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The B2B sales model is changing. Where outside sales reps were once seen as a cost-effective and efficient way to close new deals and build revenue, more companies are bolstering their inside sales team. The migration from the traditional sales approach to inside sales is helping B2B companies more closely align sales and marketing, improve lead generation, and create a better customer experience.

Growth is a positive thing. Whether it’s financial or personal, growth means progress. When we talk about the growth of a business, we are referring to the process of increasing the size, revenue, and market share over time. At MarketStar, we are proud of our purpose to “Create Growth”, because over the last 35 years this is what we have done successfully for our clients and our people all over the world. However, the growth we create isn’t about a quick fix and rapid expansion.

Practicing the art of creating sustainableand profitable growth is a combination of expertise and experience. And while it may appear easy on paper, there are numerous examples of companies who could not keep up with their own growth. We often find that organizations focus on intense growth instead of creating scalable processes to sustain that growth in the future. According to Business Harvard Review“today’s medium firms are larger and older than at any other time in the past 35 years; yet an increasing percentage of medium firms incur losses, have lower profits, and have lower growth despite spending larger amounts on experimentation and innovation.” 

With a phone in almost every hand today, Short Message Service (SMS) marketing's popularity has only been growing from strength to strength recently. Bulk SMS marketing is at the peak of its demand for various reasons today, especially in the e-commerce sector.

Key Takeaways

• Businesses can promote advertising through numerous online channels like social media ads, video streaming ads, and in-game ads.

• Omnichannel advertising identifies programmatic advertising as the preferred solution for online ad markets.

• Personalization is more important than ever in digital advertising, as businesses look to provide tailored experiences that resonate with their customers and drive conversions.

Introduction

‘It’s important to remember that your competitor is only one mouse click away.’

In today’s digital age, it’s imperative for small and medium-sized businesses to keep up with the latest advertising and digital marketing trends to remain competitive. With the COVID-19 pandemic prompting a significant shift towards digitalization, the advertising landscape has undergone a transformation, and adapting to these changes has become more important than ever.

The digital advertising industry is continually evolving and developing new AdTech trends, enabling businesses to innovate and reshape their revenue strategies. Staying up to date with these trends in digital advertising and adopting them in marketing campaigns can be a game-changer for businesses, leading to increased visibility and higher conversion rates.

This blog will provide the latest insights and updates about digital advertising trends in 2023.

Introduction of Adtech into Small Businesses

The colossal rise of social media has enabled AdTech and MarTech technologies to target prospects with minute brand interactions. Over 8000 marketing and digital advertising tools that can leverage technology for the planning and execution of marketing campaigns have thus emerged.

Data further strengthens the ability of SMBs to target their advertising to specific demographics, interests, and locations.

The following section highlights some key benefits of paid advertising for SMBs.

• Targeting your customers precisely: The most crucial challenge an SMB faces is gaining online exposure and inaccurate targeting of customers, especially in industries where enterprise-level players reign supreme.
  
  SMBs should focus their marketing and advertising plans on niche customers through AdTech. With AdTech, SMBs can cut through oversaturated markets and reach their ideal customers with precision and impact. This explains why 93% of SMBs invest in digital advertising strategies that can increase their expenditure in 2023.

• Optimal resource allocation: How can SMBs target customers using audience insights from AdTech resources on a budget? With the advanced targeting capabilities of digital advertising, SMBs can apply an organized approach to attract new customers.
  
  Instead, they can precisely manage their ad inventory and budget, enabling even modest advertising budgets to have a significant impact. Moreover, cross-channel marketing can be leveraged to retarget potential customers through direct mail or drive responses. 

• Ensuring organizational level efficacy: Adtech tools provide a wealth of data and metrics that advertisers can use to quickly analyze and optimize their ad content, placement, and inventory, resulting in maximum effectiveness with faster results.
  
