The last couple of years were like no other before them, filled with positives (one of which is the big jump in digitalization in the world) and negatives in all aspects of life, in summary, it has been a very challenging period for all of us. Congratulations to us all, we made it to the new year through God's grace.
As the digital marketing industry prepares for a cookieless future and moves away from specific audience targeting, advertisers have an enormous chance to be intentional with contextual tools. It will be vital for entrepreneurs to apprehend the context in which to interact with the audiences as the mindset of a customer reading business news is different from a client attractive with fitness content. Marketing by mindset will emerge as key.
What do we expect as digital marketers in 2022?
Since the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work in the last couple of years, of course, this will be the case in 2022 as well. Hence digitalization will definitely get a boost as well.
Marketers are humans, serving humans. Whether B2B or B2C, clients are seeking out brands they believe can meet their needs and make their lives simpler or more delightful.
So let's take a look at 11 digital marketing trends for the year.
1. Brand Accountability
Brands are expected to show transparency and have values. The ROI for been truthful has been shown to be accepted by consumers and such companies grow twice as fast as compared to other brands that do not practice transparency.
2. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is still trending and it offers great results for businesses while being affordable. Brands do not just use influencer marketing through the influencer's social media page but also use this marketing channel on their own multichannel marketing campaigns such as the company's website, online store, and email marketing.
3. Video Content
For most marketers, content creation is a top investment for 2022, so this year we suggest you use videos. Videos are very useful in getting an emotional response from your audience. Posts that don’t contain a video get 92% less traffic compared to posts with at least one video.
Short-form videos have been a hit so far and will continue to see a significant rise in capturing the consumer.
4. Hyper Automation
In their research Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021, Gartner states that hyper-automation is inevitable. Companies will automate as many business and IT processes as possible with the help of AI and machine learning.
The benefits of using top marketing automation include better ROI, getting more leads, improved customer experience, and improved targeting.
5. Data-Driven Marketing
The role of analytics and data is on the increase. Customer journey is becoming more complex hence the need to use data to analyze the buying behavior of customers. This has a lot of benefits for marketers aiding in how to adapt in order to maximize revenue and increase conversion rate.
Marketo predicts that the most wanted in-demand marketing skills will be data analytics and visualization, AI, and machine learning for content delivery and CX management in 2025.
6. Internet Privacy And Data Security
Consumers' knowledge of their own data use has increased following reports of data breaches and violations of internet security. There increasing pressure on companies to handle data in a secure way and respect privacy legislation.
Privacy legislation impacts companies in the following ways; increased transparency around data use, creating new internal standards for data collection and use, and considering new advertising channels.
7. Remote Working Culture is On The Rise
Remote working is the new norm now. It will definitely keep on increasing as more companies adapt to the current way of living in the covid era. There are positives and negatives of remote working.
8. Hybrid Events is The Future
There will be a mixture of virtual gathering and in-person coming together going forward.
According to Streamlabs in 2020 Q3, audiences watched over 7.46 billion hours of content across all live streaming platforms. This is 91.8% growth compared to Q3 2019 hours.
9. User-generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) can be in the form of videos, reviews, social media posts, basically any content that the user publishes about a brand and is proven to outperform brand-created content.
UGC can be used in creative ways in brand communications and not just by adding a social media feed to your website.
10. eCommerce
There is an increased demand for eCommerce as a result of the pandemic. According to GlobalWebIndex, 49% of all internet users plan to shop online more frequently once the pandemic is over. The biggest change has been amongst consumers who were already shopping online.
Opening an online store is beneficial to your business, even social media platforms are facilitating in-platform shopping by creating shops such as shops on Facebook and Instagram.
11. User Experience
A critical part of user experience is the ease with which a consumer can find, access, review, or buy products and services. For businesses wanting to attract and convert that interest into revenue, user experience (UX) is crucial to their success and, in many cases, survival.
When it comes to developing and executing modern digital marketing strategies, UX is often overlooked. In fact, only 55% of brands are currently in the process of user experience testing—which is incredible when you consider that 74% of people will return to a website if its UX is optimized for mobile. Hence it is important for your site to be optimized for mobile since mobile is the more preferred device for surfing the net by consumers.
Summary
We need to find ways to better engage our audiences and build meaningful connections between our organizations and our customers.
Individuals are presently fascinated by dialogs and boards in which they can inquire questions, they can be part of the activity, they can offer their own expertise. That's not something you'll do when watching someone on stage, but we all know it's something you'll be able to do online.
Click here for more information on digital marketing trends to expect for this year.
Are there any trends I did not mention in this list, kindly share them in the comment section?
