You cannot go through a year-long global pandemic without expecting things to change. Marketing professionals have always worked in a world where consumer preferences constantly change, forcing them to adapt. In the last year, marketers have dealt with the massive shift towards digital marketing due to the abrupt suspension of in-person events, and for many, reduced budgets. As the economy recovers, many marketers will likely find themselves with more money to spend. But, where and how should they allocate it? Will people yearn to return to the old normal, or will they stick with the habits they developed last year? What messaging will be effective, and how will the post-pandemic consumer be reached?
Digital marketing trends and strategies are in great vogue and will continue to rock in the year 2022 as well. You can generate leads for your business through new and improvised digital channels of social media, email marketing, and search engine algorithms.
In digital marketing, organizations have the advantage of analyzing marketing campaigns in real-time. Hence more effective strategies can be formulated, rendering better conversion rates than the traditional modes of promotion.
The year 2022 will witness some existing trends in combination with new marketing trends to target customers and competitors.
Some of the ongoing trends are:
1. Video marketing
Video content will continue to be an effective marketing strategy in the year 2022.
Some key facts about video marketing are:
- 85% of people will purchase your product after watching a video about the product that they wish to buy.
- 93% of all the communication is visual.
- Posts that have videos in it call for 180% more engagement from visitors.
- Our brain processes visual information 60000 times faster than text.
The above data and facts make it evident that adding videos to your content helps you reap maximum advantage for your business. Consider adding images, infographics, videos, and the like in your content.
2. Voice searches
The trend of Voice search has witnessed an increase in recent times and will continue to bloom in 2022 as well. You require a change in the way you create content for your business website.
The increased use of Google Home, Smart speaker, and Amazon Echo suggests the predominance of Voice Search.
3. Chatbots
Chatbots are the technology behind Voice Search and smart assistants such as Alexa and Siri.
Chatbots automate your business, providing personal assistance without the need of hiring personnel. It does not focus on replacing the human aspect. Instead, it aims at producing fast and hyper-personalized services to customers.
As the marketing world turns its attention to the future, here are some trends to look out for in 2022.
1. Virtual events
When the pandemic forced social distancing and closures, marketers were forced to cancel a wide range of in-person events. From store grand-openings to large ticket concert series, virtual events in their place have become a mainstay for engaging with customers and lead to increased spending on social media and other digital platforms contributing to the success of these events. Consumers and marketers who pitch to them are now caught between two opposing impulses. The desire to reassemble is undeniably strong; However, after experiencing an immediacy of live events from the comfort of their couches, many people are content to stay virtual. You’ll need to create hybrid events to cater to both audiences. Robust digital component technologies such as Augmented reality and Virtual Reality can make a great experience for consumers who prefer not to venture out.
Through social commerce, you can sell directly through ads or posts on social media. You don’t need to be a brand name. Just a little bit of brand merchandising can earn you heaps of revenue.
The goal of social commerce is to simplify the entire process of making a purchase. So there is less likelihood of abandonment of sales.
Here you are not redirecting customers to an online store but allowing them to complete the entire checkout process from within the network by following just a handful of clicks.
The following Statistics suggest the importance and popularity of social commerce:
- 1. 47 billion daily active users use Facebook alone.
- 60% of Instagram users find new products on Instagram
- 30% of online shoppers are likely to purchase a social media network such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.
3. Direct Messaging
Direct messaging is the new hot trend in marketing that will bloom in the year 2022. Consumers today prefer brands that offer a personalized experience to them.
Direct messaging helps build strong bonds with your customers through messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Instagram.
It offers a more convenient platform for customers to place orders and likewise for sellers to interact personally and explain their products or services.
Direct messaging requires a business to entice customers by offering coupon codes or other lucrative offers. You cannot just directly send a direct message to your customer without their permission. Instead, the first direct message should come from the customer.
4. Featured snippets on the result pages rather than ranking on SERP
Featured snippets are a short description of the content that would appear on clicking a particular website. These snippets appear on the result pages and save the customer from clicking every website to get an idea of the product they wish to buy.
People want fast acquisition of information. Ranking on the top of Search Engine Result pages is no longer the primary goal of websites. Now the most sought after position is before the organic listings at the top of the page. This is termed as ‘position zero.’ A searcher will look for this information while searching relevant content for himself.
Your business should aim at reaching the position Zero because this is a new approach, and the methods of reaching there are still to be uncovered.
