The business world has experienced considerable disruptions in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, consumers became wary of the hazards associated with in-person sales and reacted by embracing e-commerce.
As a result, the
marketing landscape shifted due to customers' new preference for digital channels. Equally, the advertising balance has tilted to modern methods that revolve around mobile, social, and digital technologies overtaking traditional mediums. That said, modern marketers must find ways to keep up with a fast-paced digital landscape, which is key to gaining a competitive advantage.
Here are the 2022 marketing trends.
Marketing With AI
Artificial Intelligence(AI) is one of the leading innovations in business. It has made data analysis effective and improved the execution of previously challenging tasks. For instance, manufacturers use digital twins to create various permutations of products in response to the shift of consumer demand to personalization.
Marketers can now apply AI to target and nurture leads quickly and effectively in a fast-paced digital marketing landscape. Typically, AI expands and improves our ability to connect with customers by tracking and making sense of online behaviour.
Here are a few scenarios where you can apply digital marketing AI:
- Predictive Marketing: You can analyze historical data of how customers interact with your ads to create more engaging ads.
- Content Creation: Marketers can apply AI to streamline content, more so, short forms like tweets or automated emails.
Ultimately, AI presents an undeniable opportunity to supercharge marketing campaigns. It'll play a vital role in freeing the sales team to concentrate on marketing, developing customer-centric campaigns, and facilitating better communications between customers and businesses.
Influencer Marketing
According to the State of Influencer Marketing Research, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations to make a purchase. In response, marketing professionals are looking to increase their investment in influencer marketing due to its healthy returns.
The growth of influencer marketing has been fueled by social media and the power of digital communities. Equally, consumers are generally skeptical of any offers presented by brands through advertising. Instead, they prefer recommendations from friends, family or a trusted celebrity.
For instance, a university can partner with an alumnus who's a celebrity to promote its services or launch a new course. The idea is to improve the marketing impact as consumers continue to change their content preferences. TikTok is among the fastest-growing influencer platforms that brands can tap into.
XR Marketing
Extended Reality (XR) is an all-encompassing term that includes Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) and are some of the most exciting innovations in use currently. AR brings the real world with sensory and visual enhancements, while VR immerses a user in an entirely simulated environment that shuts out the physical world, MR allows you to see the real world while layering on virtual objects. Marketers are now leveraging these technologies to inject freshness and creativity during advertisement campaigns.
Marketing and advertising using XR experiences, can be fun, entertaining and informative. As manufacturers increase the availability of VR glasses, MR headsets and AR apps, marketers are looking to exploit this untapped gap in marketing.
Here's why XR technology feature in 2022 marketing trends:
- They are key to unlocking the user experience during either online or in-person interactions.
- They are a bright innovation that will improve your advertisement and communication.
- They can also enhance your customer experience efforts.
Short-Videos
There is no debate about the popularity of video as a content form. Even so, short videos are the future of cutting-edge advertising. Consumers prefer short videos because they provide compacted information quickly and easily.
Typically, consumers' attention is limited; they prefer short and punchy content. A short video summarizes long-form content into concise and digestible bits. Equally, brands can leverage short quality videos to get the point across using minimal resources. A consumer who's on a quick break can afford to watch a 2-minute video as opposed to a 30-min-long explainer, enhancing your marketing campaign. Short videos can range anywhere from 15 seconds to two and a half minutes, and you'll want to consider the platform you're using. For example, a short video on YouTube is anything under 10 mins, but a 10 minute video on Instagram would not be considered a short video.
Microbreweries may find it challenging to establish their market share in the competitive beverage industry. However, they can harness the power of short videos on TikTok to sell their products. Short videos can unlock new markets because they're concise, digestible, and shareable.
Social Responsibility
COVID-19 exposed the underbelly of a vulnerable society; consumers are now closely monitoring how brands react to societal issues like politics, ethics, and inequality. It's a call for brands to fill the existing gaps in social responsibility campaigns.
An IBM survey revealed that 71% of US consumers would like to see companies prioritize communities, employees, and environments as much as shareholders' wealth. Equally, consumers are making conscious choices to buy from socially responsible brands.
Traditionally, brands have a significant role in society's advancement. The obligation arises as a reciprocation of the community's support to the business.
A point to note: Consumers are taking action through boycotts on brands silent to society's issues. They are also against brands that commit misdeeds like mistreating animals or practicing corruption.
SEO Will Power Growth in 2022
A search engine is still a leading traffic source to websites and other digital assets. Therefore, businesses will need to consistently work on their discoverability to tap on traffic and stay relevant on the web. Although SEO is far from a new strategy, there is a need for companies to keep up with updates to avoid losing their ranking in search results.
Generally, SEO is an inexpensive strategy that you can implement relatively quickly to start seeing your site show up higher on the search engine results page. It's an organic method that businesses can apply to nurture authentic connections with an audience. Have an SEO audit of your site done and start to implement changes to give yourself a better chance at being found
Here are a few trending aspects of working on your SEO.
- Mobile-first Sites: The Google algorithm continues to favour optimized sites for a mobile experience.
- Image Search: Businesses are now benefiting from having images that are optimized. Google has made it possible for users to find images without leaving the search engine.
- Mobile Site Speed: Google has prioritized ranking sites with seamless mobile speeds to enhance the user experience.
- Title & Meta Tags: Insuring that all your pages have their own unique title tag and that images.
Let Us Help You Embrace 2022 Marketing Trends
Marketing is a critical field that keeps on changing continuously. In this post-pandemic era, many companies are vulnerable, calling for agility. As a business owner, you can adopt strategies like keeping up with marketing trends such as short videos or AR to gain an edge in your industry.
That said, we know that implementing an end to end marketing strategy with all it's moving parts is a big task. If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve and leave your competitors with FOMO, contact Glenn Cressman, our Chief Client Officer, to get the ball rolling on a marketing strategy for 2022 that will meet your clients in their moments of intent.