This article looks at the latest trends in digital marketing trends going into 2022.
Digital marketing is an ever-evolving industry. Good evidence of this is that marketing strategies that used to work in the past don’t work anymore. We can see it daily, TikTok has become important for brands, Facebook changed their name to Meta, blockchain has become mainstream, tracking customers is becoming harder and so much more.
Although it can be tough, to effectively market your business online, you need to stay on top of the changing trends.
In this article, we are talking about the 10 best marketing trends in 2022. By the end of it, you will know exactly what you should be doing as a business moving forward in 2022 and beyond. Don’t get stuck thinking about 2020 and 2021 marketing trends.
Take note – to get most benefit from this article, I really hope you will implement some of the 2022 marketing trends we list. Make a simple plan and implement it straight away.
There are many articles and videos online that will give you tips and tricks for digital marketing. We recommend you read 3 to 5 of these lists to get a good flavour of what the best marketing tips are for your business.
Let’s dive in.
1. Tracking Gets Tougher
Future of marketing is changing! Say bye-bye to third-party cookies.
Google announced that it will end cookie tracking by 2023. For a business that wants to track its prospects online, that’s bad news.
You would need to make some drastic changes to your strategies because of it.
Tracking prospects across the internet (Cookies) has been a pretty popular strategy, but it’s probably going to get completely irrelevant in the days to come.
But, although third-party cookies will be a thing of the past soon, there is still a way out, by capturing Zero-party data and first-party data.
There are three types of cookies that you need to understand because this is a MASSIVE change to the latest digital marketing trends, it will affect every business and how they plan their digital marketing campaigns.
What are Zero-party data? Zero-party cookies are when you get your prospect’s information directly from them. A customer proactively provides you with their details. You can capture customer data from multiple methods, you can use a newsletter on your website, offer article downloadables with lots of value where people will provide you their email addresses to access the articles. This will enable you to offer personalized communication and advertising campaigns to people.
First-party data is data that you capture from when a user visits your website. You can understand what pages they went to, duration on the website, what they clicked, where they scrolled and more. Google has stated that first-party data is vital and will still be reliable in the future. For example, if you advertise to people after they visit your website (called a remarketing campaign) then you would use your website Cookies to enable this advertising campaign.
Third-party data is data that is purchased or obtained from websites that you do not own. Purchasing lists of leads is a thing of the past and should only be done with very specific goals and methods. Read more about what you need to know about the death of third-party cookies.
2. Automation – The New Normal
The way artificial intelligence is taking over human tasks can be frightening for some.
But, as a marketer, automation is your friend. Current marketing trends are always changing and leaning on tools that automate tasks is essential for every business in 2022. For starters, marketing automation can save you time as it can take care of repetitive tasks effectively. Think about email automation, AI content writing, social media scheduling, keyword research and website audit reporting.
Plus, the use of data in AI-based tools can help you market your business to the right audience in the right manner, at the right time.
This, of course, can help you create a consistent flow of customers on autopilot.
There are thousands of automation tools you can use to grow your business, here are 8 SAAS tools we recommend for you to check out. We use Trello in Glassfull Media to help us with our processes and automation.
3. Embrace Voice
Voice search is another important marketing trend in 2022 and beyond. And, voice search tools like Alexa and Siri have been the primary driving forces behind it.
What does the trend mean for a business like yours?
Simple: If you have a website or a blog, you need to optimize it with voice searches as well.
Think about what your potential customers might be searching for on search engines. Create content that caters to those long-term queries.
This trend affects certain business verticals more than others, local businesses and e-commerce businesses should pay attention to this top marketing trend when looking at continued digital transformation.
4. Increasing Importance of Online Reviews
A short and positive online review helps you build trust with your target audience. Consumers tend to check online reviews before they buy anything.
Here is a quick fact: 89% of consumers consider online reviews as personal recommendations.
Moreover, research also says that people need around 40 online reviews to believe in the average star rating.
This means that you need to focus on getting more 5-star reviews from your existing customers to keep attracting new ones.
The best source of online reviews is Google Business simply because it has the highest visibility and trust. It is free and one of the most important top digital marketing trends in 2022 and beyond.
5. Influencer Marketing is Growing
Influencer marketing is when you let an “Influencer” promote your products in front of “Their” audience. This is one of the most important Social media trends that will keep becoming more important as the world becomes more of a ‘creator community’.
