As we move into the future there will be a number of trends that will change how we market our products and services. Some of these technologies may take some time to come out, but once they do, they will have a significant impact on all areas of marketing.
What worked in 2020 and 2021 was different from what had worked in the previous years.
During the pandemic, businesses began to embrace new digital marketing strategies for 2022, as what had worked previously wasn’t necessarily going to work in 2022.
In this blog post, we share the latest 20 digital marketing trends of 2022.
- 1. The Metaverse & NFTs
- 2. SERP Position Zero. Featured snippets & no-click searches
- 3. AI-Powered Optimization
- 4. Automated Bidding And Targeting For PPC Campaigns
- 5. Chatbots
- 6. Google My Business Verified Listings
- 7. Personalized Messaging
- 8. Video Marketing
- 9. Short DIY Videos
- 10. Influencer Marketing Continues To Grow
- 11. Social Messaging Apps
- 12. Visual Search
- 13. Voice Search And Smart Speakers
- 14. Social Media Stories
- 15. Browser Push Notifications
- 16. Content Marketing
- 17. SEO A/B Split Testing
- 18. Shoppable Posts
- 19. LinkedIn Continues To Grow
- 20. The Rise Of The Responsible Consumerism
But first, here’s a couple of reasons why having a digital marketing strategy is good for your business.
Reasons For Having A Digital Marketing Strategy Implemented
Here are the digital marketing trends of 2022 that you should follow closely
1. The Metaverse & NFTs
These 2 topics have been in the news recently and are worth keeping an eye on are the “metaverse” and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Let’s take a look at what makes these so interesting for 2022 and beyond.
As a buzzword, the metaverse refers to a variety of virtual experiences, environments and assets that gained momentum during the online-everything shift of the pandemic. Together, these new technologies hint at what the internet will become next.
Video games like Roblox and Fortnite and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in which players can build their own worlds, have metaverse tendencies, as does most social media. If you own a non-fungible token or even just some crypto, you’re part of the metaverse experience.
Recent reports predict the metaverse market will grow to over $1,544 billion in less than ten years.
By changing his company’s social media name from Facebook to META, Zuckerberg is entering the metaverse space.
This drew attention to several existing decentralized platforms. Many of the tokens or currency of these platforms have risen in real value. And the bull run in these coins continues to this day.
The Metaverse is the next chapter for the Internet.”
Mark Zuckerberg
As the Metaverse becomes mainstream among users, the demand for these companies will grow exponentially.
Check out the 5 Best Metaverse Tokens You Should Buy Before It’s Too Late
2. SERP Position Zero. Featured snippets & no-click searches
Zero click search results belong to one of two types. One of the types is a direct answer where a customer’s query is directly answered on a search engine’s first page.
This type is also apparent when a user simply needs to find more information on a specific product or service by searching online, and they have to have it on the first page of the SERP for them to purchase it.
Zero-click search results are changing the way users are searching. They are mostly displayed on mobile but are expected to grow on desktop as well.
These improvements are being made for SEOs as well as users, because identifying the intent of the searches, turning them into questions, and providing answers has become simple with zero-click search results.
A featured snippet displays information directly to the search engine results page, which can reduce the click-through rate from the SERP to the website because the search query is answered – resulting in a “zero-click.”
Since digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies have traditionally focused on generating site traffic from organic searches in the SERP, zero-click search has created a new dimension to SEO and analytics.
3. AI-Powered Optimization
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is touted as the next big thing. Gartner analysts had predicted that in 2020, AI technologies will be at the center of all new software products and services.
What makes AI a powerful component in digital marketing strategies is its ability to analyze consumer behavior and search patterns across multiple digital platforms to gather data that businesses can use to better understand how customers interact with their products and services.
Google is already using AI in deciphering the search intent of users
For example: If you search for ‘fish oil’ on Google’s search engine, Google understands your search intent which is looking for the health benefits and side effects of fish oil and, therefore displays those results.
Learn more about Google Ads Trends For 2022
4. Automated Bidding And Targeting For PPC Campaigns
By utilizing machine learning technologies with big data analytics, businesses like Google and Facebook are able to gather deeper insights into the most optimal advertising strategies by deploying automating bidding and targeting strategies.