  Forbes reports that sharing-worthy content can enable businesses to target specific segments, especially with the changing landscape of audience attitudes. AdTech tools can give valuable insights into customer behaviors, including site-wide navigation statistics and session duration. This helps customize or personalize campaigns best suited to your purpose without wasting resources. 

Digital Advertising Trends 2023

Trend 1: Omnichannel SMB Advertising

The omnichannel approach to digital advertising for businesses involves the usage of several channels like social media advertising, email marketing, search engine marketing, display advertising, print ads, and direct mail campaigns simultaneously. 

While implementing these strategies, however, businesses must focus on consistency and marketing intent. Data and analytics can help track the performance of these campaigns for increased brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Let us look at the various wings of omnichannel advertising in brief.

• Display ads: Display ads date back to the initial days of the internet and appear as static or moving texts or images with links to various products. Depending on the goal of a particular advertising campaign, these ads are often designed to educate, entertain or engage customers through an interactive interface.

• Social media ads: Local ad purchase statistics reveal that 22% of businesses plan to increase their expenditure on social media ads in 2022-23. This suggests that marketing and advertising on social media have gathered tremendous pace and are about to cross the $300 billion mark by 2024. Social media ads can be curated easily by understanding the target audience and the rate of expected impressions or engagement and periodically optimizing ad performance.

• Video streaming ads: The gradual decline of linear TV advertising and the boom in video streaming services proves the tremendous potential of video streaming ads in generating revenue. With video streaming over YouTube and OTT platforms, the demand for video ads has seen an unprecedented rise in attracting audiences and converting them into customers. Statistics reveal that 64% of the Indian audience of video streaming channels respond to streaming ads, and 33% of them make a purchase.

• Audio streaming ads: Audio streaming ads have also increased, with brands like Spotify and YouTube Music joining the race. Audio streaming ads are also ideal for younger consumers, as audio streaming services attract a younger population. Podcast ads are highly effective, with 54% of podcast listeners considering a brand after hearing an ad.

• Native ads: For an even more organic and contextual feel of approaching customers through advertising, businesses often turn to native ads. Native advertising refers to advertising content that mimics the form and function of the site or app on which it is placed. While only 55% trust social media ads, experts reveal that 68% of consumers trust native ads.

• Phy-digital advertising: Out-of-home advertising, like billboards, public transportation, etc., has also experienced a digital shift, with many businesses presenting a phy-digital experience by introducing digital elements in offline advertising modes

Trend 2: Short Video Advertising Reign Supreme

The video format is evolving rapidly due to the popularity of mobile devices and content platforms like TikTok. The short-video content format has facilitated micro-ads, with over 50% of adults closing a video after just 20 seconds. Advertisers face the challenge of creating impactful and relevant content that engages the customer quickly.

Researchers also claim that consumers watch video ads without sound, especially on FB or Instagram. In 2022, online videos garnered more than 100 minutes each day per person on average in watch durations. With an approximate 41% rise in video usage from 2016-22, it would only benefit the SMB sector in 2023 to adopt video marketing.

Short-form videos are efficient digital advertising tools that promote higher engagement and help create a niche customer base. Short video ads can present SMBs with immense opportunities as they are cost-effective, engaging, and can be easily shared on various social media platforms.

Short video ads can target specific audiences, making them an effective tool for reaching and engaging with target customers. Micro-ad platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram use animation and graphical outlook to create an everlasting impact. Creative tools and substantial audio libraries make advertising competitive, especially for small businesses.

Trend 3: Unleashing the Power of In-game Advertising

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, online gaming has transformed into a family activity, with 74% of parents playing with their children weekly. 63% of parents believe that educational games are effective learning instruments—additionally, 77% play games online or with others for social interaction.

Market forecast experts claim that the in-game advertising market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.25% from 2023 to 27. This accelerating growth momentum throws light on the customer adoption rate and determines the sensitivity of price changes.

Through digitally distributed downloadable in-game content, Activision Blizzard Media generated more than $7.53 billion in revenue (2022). In-game advertisers can generate revenue from microtransactions, banner ads, interstitial ads, rewarded ads, in-game ad placements and licensing royalties.

