The COVID-19 pandemic has made things difficult for a good lot of businesses.
And that is why today maximum digital marketers are trying their best to keep businesses stay afloat.
However, there are businesses which have still made it possible to find success in these difficult times.
The reason behind their success is nothing but their flexibility, adaptability to change, and know how to find their way out creatively.
And this approach has paved their way to keep an upright look while they are stepping into the forthcoming year of 2022.
According to a Gartner study, around 73% marketers predicted that the ill consequences of this ongoing pandemic are not going to be here for long.
They expect these conditions to be over in just a couple of years, however, a few of them also expect these to remain constant in the distant future.
Nobody can testify whether these predictions are right or wrong.
Although it is true that this pandemic has definitely made some shifts in the arena of digital marketing, and for the good.
And, because of the same, digital marketing is running the world at this point in time. This is also making businesses to tweak their approach to fit in right, in order to not fall back behind their competitors and become obsolete.
Now, if you too are facing similar circumstances, then check out our list of handpicked trends that will help you stay ahead of the rest in 2022.
Digital Marketing Trends to Follow In 2022
Outshining your competitors in a no big deal in this digital world.
All you need to do is playing by the rules and follow the trends that we have mentioned here in our blog.
Stay consistent and you will surely see better days in 2022.
1. Personalization
This is that one trend that is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Yes, personalization is here to stay in the future of digital marketing.
And that is because, personalization in digital marketing is meant to target individuals, rather than the old school technique of targeting masses.
Now, if you take a closer look, you will understand that this approach can really make a big shift in the arena of generating leads, as well as increasing conversions and sales.
In fact, in the Accenture Interactive Survey of 2019, over 90% customers agreed that brands should take every customer interaction seriously and should focus on providing the best experience every time.
Not just that, when you implement personalization to your email marketing campaigns, the rate of opening emails gets boosted up.
It also plays a major part in increasing brand loyalty for customers.
Statista says, around 90% customers in the US find personalisation quite appealing and are likely to opt for brands that personalise their endeavours.
And this all makes it quite clear that personalisation is undoubtedly the best way to make sure every customer gets a unique experience making such brands stand out of the crowd.
2. Video
The consumption rate of mobile video increases in manifolds every year. And to be precise it is almost a cent percent.
Speaking on a daily basis, 55% of all watch video content, and when it is about a week, 78% do the same.
And this uprising of video consumption is because 54% of customers look forward to getting more and more video content from their favourite brands.
To no one’s surprise, 99% of digital marketers globally, claim to use video marketing to make their marketing endeavours even stronger.
In fact, around 88% of them all are willing to invest more to make sure they can produce more and more video content in the foreseeable future.
All of this hype regarding videos is because of the high success rate that videos leverage. And that is up to 95% as that many customers are likely to give positive feedback to brand messages communicated through video.
Here, human connection plays a great role as videos are capable of getting closer to the customer more than any given form of content marketing. [We will be discussing the human factor in the upcoming point, in detail]
So, no matter if your approach is targeted adverts, sharing brand presentations, asking loyal clients for testimonials or creating and distributing sales videos, video is definitely the way to get a step closer to your target audience in a humane way.
3. The Human Touch
As COVID-19 has forced humans to stay in their houses, away from any human connection, maintaining social distance, the human touch in marketing endeavours can really make a great deal of impact when used appropriately in marketing endeavours.
Yes, this lack of human touch in the day-to-day life like spending time with friends and family, interacting with colleagues, has made it possible for humans to crave for a human touch which can be greatly utilised by marketers by turning their marketing endeavours more humane, bridging the gap between humans and technology.
Global Marketing Trends have curated a survey regarding the same and in it most people claim to fall more for businesses who have a human-centric approach.
They even claim that customers tend to stay away from businesses if they find lack authenticity in their approach.
Around 70% of them all claim that the innovation in technology has helped increasing the bond between people and have helped them stay even more connected despite of the ongoing social distancing norms.
So, undoubtedly it is a high time for marketers to focus more on capitalising this opportunity and make the most out of it in getting closer to their target audience.
They should immediately start working on shaping up the mission, vision, values as well as the operations accordingly.
Businesses should start working on such a value system that which drives businesses, aligning clients and connecting to their emotions, forming deeper and unbreakable bonds of trust and comfort.
Make your brand seem less like a business organisation and more like a human entity, that’s all.
4. Featured Snippet
The position of featured snippets in a search engine results page is called the position zero.
And, over the years of its existence, it has been increasingly gaining more and more faith and acceptance from customers, globally.
There was a time when digital marketers could gain ranks both in position zero, as in in the featured snippet section as well as in the regular ranking positions.
However, Google has changed the game lately and turned featured snippet into position #1, increasing its importance even more.
So, it is quite clear that position zero is now counted among the top 10 results in the first SERP, giving businesses a chance to rank higher and increase credibility, both at once.
However, it has also eliminated position #10 (in old terms).
So, you definitely have to work harder than ever.
However, there are also instances when Google has come up with a double snippet, although, these two snippets are #1 and #2, so, you will find eight of the rest results if you take a closer look.
So, no matter what, you need to work hard enough and stay credible with your brand to make sure you get enough brand recognition by getting placed as a featured snippet in the relevant searches.
5. Thought Leadership
As you already know that COVID-19 has made us crave for human touch.
However, this also refers to the fact that humans are also facing a lack of guiding forces who they could refer to in case of seeking helpful advice or direction.
Thus, the only option they are left with is nothing but the web.
Today, they search on the web for everything, looking for answers that they can keep their faith on.
And that refers to the fact that they are in search of leaders who can give them proper advice and seem stable and reliable.
