Understanding your audience at the micro and macro levels fundamentally changes the way you reach out to them and the way they think about and interact with your brand. Trends in customer communications have accelerated with big changes affecting the marketing arena. The effects of the pandemic, technological advancements in automation and customer data acquisition, and big tech’s collective privacy push have had tremendous influences on the direction of CRM going into next year.

Let’s take a look at the top 5 CRM trends to watch for in 2023.

1. C is for (No More) Cookies

The much needed but dreaded (by marketers) removal of third-party cookies on many browsers, most notably Google Chrome, is finally upon us. This year Chrome will be wiping out the functionality of tracking and data scraping cookies from third-party websites to the sound of digital marketers everywhere wringing their hands.

Though this change is drastic for anyone relying on third-party data, it is far from an existential one. Brands can get ahead of this shift by investing heavily in first-party data. CEO Josh Perlstein writes for VentureBeat, “Building a database with quality data and a comprehensive identity strategy is critical for brands. First-party data is a significant competitive advantage (and differentiator), regardless of the future of identity.”

There are many ways to grow your first party data, including incentives for your customers to answer surveys, creating user profiles to track purchase behavior, conduct user research, or sharing customer information with partners. Any effort to verify data is correct and up to date will always pay off.

First-party data is the fuel for personalization, customer retention, cross-sell, and up-sell opportunities” says Perlstein. “Enhancing and enriching proprietary data creates a solid foundation for future first-party data strategies which are consumer-friendly and built to last in a cookieless world.

2. Less Data? Get Dynamic

The rollout of iOS 15 is another event already affecting the CRM landscape with big implications in 2023. Though we’ve covered its apparent impact in some depth, it’s worth a revisit to understand how to best adapt to the change.

Apple’s privacy changes, most notably “Mail Privacy Protection”, are changing the information marketers can glean from opens by users. Essentially, less data about each user and overall open rates will reach your marketing team. As a result, the value of A/B Testing, click-through rates, and audience segmentation have risen, and marketers will need to get more creative about how to glean insights from users. Like the removal of third-party cookies, building a robust plan to capture first party data is vital.

Getting creative with emails can mean different things, but you want to offset the loss of information from the iOS 15 rollout with an increase in audience understanding and engagement. So-called ‘kinetic’ or ‘dynamic’ emails (as opposed to ‘static’) are one way to do that. Michelle Rainbow, VP of Media and Campaign Management addresses the value of kinetic emails in a recent blog post. “Emails employing GIFs, customization, personalization, and interactivity increase engagement across the board. They invite more productive personal interactions, develop deeper connections, increase sales, and drive better results between brands and their audiences.”

Increasing engagement in this way can offset the loss of data from Apple’s privacy changes by increasing click-through or gathering first party data through surveys.

3. Messaging in a Bottle

An unsurprising but still important trend is the continued move toward more mobile users and fewer desktop users. In 2020, mobile traffic eclipsed desktop for the first time, and 2021 saw it increase another 10% to 54% of total traffic.

With most internet traffic going through mobile users, marketers must meet them where they are. This means SMS will be an increasing slice of your CRM calculation, especially the growing category of conversational SMS, as opposed to pure marketing texts users have opted-into. Conversational SMS is a growing trend covering everything from customer service requests , help with goods and services, or shipping notifications.

SMS is very personal, which is one of the strengths and one of the barriers,” says Client Strategy Manager Candice Lunn. “People like to be messaged relevant info but not over-messaged. This is the same medium they talk to their family, and we need to be sensitive to that.

The strength of conversational SMS is it’s personalized, relevant, and automated. It’s a quicker response time than email and more and more customers are beginning to expect it. “You can get what you’re looking for as a consumer much faster with a well-built conversational SMS platform,” says Lunn. “It’s a matter of preference, of course, but it gives you another option besides sifting through Google or website results.”
 

4. Automation Nation

Just as conversational SMS can be automated to engage customers, CRM platforms as a whole have directed significant resources expanding into automated services. Software analysis service Findastack found “On average, 51% of companies are currently using Marketing automation. With more than half of B2B companies (58%) planning to adopt the technology in 2023.”

Additionally, chatbots and automated emails are becoming more prevalent as customer expectations for them increase. Lucy Fuggle of HubSpot writes you can use “automated email workflows to nurture sales prospects down the funnel.” And, “with automation, businesses can offer high-quality customer services while optimizing operational costs — something an increasing number of businesses are realizing, and CRMs are continuing to support in new ways.”

Though the human touch will always be the most personal way to reach out to customers, you have a cache of first party data for a reason. Utilize and leverage this information by automating things like birthdays, abandoned carts, and reactivation emails. Or schedule your social media posts ahead of time. Any resources you save through automation comes directly back into your marketing budget.

5. Add Value. Show Values.

The fifth trend to watch out for in 2023 is additional value and corporate responsibility. For many, it’s not enough anymore to just provide a good product, no questions asked. Customers want to hear from you on social media about ways to use your product, recipes, and other tangential content potentially relevant to them. They also want to know if your materials and ingredients are sourced ethically, how you treat your employees, and do you pay fair wages.

“Additional value and responsibility will be a crucial part of CRM in 2023,” says Lunn. “How do you show your worth besides just your product? What is your responsibility as a corporation? If you look at millennials and Gen Z, they really align their values with what they purchase.”

As the under-40 demographic increases their buying power, recent history has shown time and time again unless you have a stranglehold on your market, American consumers will not tolerate dereliction of corporate social responsibility. In many circles, standing still means going backward.

So, if you are acting in good faith without it being a significant part of your content strategy, now is the time to make sure your brand is getting credit for them.

Conclusion

In many ways, 2023’s trends are a continuation of many of 2021’s. From automation and SMS to adapting to privacy and social changes, marketers have their work cut out for them this year. However, with the growth of customer expectations comes opportunity to differentiate yourself from other brands and create lifelong advocates.  When customers feel like you understand them and meet them where they are, you’ve got a successful a CRM strategy.