A remarkable rise in gamers implies a growing popularity of in-game advertising. The US, China and Japan are the most significant consumer countries for in-game advertising.

Trend 4: How Programmatic Advertising Helps Navigate the Fragmented Digital Ad Market

Programmatic advertising streamlines the buying and selling of digital ad space. It uses algorithms to make real-time decisions on which ads to buy and how much to pay based on user data. In addition to saving time and cost for advertisers and publishers, programmatic ads fortify the ad inventory across multiple publishers, which can be accessed based on the specific audience niche.

According to IAB research, programmatic advertising has seen a 39% annual growth in revenues. The digital music and podcast service Spotify allows businesses to share their message with programmatic advertising through engaging video and audio formats. Such advertisements can reach millions of subscribers through their enhanced audience-targeting capabilities.

Programmatic advertising can produce opportunities like cross-device campaign strategies and a large-scale audience reach. Experts believe that SMBs can expand their brand awareness among customers at a cheaper rate than display ads.

Trend 5: Beyond the Typical Walls of Google and Social Media Advertising

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) typically advertise on Google and Facebook due to their access to valuable user data for targeted advertising. Facebook’s 2.7 billion monthly active users allow for granular targeting based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and life events.

Google’s focus on search enables ads to reach users with high purchase intent. Both companies also offer user-friendly interfaces, accessible analytics, and budget-friendly campaigns for SMB advertisers.

However, digital advertising trends in the current realm call for a unified outreach strategy because paying attention to each one costs money and time. Developing a comprehensive customer profile is challenging due to varying metrics and analytics across different platforms. Advertisers also rely on these platforms’ policies and algorithms, prioritizing platform growth over individual advertiser success.

What is to be done, then?

Self-service technology is reducing processing needs for publishers and streamlining ad buying for advertisers. This benefits SMBs as smaller deals can be profitable at a scale for publishers.

Liaising with publishers and networks is multiplying ad inventory and reach, making direct programmatic advertising with these publishers more lucrative for SMBs, despite not having the reach of Google and Meta.

Google, YouTube and Meta are common platforms for purchasing programmatic advertising space.

AdTech Stack in 2023

Digital advertising thrives on automation of several processes and leveraging appropriate tools. Digital ads in modern times should cater to both mobile and desktop users with the former reporting a 55.8% CAGR against 6.1% for the latter.

Some common tools and techniques in the AdTech umbrella include:

• Social media ad automation tools: Automation tools to manage social media ad campaigns are more efficient than manual management on different platforms. It allows advertisers to measure multiple metrics, gain insights into campaign performance, and optimize campaigns using AI and machine learning.

• Paid search automation tools: Using automation tools for pay-per-click or paid search campaigns can significantly simplify and enhance the process. Rather than manually managing and evaluating campaigns, which can be time-consuming and monotonous, these tools enable advertisers to optimize their bidding activity, analyze data from multiple sources, test and refine ad content, and focus on strategic decision-making. By providing actionable insights into both advertisers’ and competitors’ traffic, automation tools can help to optimize campaign strategies and maximize results.

• Creative management platforms: Digital advertising for businesses requires creative modifications to ad content especially for omnichannel and personalized advertising. Creative management platforms can automate the creation and management of ad content, enabling advertisers to make innumerable changes to creatives and optimize content in real-time using algorithmic inputs.

• Demand-side platforms (DSPs): DSPs allow advertisers to purchase impressions and submit ad prototypes while setting targeting factors, such as demographics, behavior, location, or context.

• Supply-side platforms (SSPs): With SSPs, publishers sell ad inventory to advertisers via different ad exchanges, maximizing the publishers’ ad revenue. They connect publishers’ ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges and DSPs.

• Ad exchanges/private marketplaces: Ad exchanges are interfaces that connect advertisers’ and publishers’ tools, facilitating the ad buying process. Major tech firms provide public ad exchanges, and providers also allow companies to create private exchanges.

