Marketers still face a landscape disrupted by the pandemic. And that’s not all – between new business models, new technological applications, and regulatory changes, what worked for your digital marketing strategy in the past might not work today. With 2022 on the horizon, marketers still need to find ways to digitally engage consumers post-pandemic while harnessing the potential of technological innovations.
Read on for our list of must-know trends!
How can digital marketing help drive business growth in 2022? Check out our tips here!
7 Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2022
As we enter the fall season, marketing departments around the world are prepping for a successful 2022. With this goal in mind, here are 7 trends your team should implement into your digital marketing strategy:
1. The Rise of AI – Companies in industries like retail, banking, and healthcare are already starting to use artificial intelligence in their marketing efforts. While AI is most often used in marketing automation to automate basic tasks like reporting on website traffic and recommending keywords that can optimize a company’s organic search results, marketers are also exploring AI applications that can predict what customers are likely to buy in the future based on their past purchases and browsing history.
In 2022, look into ways to use AI in combination with SEO and other digital marketing strategies. You’ll be surprised at what AI can accomplish!
2. AI-Powered Influencer Marketing – Valued at $9.7 billion in 2020, the influencer market is estimated to reach $15 billion by 2022, with the majority of marketers reporting that they budget more than 20 percent of their spend on influencer content.
The next phase of influencer marketing will involve the widespread adoption of AI in everything from influencer identification (with AI watching and assessing millions of influencer videos faster and more efficiently than humans can) to performance influencer marketing. In this predictive AI-powered model, you only pay for the conversions and sales influencers produce, which looks good for your ROI!
3. Virtual Assistants – Along with AI comes the increasingly popular virtual assistant. It’s been estimated that the market value of voice search shopping will hit $40 billion by 2022, while consumer spending via voice assistants will reach 18 percent.
Odds are, your business already uses a virtual assistant to automate customer service needs through applications like efficiently handling customer inquiries on social media channels, email marketing, and other online platforms. There are a multitude of benefits associated with virtual assistants or “chatbots;” they include:
- Chatbots can answer consumer questions without company interventions.
- The AI powering the chatbot gives it a distinct personality, which livens up the customer experience.
- Chatbots increase customer interactions by providing a personalized and enjoyable experience.
4. Hybrid Events – in the wake of COVID-19, virtual events became the mainstay for continuing to engage with customers and leads. Now that people are starting to feel comfortable with gathering physically again, marketers face a choice. Should we return to events that take place only within a physical location? Or, should we stay virtual to appease those consumers who enjoyed attending live events from the comfort of their homes?
The answer, it seems, is to implement a hybrid approach. When planning events for 2022, make sure your live events have a strong digital component and utilize technologies like AR and VR to create an immersive experience for those who wish to attend digitally.
5. Content Marketing – Do you want to stand out in your industry? Then you need to align your PR, leadership, and SEO. By aligning these three key areas, your company will enjoy boosted visibility, credibility, and authority. How does this kind of strategy work?
Let’s start with the B2B content on your site. Once you get a solid base of authority on different topics, then add the PR element to gain credibility, where others are quoting or mentioning your high quality content. Finally, make sure that people are linking to your generated content under certain topics that you can own.
6. Mobile–First Marketing – People today spend a significant amount of time online. Unsurprisingly, according to Pew Research, “constant” internet usage among adults increased by five percent in the last few years. What does this mean? Well, in the world of marketing, the way people buy and shop has changed along with the uptick in internet usage – and this includes how people are accessing the internet.
As more people are using smartphones and tablets instead of desktops to browse products or services on the web, businesses need to create mobile-friendly content that will rank higher in search engines. One simple strategy involves optimizing your website’s design so that it automatically adjusts for smaller screens. AMP (accelerated mobile pages) also make content load faster on smartphones and tablets.
7. Alternatives to Third-Party Cookies – consumers are demanding greater privacy protections and control over their data. At the same time, Google recently announced its plan to phase out support for third-party cookies. What should today’s marketers do? To start, increase your efforts to gather and fully exploit first-party data.
You can also use tools like Google’s Privacy Sandbox or FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) to achieve personalization and consumer targeting without encroaching upon user privacy. Regardless, CRM tools, surveys, and interactive content will become increasingly necessary for marketing success.
Learn more about the advantages of our digital marketing solutions. Details here!
The Need for Agile Marketing
The landscape for marketers has certainly changed thanks to the ongoing pandemic! Pre-pandemic 2020, 45 percent of corporate event organizers indicated that they planned to maintain their spending on product launchers and VIP customer events. Further, about 18 percent wanted to increase their spending.
Enter the pandemic – marketers scrambled to find alternative ways to network as 52 percent predicted that a “return to normal” wouldn’t be possible until at least the second quarter of 2021.
Suddenly, marketers were forced to rethink their strategy for the year, pivoting quickly and (in some cases) not-so-successfully. As a result, the coming years may beckon an increased demand for marketing teams and communications professionals to be agile. This means no more silos between marketers and other departments, and a heightened focus on the need to plan quickly and gather data more efficiently.
How can digital marketing use artificial intelligence? We have twelve ideas for you here!
Stefanini’s Approach to Digital Marketing
In an increasingly connected world, your approach to marketing must be just as integrated. We create customized solutions for your business by innovatively combining marketing tools and technology, while keeping the focus on end-user experience.
We focus on strategy, data science, media, and digital advertising, using data intelligence to boost business, connect people, and create experiences for your target audience. Using our expertise, best practices, and statistical techniques, we provide actionable business insights based on data mining and predictive models, as well as analytics and social insights.
Could your digital marketing strategy use a boost? We are here to help. Reach out today to connect with us and get started!
