Emerging communication and customer relationship trends in 2023
– By Lina Rincón Argüello, leader in Colombia at Latam Intersect PRThere are many reasons to believe that 2023 could bring great disruption to the area of corporate communications, as many paradigms look set to shift or even break. Existing technologies will be consolidated and other, newer technologies will emerge, creating more direct and personalized methods of building trust and value for brands. This will also make it doubly important that organizations ensure the involvement of all their employees within the areas of marketing and communication when creating company-wide strategies that communicate a unified message and establish a closer relationship with consumers.
On the other hand, Public Relations remains an essential and leading driver for what I explained above – you might say it’s the cherry on the cake. PR’s role is to consolidate and maintain an organization’s communication strategy with all the relevant stakeholders, and this includes working to transform, to modernize, to break down old paradigms and open people’s minds to new ones and any challenges these pose, all the while complying with the strategies and objectives already set.
2023, like every year, brings new challenges for companies, and therefore, we must be paying attention to the changes and desires that are driven by consumers and thus be assertive when making new communication strategies that can bring companies and brands closer to their consumers and, with that, earn their loyalty. To explain further, we will now examine some tools and trends that we think are important and that every company should be considering this year.
Inclusive messaging
Something that is of great importance today is a company’s or brand’s awareness of social issues. Organizations must correctly identify and show a genuine interest in their audiences’ concerns in order to successfully communicate personalized and direct messages that allow them to differentiate themselves from their competitors while demonstrating social responsibility and awareness.
Personalization of digital channels
This is a key trend within organizations as it helps to distribute their messages, campaigns and content to audiences, while simultaneously building better and closer relationships with users. This increased proximity allows companies to learn more about their customers’ preferences, desires and reasons for buying certain products, which in turn helps companies to provide a better service in the future.
Metaverse
The Metaverse shows great promise as a technological innovation that will boost a better relationship between all parts of a company, both internally and externally. The communications, marketing and advertising departments will be especially key to promoting this new post-real universe, which will serve as a collaborative tool between both internal employees and teams, as well as driving business development with clients and establishing relationships with all stakeholders within the virtual environment.
Relationship between the marketing and communications departments
New inbound digital strategies such as SEO will lead the marketing and communications departments to collaborate and align their business and branding objectives, which will make more efficient use of resources and optimize corporate budgets in order to achieve better results.
3600 strategy
For years, public relations focussed on what is known as ‘earned media’, but 2023 will see a broadening to other more fluid channels and communicators such as ‘Brand Lovers’, influencers and other collaborators. This will demand the creation of new narratives and approaches that can work on both social media platforms and internal channels in order to achieve bidirectional and inclusive messaging, with concise, personalized and exclusive communications.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Digital media has started to personalize and index content according to the interests of its audiences. With Machine Learning technology, up to 50% engagement can be generated since the content is put into categories and shown in personalized formats that take into consideration the day on which the information is being consumed. This is an opportunity for organizations to develop concrete and high-impact messages.
Quality relationships
It is important for the PR professional to build positive, long-term relationships with the media, journalists and influencers in order to achieve success and quality coverage. The world of public relations is constantly evolving, and with this evolution comes new challenges for its professionals, who are obliged to improve their work with creative and innovative methods that achieve better results for brands.
Influence of spokespersons in corporate communications
Generally, the role of spokesperson is performed by the CEO of the company, but this can’t always be the case due to their many commitments. For this reason, companies must invest time and resources in training spokespersons who can represent the brand, both in the media and with other relevant parties. These individuals should be able to deliver corporate speeches and address issues, even the most sensitive and controversial, while demonstrating sensitivity towards the political, social and environmental context, among others. Next year we will see the emergence of a more communicative, proactive and professional spokesperson.
With these guidelines we will see how the new year develops and what we will continue to implement in terms of communication and relationship to achieve success stories with our clients.
