11 Digital Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2022

Most marketers have increased their company’s credibility with digital marketing in 2021, so you can see why they rank it so high in their job. But to use it, you have to keep ahead of the most current marketing trends. Do you understand what the newest digital marketing trends are in 2022 and how to leverage them for your benefit?

Below, we go over eleven of the upcoming digital marketing strategies that are likely to make the biggest impact in 2022. You should be able to make use of many of these to produce a marketing plan of your very own. Read on to learn more.

1. Hybrid Events

We all hate to talk about it at this point, but the COVID-19 pandemic is still a disappointing truth in the world that we have to account for. With social distancing has come closures and postponement of events, as well as lower attendee numbers at big conventions.

Instead of only relying on in-person events, organizers started to turn towards online-only events in 2021. But in more recent months, people have started to realize that the pandemic is not going to go away any time soon. As such, we must instead adapt to long-term changes.

With this in mind, organizers are now asking consumers and industry professionals to attend “hybrid events“. Some of the attendees, especially those who are vulnerable, continue to engage in the event from a distance.

At the same time, the physical event continues. It allows a limited number of high-paying, VIP, or first-come, first-served attendees to experience the event. This can even create a sense of scarcity in marketing engagement.

If all the presentations and talks at an event are broadcast to the Internet, this allows the same content to cover all audiences. Also, with the advent of much more AR and VR content, you can expect people to start to leverage that technology moving forward.

With hybrid events, much like with online events, you will have to make sure that you run on time. This becomes much harder when trying to wrangle the intricacies of in-person events at the same time.

Much like with online events, transparency increases trust in your brand. So, let people know when things are not going to plan and how you intend to course correct when running these.

2. AI with Companies

Many companies are investing in AI for their analysis of data these days. You can start to see analytics of customer usage in industries such as healthcare, banking, and all forms of retail. This kind of information is priceless when it comes to working out the customers you have and what their shared habits are.

With AI, you can perform many marketing tasks a lot easier. This includes predicting the following based on previous habits or other pieces of data:

• What customers are likely to buy in the future
• What websites they are likely to go to
• What websites are likely to affect the customer
• What SEO keywords are having the largest effect

With a greater understanding of high-quality SEO data, one can tailor the customer base to fit a particular need for sales.

Or, instead of informing a marketing team, AI can automate direct marketing to clients and customers. Custom emails that tap into a user’s specific calculated needs can lead to inbound marketing. The customer will return to you knowing you can provide exactly what they need when they need it.

There is some potential for limitations for this as we enter 2022 and beyond. Customers are warier when sharing their data with every company, while the GDPR and other laws aim to curb the amount of information you can gather. AI looks to be being employed, but 2022 might be the last big push it has.

3. AI with Influencers

Much like with customers, AI can pick and choose from among the most effective influencers you might wish to advertise through. As influencers start to have more sway in affecting public opinion, their marketing worth has exploded. In total, the influencer marketing business has ballooned to over 15 billion US dollars in 2022.

These days, performance influencer marketing (PIM) leads the charge in hiring influencers. Instead of paying them up-front, you reward the influencer for sales and conversations. The AI can work out what you can attribute to them and what is from another source.

Artificial intelligence plays a large part in PIM. It doesn’t only choose the influencers who are the most likely to be able to affect your target market. On top of that, it can also look at the data for the influencer’s results without bias.

You can use AI to work out exactly who the best influencer is for the campaign you want. Then you can provide data-driven feedback to help them improve over time.

Finally, AI can also detect influencer fraud. It can run through accounts very fast and can work out if an influencer gained many of their followers through unscrupulous methods. This prevents a company from sponsoring someone who has much less clout than they advertise.

4. Privacy Protections

While not a positive outcome, we must discuss this development for marketing and advertising. Countries continue to create new data protection laws all across the world. and this could have huge repercussions for data-driven marketing moving forward.

Most recently, both China and Saudi Arabia have signed such bills into law. Whereas in South Kora, Canada, India, and Vietnam, their governments are still reviewing proposed changes to their law.

In the United States, this is on a more state-driven level, but twenty-five states are still looking at such bills. They could come out of committee review at any time and cause major problems for advertising in the future.

As these bills become laws, both inbound and outbound marketing will have to change. While the industry is already self-regulating, the steps advertisers take will have to become even tighter. With the government stepping in, regulation becomes a partnership instead of something handled by only one group.