• Data management platforms: Digital advertisers increasingly search for platforms to collect, store, manage, and analyze data to create comprehensive user profiles for targeted advertising. With data management platforms, the effectiveness of digital campaigns is greatly simplified thanks to reliance on the quality of data used for manual or automated decision-making. Choosing the right data management platform is essential for identifying and targeting customers.

• Targeting tools: Advertisers often need to segment their audience based on demographic, contextual, and geographical factors. Specific targeting tools solve their purpose with ease.

• Brand safety solutions: Brand safety tools allow advertisers to display ads only on suitable websites that align with the brand’s messaging context.

• Analytics and reporting tools: Sophisticated analytics and reporting are crucial components of AdTech as advertisers need raw data and clear insights into how their target audiences interact with their advertising to ensure its effectiveness and secure sufficient ROI.

Choosing Outsourced AdTech Partners over Hybrid Models

Small businesses often prefer to outsource their advertising processes to partner organizations instead of running an in-house team.

Three primary reasons why small businesses choose outsourcing these services instead of following a hybrid model are as follows:

• Slash costs: SMBs prefer an outsourced advertising platform to reduce their expenditure on hiring, training and managing their in-house teams. Since outsourced services seldom compromise on quality, businesses prefer to retain the resources reserved for hiring and training full-time employees.

• Leveraging technical expertise: Tech experts believe the AdTech industry is experiencing a steady growth momentum, especially after 2020. The inception of data-driven technologies like machine learning, customer data handling, standardization of metrics etc., have disrupted expectations, with the US AdTech market reaching an estimated $225 billion by 2024.

• Ease of scaling: The freedom to choose your scale of operations becomes easier with outsourcing AdTech services. While businesses may need more AdTech support during peak seasons, they can reduce their expenditure on outsourced services in lean seasons.

Bottom Line

The ever-evolving digital advertising landscape poses innumerable challenges for new and existing SMBs alike. From social media advertising to programmatic advertising, the opportunities for SMBs to reach their target audiences have never been more numerous.

Adtech offers a data-driven approach to SMB advertising, ensuring that brand messaging reaches the right audience. While AdTech technologies can automate this process, their adoption may require a steep learning curve. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited resources and budgets can turn to AdTech partners for focused expertise and experience, significantly contributing to advertising success.

AdTech is a broad term that references various solutions to help target, deliver, track, and analyze digital advertising efforts. Before you develop your company’s strategy, it’s important to clarify the differences between Digital Media and AdTech. Let’s start by defining the two terms and exploring how they are different.

You’re probably familiar with the concept of companies outsourcing their IT, human resources, and accounting needs. Outsourcing specific functions can help businesses focus on what they do best, while gaining access to industry experts and, in return, receiving proven processes and experience. But what about outsourced inside sales?

Key Takeaways

• Leveraging the latest sales tools can help streamline your sales processes, enhance customer relationships, and propel revenue growth to new heights.

• According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report 2022, an impressive 40% of sales professionals have closed deals worth over $500,000 without meeting the buyer in person.

• A robust CRM tool fosters stronger customer connections and propels your sales efforts towards success.

• Lead management tools enhance business lead generation and conversion efforts by centralizing lead storage and streamlining lead management processes through automation.

Are you looking to increase your sales and close more deals in 2023? Investing in the right sales tools can make all the difference in improving your sales cycle and achieving your goals.

With the right tools, your sales team can streamline their efforts and focus on what matters most – selling. From lead generation to CRM, every aspect of your sales strategy can be optimized with the right technology.

In this fast-paced world of business, having the right sales tools can make all the difference. Whether you are a small start-up or a large corporation, having access to the latest technology can help you streamline your sales processes, improve your customer relationships, and ultimately drive revenue growth.

Choosing the right tools for your business can seem like a daunting task. But fear not! In this blog, we will explore the key factors to consider when selecting sales tools and provide you with an overview of the top sales tools your business needs in 2023.

