Marketing Trends to use to kill it in 2022.

Digital Marketing is always evolving and it moves so fast.

We all saw how fast the marketing industry changed over 2021, and it is likely that 2022 will hold some dramatic changes for the industry. In 2021, marketers had to embrace digital transformation more than ever due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There were constant changes from virtual and hybrid business models.

2022 has just started and as marketers of any level know, it isn't easy to keep up with all the changes that occur in the industry. But, in-order to be successful in any industry it is important to stay ahead when it comes to marketing. Businesses and brands should always be planning for the future and they should be prepared to take advantage of digital marketing trends and strategies.

Here we are going to talk about 6 digital marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2022 and how they can be leveraged to your benefit.

1) Influencer Marketing will become an even more common trend.

Let's face it. We all know influencer marketing has grown dramatic over the last couple of years and it will continue to do so. How often have you found yourself on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram etc. and influencers you follow do an advert for businesses? I can honestly say that I have seen this happen on a number of occasions and I'm sure you have too.

Many marketing professionals who use influencer marketing say that it is effective and those who don't are planning to leverage this trend in 2022 and invest into it. From what I have seen influencer marketing seems to be the top ROI-generating trend that has been tested.

Influencer marketing was set to reach £10.8 billion in 2021 and this number is going to increase for 2022. As influencer campaigns provide context and relevance since the influencer is endorsing the product. Adobe is a big brand that has embraced the trend alongside Dunkin' Donuts and many others.

So how and why has influencer marketing gone from and trend to a smart marketing tactic? Influencers are masters of the platform they use and/or the field/topic they talk about. A great example of this is on TikTok, Charlie D'Amelio, who is a dancer and has used that to create a huge following of over 130 million followers on the platform. The audience is engaged and interested in her content and this goes on to influence the followers with information she provides.

Marketers can then collaborate with influencers/industry thought leaders, which can expand brand awareness and gain followers from the influencers audience.

Celebrity influencers are expensive and is it out of your budget? Yeah, don't worry, many marketers who are investing in influencer marketing don't really have the budget for celebrity influencers. So they use micro-influencers instead which more beneficial.

Micro-influencers are social media promoters who have a smaller following than celebrity influencers (usually in the thousands to tens of thousands of followers). They may have less followers but their posts usually hit harder as they generally tend to have a higher level of engagement than celebrity influencers.

It is because micro-influencers are considered "everyday" people and this leads to their followers more likely to trust any opinions and recommendations they might have.

For example, Aditi Singh, is a popular influencer who focuses on short choreographed dances and she has over 250k loyal followers. The image above shows her TikTok following and likes of all her videos. She started in 2021 January and has grown quite a lot. She also has an engagement rate of 18.31%. While it is tempting to focus on follower count don't, but instead, focus on the engagement (likes, clicks, purchases). It looks like influencer marketing is here to stay and it is definitely a trend that will grow in 2022.

Want more information on influencer marketing, then check out this HubSpot ultimate guide for influencer marketing.

2) SEO will become much more integrated over the course of 2022.

Marketers will know that search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the oldest and one of the most valuable forms of digital marketing. As marketers we want to make sure that our website and content are as discoverable as possible, especially on the biggest search engine, Google. This provides both long-term and short-term traffic.

SEO isn't new but the strategies are becoming more integrated into the modern marketing strategies. Search algorithms have continuously changed and become smarter and more contextual. Meaning that those marketers who relied on "tricks" don't work anymore. SEO is more about providing a meaningful and enjoyable experience to the users.

While many marketers don't have SEO high up on their list of trends that they use, but those that leverage SEO still find it effective and will continue to invest in it and it looks set to continue for 2022.

SEO used to be more simple but as the algorithms have evolved it has become much more than creating simple posts answering simple questions. Brands are now investing in SEO to help them will optimisation, to search insight reports.

From personal experience I would recommend that you do invest in SEO but focus more on the excellent user experience.

Looking to understand more about SEO checkout this guide from Backlinko.

3) Video Marketers will keep content in short-form.

Over the course of 2021 short-form content has grown with the likes of TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts becoming one of the trends being leveraged the most.

Of course long-form videos give viewers lots of information and depth about a brand or a product or whatever the topic of conversation is to the audience. Lots of marketers. B2C and B2B, have learned that short-form videos are much more effective as they are essentially just getting to the point.

