With a new year comes preparation and refinement of marketing plans to make 2022 a strong one for your business. Yes, 2021 brought its fair share of challenges and unpredictability in the digital space, but it also welcomed exciting new concepts, channels and trends that are sure to see continued growth over the next 12 months. We’ve rounded up the top trends to watch in 2022 to help you maximise growth and impact your business in the digital space.
1. Short-form video content
Video content continues to be the mode du jour and marketers are turning their attention to short-form content. A survey from Hubspot found that more than 31% of global marketers currently invest in short-form video content (that is, videos under 2min 30seconds), with 89% planning to continue or increase that investment in 2022. There is certainly still a place for long-form video, particularly when it comes to rich storytelling and detailed explainer content, but both B2C and B2B marketers are catching on to the benefits of snappy content that captures attention and gets to the point quickly.
A benefit of short-form video – as you may have seen with TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat and Reels – is that it doesn’t take a great deal of effort or production budget to produce content that resonates. You can even get away with creating short animated posts and publish them as videos to social. Need help getting started? Get in touch!
2. Marketing agility
In a marketing context, agility is the ability to assess and analyse market trends and respond with marketing activity accordingly, producing it quickly and with minimal waste. While testing content remains an effective tool for data capturing, the increased availability of big data means testing needn’t be as lengthy nor as labour-intensive. We’ve spoken at length about the importance of consistent audience listening in putting together a successful marketing strategy, and investing in the most effective analytical tools at your disposal means that you can drill down to audience wants and needs efficiently and respond with the most relevant content.
3. Metaverse marketing
Heralded as the next phase of the internet, the metaverse can be tricky to visualise simply because it isn’t tangible. Put simply, the metaverse is a shift to a virtual world where consumers can socialise, play, work and shop.
What opportunities can marketers expect from the metaverse? Levelled up consumer experiences, for a start, with possibilities for virtual webinars, product road-tests, showrooms, workshops and more. This shift to more experiential marketing serves consumer drive and demand for more brand engagement and a need for more personal interactions. Metaverse marketing also gives way to new digital transformation opportunities such as NFTs and branded items for online gaming worlds. Still sounds confusing? We break it all down for you here.
4. Conversational marketing
Building on the shift to experiences is a move to better B2B and B2C connections via conversation. The most well-known conversational marketing tools are chatbots and click-to-messenger CTAs within paid ads. The demand for immediate and personalised interactions with brands is on the up – a 2020 study by IBM found that 70% of users expect instant responses to queries. AI conversational tools are powerful engagement drivers for any stage of the purchasing funnel, nurturing curious consumers into loyal followers and eventually conversions. Further to this, marketers can use these conversations to improve customer service and user experience.
5. Email marketing
While an extremely effective marketing tool, social media can be unpredictable at times. With constant algorithm updates and the capacity for platforms to filter or ban content without notice, it’s important that you diversify your marketing strategy with emails. To date, email marketing is 40 times more effective at customer acquisition compared to Facebook, and your subscribers are 3 x more likely to share your content on social than visitors from other sources. The lesson? Email is a foolproof channel for lead generation and loyalty building. If you’re yet to put together an email marketing strategy, our beginner’s guide will get you started.
There you have it – the digital marketing trends to watch for 2022. The overarching keys to marketing success in the near future start and end with consumer listening. Create value-rich content that resonates, foster your community outside social media, and move towards more metaverse-based thinking when it comes to brand executions and events. If you need a team of experts to help at any stage of your strategy or content creation journey, you know who to call!