Why do we need Sales Tools?

To succeed in sales, you need the right tools at your disposal. Sales tools allow you to find and track prospective customers, connect with them, and close more deals.

A wide variety of sales tools are available on the market, and the best tool for you will depend on your specific needs. However, some of the most popular and essential sales tools include customer relationship management (CRM) software, sales intelligence software, lead generation software, and proposal software.

The right sales tools help streamline the sales process, providing salespeople with the necessary insights and information to target the right customers at the right time. This allows them to focus on building relationships and adding value rather than getting bogged down with administrative tasks.

Access to the latest and greatest sales tools is essential for sales professionals in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Failure to keep up with the latest trends and technologies can result in lost customers and top sales talent.

Elevate your Sales Game with These Must-Have Sales Tools

Discover the numerous options for sales tools to boost your success at every stage of the sales process! From must-have Customer Relationship Management software to powerful Sales Analytics tools, this list of sales tools is sure to take your game to the next level.

1. Analytics and Reporting

 Say goodbye to manual data collection and hello to automated insights. Analytics and reporting tools collect, analyze, and present sales data in a clear and concise format, like a report or dashboard. With the plethora of features these tools offer, you’ll be able to make informed decisions and take your sales to the next level. Some common features include:

• Sales performance tracking: Allows sales teams to see how well they are performing against their targets and identify areas for improvement.

• Data visualization: Helps sales teams to see the trends and patterns in their data and gain insights into their sales performance.

• Custom reporting: Enables sales teams to create customized reports to meet their specific needs and see the data that is most important to them.

• Dashboards: Provide a visual representation of sales performance, with key metrics and KPIs displayed in real time.

• Data export and integration: Allows sales teams to export and integrate their data with other tools and systems, such as CRM or accounting software.

Top Tools

Tableau is a powerful data visualization and business intelligence software used to analyze and present data in a meaningful way. It enables users to connect to various data sources, create interactive dashboards, and publish reports in minutes. Tableau’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and interactive features make it easy for users to explore and analyze data, uncover trends, and gain insights.

Tableau also provides robust collaboration and data-sharing features, allowing teams to share insights and work together to find solutions. It is widely used across various industries, from finance and retail to healthcare and technology, and is known for its versatility and ability to handle large amounts of data.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a powerful software application that revolutionizes how businesses manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer journey. With a CRM tool, sales teams can store, manage, and analyze customer data, including interactions, transactions, and behaviors. It helps you deepen customer relationships and drive sales success. Some of the key functions of a CRM tool include the following:

• Contact Management: Allows sales teams to store and manage customer information, such as names, contact information, and communication history.

• Lead and Opportunity Management: Helps sales teams track and manage their interactions with potential customers, from lead generation to closing deals.

• Sales Pipeline Management: Enables sales teams to see the status of their deals and the progress of their sales pipeline and make data-driven decisions about which deals to prioritize.

• Marketing Automation: Helps sales teams automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as email marketing, lead nurturing, and lead scoring, to increase their efficiency and effectiveness.

• Customer Service and Support: Enables businesses to manage and resolve customer support issues and track customer satisfaction.

Top Tools

• Salesforce – Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform that offers a wide range of sales and customer management tools, including contact management, lead and opportunity management, reporting and analytics, and marketing automation. 

• HubSpot CRM – HubSpot CRM is a free, cloud-based CRM platform that offers a range of sales and customer management tools, including contact management, lead and opportunity management, and reporting and analytics. 

• Pipedrive – Pipedriveis a sales CRM platform that focuses on helping sales teams manage their pipeline and close more deals, with features such as lead and opportunity management, pipeline management, and reporting and analytics. 

• Zoho CRM – Zoho CRM is a cloud-based CRM platform that offers a range of sales and customer management tools, including contact management, lead and opportunity management, reporting and analytics, and marketing automation. 

