5 Digital Marketing Predictions 2022
The digital marketing landscape changes rapidly and frequently, so it feels almost impossible to predict the future of digital marketing. That said, here are the top 5 predictions as things stand.
Businesses that adapt to shifting trends often put themselves at the forefront of the field, and those that fail to accommodate the latest digital opportunities most likely fall behind. So, to avoid that happening, we want to share five digital marketing trends we foresee as critical digital steps to take to grow leads, sales, and conversions in 2022.
1. Hybrid Events to Nurture Existing Relationships and Generate New Ones
In 2020 and 2021, we have seen digital events and webinars everywhere. And we will soon reach a limit to continue at the same volume. Our audience is fed up. Or, at least they want the activity to be tweaked into e.g., more dialogue-based webinars, digital VIP user group events, or the like.
Looking into our Dynamicweb events statistics, we see a pattern that people still register; however, the attendee rate is decreasing. This indicates of course an interest in the topic but it also suggests that our audience is not as highly invested as they were just half a year ago.
However, we did learn a lot going digital and we have experience how to not only reduce costs but also how to work efficiently within events.
For next year, digital events will be balanced with hybrid events. And why is that? Because Hybrid events offer a combination of in-person and virtual components that can make them more sustainable and inclusive.
This means that hybrid events may become more eco-friendly, which speaks directly to the hearts of modern consumers and will most likely bring that investment and engagement back.
With that said, fully digital events will continue in 2022, but we do expect them to be merged into in-person events (hopefully).
2. Social Media Marketing is Vital to be Present Where your Customers Are
People across all generations have moved online and the place they spend the most time is on social networks. People are scrolling, posting, and engaging across nearly all social media channels. For this reason, most companies move their marketing strategies on social channels as well.
What does this mean for marketers? Well, first of fall we can get a much deeper understanding of each customer as an individual and thus get the opportunity to offer highly personalized targeted offers and services, as the algorithms used in social media just keep growing.
Paradoxical, having your entire target audience on social media adds more complexity to creating personalized relevant content and setting up paid targeting.
For instance, when creating content for social posts, either organic posts, employee advocacy posts, or advertising campaigns, it’s necessary to take into consideration the current situation in the world and in a particular country, city, and region and the digital maturity levels on your social audience that now includes, well, everyone.
3. Content Marketing will be an Essential Driver for Growth
Content Marketing is on its way back to being the marketing discipline that drives business growth. Why? Because Google told us content marketing is the best way to rank for buyer search. In addition to that, more than two-thirds of marketers are increasing their content marketing budgets in 2022, with 1 in 5 increasing by double digits.
Source: Content Marketing Institute annual survey on Content Marketing Trends
The reason why we see a revival of Content Marketing is that companies are becoming more aware of the power of content partly because of the accelerated digital transformation that both companies and people went through during the pandemic.
Digital commerce is convenient and digital maturity across generations has reached new heights, meaning buyers search and shop online. And you need good, quality content and SEO performance to be found online.
To put it short: Content Marketing will (continue) to drive the force of every B2B strategy and your business needs to stay ahead of the marketing curve.
4. Video is Going to Rule all Digital Channels Across all Industries
Content creation and advertising in video format are rising these days – a growing number of users don’t want to read – they want to watch (and listen). Globally, total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) was 80% of all Internet traffic in 2021. In fact, as of 2021, an average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos.
Video content is proving itself as a powerful medium, and as mentioned we experienced a massive rise in webinars, how-to tutorial video, product video marketing and live streaming video, etc. during the last year.
With the video discipline getting more and more embedded in digital marketing strategies, the number of formats and methods to interact with your audience seems to be ever evolving. The importance of video to all digital marketing channels is growing - fast.
To get the most out of your video marketing effort, you need to focus on optimizing your video content. An optimized video must contain a thumbnail and description, good subtitles, and transcription so that your audience can read the information from the video.
This goes for all businesses - no matter size, industry, or audience. Even if you run complex ecommerce businesses with an enormous number of SKUs, or if you sell highly technical machinery with tons of spare parts, use video to make your product come alive.
Instead of a picture, create that short 10-30 second video showing the product from all angles. And add a tutorial video with the manual.
If you have not fully embraced video in your marketing activities, you are already lagging, but do not worry, it is not too late to jump in. Let 2022 be the year that you start recording.
5. The Effect of Voice and Visual Search on Website Performance
Customers must be able to search your site as easily as possible for your digital marketing strategy to be effective. With the number of people using voice and visual search technology rapidly increasing, you can’t afford to ignore them. The popularity of voice and visual search has led to one of the most significant shifts in using keywords.
Visual search, or image-based search, has been around for a long time. Search engines return search results based on pictures rather than typing keywords. This means that users can upload an image and get information about an item just from a picture.
Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and related search tools turn a user’s camera into a search bar. To benefit from this trend, you must add high-quality images and tag them with descriptive keywords.
In the same way, voice search allows users to speak into the device to obtain results. When you do write your content, you must pick your keywords based on the questions people may ask when using Siri or Alexa. This can increase your visibility, performance, and conversion on site.
To meet the requirements of voice and visual search, Marketers can work with some different strategies:
- Chatbots: You can use Chatbots to communicate with your visitors/users based on the images they click on, share or like.
- Building a Product Image Content Hub: Sellers and retailers can create a product image library. Search engines will favour you when selecting a site based on user-oriented content.
- Combining Visual and Text Search: Rather than treating visual and text search as two competitors, you will benefit greatly from combining the two.
The impact of visual search and voice search on website performance and SEO is significant. Although the technology has still on its way to get a foothold in the market, it will improve in the coming years.
To make your digital marketing and website perform better in 2022, you must optimize for text, visuals, and voice. This way, you will have a great chance to connect with your customers, attract new leads, and expand your market presence.
So, Where Does this Leave us?
Marketing is an ever-evolving field. Staying up to date with digital marketing trends is essential for all businesses no matter size or industry.
Increase engagement and loyalty with high-quality, personalized content into your digital marketing campaigns and automate the montane recurring processes to save yourself time. This, in turn, can help you keep up with the emerging marketing landscape.