Every year marketing trends keep changing and innovations come around.
During the last two years of the pandemic, Businesses embarked upon the digital transformation journey faster than ever with the constantly evolving virtual business space. The pandemic also brought pressure on budgets, and marketers looked for cost-effective techniques.
Now with the business world slowly returning to normal, and more consumers moving out we are seeing a slump in the online engagement and traffic these businesses were dependent on.
And as we are nearing the end of the third quarter of 2022, more and more changes are happening in the marketing world, and keeping up with these changes is not an easy task.
The trend in technologies, user behavior, business models, user expectations, and marketing platforms – everything has and will keep evolving to sell more effectively.
In this article we discover some of these top content marketing trends that businesses are adopting in 2022 and beyond:
Optimizing Touchpoints
More and more companies are looking into social media plans to focus on Generation Z (GenZ) along with millennials, Gen X, and other generations.
With growing digital transformation brands are working on creating specialized marketing campaigns dedicated to different generation groups to appear authentic and meaningful.
The brand should be able to reflect transparency when reaching out to its consumer group instead of marketing in an open market not knowing who its actual customers are.
It is important to understand that not all generations are at the same level in their consumer journey. Therefore, brands are focusing on different online touchpoints to cater to each group. Need to run different campaigns to make customers familiar with your brand helps you optimize marketing strategies for better returns.
Adopting Hybrid Marketing Model
Adopting a hybrid marketing model simply means offering your customers both online and store experiences to interact with your brand. Post-pandemic majority of the users are excited to spend time out of their houses and shop at stores again.
While online presence will help brands with long-term success, offline stores will play an important role in giving customers an in-person experience with the brand for more trust and reliability.
Building User Data Repository
In recent years data privacy trends have been under constant scrutiny and have become very important considerations. With popular brands such as Apple, Google, and Facebook making algorithm adjustments to hide the online behavior of the users, the brands have to collect their user data.
That means to create personalized marketing campaigns to target specific customers you will need to try and gather their personal preferences on your own.
You will see businesses running polls, quizzes, surveys on their social media platforms, and websites to allow customers to freely share their thoughts, opinions, information, and preferences.
Improving Your Social Media Reach
With over 3.7 million global users, social media is and will continue to be the most popular marketing channel. Today live content is leading the social media front and will continue to be the preferred form of content for authenticity and reliability.
Instagram and TikTok are among the most used digital platforms in 2022, and will most likely stay the same in the years to come. Brands are still tapping into the true power of this platform. The short-form video trends have taken over the static posts, and the success of Insta Reels and Tik Tok videos are the best examples of these massively successful trends drawing well over 1 billion users. To create Insta reels without any hassle you can use a reel maker.
Every business has its niche and they are looking into using 2-3 suitable social media to effectively manage their social media marketing campaigns. The brands can identify the most suitable platforms that align with their targets, and plan personalized strategies.
AI Integration
Amidst all the changes in the marketing world during the pandemic, businesses have turned to Artificial Intelligence to address the need of upscaling the complex demands for rightful outcomes.
The AI outsourcing trend is growing stronger each year. Blueshift report shares that almost 28% of businesses are currently using AI-based product recommendations, and 26% of marketers use it for campaign optimization. The AI collects and analyzes data and automates the campaigns as per the results of the data analysis.
However, that’s not it. AI is used in various digital media & performance services including automating advertising campaigns, strategic planning, predictive analysis, and marketing management.
It allows brands to have a more data-driven approach than relying on assumptions gathered from outdated resources. Incorporating AI-based marketing models will be of great importance for the overall growth of brands in the future.
Rise of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has seen a huge surge on social media platforms in the last 2-3 years and it will continue to be a drawing factor for brands to attract customers. However, brands are now focusing on micro-influencers over the big names.
As noted by IMPACT, micro-influencers with a smaller audience tend to generate 80% more engagement than influencers with millions of followers. The fact that 85% of users trust their peers and their recommendations from them are given more preferences.
Marketers need to engage with many niche-specific micro-influencers such as travel influencers to draw more engagement than a few macro-big influencers.
The reason is simple: the engagement is personal and hands-on.
Mobile Optimization: More Important Than Ever
Users are spending most of their time on mobile phones. It is reported that over half the yearly online traffic comes from handheld devices including mobiles and tablets.
With continued buying power among millennials and Gen Z people, mobile optimization for a smoother digital experience will become more important for all the brands whose target consumers are these highly digital and fast-paced generations.
This is also something major search engines and social media platforms have also taken into consideration. From email marketing to social media marketing to e-Commerce brands need to take a closer look into marketing strategies to give all of their mobile users a smooth experience.
Focus on Local SEO
For local businesses trying to gain more traffic and visitors to their brick & mortar facilities, it is important to look into local SEO to gain visibility. However, it is not as easy as it seems. The idea is to mix things up to create an effective outreach.
From getting your business listed on various local channels to having your business information updated on listings, and lastly, to following the guidelines on how to represent the business on google, these are some points every brand owner should notice to increase their chance of searchers finding your local facility.
Take Away
The overall marketing approach depends on the requirements of a business by providing value to its customers. Profiting and creating better service than competitors should be the real goal. That is why your marketing efforts should follow the marketing trends suitable to your brand to direct users to the marketing funnel and convert them eventually.
The right approach is to mix different marketing trends to create an omnichannel. As long as you continue to improve your business approach with the pulse of these trends, your business will not fall behind. Make sure to educate yourself every year to understand the change in marketing trends to stay ahead in the game.
