Digital marketing is increasingly sophisticated with each passing year. There is a data war going on right now. The first party will become the backbone of all marketing campaigns in the future years, with many unprepared firms scrambling to collect this data to stay competitive. Marketers now have to juggle newly emerging social platforms and evolving regulations, as well as content, automation, and personalization, to mention a few, in addition to the basics like SEO, PPC, branding, and UX.
The year 2022 will be the most pivotal in terms of data and privacy in digital marketing. Gender-neutral marketing will become the norm, with less emphasis on preconceived notions of what a person looks like.
Certain digital marketing trends that are upcoming in 2022:
- Email marketing – As we all know, is a well-known form of communication. However, email marketing has grown in popularity in recent years. Personalization, automation, and privacy are three current email trends. People currently employ a variety of approaches, including dynamic and interactive email content, AMP for email, and new customization tools. These developments highlight the growing relevance of email in recent years. Direct mail is read by 92 percent of people, and 71 percent share it. When an audience is constantly bombarded with digital messaging, direct mail stands out as genuine, surprising, nostalgic, and tangible.
- Advertising postcards – Have you heard of promotional postcards? They do, after all, reach people where they reside. Direct mail is a method of communicating directly with your customers at their homes. This enables you to segment your audience based on their geographic location and demographic profiles. There is a surge in advertising that uses postcards to reach its target demographic, and this trend is expected to continue. Postcards are small, eye-catching, and stick out in the mailbox. Postcards are a straightforward format that yields a high return on investment (ROI).
- Brand loyalty programs – It is a loyalty-based strategy that can help transform into actual membership programs. Customers will pay to join this subscription because it is so appealing. Brands will embrace the membership concept and add value by providing exclusive access to products, free shipping, and offline events, among other things.
- Customization – There was a time when one of the most effective strategies to attract clients was to provide discounts. Discounts, on the other hand, appear to be rapidly losing favor. Brands will soon replace blanket discounts that don’t last long with one-of-a-kind offers based on what they know about their customers. Instead, they’ll purchase based on free shipping and their unique selling propositions, such as free customization and in-store experience.
- Video-based advertisements – Nobody has the time or the patience to read a handbook. They would rather watch some videos about it because it saves time and they enjoy learning quickly. As a result, videos will be at the heart of all marketing campaigns. New video-focused advertising products will be introduced on social media and streaming TV channels. Even in the retail environment, new developments in the use of video to engage customers and drive revenue will be seen.
- Storytelling – Many businesses are still telling their tales about themselves rather than how their products and services might help customers succeed. Companies that can use compelling storytelling to develop digital content that adds value rather than just being content for the sake of being content will succeed.
- Word-of-mouth – Businesses still clamor to drive word of mouth and attract social attention, as they say, because experiences are the new social money. As the advertising landscape becomes more crowded, earned media and word of mouth become increasingly vital to breakthroughs. To earn social media word-of-mouth, marketers should focus on creating experiences at every stage of their interactions with clients.
- Influencer marketing – This must be known by everyone. Some may believe that this will not work in B2B organizations, yet it has recently gained popularity. Because the influencer is embracing the product, influencer campaigns bring context and relevance. B2B companies such as Adobe, SAP, GE, and PWC have all embraced influencer marketing. Marketers should look for ways to collaborate with industry influencers.
- SEO – Marketers must focus less on SEO hacks and methods and more on providing an excellent and meaningful experience to their users as search algorithms become smarter and more contextual. Algorithms are used in every aspect of digital marketing, including social network news feeds, display ads, social ads, SEO, and email. Algorithms all aim for the same thing: a good user experience. Marketers must deliver a user experience or their content will be less visible.
As new social media outlets arose, we all assumed that Facebook was doomed to fail. If Zuckerberg is unwilling to stand down as CEO to allow new energy to flow into the company, Meta’s progress will be impacted, rather than reaching the same heights as Facebook. For Facebook, the year 2022 will be a turning point, and many businesses are being more cautious with their Facebook expenditure while they wait to see how this new brand is received and what consequences it may bring.
Just like Facebook, marketers should always be on the lookout for new trends so that they could be at the forefront of new technologies and platforms. We also shouldn’t forget to optimize our core digital technologies that will yield a higher return on investment and promote business growth.
