Digital marketing is indispensable in an increasingly online world. No business can afford to be without it. But where do they begin or continue from? The essential digital marketing trends of 2022 offer the best starting point for creating a solid strategy.
Keep It Conversational
There is a difference between talking at and conversing with potential and existing customers. In the past, marketing talked at customers by presenting them with a barrage of ad-speak intermingled with facts. Due to social media taking the art and idea of conversation to new heights, consumers expect if not demand increased personal relationships with brands. This means that marketing should take a conversational approach.
Writing for the Boston Business Journal, Susan Laplante-Dube explained that businesses should implement conversational marketing via every channel possible. Including personalized emails, video content, and customer service chatbots. Using a communication style focused on dialogue could result in improved customer engagement, lead conversion, and removing guesswork for customers to ensure they find what they are looking for when they interact with your brand online.
Thoughts from Expert Melissa Sargeant (CMO at Litmus)
Speaking to Forbes, Litmus CMO Melissa Sargeant also picked up on conversational marketing as a major digital marketing trend for 2022. However, for her, email is the best channel for this approach. According to Sargeant, the prioritizing of email is based on three factors. Namely personalization, privacy, and automation. She further explained that tactics such as dynamic, interactive content, innovative personalization strategies, and accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for email will become more prominent this year.
To back up her assertion of email’s importance, Sargeant referenced the Litmus State of Email report, which found that 91% of respondents said email marketing was critical to their companies’ success. The report also found that more than 40% of companies plan to increase their email marketing investment this year.
Those figures alone highlight the importance of digital marketing, especially in cities and states experiencing rapid business growth, such as Austin, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio. There’s been an enormous shift to digital in the last few years. As Austin agency for online marketing stated, for cities experiencing massive growth, keeping up with trends and catering to an online audience is now more essential than ever.
Video Marketing Is Key
Businesses have used video strategically on social media for years. Now, this trend is not going anywhere anytime soon. Writing for the National News, Manar Al Hinai explained that customers do not always pay attention to post captions, making video content ideal for marketing communications.
The approach should be one of showing, rather than telling. According to Al Hinai, the effective use of video content for marketing should not end there. The importance of engagement means brands should encourage customers to like and/or share, like, and comment on the video, rather than only watching the content.
Use Interactive Content
Interactive content is the third major digital marketing trend for 2022. Especially when used in conjunction with social media. According to a 2021 study, social media has irrevocably changed the concept of the consumer-brand relationship, as it’s the main avenue for engaging, exciting connections between the two.
Customers now want to interact with businesses on a personal level that goes beyond text. The answer is to create marketing materials that are creative and immersive. Augmented reality (AR) material, virtual reality (VR) videos that offer a 360-degree experience, interactive calculators, and polls, questionnaires, and quizzes are all options.
Without a dynamic and engaging digital marketing strategy, brands may risk being perceived as irrelevant – that’s if customers are able to see them amid the many others vying for their attention.