Upcoming Digital Marketing Trends (2022)

Tue, Dec 14, 2021 4:42 PM

Based on current technology and societal changes, this article discusses marketing trends for 2022. We'll show you how to incorporate them into your next-year marketing strategy. Marketers are thrown into a reflective mindset every December, as this is the time of year when we compile end-of-year reports, analyze our marketing strategy, and plan the following year's actions. Predicting marketing trends is an essential aspect of this strategy. However, unlike fortune-telling with horoscopes and cards, marketing trends for 2022 can be simply identified by examining the past and present.

Also, Read: Upcoming Small Business Trends in 2022

The truth is that marketing trends don't just come out of nowhere; they're founded in current technical and social developments. As a result, we can predict digital marketing trends for 2022 by looking at what marketers, brands, and tech companies are doing now. The term "marketing" is continually evolving and growing more inclusive. Customers' wants and technology evolve at a breakneck pace, and brands must keep up. However, keeping track of all the new ideas and technology while juggling your regular workload is challenging. This article will allow you to bypass hours of study and analysis and jump right to the marketing trends that will impact the industry in 2022.

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Digital Marketing Trends 2022

Searches with No Clicks

So, what exactly is a no-click search? When you have a question, ask it in Google and click on the article that best answers your query or provides you with the information you require. However, you may find the solution in a paragraph near the top of the results page.

These boxes, known as Position Zero in search engine results, frequently include an image and all of the information you were looking for in an easily distinguishable box. You don't need to click on an article because you already know the answer.

How can you use it?

Consider how you might alter your page titles to suggest what visitors will find when they arrive at your site. Being the subject of a zero-click search indicates that you've made it halfway and that people are interested in what you have to offer.

The next step is to entice them to your website to learn more about what you have to offer!

Related Article: Creating High-Quality Marketing Video On a Tight Budget

Personalization with Finesse

In recent years, personalization has been on the rise, and it will continue to do so in 2022. Customers have more influence over how they connect with brands as consumers, such as having adverts tailored to their specific interests or having some purchases made automatically (i.e., Amazon recommendations).

Personalization does not have to be restricted to advertising. It can also be found in online buying, social media material, and customer service interactions. This tendency is expected to continue for at least the next few years.

People are becoming more protective of their personal information simultaneously, so too much personalization might be frightening. By including personal information in your marketing messages, make sure you don't infringe on anyone's privacy or sense of security.

How can you use it?

Find a happy medium between personalization and creepy all-knowing marketing.

Personal recommendations based on your customer's purchase history on your website are an excellent example of personalized marketing.

Ads and emails citing confidential information such as your customer's geographical location or health conditions are a horrible example of personalization. If you advertise pregnant items based on Google searches, for example, your potential consumers may feel nervous or as if they are being watched. As a result, avoid personalizing based on sensitive information and topics.

Influencers Should Be Used More Strategically.

As organic avenues for content dissemination via search and social media have reduced in recent years, there has been a greater focus on influencer marketing. Furthermore, influencer marketing can improve audience engagement and the power of endorsements and recommendations, which are known to be one of the most important factors in purchasing decisions.

In their report The Power of Influence, analyst Altimeter suggested that firms spend 25% of their digital marketing expenditures on influencer marketing, which they predicted would grow to $10 billion by 2020, a 5X increase.

The influencer marketing trends that will be relevant in 2022 are listed below.

• Micro-influencers are on the rise.
• A greater emphasis on performance marketing
• Influencer marketing as a "never-off" method
• Relationships with influencers that last a long time
• From amplifiers to communicators, we've got you covered.

How can you use it?

As opposed to a professional partner, start treating influencers as members of your brand. The current influencer marketing trends demonstrate the need to build long-term connections with influencers to convert them into brand evangelists. You no longer want to switch influencers from campaign to campaign; instead, you want them to stay with you for a long period.

Micro-influencers are another trend that is sweeping the market. While finding small influencers who fit your business image can be difficult, many resources are available to assist you!

For example, you search for influencers in any field and filter them based on their reach, making it simple to locate content creators with a small but devoted following.

Gamification

Gamification is a new digital marketing trend in which a website combines game elements. This is an oversimplification, but businesses are now exploiting everything that makes gaming interesting, addicting, and entertaining as a marketing strategy to enhance consumer loyalty, brand exposure, and sales.

A captive gamification experience taps into a player's emotions and clearly illustrates the ideal actions that an audience may accomplish to contribute to mutually shared goals.

How can you use it?

Learn how to gamify your clients' online experience, from your website to social media.

Make every stage of your sales funnel more interactive:

• Utilize social media to generate quizzes and challenges.
• Use Twitch to create gaming experiences.
• Gamify your purchasing experiences by offering bonuses and adding rankings to your website.

Your customers deserve more than just good service and a good product; they also deserve to have fun, so make sure your interactions with your business are enjoyable.

Data Protection and Ad Targeting Challenges

Google said last year that it will stop tracking cookies in 2022. While that transition has been postponed for the time being, its eventual extinction in 2023 will make efficient ad targeting much more difficult. If digital marketing strategists are to cope with the transition in 2022, they must begin considering how they will modify their model.

If the politician's will is mobilized to safeguard user data from large digital businesses, the way we promote, analyze, and plan marketing efforts will be drastically altered. Marketers will have to develop new methods for understanding and locating their target audiences without intermediaries such as Google and Facebook.

This suggests that "ethically sourced" data will play a more significant role in the coming years. By ethically sourced, I mean data already in the public domain (such as that collected by social listening techniques) or data willingly provided through polls, interviews, and other methods.

How can you use it?