Automated bidding
Automated bidding strategies use single data elements found in advertising campaigns to tweak and adjust keywords, bids, and Ad phrasing to give you the best results within the allocated budget.
Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet advertisers’ performance goals.
The below infographic outlines how automated advertising works.
Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. Each type of automated bid strategy is designed to help you achieve a specific goal for your business.
Google Automated Bidding
Automated Bidding is a set of conversion-based bid strategies—Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Enhanced CPC—that use advanced machine learning to help you tailor the right bid to each and every auction.
It factors in a wide range of auction-time signals including device, location, time of day, remarketing list, language, and operating system to capture the unique context of every search.
Automated Targeting
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) recently introduced the Optimized targeting feature for its’ Display Network ad campaigns.
This option, which rolled out very quietly, has taken full effect in most Google Ads display campaigns.
Optimized targeting looks beyond manually-selected audience segments in your campaign to find audience segments that you may have missed to improve the campaign’s performance.
What is Optimized targeting or Display Automated Targeting?
Display Automated Targeting is an automated targeting option within the Audience settings of the display campaigns that give Google the full right to show your ads to an audience that is “similar” to the one you specified.
Google pulls this data from your historical performance and looks particularly at your conversion history. This feature, which was enabled automatically for all display campaigns earlier this year, uses your cost per acquisition (or Target CPA) as an approximate spending guideline.
Optimized targeting is available for:
- Display campaigns
- Discovery campaigns
- Video campaigns that use the “Sales”, “Leads”, or “Website traffic” goals
5. Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots are increasingly being used by businesses to help them interact with customers in real-time, whether day or night.
Companies such as Lyft are already using chatbots where their customers can request a ride from Lyft via chat or voice using Amazon Echo.
Their chatbot informs the customer of the exact location of the driver.
6. Google My Business Verified Listings
As regions went into lockdown and curfews, businesses were forced to resort to ways of effectively engaging with customers at the local level.
Google verified listings provided that opportunity to businesses with a local outlook such as plumbers, veterinary clinics, with great success.
Google verified listings boost your business SEO and enable your business to show up for ‘near me’ searches, with information on your open business hours, address, and star ratings.
Click here to check the verification status of your Google My Business Listing and if it hasn’t be verified, you may go ahead and start the process of getting your business verified by Google.
7. Personalized Messaging
According to Kevin George of EmailMonks, personalized, triggered emails based on behavior are 3x better than batch-and-blast emails.
A good example that illustrates the power of personalized messaging is Easyjet.
EasyJet launched and implemented an email messaging campaign that used customers’ travel history to create personalized stories that suggested ideal travel destinations for their customers.
How effective was this?
The airline recorded a 25% higher click-through rate than non-personalized emails, which resulted in higher conversions for the company.
8. Video Marketing
According to lemon light, statistics on video marketing are impressive and form part of the new trends of digital marketing in 2022.
70% of consumers reported having shared a brand’s video.
72% of businesses also reported that video marketing improved their conversion rates.
Video will replace static assets and become the cornerstone of all marketing campaigns,says global marketing consultant Tim Parkin
Video marketing is on the rise, as the number of mobile phone users rises, and the ease of filling data on sales pages on mobile screens.
“Video is going to be important in 2022.” And You most probably already know that.
However, say that the amount of options we’ll get is increasing. If you are already investing in video, you can start preparing to use it in new ways.
Video Action Campaign in YouTube
In October 2021, Google announced that video action campaigns will automatically include YouTube-connected TV placements.
This is another way for brands to expand their reach.
Expand the sections below to see how Video action campaigns will look in different places on YouTube ads:
Learn more about Video Action Campaigns in our latest guide.
9. Short DIY Videos
New forms of video content have taken over social media. TikTok’s popularity was a turning point, leading other platforms to follow its footsteps and create their own short video content formats.
Recently, Instagram introduced Instagram Reels and Youtube launched its own collection of short-form content.
The best part about these videos is the ease with which everyone can make them. Not only that, but these short, real-life video clips show a more youthful, DIY perspective that today’s consumers are seeking.