Much of this was inevitable as the lawmakers of the world catch up to the realities of the Internet. As the market moves forward, marketing strategies will have to catch up to this new wave of legislation.

5. Content Alignment

There are three core principles to good PR content: Visibility, leadership, and credibility. If you manage to align yourself with doing all these well, you will end up being an industry leader in your niche.

This must occur not only on your core website but in every area of your online presence. Web, apps, and your social media must present themselves in a way that promotes you as knowledgeable and as an exemplar in your field.

More and more organizations are noticing this. As such, you should not be surprised if the same people are handling every avenue for communication in a company. Or at least the same core messages.

6. Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

With the growth of AI and data processing, new trends are starting to appear in the world of VAs and chatbots. Virtual help, voice assistants, and text assistants are all staking their claim. They now vie for dominance in how they resolve customer communication.

The best thing about all these concepts, from the point of view of the organization, is that once set up they do not demand intervention. They answer questions that a CS representative or PR manager would otherwise handle. In having an automated system instead, you free up the customer service and PR departments to deal with other issues instead.

Virtual assistants and chatbots also create a stronger sense of the “voice” of your company. You can program them to present answers in a way that is unquestioningly in line with your organization’s tenets. This avoids ambiguity and helps you create a stronger brand.

7. Marketing Companies’ Growth

Marketing companies that have a heavy investment in the products they are attempting to sell have more to lose. They are thus more likely to move heaven and Earth to push them to customers.

If they succeed, it increases the value of both the selling company and the marketing company (or, on a smaller scale, the marketing department).

As we move forward into 2022, expect marketing companies to sit on the boards of the companies they work with. When this happens, it means they truly believe in their ability to promote and market a product. As such, a large-enough marketing company would jump at the chance to control such a valuable asset.

8. Non-Profit Engagement

Consumers of goods at all strata of society are becoming more aware of causes around the world. Whether that be charities, non-profits, or other philanthropic groups.

Because of this, in the coming months, we should expect to see more marketing groups and departments making use of this fact. By aligning your organization with such a good cause, you can increase the clout they have in the eyes of those they work with.

This is not only limited to donations or speaking up for specific groups. Also, you could:

• Offer a percentage of sales
• Offer long-term sponsorship
• Market and promote this charity alongside your own company

While this may appear to be a selfless act, there is also the truth that this will generate goodwill and new leads for your own company too. You can come out of such an action with a whole new way of promoting your products.

9. Mobile Marketing

Internet usage on mobile is not slowing down anywhere. If anything, it is speeding up. Pew Research now says that almost a third of all adults in the US are “almost constantly” online.

One thing that you can expect to happen as we move into 2022 is for marketing to make even more use of mobile than ever before. This may seem difficult at first, based on the number of notifications you already receive, but it is true.

Using ever-advanced AI, those notifications will become more personal. They will get more targeted, and more timely.

People will continue using tablets, smartphones, and other devices to search for solutions to their needs. Even the Internet of Things will get involved to some extent. It will allow a level of automation, with people only confirming or declining what the IoT recommends moving forward.

10. Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing automation tools have been on the cusp of a renaissance for many years. 2022 may well be the year when they become more popular than ever before.

Marketing and business automation tools make it easier to communicate, collaborate, and contribute. Tasks handled through such software are trackable and employees can be responsible for every step in a journey. This prevents bottlenecks and means no single task falls behind.

Other benefits include being able to make templates for emails or schedule social media posts. This can take a large weight off of the back of marketers, opening them up to more in-person work moving forward.

11. More Video

It almost seems impossible, but more online video is a thing that can happen. If it can happen, it will happen, and marketing groups will latch onto the idea of more video promotion at the drop of a hat.

Expect 2022 to bring with it a new plethora of digital marketing via video. YouTube will change some of its advertising rules, much like every year. And you can assume that consumers will continue to click the “Skip video” button after five seconds unless you make the video really, really good.

Where To Learn More About Marketing Trends

You should now have a much better idea about what marketing trends are available to you in 2022. Moving forward, you should be able to discuss them with those around you and choose the best way to stay ahead of the game.

If you want to know more about this area, you can always check out our offerings. Our team is ready to talk to you about what we can offer your business with its planning and marketing moving forward. Try us out and see what you think today.