turn it into an app. Community. Is here monetize community more specifically. Okay. And you don’t have this is I want to say I’m putting on my nostra dam Chris hat. And I’m seeing into the future. I don’t even need it for this. It’s slapping us right in the face is showing you this is where we’re going. Okay, so you need to get in ready and be familiar with it. Right? And last thing I’ll say is this, this is the last thing I’ll say. This is a trend that is this is long overdue, but there is now an increased awareness around what it truly requires to be effective and successful with email marketing.

Chris Davis 10:29
And I say and this is why I’m saying it, everyone, because there was a point in time all the way up until this year, really, it was all about, how do I get leads to email? How do I get more leads to email, leads, leads, leads, email, email, email. And as it got more difficult to land into the inbox, as people got exhausted with with just sending email and managing their CRM, software, and everything that comes with automated marketing, people just left their list alone. And there are more dormant lists today, I would say, than I’ve ever seen. And what people now are seeing is, wait a minute, email is effective. I’ve got all these people I need to reach to, but I’ve got to do it. In a way I’ve got to be better. Right? So I’m saying this, to those of you who provide the service of automation, not just my automation service providers, but digital marketers, marketing automators out there, you’re going to start seeing more and more of people who have mismanaged, are mismanaging or have never leveraged their lists properly, because there’s a Oh, awareness that is coming around, collectively in the space of the importance of leveraging, I don’t know if it was infused by COVID. Whatever the case is, people are looking to leverage their lists more effectively, not just build a list, and this is a good thing. This is a good thing. Okay, so be ready, be ready for all of that. Don’t let any of it take you by surprise. If you’re an industry leader in marketing, for your for your you know, your industry in your space, you’ve got to be on these trends. And there’s more we talked about those in the community. And people are like, hey, what about this? What? Literally, we’ve had those conversations in the automation bridge community. So I’m always I just always want to give you all enough to be prepared, though. And speaking of being prepared. Let me talk about this podcast, everybody. So you all have been part of a live experiment. I have no shame, no negative connotation towards it. And here’s why. The big brands do it all the time. I can’t count how many products Google has launched and killed. Right? Like goggles, Google Wave, Google, you, you put any noun after the word Google in a probably had a product that is no longer existing. Right, companies do it all the time. So I find myself in that, in that sense with the podcast. If you don’t know, there’s been a bit of a hiatus on the public podcast. And this is the first first episode since the announcement of the premium podcast, because I had I did have a plan and strategy to use premium podcasts in a way. And then I was gonna say, depending on how that go, would I maintain this podcast? Blah, blah, blah? Long story short, it was an experiment. And if it’s anything that marketers do is we experiment? And then what do we do we look at the data to validate is this experiment worth continuing? Do I need to adjust to I need to optimize whatever the case may be? So in the time that I’ve been able to launch this premium podcast, I saw some trends that say, Chris, don’t you ever stop being premium. So that’s here to stay 2023 still right now on premium. However, the data also said, Chris, the podcast is needed. The data told me this. So in 2023, we will be coming back to a weekly cadence of publication. On the all systems go podcast cue the sound effects for the for the hand applause. So in an iTunes, Apple podcast, Google podcasts everywhere else, you’ll start to get your notifications again every week that the all systems go podcast has a new episode. And I’m so excited about the direction and approach. I can’t share it all here. If you want to get insight on it, you can join the community and ask them to join the conversation that’s already taking place. But the the way in which it will be launched next year, where we’re targeting q2, if we can turn things around prior to that, you’ll see some episodes come mon q1, until then, make sure you’re a premium subscriber because all of that content is going, I’ll still be publishing premium while we prepare for the for this for the public relaunch. And I’m modeling, what I can share with you is I modeling it off of the mainstream media model that you all are used to. So expect industry experts, right, that talk about eight who are expert in a specific area, so I can have them on multiple times, giving an exhaustive overview of strategies and tools and things that are working. The goal is for me not to be that’s what I’m excited about as the goal is for me not to be the expert, and really put everybody else’s expertise on display. I’ll still provide my value, of course, but I am, I can’t tell you how excited I am about all that’s coming. Okay, but I’m more proud to take the leap and run the experiment. I can’t tell you how nervous I was to stop recording the podcast, and start doing premium because, you know, I pride myself on consistency. And just the thing of not seeing a new episode every Thursday after it’s been an episode for two years was a little frightening. But it was the only way that I could truly run this experiment. And I now me I own nobody told me I own from my own experience my own data. I know exactly where private podcasting fits in my business model, and regular podcasting fits. And I wouldn’t have been able to do that just following the leader following what everybody else is doing. So you all saw it, some of you were part of it. Sometimes you just got a break break from the herd been watching a lot, a lot of Yellowstone and in a cow break free for a little bit. And then the Cowboys are rain and right back in. Right? So sometimes you gotta gotta break out and just kind of see, Hey, what’s this life like over there? Okay, I get it now. Now I’m back to the herd intentionally, and knowing why I’m going this direction. So it was great. I had I just had that question mark, question mark has been answered. And we’ll be back at it. Okay, last thing, though. Last thing I want to add, is that I want you to look out for this in 2023, as well. Historically, historically, agencies have been focused around websites, branding. And you could argue social media, right. But marketing is usually a part of what they do. Right now, there. There have been marketing agencies, and there are marketing, digital marketing agencies. There are I promise you, however, traditionally, it’s usually been like a web based agency that offers digital marketing, branding and all of these other things. Very, in fact, let me be more specific. I have not seen many people lead with marketing automation as an agency. Okay. I haven’t seen that. So, as I’m saying this, let me clarify, because I don’t want people to be like, What is he talking about? I have a digital agency since 1995. Yes, marketing, our marketing agency says 99 marketing agencies have been their web web development agencies have been there. Social media and branding have been there. The problem is, the average person in historically has gone to the web developer, their agency for everything. They’ve gone to the branding, because they can comprehend branding. They can comprehend website, they can even comprehend social media. And then once that thing gets checked, they say, Hey, can you do marketing too? And those agencies are like, Yeah, and we do marketing. So once you get to a point where you realize you need marketing, that’s where somebody will actually go and look for a digital marketing agency. So that’s why I put them behind the, the, your your regular boutique agency, because that’s what the average person goes for. And in the bonuses that you can do marketing. Here’s what I want you all to be on the watch for, I think how software is being created in the marketing automation space. It starts starting to make way for the emergence of more marketing automation agencies. I do. I believe we’re in 2023. I think we’ll see more than we’ve ever seen. Come to the market. We specialize marketing, automation, digital marketing. We specialize in marketing automation.

