The pandemic-induced upheavals of 2020 have profoundly impacted the digital marketing dynamics of 2021 and 2022. As a result, brands encountered an entirely new purchase behavior terrain, which was further complicated by mass social movements and exciting new technology.
But despite the coronavirus-related market issues, digital ad spend is projected to grow to $389 billion this year.
The marketing world is dynamic. Trends, technologies, and strategies are never stagnant, as made evident by the digital marketing tactics that worked well last year. Businesses that were the first to humanize their messaging and address buyer issues won the race to customer acquisition.
2022 promises to be even more exciting.
Here are a few digital marketing trends that will help you connect with your customers and boost conversions this year:
Inclusivity
Today, digital marketing includes content and media that revolve around all sexualities, religions, races, disabilities, etc. Your videos, podcasts, press releases, and other content collateral must be built to include all kinds of diverse audiences that fall in your target range.
Make inclusivity a goal for all your trending discussion topics on social media, blogs, and even your product offerings.
Non-inclusive brands and companies, or those who don’t appear to consider inclusivity as a crucial part of conversations, will most likely realize its impact in the long term.
On the flip side, brands that openly display their involvement in different scenarios can reap its benefits and build deeper connections with their audience.
An Accenture study explored the impact of this social shift to inclusivity on purchase behavior. It found that 41% of customers stay away from brands that don’t reflect their opinions on diversity and identity – and 29% switch retailers if they don’t showcase enough diversity.
Emphasis On Sustainability
81% of consumers believe that brands should work towards the betterment of the environment. It’s not a surprising number.
Over the past few years, brands are sifting and moving toward a progressively sustainable future. Whether it’s through the resources they use, their systems, the packaging, or some other thing involved in the product development process.
The quest for a greener planet and surroundings continues as consumers actively seek out environmentally-conscious and purpose-driven brands. It will be the key for brands in 2022 to reiterate and showcase their sustainability efforts.
User-Generated Content To Enhance The Customer Experience
More than ever, customer experience is imperative to brands. Consumers need enjoyable and seamless experiences with brands that are memorable and relevant. They want social proof before they invest in your offerings and want to be reassured.
User-generated content ticks all the requirements when it comes to creating and delivering connective content. Essentially, user-generated content:
- It helps brands build and strengthen communities
- It is uplifting and relatable
- Allows brands to meet customer requirements
- Enable brands to generate more content
User-generated content has long been a powerful way for companies to foster relationships with their audience and provide social proof. So naturally, this tactic will only flourish more in 2022.
Voice And Visual Search
A growing number of customers leverage voice-activated tools such as Alexa. That’s because technology is prevailing and readily available. However, it’s not just the voice search, but various other creative search methods such as a visual search can prevail in 2022.
This means marketers need to pay even more attention to the sitemap for images and alt-text. Visuals will become increasingly imperative, especially from an SEO aspect.
And it’s going to give good returns too. Retail Customer Experience projects that early adopters restructure their sites to support voice and visual search will increase their digital marketing revenue by 30% by 2022.
Easy-To-Understand Content
Customers effectively lean on easy-to-understand content such as newsletters, podcasts, etc. These can be consumed without much hassle as they directly land in subscribers’ inboxes.
According to studies, 55% of Americans listen to podcasts, while 14% mention the newsletter. This means it is imperative for marketers to invest in these growing channels, which is a hint for your long-term success.
You can leverage content writing services for your website and enhance the quality of your content. Readily available, convenient, and easy-to-comprehend content like blogs, newsletters, podcasts, etc., will allow your brand to make deeper connections with your customers and provide them with a more intimate way to interact.
Live-Streams And Influencer Content
Consumers are increasingly turning to and looking forward to live streams, whether it’s their favorite celebrity sharing the live video, a branded live stream, or an online workshop.
On Facebook, live viewings surged 50% during the lockdown, while Instagram viewings spiked by 70%. TikTok also has a good possibility and will likely see an upward trajectory even in 2022.
Human-driven content such as influencer content and live streams can help brands build trust and better resonate with the audience.
Local Search Engine Optimization
Google updates its local SEO algorithm frequently. If you are a local brand, you should regularly update your business info to rank higher in local search results.
Additionally, local SEO is more effective than broad SEO. For example, people searching for a specific business or brand with their geographic location have a strong desire to make a purchase, so they are easy to convert.
For starters, it is essential to get certified by Google. This helps your business rank higher and better in Google SERPS. In addition, it also gives you the opportunity to provide additional information about your brand to online traffic.
Furthermore, when you incorporate and highlight local keywords into your strategy, it increases brand visibility and reaches. This, in turn, enables you to convert online traffic more efficiently.
Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is yet another trend that has gained traction in the past few years. The idea is straightforward: you target the niche and specific audience with different marketing campaigns that cater to their interests with relevancy.
Customer segmentation refers to clustering your audience by certain behaviors and traits, such as shopping habits or demographics. The resulting information can help you tailor your content to suit their needs and preferences.
For example, you can have two individual email lists for big and small spenders and send in customized newsletters to each person that feature different products.
This strategy works wonders when it comes to customer engagement and personalization, and they get all the useful and relevant content within a few clicks.
Wrapping Up
2021 has propelled brands and businesses to adopt a forward-looking approach and think of ways to better connect their existing and potential customers.
And if last year is anything to go by, 2022 will bring forth even bigger challenges and exciting new technologies for marketers. This makes it imperative for brands to come up with ways to branch out and incorporate a more human-centric approach to reach their buyers.
These trends may keep shifting from time to time but keeping up with them is integral for every marketing strategy.
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