Today, they trust those leaders on the internet to point them in the right direction and guide them to make the right choice when it is about making a purchase, find a service or form partnerships of any sorts.
And this is where thought leaders step in.
In order to reach this height, you need to
- Make your client understand that you empathize with them.
- Deliver content that is comprehensive, educational, and engaging via pillar pages, blogs, podcasts, and video marketing.
- Give them real-time updates.
- Get in touch with your followers on a personal level.
- Show respect.
- Adapt to changes in the industry.
In short, you need to follow the E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) strategy mentioned by Google while crafting content.
This will make sure that search engines find your content credible, reliable, current, and will rank you accordingly in the relevant searches.
6. Focusing on Search Intent
Google had hinted about the importance of search intent with its BERT update earlier, however with announcing the MUM update, it is quite clear how important search intent has become in today’s horizon of search engine optimization.
To those who do not know what search intent is, let us tell you, search intent is the hidden objective behind a searcher’s inputted keywords or phrases while performing a search.
In simpler words, search intent is what a searcher is trying to accomplish by performing a search.
And, as today most people are performing searches in order to find a product, learn about certain things, or taking necessary action, it is quite vital to optimize your content following the search intent of your targeted audience to gain the desired traction.
Make sure that the content is intended to solve relevant problems and, that will help you in
- Boosting up your brand awareness
- Increasing conversion rate
- Skyrocket customer retention rate
- Stay relevant to current circumstances and target audience
Now, speaking of the types of search intent, there are four of them which are,
- Informational
- Navigational
- Commercial investigation
- Transactional
Make sure that your primary target with your content is to satisfy the queries of your potential buyers and your target audience.
7. Being Agile
Agility is a necessity in today’s business circumstances, in order to gain the success that you crave.
Taking about the global recessions that had occurred prior to the digital revolution, businesses used to wait until the situations came back to normal.
However, in today’s circumstances, business owners are no longer willing to wait and hence they have shifted their entire business to a digital level.
They have simply focused more on the scopes through a digital lookout and are intending to achieve adequate traction, digitally.
And, thus this approach has helped them a lot of stay relevant even if their buyer’s needs have changed. They have learned to adapt.
Here, you need to understand that to stay agile with your business, you need to follow certain tips. These are,
- Create a holistic experience for your customers via personalisation to guide your potential buyers through their buyer’s journey.
- Utilise social media channels to connect on a personal level.
- Leverage new offers frequently to keep your audiences engaged.
- Get a better hold of customer behaviour with AI and ML.
These will help you stay ahead in the game.
8. Innovative Partnerships
You can easily provide more value to your customers just by partnering with other businesses or service providers.
It is a great way to amplify your levels of customer retention and customer satisfaction.
Hence, you will be able to offer more value to your customers.
Here, partnership can be formed in a good couple of ways. These are, by outsourcing, and by utilising SaaS.
By outsourcing certain areas of your business, you will be able to focus more on such aspects which are more important and play a bigger role in terms of client satisfaction.
On the other hand, by partnering with a SaaS business and utilising their services, you will be able to manage your team as well as project deliveries in a better way, generating better results that will overwhelm your clients.
This will also help you boost up your chances of becoming the apple of the eyes of your clients.
Now, from a different approach, you can also opt to promote businesses who are willing to promote your business as a payback.
This will set an example in front of your customers about how open your approach is towards your competitors.
Remember that Mercedes Benz-BMW advertisement? Yes, we are talking about that.
9. Brand Storytelling
This is one trend that has been there for quite long now.
Yes, brand storytelling is nothing new to businesses however, it is important to focus on it in the same way like you focus on the rest of the trends mentioned here.
Now, you agree with us on this point or not, but it is true that every brand has a story to tell, and that is why 33% CMOs from all over the globe believe brand strategy to be their most crucial strategic capability.
Yes, it helps you connect to your audience on a whole new level and casts light on your brand and its potentials.
Now, if you are wondering about if there is a story that your brand can tell your audience, the let us tell you to start with brand storytelling you need to ask yourself a few questions.
These are,
- Who you are?
- What is the reason behind your existence?
- Who can you help?
- How are you different from your competitors?
- Your journey
- What do you offer?
- What is success according to you?
Utilising these pieces of information, you can easily shape up a story and narrate it to your audience to evoke their raw emotions.
And, if you do it good enough, it will leave a strong mark in the minds of your audience making your brand an entity, rather than just a business organisation.
It will also help you in building stronger relationships and generate brand loyal in the hearts of your audience.
10. Account-Based Marketing
Last but not least, account-based marketing is a smoking hot trend for a good long time now. And that too especially for businesses which deal in the B2B segment.
You can easily secure large deals just by focusing more on such accounts which are of high-value and are individual decision makers.
It is quite understandable that with account-based marketing you are going to put a lot at stake, however, the revenue on your investment will be a lot higher than any other form of marketing.
In order to do so, all you have to do is tell your audience about your strategy to solve an imminent problem.
For the same, you can make use of several marketing tactics such as programmatic displays, customised videos, retargeting campaigns, as well as social media to get the job done.
If you do this efficiently and effectively enough, you will be able to secure huge deals and gain a lot of traction among your target audience building an impenetrable brand loyalty.
What’s Your Take?
The arena of digital marketing is ever evolving, and to stay ahead of your competitors you need to see what’s in the foreseeable future and act accordingly.
But, before it all, you will have to boost up your brand awareness and build an intimate relationship with your customers as well as with your potential buyers.
Once you are able to do this, it will pave your path to becoming a thought leader in your industry and you will be able to build unbreakable trust as well as customer loyalty with consistent content production.
Now, without any delay, get started by shaping up your plans for the upcoming year.
What are you waiting for?