An influencer is someone who has a sizeable audience on one or multiple digital platforms around a specific industry.
People are now spending a lot of their time online, which is leading to the creation of more and more online communities.
But, in influencer marketing, bigger is not always better. A niche audience of a small influencer tends to bring better results than a large disconnected audience of a celebrity.
If you are new to influencer marketing, you should first start with smaller influencers – people who have 5k to 50k followers instead of people with 500k followers. This will keep your costs down while allowing you to test multiple smaller influencers instead of one mainstream influencer.
6. Mobile-Friendly Websites Will Be Preferred
This has been the case for a few years but we need to drive this one home. When you think of website design, think mobile-first.
According to Statista, smartphone subscriptions worldwide have surpassed 6 billion; what does that mean for you?
Creating and keeping a website mobile-friendly isn’t an option anymore; it’s a necessity.
There is an ever-increasing demand for quick information, and mobile phones provide just that.
By keeping your site mobile-friendly, you will not only improve your search engine rank but also convert more visitors.
But, that doesn’t mean that you can ignore your site’s desktop version. No matter how popular mobile becomes, you can’t afford to ignore computers.
The good thing is, when you optimize your site for mobile, it automatically provides the best desktop experience as well.
7. The Increasing Importance of Page Speed
Here is an alarming stat: The average human attention span is estimated to be around 8 seconds.
This could be far less when someone is browsing the internet because of the information overload. So, ideally, your website needs to load within a couple of seconds.
Otherwise, you will risk losing a bunch of your visitors.
You can check the speed of your website for free with these two tools: Google Page Speed Insights, GT Metrix Speed tester.
One way to increase the speed of your website is to use a CDN, this is a fast way to implement speed improvements across your entire website. Check out Cloudflare, they offer a free package to get you started but we recommend you use their paid CDN package.
8. Audio Content is Getting Popular
Research suggests that video has the front seat when it comes to content marketing. But, you can’t watch a video when you are driving, cooking, jogging, exercising, and more.
Audio content is probably the easiest to consume on the go, which is why it’s getting popular pretty quickly.
Data tells us that 50% of all homes in the US listen to podcasts.
So, if you are trying to leverage content marketing for your brand, it would be a good idea to put audio content into the mix as well.
9. Short-Form Video Will be All the Rave
Ever since platforms like TikTok have introduced short-form video content, it’s only picking up in popularity.
People are loving these short bits of information. As a business, you want to make that work in your favor.
Short-form video gets your brand message across quickly and isn’t resource-intensive either.
The data also seems to point you in this direction: In 2021, short-form video content produced the second-highest ROI (return on investment) after influencer marketing.
Blogging and adding quality images to your website are the best starting point. Here is a list of 6 blog posts you can write every week. Video has more barriers to entry and will take more of your time and resources to start producing quality video content. The first question you should ask yourself is, how do I create engaging content for my audiences?
10. Inbound Marketing Will Continue to Work
There are essentially two ways of marketing anything online:
- The inbound way: When you pull your audience to your business using high-quality, relevant content. They find you by going to Google, and looking for a solution, your website / blog shows up in the results giving them the answer to their problem.
- The outbound way: When you push your business to the right audience. Running paid ad campaigns on Google ads or Facebook ads for example. If you run ads for your business, make sure you understand there is a fast way to create ads and a detailed way to create ads which is the best option for you. Here is a list of 15 free advertising sites you should check out.
Businesses will continue to use inbound marketing tactics because they are pretty cost-effective. These include email marketing, blogging, video tutorials, and social media posts.
In-bound marketing methods are the best for long-term online growth, they usually take longer to see true success but they are worth it in the end. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one method within “the inbound marketing way” and is amazing because you are answering the pain points of your potential customers. Here are 4 reasons why you should pay attention to SEO.
Final Thoughts
Digital Marketing can be simple, and it can be very complicated, it depends on your industry and what products/services you are offering to people. Take your time to create a marketing strategy. If you are hiring people to work on your digital marketing strategy, make sure to ask the right marketing questions BEFORE you hire them.
The history of marketing suggests that it’s an ever-evolving industry. As a brand, you need to stay up to date with the latest marketing trends and evolve your digital marketing strategies accordingly.
This article tells you the trends that you can’t afford to ignore in the years to come.
The important thing is to keep an eye on any developments in the marketing world and have a flexible approach.
