Digital marketing is in constant motion.
Tactics that worked this or the previous year may not necessarily work in succeeding years.
Naturally, you’ll want to keep up with upcoming trends as a progressive business. That way, you’ll know how best to prepare your business for the ever-intense competition.
To help, we’ve created this in-depth roundup of digital marketing trends that’ll shape 2022. And with 2022 a few away, this guide couldn’t have been timelier.
Before that, first things first.
Why is it Important to Keep up With Digital Trends?
Here’s the thing.
Whether you’re a small business or a multinational corporation, tracking digital marketing trends can be a crucial strategy for ensuring growth.
By keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends, you’ll stay in the loop about what’s happening in your niche.
Think of digital marketing trends as the compass that drives your business. These trends determine the interest customers may have in your product or service.
They also enable you to know what digital marketing tactics you should pursue and those that aren’t worth your attention.
The point is, you’ll struggle to maintain a competitive edge if you can’t keep up with the digital trends in your industry. The question is – how can you track digital marketing trends? We’ll talk about that, and much more, next.
How to Keep up With Digital Marketing Trends
Here are some ways you can find about changing marketing trends before they’re old news.
Google Alerts
Like Google Trends, Google Alerts will notify you when content you’d be interested in appears for a specific keyword. All you need to do is plug in the keywords you want to track and wait for alerts regarding new search results.
Twitter Hashtags
Twitter hashtags function more or less like Google Trends. The best part about it is that hashtags provide an organic way to segment content. Besides, you can look up a specific hashtag to see the latest information on a topic.
Industry News
Depending on your niche, you can get wind of upcoming trends via industry news. Still, you need to make sure you’re getting your information from reputable sources such as leading magazines, trusted companies, and industry insiders.
Subscriptions
You get the latest digital marketing trends sent straight to your inbox by subscribing to your favorite publication. Again, you’ll want to ensure that the publication is an industry leader known for making credible predictions.
Watching Videos
At times, watching content is easier than reading it. So, head over to YouTube, search for “digital marketing trends,” and see what comes up. There’s no shortage of informational videos to help you know what is happening in your industry.
Google Trends
Google Trends is an excellent way to see what your customers search on Google. Therefore, you’ll want to search specific keywords to enable you to determine patterns related to your business.
Google Trends allows you to see the keywords that are searched, and even when they’ve been most searched.
Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2022
The following is a rundown of trends that will shape digital marketing in 2022.
Customer Experience Will Become More Important
In 2022, the business that’ll offer the best customer experience will win. So, next year, you should focus on nurturing a positive business culture coupled with top-level experience. That way, you’ll increase the number of return customers, even without aggressive marketing.
How can you provide excellent customer service to help you stand out? Below are some tips to help set the ball rolling.
- Offer personalized messaging that solves your customer’s pain points and, by extension, enables them to make an informed buying decision.
- Create seamless strategies to listen and respond to your customer’s questions.
- Create content that enables customers and prospects to learn about your products and services. You don’t want to leave any unanswered questions to a customer looking for information about how your product or service can help solve their problem.
A great customer experience is friendly, knowledgeable, and convenient. It also allows for seamless and straightforward payment of goods and services.
In 2022, you’ll want to leverage customer experience to build relationships that drive loyalty.
Think about it; a 5% boost in customer retention can boost your profits by up to 25%. Can you conceptualize how your earnings would grow if you went out of your way to deliver customer experiences that drive loyalty and qualified referrals?
By coordinating your digital marketing campaign with your team to deliver quality customer experiences, 2022 could be your best year yet.
Engaging Your Workforce Will Be Paramount in 2022
As stated, excellent customer service will help drive sales and brand royalty in 2022. How can you then offer the service type that’ll keep customers coming back for more? Through your employees, of course.
According to statistics, 46% of customers will say no to your brand if your employees aren’t knowledgeable or have a bad attitude.
Since your workforce is the human face of your business, you’ll need to focus on improving the relationship between your employees and customers as part of your digital marketing strategy in 2022.
The first step is to make sure that your employees are happy. Essentially, this means making your workplace an attractive place to work in. Happy employees will go the extra mile to provide a great customer experience and win you repeat business by extension.
You can improve employee engagement through:
- Regular training that provides more info about your products and services
- Promoting the deserving employees
- Allowing them to post content on social media about your business
- Involving them in content creation from blog posts to white papers, videos, and anything in between.
In 2022, businesses that will allow their happy employees to participate in their digital marketing campaigns will win big.