5. Micro-Influencers
Micro-Influencer marketing is a kind of marketing that focuses on individuals who have between 1000 to 1000000 followers. These are smaller niche experts in their respective fields. They are more focussed and help connect with your audience at a deeper level.
Rather than marketing directly to a broad audience, you hire micro-influencers to spread your brand message. People tend to trust the opinions and suggestions of people they idolize or look up to for an honest opinion.
Micro-influencers expertise in specific areas, brands, or style, and appeal to particular audiences. They could be a traveler, a local fashionista, a food blogger, or a fitness guru.
Several reasons have contributed to the increased popularity of Micro-influencers:
- They engage easily and frequently with the audience.
- They are more affordable than big brands.
- They render a better rate of conversions than big celebrities.
- They help tap specific niche markets.
6. Polished and Interactive emails
Emails have always been a fruitful channel of marketing. However, simple textual emails and newsletters are now being replaced by stunning pixel-perfect emails. Email marketing now and in the future makes use of emails that have the look and feel of web pages with interactive buttons. Such types of interactive emails fetch excellent conversions. There is a high probability of people clicking a styled button on an email page instead of a plain textual link.
7. Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment Analysis is also termed as social listening. In the modern era of marketing where cut throat competition is at its peak, customer satisfaction holds prime importance. For this, it is imperative to analyze the reactions of people or customers to a particular service or product. It is not that simple because you cannot merely state that you like or dislike the product in its entirety. There may be one or several features that they want to modify to suit their requirements.
Algorithms, natural language emojis, and data collecting tools are being used to comprehend the sentiments of people on social media channels to fine-tune the products and services.
Critical Mention, Rupustate, Lexalytics are some of the tools for analyzing the sentiments of people.
8. Alternative Social media channels
Facebook and Twitter have been dominant social media marketing tools for years now.
Now people are reaching out for better ways to interact with their family and friends. Many social channels have remained unexplored under the shadow of Facebook. These channels do not collect vast amounts of data from their users. People can interact with their friends and family without the fear of their data being stolen or stored on massive servers located in far-flung areas.
New alternatives that will gain more popularity in 2022 are:
- Ello
- Vero
- Mastodon
- Steemit
- Raftr
- Diaspora
- Minds
- Snapchat
- Medium
Some messaging apps that will find a way as an alternative to Facebook are:
- Telegram
- Signal
9. AI-based Automation or Programmatic advertising
Artificial Intelligence has tremendously advanced in recent times
Artificial Intelligence or Programmatic marketing and automation does not focus on finding a human substitute. Instead, the machine learning algorithms automate your work and optimize online advertising campaigns.
Some ways in which AI helps in automating your business are:
- Placing ads, buying through media, tracking performance can all be handled by software.
- Automated emails help automate communication.
- Processing customer information and nurturing leads at lightning speed for fast responses- All this is dealt with by software.
- AI can help discover good candidates for additional services and products based on their past purchase history.
- AI can help provide complete and accurate information about customers, thus helping in retaining customers.
- AI can help to re-engage past customers.
- You can engage yourself with other vital tasks.
Software such as Adobe Marketing Cloud or Smart Ads provides an automated solution to your advertising and real-time bidding. You can find better avenues for advertising.
10. Vlogging
Youtube, Instagram Stories, and snapchat have made the use of Vlogs popular in recent times, and the trend will continue to rise in 2022.
Vlogs are a more direct and personal means of fostering strong bonds with your customers.
With the help of Vlogs, you can stream special events that not everyone can access.
11. Targeting Gen Z
In the year 2022, marketers will greet a new set of customers – Generation Z. This is the group of customers that are turning 18 now and will constitute 40% of all customers in the following year.
Generation Z is the youngest group of customers and is particular about its tastes. So marketing to this group, implies you have to style your content to suit their likes and dislikes.
You have to keep the following values if you intend to market successfully to Generation Z:
- Authenticity and Privacy
- Diversity in videos and images you post online.
- Some sense of humor.
Conclusion:
The goal of every business remains unaltered — getting people what they want!
Digital marketing is bent towards harnessing more personal relationships with customers, with more targeted niches. But it relies on automation and new technology to achieve the goal of customer satisfaction.
Simple Intelligent Systems has progressively employed the use of the latest trends of digital marketing in all its projects.
We believe that one should change the way he/she looks at things dynamically; the things they look at will automatically change.
Turn your customers into ‘Customers for life’ by following a strategic marketing plan. Contact us to find out more.