Short-form videos take less bandwidth and this is perfect as it aligns with the fast-paced attention of the social landscape. It is why the likes of TikTok, Insta Reels and even YouTube Shorts have gained growth and marketing interest especially over the last year.

Not convinced? Check out this incredible video by SOYYO Candles on Instagram that informs views just how easy it is to look after candles (let's be honest a lot of people are loving videos about candles).

4) Social audio apps will become even more popular.

For those of you who don't know, social audio is a form of social media where people communicate through audio on a shared app. It's like a chat room but you communicate through real-time communications only, not text or video. Clubhouse is one of those social audio apps and it is an invitation-only audio chatroom that quickly grew to millions of users without creating and publishing any visual content. Clubhouse grew incredibly over the summer of 2021 and the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn quickly rushed to invest in it and start testing it with similar features.

Now it's not just Clubhouse anymore, Twitter created Twitter Spaces, Facebook created Facebook Live Audio Rooms and Spotify has Spotify Greenroom. You can see that some of the big social platforms followed suit. On the other hand, there are big brands like HubSpot expanded their podcast and networks to meet even more listeners.

Audio platform don't have good monetizing features or conversion paths but the data for this shows that it provides the engagement and brand awareness that companies need to see them for investment.

5) Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

When virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) first started popping up, consumers got really excited about the possibilities. I mean, take a look at Pokemon Go, it generated so much buzz because it leveraged AR and was super popular for a while. Oculus have been creating the best VR experience and continue to grow especially now that Meta is creating its Metaverse.

Virtual Reality is viewing computer generated, lifelike scenario and Augmented Reality is viewing the real world augmented with visual, haptic and olfactory additions. Even though VR/AR is still evolving, there are lots of futuristic applications that people have imagined are yet to manifest. VR and AR offer different experiences and both are making waves in marketing.

You probably have experiences VR watching a 360° video on Facebook. But National Geographic created this incredible 360° video which sets out on a virtual dive on the coral reefs of Palau with marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer Dr. Erika Woolsey as your guide.

A great example of AR that can be used on a day to day. Mercedes-Benz have integrated AR into their navigation system. Check out the image below where arrows are super imposed showing which way that they need to go.

VR and AR are used to improve customer experiences online. This trend has been much slower to adopt for marketers to utilize is because of expensive equipment and the bulky headsets. As the technology improves and equipment becomes cheaper businesses can start to add this into their marketing strategies. Definitely worth keeping an eye on all the updates and improvements for AR and VR.

6) Inbound Marketing is the best practice for growing brands.

Inbound marketing has been around for many years and marketers have always been using it, and especially in a time of digital transformation, inbound marketing is an extremely intelligent move. We all know that over the last two years the world has had to deal with an incredible amount of change with the COVID-19 pandemic. This made outbound marketing tactics even less effective in reaching prospects and leads.

Moving from an in-person to hybrid working from home business models which have made inbound marketing becomes a very effective tactic. Virtual events have been on the rise because of COVID-19 which forced marketers to become even more creative to gain consumers attention. Inbound marketing can be utilised to be an extremely valuable asset to build brand awareness and create trust digitally by focusing on the strategy that would allow consumers to find your content.

Businesses used to use the marketing funnel but that is old news now. The flywheel is the new model that marketers are adopting as the flywheel which lives at the centre of inbound marketing strategies.

The marketing funnel used to look at consumers as an afterthought. After the consumer has paid for a service or product, they don't matter until it becomes times to get them to re-sign or purchase their product again.

The flywheel puts the consumer in the centre. And because word-of-mouth marketing is probably one of the most powerful marketing tactics out there and that makes it wise to make sure you not only serve your consumers but also equip them to becoming promotors of your brand. The flywheel process shows that amazing service is its own marketing strategy.

By having the consumers in the centre of the flywheel, you empower them and delight them, which makes it worthwhile to focus on customer service and make sure that you team is able to handle consumer requests and issues. This will push the consumers to basically do the marketing for you and advocate for your business through their network of friends and family.

And boom, you're all caught up...…. for the time being. But don't worry as long as you are staying ahead with marketing trends and stay open to change, your business won't fall behind. If you're worried about falling behind with any of the trends, don't worry we are always on hand to help if you ever need it. You can contact us whenever you need help we would be happy to help.