Invest in market research and look for non-invasive methods of gathering marketing data.

One of the methods for gathering and analyzing publically available data that I mentioned before is social listening. It can look up your brand, audience, or competitors on the internet and provide you with a wealth of marketing data to help you design your approach.

Corporate Social Responsibility is an Important Concept.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an obtuse but important term that stands for "corporate social responsibility." Social issues have played an increasingly prominent part in social media for years. In 2022, this significance will grow even further.

What does this mean for you and your firm in particular? Don't limit yourself to drab social media advertising. It's equally important to take a public stance on environmentalism, diversity, social justice, and mental health. It isn't enough to make one or two posts in this case.

Customers want to know that you live up to the ideals you preach. These must be firmly established within your organization. You'll learn about the themes that your community cares about, and you'll devise a strategy in case communications spiral out of control. It is critical to take a social and political stand. Face public debate, even if it is uncomfortable and fraught with dangers, such as misconceptions or wrong phrases.

What can brands do with it?

Make sure you understand your audience and what they care about before taking a position on a social issue. Your perspective must align with their ideals and lives; otherwise, you're either making a wholly irrelevant argument (best case scenario) or aggressively opposing them.

Use social listening to better understand your audience and keep track of how people feel about particular social topics. This procedure will provide you with sufficient information to develop a socially acceptable marketing strategy that will not result in a reputation crisis.

Marketing Through Video

Video has risen to become one of the most popular types of content, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. Consider the following advantages of video marketing:

• Customers enjoy seeing videos.
• They boost participation.
• It's an excellent way to highlight new and existing products.

It's simple to put together and inexpensive, particularly when compared to visuals and copy.

Most importantly, it has one of the best conversion rates of any marketing method. Even continuing trends, like every other digital marketing trend, are updated. Video is no exception. Live videos and short videos will be the most popular video formats in 2022.

People watch three times longer on live videos, such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live, than they do on regular video. It arouses viewers' "fear of missing out" and draws them in so they can be the first to learn about breaking news.

TikTok and Instagram Reels, for example, have fully taken over social media. More brands are expected to enhance these channels and create content based on TikTok trends in 2022.

How can you use it?

Check out new platforms and types of content to make sure your video strategy is up to date:

• By entering into Twitch marketing, you can try live streaming.
• Find new video platforms for your films, such as Vimeo or LinkedIn.
• Also, use TikTok memes and trends to make short vertical videos.

Hybrid Events

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted almost every business. Many companies, small businesses, have been thrown into a state of crisis. Companies are starting to reopen now that conditions have improved a little, but there is still a good chance that things may never return to normal. We may never be able to work, socialize, shop, or live as we did before the outbreak. Attending social and professional events is the same.

Learn Ways to Maintain and Grow Your Business During a Pandemic

The shift to hybrid events is one of the digital marketing 2022 trends that emerged in the new normal. Even though hybrid event culture has been present for a long time, marketers have been forced to incorporate it into their marketing tactics due to remote work and social isolation.

For a more sustainable and inclusive experience, hybrid events integrate the personal and virtual components. Companies are now holding more open events to the public and allow attendees to develop, strategize, be creative, and connect.

How can you use it?

The solution is simple: get into event marketing and organize a hybrid event. Smaller, more intimate activities like workshops and seminars can be combined with large online meetings for presentations, performances, and other events.

Don't overlook the first trend on our list: virtual space can be an excellent setting for organizing an online event and making it as interesting as possible.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning Are Used in Various Applications

AI is becoming a major aspect of our business as marketers gain access to more data acquired online. It can assist us in processing large amounts of data and acting on it without requiring us to spend time sifting, analyzing, planning, and optimizing the strategy. Insights, for example, analyzes social listening data to identify the most relevant patterns and points of conversation so you can incorporate them into your plan.

Conversational marketing is another fascinating approach to use AI. This is sometimes misunderstood as chatbots. They can be useful in some situations, but end users have not received them well because AI is often inept and frequently makes mistakes. Human-provided customer service is still more realistic in practice. Conversational marketing and sales (or revenue acceleration) platforms like Drift, Intercom, and Lyft, on the other hand, appear to be on the rise.

Prompts and polls, which don't truly require a human to participate, can be used to actualize AI-supported conversational marketing better.

How can you use it?

Figure out how AI and machine learning can help your company: data analysis, email marketing, conversation marketing, and so on. After that, seek a tool that you can include in your current marketing approach.

I'm a big fan of AI-assisted social listening since it immediately helps you see the most significant online chats.

Social Media Based on Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is already a popular technology in some fields, such as gaming and entertainment. For example, marketers might use it by providing exclusive VR experiences for brands or enhancing product placement in VR games. However, social VR will explode in popularity over the next few years.

Through our virtual reality avatars, we may be able to speak, work, and hang out with pals. That may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but Meta (previously known as Facebook) brings it to life.

With the purchase of Oculus, the development of games, and projects like Horizon, Facebook has been focusing on virtual reality for some years. This year, Mark Zuckerberg made it apparent that virtual reality worlds will play an essential role in the social media experience.

Social media users will no longer have to rely on Facebook groups to serve as "town squares"; instead, they will be able to visit a physical town square where they can meet up with friends, have a conversation, exchange opinions, and discuss the latest news.

How can you use it?

Virtual reality intensifies and enriches all of our social media experiences. As a result, whatever method you use to boost social media VR, keep in mind that it must be genuine and honest. You can't be excessively commercial or annoying because that will bother folks even more than usual.

With VR social media, the possibilities are limitless: you may advertise, connect with customers through various gamified experiences, create communities, and so on. Be innovative and keep an eye on Meta to discover new tools for brands.

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