Moreover, leads generated by your employees via social media are 7x more likely to convert than leads generated through other channels.
Visual Content Will Become More Relevant in 2022
Sure, we’re living in the times of voice search. However, that doesn’t mean that “readable” content has lost its place. Inversely, visual content will continue being an important part of any solid marketing strategy in 2022.
Repeated research shows that your potential customers prefer visual content to plain text. Perhaps, this can help explain the exponential growth of image-focused platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
Furthermore, Google and a host of other companies are spending money on the development of visual search technology.
In addition, images account for 19% of Google searches, with 62% of millennials saying they prefer visual searches to any other new technology.
Why would visual content be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy in 2022? Well, visuals are pretty easy to remember than written content.
On top of that, including data visualizations such as images, videos, and infographics to your content is eye-catching and exciting. Furthermore, it can improve how the target audience absorbs your content.
Conversation Marketing will Take Center Stage in 2022
Gone are the days when customer service was a formal process. Back in the day, sales reps used terms such as “sir” or “madam” when approaching customers.
Fast forward to today. Bots are taking the place of customer service and sales representatives. The bots can chat with customers and give instant answers. We’re talking about the kind of interaction you’d have with a friend.
Any serious business that wants to stand out in 2022 should consider using bots to create a seamless customer experience. As stated earlier, 2022 will be the year of providing top-notch customer experience and personalization.
Your customers don’t want to talk to a sales rep following a script. Inversely, they’re after help that’s particular to their specific needs and situation.
Moreover, they want an immediate response. Do you know what that means? It implies less formal communication when serving your customers.
Featured Snippets Will Dominate Google Search in 2022
SEO will continue to be a crucial component of digital marketing as we head into 2022.
However, we’re starting to experience significant SEO shifts as made evident by the progress from the last 10 years.
As the popularity of mobile searches soar, people are no longer using it as they used to a couple of years back. Claiming the number 1 spot on Google or SERPs is no longer the primary focus of many businesses.
In fact, you may notice how your browsing and search pattern has shifted over the years because you access information as fast as possible when on-the-go.
The emergence of featured snippets and other “on SERP” info implies that you don’t have to click through a website to get what you’re looking for. It’s sitting right there on the Google search results page!
While the on-SERP info may appear in several places, the coveted position is right at the top of the page, just before the organic listings. You can refer to this position as “zero.”
Due to the fact that featured snippets contain the information a customer is looking for, it’ll be the most sought-after position in 2022. After all, over 60% of search results returned by Google happen to be featured snippets.
Many businesses are still striving to achieve position zero because it requires different SEO skill sets than the standard techniques for a typical SERP listing.
So, if you can figure out how to occupy the position zero in 2022, you’ll have a massive advantage over your competitors.
Also, there’ll be an emergence of SEO companies showing businesses how to rank for snippets. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to keep yourself up-to-date with the best SEO practices in 2022 to remain competitive.
Social Commerce Will Thrive in 2022
While social commerce isn’t entirely new, it impacts how businesses run their digital marketing campaigns.
Companies are now leveraging influencer marketing, creating content that integrates seamlessly into their social media platforms and eCommerce stores.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have played a pivotal role in fast-tracking social commerce adoption. Plus, tools such as Instagram Checkout make it easier for businesses to advertise their products or services on the platform.
In 2022, influencer marketing will flourish on TikTok more than any other social media platform thanks to tools like the Creator Marketplace and TikTok shopping.
According to Statista, social commerce will increase in 2022 and continue to grow over the years.
Brace Yourself for Live Video
The live video niche will hit the $70+ billion mark by 2022.
Live video is increasingly popular with customers, with people spending 3X more time watching live videos than they do for pre-recorded videos.
In addition, video happens to be the most popular way of launching new products to customers.
Video makes content more engaging. That way, the target audience feels they’re part of your brand.
Live video will be an excellent strategy to draw your audience’s attention on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Furthermore, live video helps tap into the audience’s “Fear Of Missing Out”.
Keep Yourself Updated With the Latest Trends
2022 will be a significant year for businesses as the world recovers from the aftermath of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to capitalize on the power of marketing, now is the time to start laying out your digital marketing strategies for 2022.
When you understand how to communicate to your customers effectively, they’ll keep coming back, enabling you to rake in profits in the end.
While these aren’t the only digital marketing trends for 2022, they’re a good starting point for companies that want to achieve a competitive advantage.
If you want help with your digital marketing campaign, now is the time to book a consultation session.