3. Lead Handling

Lead handling tools help businesses improve their lead generation and conversion rates by providing a centralized location to store and manage leads and automating many of the manual tasks involved in lead management. They also help sales teams focus their efforts on the most promising leads by providing insights into lead behavior and engagement and automating lead nurturing and scoring. Some of the key functions of lead-handling tools include:

• Lead Capture and Management: Allows businesses to capture leads from various sources, such as web forms, landing pages, and events, and store them in a centralized database.

• Lead Prioritization: Helps sales teams prioritize their leads based on factors such as lead score, demographic information, and buying behavior, so they can focus their efforts on the most promising leads. 

• Lead Nurturing: Automates the process of nurturing leads by sending targeted emails and other communications, based on the lead’s behavior and engagement with your business.

• Lead Scoring: Assigns a score to each lead based on their behavior and engagement with your business, to help sales teams prioritize their efforts and focus on the most promising leads.

• Lead Conversion: Helps sales teams track and manage the process of converting leads into customers, by tracking their progress through the sales pipeline and providing insights into which leads are most likely to convert.

Top Tools

The best tool for your business will depend on your specific needs and requirements. When choosing a lead handling tool, consider factors such as the size of your sales team, the complexity of your lead generation and conversion processes, and the level of customization and integration you need.

Here are some of the top lead handling tools:

• HubSpot – HubSpot provides a comprehensive solution for lead management that helps businesses streamline their sales processes. With HubSpot, businesses can increase conversions by capturing, organizing, nurturing, scoring, qualifying, routing, and converting leads.

• Marketo – Marketo provides advanced lead nurturing capabilities, allowing businesses to automate email and SMS communications to educate and engage leads over time.  Marketo also offers integrated sales tools, including email tracking and meeting scheduling, to help businesses close more deals and increase conversions.

• Pardot – Pardot is a SaaS marketing automation platform provided by Salesforce, designed explicitly for B2B sales and marketing organizations. It offers a range of tools, including email automation, targeted email campaigns, and lead management. The platform provides the ability to create email drip campaigns, lead nurturing and scoring, campaign segmentation, and more.

• LeadSquared – LeadSquared is a cutting-edge SaaS platform that offers comprehensive sales, marketing, and onboarding automation solutions. LeadSquared offers integrations with popular CRM platforms, such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, to provide a seamless and streamlined sales experience.

• ActiveCampaign – ActiveCampaign offers a comprehensive cloud-based marketing and sales automation platform that integrates email marketing, lead scoring, web analytics, a robust CRM system, and a live chat messaging platform called Conversations.

Conclusion

Choosing the right sales tools for your business in 2023 is an important decision that can significantly impact your sales performance. With the wide variety of sales tools available, it is important to consider your specific business needs and goals and choose tools that support your sales process and align with your overall sales strategy.

Whether you need lead handling tools to manage your leads, analytics and reporting tools to measure your sales performance, or customer relationship management tools to build stronger relationships with your customers, there is a sales tool that is right for you. By taking the time to research and choose the right sales tools for your business, you can increase your sales efficiency, improve your sales performance, and achieve your business goals in 2023 and beyond.

See the Buy vs. Build ROI infographic summary here

Despite rapid market changes, looming economic disruption, a continual battle for talent, and increasingly complex product and service offerings, one thing never changes for sales: you must hit your number. In 2023, the mantra tied to revenue is “adapt and evolve if you want to succeed and grow.” 

Engaging the partner channel isn’t as easy as it once was. Partners are more diverse and specialized, margins have thinned, and hard-good solutions are rapidly transitioning from one-time fees (with service contracts) to subscription-based solutions. Those companies who recognize that the partner channel is changing, and embrace the change, will be positioned for success in the coming years. But, those who choose to maintain business as usual, will likely see their channel slip through their fingers. 

The ongoing war in Ukraine caused by the Russian acts of aggression has made the devastating consequences of war a reality for thousands of families. With the frigid winter temperatures compounding the severity of war, we knew we had to do more than stand with Ukraine. The MarketStar Bulgarian team knew something had to be done to help the Ukrainian people.