Short, real-life video clips show a more youthful, DIY perspective that today’s consumers are seeking.
There is no doubt that short video clips are now becoming the norm on social media, taking likes and shares to a whole new level.
10. Influencer Marketing Continues To Grow
Influencer marketing involves a person with a huge social media following using their popularity to amplify a business product or service.
Influencer marketing is quite effective if the business partners with an influencer whose audience fits the company’s buyer persona.
Recommendation: Marketers should look for opportunities to partner with influencers in their space.
11. Social Messaging Apps
With over 1.3 billion monthly users on Facebook and 1.6 billion monthly users on WhatsApp, social media applications stand among the most sought-after digital marketing strategies in 2022.
As more people continue to use and register on multiple social media applications, this digital marketing strategy remains a viable platform for businesses to market their products and services.
12. Visual Search
We had text, voice, and now the visual search. Visual search allows users to upload an image and conduct a Google search on the image to get results.
Visual search is one of the most complex and fiercely competed sectors of the technology industry.
Google, Pinterest, and Microsoft are all battling to get in on the act.
12.1. Pinterest Lens
Pinterest lens allows users to take a photo of an item to find where it’s available online for purchasing. It even gives your pictures of similar products.
12.2. Google Lens
Google Lens is a visual search engine by Google, which recognizes objects and landmarks through a camera app.
Here’s what you can do when you take a photo of the following items:
- Apparel and home goods: Find similar products and where to buy them.
- Barcodes: Use a barcode to find info about a product, like where to buy it.
- Business card: Save the phone number or address to a contact.
- Book: Get a summary and read reviews.
- Event flyer or billboard: Add the event to your calendar.
- Landmark or building: See historical facts, hours of operation, and more.
- Painting in a museum: Read about the artist and learn more.
- Plant or animal: Learn about species and breeds.
Source: www.singlegrain.com
13. Voice Search And Smart Speakers
The increasing number of voice assistant devices on the market led to an increase in the development of voice search applications and smart speakers in the market.
Statistics from Quoracreative illustrates why optimizing for voice search and smart speakers is among new digital marketing trends in 2020, that you follow closely.
50%
of all searches
will be via voice by 2022
55%
of all American homes
will own a smart speaker by 2022
Here’s how some brands are using voice search in their digital marketing strategies:
Domino’s allows customers to order Pizzas online without picking up a phone.
PayPal users can engage Siri to send money to friends, family, or businesses.
14. Social Media Stories
During the pandemic period with countless lockdowns, social media platforms came up with the idea of introducing ‘stories’ features within their applications. It started with Snapchat, with ‘my story, then Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube as the image shows:
The stories are unique, and generally disappear after a short, set period, a unique feature that allows marketers to capitalize on FOMO.
The benefits of using social media stories include:
- Increased brand visibility
- Extremely cost-effective
- A good strategy to connect with your younger audience
- Enables constant engagement with your followers
15. Push Notifications
Push notifications have seen a steady rise in the last couple of years, as they present a solid digital marketing strategy in 2022. With over 85% of online stores using them in 2020, you simply can’t ignore them.
Here’s a couple of statistics that make push notifications a must-have digital marketing strategy in 2022:
- A recipient opens their email 6.4 hours later on average, but in web push, the recipient sees the message immediately.
- Push notifications have got a higher sign-up rate as compared to sign-ups through email marketing.
Among the way that businesses are currently utilizing push notifications is:
- Re-engaging people through behavior triggered push notifications such as abandoned shopping carts
- People who had shown interest (visited website, viewed product/service) but left without converting)
- Including powerful, catchy images and CTAs to maximize conversion rates as shown below:
16. Content Marketing
According to Rubicly, a B2B marketing resource, it reports that at least 88% of B2B content marketers say that creating content makes their audience view their organization as a credible and trusted resource.
These stats from the Content Marketing Institute reinforce the importance of content marketing as a digital marketing strategy:
- Get more leads: Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads.
- Lower up-front costs: content marketing has much lower up-front costs, and long term benefits as compared to paid search (Google Ads, FB sponsored ads, LinkedIn ads)
- Ads not being viewed: Over 615 million internet-ready devices use ad blockers, which means there aren’t many people seeing your ads as you could have wished.