Chris Davis 19:58
I strongly believe that I strongly I strongly believe that and it may be a particular type of marketing automation tool, right? Like, hey, our marketing automation is built around quizzes and automating the funnel for quizzes, right? It’s gonna look in a variety of different ways. But the software, how software is changing and being developed. And I have to mention, here’s one, two are really leading this whole making me Will, I don’t want to say it. In enabling this for for agencies to not just supply the service of marketing automation, but also the software for it. Right. That’s what I’m saying this is marketing automation, we’re going to see an uptick in agencies that provided and ways for those of you who want to get started with a prebuilt system, not have to start from scratch is here is here, I know that Infusionsoft now known as keep was, has been trying to figure this out for years since I was a certified partner. But it wasn’t easy to just sign up and then push all of your campaigns to another account, it was tough. This is getting easier and easier by the day. So what what it a B, once we see this start to take place, you’ll see that there’s probably going to be less people that are really doing it because the resources won’t be scarce. I think that a lot of people took on automation, because they just figured, oh, I can do it. And you can only go so far to realize, Oh, I really can’t do it. Hopefully you realize that right? Then you need an expert. And that’s what everything you can only go so far that you need an expert to take you further. So I think you’re gonna start to see that less people are like, hey, look, I can do it. Oh, wait a minute, is that what you do marketing automation, you do that you just do it for me. Right. But I want to caution you all from relying on web developers and, and social media marketing agencies of that nature, to do your, your marketing and your marketing automation. Unless they have shown and proven. We are committed to this, we’ve gone and done training, we know how to do this service. This is not just something that people asked us about, we hook you up with MailChimp, and lead you on your way. And again, the good thing is I’m starting to see web developers reach out to me web developing agencies comes to hey, I want to add to service automation to my to my offering. They’re right in line. Because I would argue this shift in 23 may even be that people look for marketing automation before the website. And now we’re now the web developer that has a marketing automation skills becomes even that much more attractive, because I can get them in on the marketing automation side. And then also may help them get their web presence up. We’ll see. We’ll see. This one is the reason why I said this is a last thing. Remember, I didn’t say this was a trend. I just said this one was something to watch out for. The software could tank and I could be proven totally wrong. The market may not be ready it from a mature standpoint. And it goes a total opposite. And we see less adoption. Right? It could. I don’t I just don’t think that’s going to happen. So let’s just watch out for it, everyone. Let’s watch out for it. And watch out for me. I’m coming back. It’s been a while I missed you all, you know sometimes, you know sometimes you all are silent. You know you don’t talk back to me much you don’t leave reviews and in ratings and all of that. But whenever I meet somebody in person, that’s a subscriber and they’re like Chris, I listen to every episode. It’s been happening more and more frequently. And that’s where I get my fuel. So I do miss you all and I know even in your silence, you’re listening so I appreciate it. I’m looking forward to being in your ear lobes more in 2023 Have a Happy New Year. Be safe everyone bringing in the new year. We need you here we need your business, we need the value that you provide. So until next time I see you all online. Automate responsibly my friends.

Chris Davis 24:41
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The all systems go podcast. If you enjoyed it, make sure that you’re subscribed at the time of recording the all systems go podcast is free to subscribe to and it can be found in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get Sure podcasts new episodes are released every Thursday, so make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss out. And while you’re at it, please leave us a five star rating and review to show some love but also to help future listeners more easily find the podcast so they can experience the value of goodness as well. We’ve compiled all resources mentioned on the podcast, as well as other resources that are extremely valuable and effective at helping you grow your marketing automation skills quickly. And you can access them all at all systems go podcast.com Thanks again for listening. And until next time, I see you online. Automate responsibly, my friends