E-dreamz 2023 Year-in-Review

2023 was another fast-paced, revolutionary year for our industry. As the pace of technology and innovation continues to accelerate exponentially through the development of better website and app building tools, the impact of AI and machine-learning, and the evolution of social media and digital marketing in general, we must continually reevaluate and adjust our focus to capitalize on emerging trends.

Read below to see what most influenced E-dreamz’s business direction in 2023.

Advancements and Disruptions to the Digital Space in 2023

Google Analytics 4 & Visitor Data Protection

While GA4 initially presented itself primarily as a giant headache for agencies like ours that support dozens, if not hundreds, of clients, we’d be remiss to ignore the larger data-tracking landscape that Analytics exemplifies. Our focus on data tracking in 2023 was to build tracking systems that gather the most important data needed to influence our clients’ operational and marketing decisions, while also maintaining a focus on security, compliance and general data protection rights for website visitors. Sometimes that involved a migration to GA4; in other instances, we developed custom analytic plans for our clients that needed to adhere to particular security compliance requirements - largely in the healthcare sector.

AI, AI, AI…

We’re sick of saying those two letters ourselves, but you can’t operate in any aspect of the digital space without now leveraging AI tools to automate, expedite or enhance processes. Be it the generation of content, images, videos, or other digital assets - or developing AI directed action plans that automate processes and workflows - E-dreamz is maintaining a focus on how best to utilize emerging AI technologies to better service our clients’ needs.

Minimalist Web Design & Accessibility

While this wasn’t new for 2023, we did see a reinforcement over this past year that this trend is here to stay. Modern web design is beyond sleek and simple; it is sparse, thoughtful and completely minimalistic. Web design should serve only to showcase your content & branding - and little else. The focus should be on intuitive interface, mobile friendliness and page performance, and relevance and timelessness to your overall design and branding. In 2023, we overhauled not only our web themes, templates and packages but also our entire approach to conceptualizing and managing web development projects. We are now a content-first, experience-oriented design agency that eschews our past focus on custom design in favor of a focus on customized experiences and workflows.

Rise of Social eCommerce

Selling directly through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc, continued to grow at a rapid pace throughout the year. The opportunities that social media eCommerce creates for personalization, capturing the attention of a targeted audience, and leveraging user-generated or user-sustained campaigns is unmatched by any other eCommerce platform. Social commerce allows brands to build stronger connections with their customer base, increase sales, and expand their eCommerce presence through the channels that immediately capture the largest audience.

B2B Marketing for Software Tools

While traditional B2C eCommerce isn’t slowing down, the biggest shift we saw in 2023 was the increased focus on branded marketing for B2B eCommerce and, specifically, B2B software tools. B2B marketing leapt forward in 2023 with seemingly every major software brand running aggressive branded campaigns to sell themselves to their targeted businesses as much as they used to sell their products or services. Given the productivity, reporting, data tracking and workforce management capabilities that modern enterprise SaaS business software tools bring to the table, it makes sense that this is now one of the most competitive digital marketing spaces. With the proliferation of the concept of the “Digital Experience Manager”, platform level solutions are now a primary focus for any business operating at scale.

E-dreamz’s Focus for 2024 and Beyond

While many of our long-term partners and clients likely still think of E-dreamz as a website design and marketing agency, we’re really a technical support agency. Our focus is and has been on end to end solutions that integrate our clients’ operational systems to create efficiency, optimization, automation and enhanced customer journeys. In 2023, we invested time and resources in getting our staff trained to provider higher level implementation and optimization engagements for clients using CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot. We also provide setup and workflow management services for project management and workforce collaboration tools like Smartsheet or Asana. Looking forward to 2024, we’ll continue our focus on providing consulting services for Salesforce and Smartsheet implementations, in particular.