If you find it seems close to impossible to keep up with digital marketing trends, you’re not alone. In fact, 25% of small businesses lack the technical knowledge to go about having a website built. But fear not! Here we look at the most inspiring and important digital marketing trends in 2022 that can help you connect with customers and generate leads.
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Digital marketing trends: the short and sweet video
Video is nothing new. However, the trend in marketing videos is creating short and sweet video clips. Although you might not consider yourself much of a TikTok kind of business, the idea of short videos can be embraced using something a little more old-school like YouTube. The key is to provide the short-form content users need to digest information in smaller doses and keep up with limited attention spans that are getting shorter everyday.
Trending digital marketing tells a story
A distinct shift of focus from trying to distinguish a brand from the competition to telling the stories behind business success is very 2022. This speaks to the need for authenticity in marketing by using true situations that show people how your product or service resolves their problems. It’s a great opportunity to build on customer testimonials and reviews, hitching your little red wagon to user-generated content (USG) repurposed for your own storytelling.
Making the most of user-generated content
That brings us to user generated content, or USG. Many say USG is the end-all and be-all of digital marketing trends. This is because nothing is more authentic than actual customers spouting the virtues of your product and services. USG comes in many forms including social media, testimonials, case studies, white papers, blog posts, product reviews, images, videos, and more. If it comes directly from a customer, and it is positive of course, you can repurpose it throughout your digital marketing strategy.
The art of being authentic
How you’re perceived as a brand all boils down to how authentic your brand is. With things like highly targeted segmentation and personalized digital marketing, people are more suspicious of where you get your information. Ensuring you are authentic and caring as opposed to manipulative will be more and more important as the ever-savvy consumer feels their privacy is being invaded.
Preparing for limited audiences
A tightening of privacy laws and restrictions on cookies by major players like Google will make it difficult for you to track consumer behavior in 2023. Therefore in 2022, you need to look at how privacy will impact your ability to use cookies to assist in marketing tactics like retargeting ads. Tying in with authenticity now might be the right time to start asking customers what they want, instead of using sneakier tracking methods. You get the best of both worlds: Highly targeted personalization opportunities using an approach that helps keep your brand authentic.
Creating more segmented, customized content
Long gone are the days of wasting your marketing budget on every social channel without considering your audience. 2022 is the year of segmented, customized content where you consider both the channel and the target in a profound way. Considering how the channel works and what it offers ensures your content works well for that platform. Targeting different segments of your audience allows you to customize content based on specific needs. Connection is key to reaching today’s discerning audiences. Therefore, where you speak to them, how you speak to them, and what you say should all come together seamlessly.
Focusing on core web vitals
Google’s Core Web Vitals are designed to improve the ‘wellbeing’ of your website. Google uses these metrics to rank your site based on user experience. Therefore, it’s important to understand how to optimize your site based on these three vitals:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): High scores for LCP mean your site reduces user frustration thanks to faster loading pages.
- FID (First Input Delay): Users want to tap a link or button and see an instant response. The more responsive your site, the higher your score.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): When the pages of your website load, images shouldn’t move or shift. For example, a blank spot might appear, then shift to a link of interest to the visitor, but then suddenly load an ad which is what they end up clicking. This presents a very unstable site which is off-putting to users and reduces your CLS score.
Because higher scores mean improved ranking, your goal is to improve the usability of your site. Faster loading pages without any glitches that interfere with user experience are a must. In other words, stop focusing on outdated SEO tricks and instead focus on high-quality content and impeccable function.
Adding more answer-based content
As the heading implies, answer-based content is designed to answer questions. To leverage this digital marketing trend, you need to understand your audience. You want to know the types of issues they face, and the questions they need to be answered to overcome those issues. However, you can also research the types of products and services you offer and see what answers competitors are providing. Social media feeds and Facebook groups can also provide a good base of FAQs to help inspire your content. In fact, FAQs can rank quite high compared to your basic blog content. As long as your content is relevant to your products and services, it should answer common questions. Just avoid hard selling throughout the information you provide.
Using LinkedIn for B2B businesses
Many small businesses overlook the opportunities offered by LinkedIn. However, if you are a B2B business, this is the place to be in 2022. These digital marketing trends offer you the chance to make strong connections, position yourself as a thought leader, and leverage new features designed to help you meet your marketing goals.
Indulging in conversational marketing
This boils down to your ability to respond to customer questions. It doesn’t require any fancy content but instead focuses on using conversational tools like chatbots to improve customer experience. The beauty of conversational marketing is that you don’t have to lift a finger if you don’t want to, because many standards d responses can be automated. Technology does the heavy lifting for this digital marketing trend. As a result, you can speak to customers on the devices and platforms of their choice, as well as at the time of day that suits their lifestyle – even if that’s at 2 am. Chatbots can be used for your website as well as social media. You can also use popular messaging apps used by your targets such as WhatsApp and (Meta) Facebook Messenger.
Optimizing for voice search
A digital marketing trend too big to ignore is the emergence of voice search. Although this is not new, it is growing. Incorporating longer tail terms and questions in SEO helps ensure your content quickly answers questions people are asking Alexa and Siri. This helps improve your organic ranking.
Social commerce refers to sales made directly from social media feeds. It’s been around for a while, but it’s on fire right now thanks to Instagram and TikTok. If you sell products, this is something to consider. Social commerce introduces a simplified buyer experience where they can learn about, see, click and buy products as a seamless purchase that is easy and secure. Combine this with user generated content, and you’ve got the beginnings of an influencer campaign!
Crazy futuristic metaverse
We are in a world where emerging technologies can be percieved as cool, exciting, and overwhelming-maybe even scary to some. It makes sense that advanced digital marketing trends will rely heavily on futuristic advancements like the metaverse. The metaverse is sci-fi-worthy communication with next-level social connections, out-of-this-world mobility capabilities, and advanced collaboration all taking place in a virtual work platform like NextMeet.
Leveraging customer lifecycle opportunities
This is a big one. Using the stages of the customer lifecycle allows you to focus on the right content to help move customers along on their customer journey. The basics of this digital marketing trend work something like this:
Stage 1: The awareness stage
At this stage, your goal is to introduce yourself to the customer using marketing such as:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content marketing
- Pay-per-Click advertising (PPC ads)
- Social media marketing
Stage 2: The Consideration stage
These customers know about you but still haven’t made up their minds. You can reach them using:
- Customer reviews and testimonials
- Tutorials and how-to content on social media
- Offer product demos
- Live chat
Stage 3: Purchase
This is a critical stage where you have to avoid losing out to the competition. At this stage maintaining their attention on your brand is key using the following:
- Email marketing
- SMS marketing
- Retargeting display ads
Stage 4: Retention
Retaining customers requires ongoing nurturing and contact such as:
- Email marketing
- SMS marketing
- Surveys and gathering feedback
- Personalized offers
- Newsletters
Stage 5: Advocacy
Customer advocacy is customer loyalty. Digital marketing trends used during this stage include:
- Loyalty programs
- Referral programs
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This is an excellent way to use segmentation to create highly targeted content with the right marketing tactic.
Digital marketing trends for 2022 are evolving how we approach content development and customer communication. Information is more authentic with a focus on segments and the customer journey, but being respectful of customer privacy is changing how we personalize content. Add to this a smooth and effortless user experience to become more responsive and improve SEO and you’re on your way to understanding where digital marketing is headed.
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