Top 5 Digital Marketing Trends to Jump on in 2022

No matter what new digital marketing trends and tools you may have heard about, content is still king. But the way companies are creating, using, and testing the effectiveness of their digital assets continues to undergo big changes.

From the digital marketing channels used to methods for building relationships with prospective customers, content marketing today is evolving to satisfy new consumer shopping habits and expectations. If you want to keep pace, our top 5 digital marketing trends for 2022 highlight some of the best ways to connect with your consumers and drive results.

5. Invest in Video Marketing (Continued From Digital Marketing in 2021)

While video content marketing is anything but new, trends suggest it will continue to dominate. Need proof that video’s popularity for digital marketing in 2021 wasn’t a fluke? YouTube remains the second-largest search engine around today, and it’s only expected to get more users. That puts it above dedicated search engine Bing and just one spot behind Google, its parent company.

This platform has graduated from a humble video-sharing site to become a legitimate search tool in itself for everything from how-to videos to product reviews to entertainment (i.e., cute cat videos). Other popular video-sharing platforms include Vimeo, TikTok, and Instagram (IGTV).

And it’s not just that we’re spending a lot more time watching online video – nearly double the amount since 2018. It’s that all our increased watching yields results. According to HubSpot, marketers continue to be bullish on video for its ability to offer strong ROI as it increases awareness, leads, and sales. In fact, today’s consumers don’t just enjoy having video. They expect it. High-quality video content is now an essential element in the buyer’s journey and critical to building relationships with your brand.

4. Consider Shoppable Posts

Shoppable posts offer an exciting option if you’re committed to monetizing your company’s social media accounts. Tagging products allows users to take the entire buyer’s journey, from awareness to purchase, without leaving the platform they were originally on. Although a newer trend, expect it to become more popular and spread to other platforms and markets as consumers embrace this new way of shopping.

Particularly for fashion and consumer items, social selling can be a tremendous way to leverage influencers and celebrities to sell goods. In these interactive posts, a shopping bag icon offers product information. Users can then visit the retailer’s page to make a purchase, consolidating the entire buyer’s journey onto essentially one platform.

Before you start reaching out to influencers in your company’s sphere, though, you have some work to do:

• Meet eligibility requirements for the type of goods you sell, market type, and social media profile.
• Add the catalog of products you intend to feature via manual upload or an ecommerce platform.
• Submit your account for review once you have your product catalog uploaded.
• Start tagging products within your posts when your account is approved.
  
  

3. Leverage User-Generated Content

If there’s one thing many consumers crave today, it’s authenticity. Any company can throw up a digital ad making lofty claims about their wares, but talk is cheap. In this age of deepfakes, an honest recommendation from a regular, unbiased individual who isn’t affiliated with the company is gold. Plus, user-generated content (UGC) can influence virtually every stage in the inbound marketing cycle, from discovery to brand engagement.

Wondering if authentic, user-created content really gets results? According to experts, user-generated videos on YouTube garnered 10 times the number of views as the official promo videos pumped out by companies. While it’s a great idea for your company to craft its own video content, expect nonaffiliated posts to perform just as well or better.

Smart businesses know this and welcome individual content creators to publish reviews, unboxings, and comparison content. Popular YouTube channels boast hundreds of thousands of subscribers or more. That’s a lot of qualified prospects seeing others talk about your products. But even content creators with just a handful of followers can significantly boost sales with a well-done review that gets published at just the right time.

While the phenomenon of UGC continues to grow, expect more and more companies to leverage its power, particularly if they have a big consumer base talking about their products online. Brands do this through the use of campaigns promoting a specific hashtag, sponsorship videos, publishing ratings and reviews on their site, asking customers to answer questions or add images, and even showing the social media posts of their audience. Just remember, though, that UGC is a double-edged sword. Because of its authentic nature, you can’t control it. Campaigns that capitalize on user engagement can quickly go off the rails with embarrassing and damaging consequences.

2. Prioritize Empathy in Your Content

While we’re on the topic of injecting authenticity into your marketing efforts, it’s important to remember the importance of creating content that exhibits empathy. Do consumers want data, facts, and figures about your products and services? Sure. But evidence suggests today’s consumer also wants a company that looks at the world through their eyes, delivering details and solutions that show an understanding of their needs, concerns, and priorities. These are real people you’re addressing, not algorithms.

In the world of big data, SEO, and paid ads, it’s easy to forget that your first priority should be connecting with customers. Companies that preach about their products without approaching it from the angle of their prospects’ needs appear tone-deaf and out of touch. You could invest tons of time and resources into carefully crafting a campaign, only to watch it crash and burn (or be totally ignored) by your target market who didn’t find it relevant.

Effective marketers address prospective consumer needs by incorporating tactics to inject empathy into their marketing strategy:

• Research what your prospective buyers actually want and need from you.
• Place the customer first by prioritizing their needs, interests, and desires in the content.
• Deliver the content your prospects want and find useful – not marketing hype.
• Connect to your customers where they hang out online, such as their preferred social media sites.
• Engage in authentic conversations about how your company can solve their specific needs.
  
  

1. Perform Content Effectiveness Testing

None of these marketing updates would be complete if you aren’t measuring their effectiveness. Refine your analysis of the various content marketing techniques you’re using to attract, engage, and convert prospects. This includes pivoting to new online advertising techniques when needed.

There are several important ways that you can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts so you can make necessary tweaks:

• Perform A/B testing on all your high-value pages, not just landing pages.
• Use website form and UX testing to ensure you’re optimizing for usability and leads.
• Complete cross-channel content review, such as ensuring the content on your blog is complemented by your YouTube channel and vice versa.
• Plan social media testing to reveal your most successful campaigns/types of content.
• Review your digital accessibility to ensure all your customers can easily consume your content, regardless of their limitations.
  
  

With these results in hand, you can then start implementing marketing changes that drive results. Maybe it’s as simple as giving a facelift to a poorly performing page, or it could be as serious as an entire campaign that needs to be re-evaluated. Whatever the data reveals, it will give you a fantastic starting point for boosting brand visibility.

Need Digital Marketing Support?

If there’s one constant in online marketing, it’s that you can expect change. Whether you’re currently in a marketing role and want a refresher on the latest trends or you need training to land your first marketing position, we can help you navigate all the changes. Our Small Business Marketing Certificate includes in-depth instruction on marketing search and strategy, as well as video, display, and email marketing tactics. Find out how our certificate program can help you stay on top of advancements to drive more leads and sales to your business.