- More business your way: Businesses with blogs generate an average of 126% of more leads than those without blogs.
- More conversions: On average, Content marketing registers 6x more conversions in comparison to other digital marketing strategies
17. SEO A/B Split Testing
Digital marketing strategies in 2022 are about testing and analysis, and SEO A/B split-testing seems to be the most preferred testing option. SEO A/B split testing allows you to identify which variables in your campaign drive the results you need.
ClickFlow is a tool that offers you insights into untapped SEO potential hidden in your content by analyzing top-ranking content pieces on Google SERPs with similar content as yours.
18. Shoppable Posts
Shoppable posts sit at the intersection of e-commerce and shopping posts/ads. They provide customers the option of buying a service or product by clicking on its image.
Instagram Shoppable posts are a great example to illustrate this point.
The idea behind shoppable posts is to reduce the risk of customers abandoning their purchases because of the inconveniences of switching apps or signing in to unknown stores.
One of the big digital marketing stories of 2020 was the study by SproutSocial that revealed 46% of Instagram users purchased one or more products that were put in front of them in a sponsored IG post.
By shortening the sales funnel, this new digital marketing trend resonates with the millions of millennials who want instant solutions.
With Shoppable Posts from Instagram, you can feature or tag a product for users to see, fall in love with, and buy without ever having to navigate away from your post.
For online retailers, this is a great way to drive traffic to product pages.
Let’s look at this example from Free People on Instagram:
This photo is on their feed, and when you tap on the pullover from the photo, its name and price appear.
If you tap the pullover’s name, you’ll be taken to a screen with more information and the option to view the item on the Free People website.
By utilizing social commerce, you’re reaching new customers, reducing the barriers to purchasing, and dramatically shortening the sales funnel.
How To Use Instagram Shopping Posts?
First you need to set up a business account for Instagram Shopping. It’s easy to set up your business account for Instagram Shopping, and it’s a great way to improve your followers’ user experience.
Before setting up shoppable posts, your profile must be set as a business account. You’ll need to connect it with your Facebook profile, which in turn needs to be connected to your catalog of products.
19. LinkedIn Continues To Grow
LinkedIn continues to be a rising star in the digital world. Each quarter they show considerable gains in monthly active users and engagements on the platform. They are also continuously launching new features that drive better results for businesses and pages.
Recommendation: Marketers should go all-in on LinkedIn.
20. The Rise Of The Responsible Consumerism
Thanks to a growing awareness of the negative impact of consumerism, many people are now making intentional purchases, opting for items that have minimal to no harm on themselves, other people and the environment.
Consumers have become more interested in making conscious, sustainable purchases, opting for products that have a minimal to no negative impact on humans, animals, and the environment.
Thus, responsible consumerism became a huge trend in the recent years.
A whole lot of consumers now want to behave more responsibly,
Chabanne told the Guardian
They would prefer, if possible, to buy healthy, quality food, produced ethically, transparently and with respect for animal welfare and the environment by people who get a fair price for it. And they’re willing to pay a bit more for that.
In a 2018 Nielsen report, it was found that sales for sustainable products grew twice as fast as other products in the same categories and made up 75% of Unilever’s overall growth.
5.6X
Sales of products marked as sustainable grew 5.6 times faster from 2013 to 2018
72%
72 percent of respondents said they’re buying more environmentally friendly products than 5 years ago
$150B
Neilsen expects the market for sustainable products to reach $150 billion by 2021
47%
In a 2019 survey, 47 percent of respondents said they would pay more for a sustainable product.
25X
In 2019, the resale marketplace grew 25x faster than the broader retail sector
65%
Shoppers who are told to buy eco-friendly products are 65% more likely to buy one
The Bottom Line
The pandemic saw a shift in how customers now wanted to interact with businesses, forcing businesses to embrace new digital marketing trends in 2022.
What’s evident is that businesses aren’t going back to the old norm, and those businesses that survive the next few years will be the ones that incorporate the new digital marketing strategies within their workflow processes.