Ensure that your existing customers are well taken care of while adding new prospects to your sales pipeline.
If you are an entrepreneur or someone who works at a company, you should always look to the future and how to increase your exposure and client base. After all, it’s the only way to get ahead of your competition. Hence, here are the top 7 marketing trends you should pay attention to in 2022 that can put you forward in the market and attract more prospects.
1. Video Marketing
Video marketing is the most popular form of content today and still growing in popularity. In 2022, it is increasingly becoming one of the top ways brands can engage their audience, get them to take action, and grow their business.
In fact, 72% of people who watch videos online take action afterward. That action could be anything from visiting a website to signing up for email updates or buying a product. Also, with the integration of 5G and better mobile data plans coming to the surface, video streaming will be easier than ever on smartphones and tablets and many will be using it on a daily basis.
There are some reasons why video marketing is so powerful:
- It helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level.
- It keeps viewers on your page longer than other types of content do and that means more conversions for you!
- It is easier than ever to create and share across all platforms, including social media and email marketing campaigns.
2. Sentiment Analysis
Yes, it is as you read it!
Marketers will need to look at how their brands are perceived online. In today’s world of social media, negative reviews can spread like wildfire across the web and have a huge impact on your company’s image.
That’s why marketing teams must focus on listening and engaging with their customer base so they can better understand what their audience wants and respond quickly when there is an issue with a product or service.
That’s where brands like Brand24 come to play. Think of it like an ‘online reputation management tool’ that uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to analyze how your brand is being perceived online across all your media channels to follow up on positive comments from your brand ambassadors & or loyal customers and respond to a dissatisfied one before the story gets ahead of you.
3. Voice Search
The rise of voice search technology means that you no longer need to type keywords into Google to get results — instead, users can simply talk with their phones or smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home to query search engines directly. This has led many companies to create conversational AI assistants like Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft), Alexa (Amazon), and Bixby (Samsung) that allow users to speak naturally rather than having to use specific terms.
Now a question might rise: How to optimize voice search?
Content marketing and SEO have been the focus of marketing teams for years, tweaking and optimizing blog posts to rank in SERPs as high as possible. Voice search optimization is no different from optimizing for written searches since search engines like Google still show verbal results through written content.
There’s no way yet to analyze traffic from voice search with tools such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console. If you know something, please comment below 🙂
4. Personalization
Message personalization has been around for a while now, but it’s never been more important than it is now. With personalization, marketers are able to tailor their message based on specific data points such as age, location, lifecycle, and so forth. As consumers become more accustomed to personalized content, they’ll expect it from brands too. If companies fail to adapt their strategies accordingly, they risk losing out on valuable leads or sales opportunities altogether.
The good news is that it is possible to prepare extra-tailored messaging. And it is easy, too. Advertising with Google Ads or sending welcome emails with Mailchimp and HubSpot are just a few examples of marketing tools that allow automated personalization.
Don’t be too specific while creating your personalized messages. People like relevant ads, but might be creeped out if you show them how much you know about their interests. Keep that in mind when creating your buyer persona and target the right channels your customers are usually on. To know that, use a tool like BuzzSumo.
5. Zero-Clicks Searches (Snippets)
When you search for a topic on Google, it’ll sometimes show up directly on the main Google results page, without taking you to another site or opening a new tab. That’s because the search engine is now showing what it calls “zero-click snippets” — small bits of information that include the most relevant parts of your search query. If that part of the text is crucial to the user, they will likely just read the answer provided and leave without visiting your site.
There’s no solution for that. It is better to optimize for snippets for some posts while creating other content that require further explanation.
See how different search queries look on Google and check the traffic on your site to see if it’s significant to get that featured snippet or not going forward.
6. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a tactic that has been around for decades, but it’s only in recent years that marketers have begun to understand its true value.
In fact, a study by Econsultancy found that brands that use influencer marketing spend 14% less on their campaigns than those that do not. The reason? Influencers are able to create authentic connections with their audiences and help brands build trust and credibility.
In 2022, 74% of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budget in the next 12 months, and according to Adobe’s Digital Insights report, nearly 80% of people say they discover content through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram (or other apps like WhatsApp).
So it goes to show that it is a tool brands can leverage to reach more people and conversions, especially since social media is now an integrated part of our life.
You can try Brand24 for identifying influencers in your marketing niche. Focus on the right keyword and the app will show you most influential social media profiles.
7. VR/AR Technology
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been in the news lately, and brands are taking notice. As a result, many companies are now using AR and VR to improve the customer experience.
According to a recent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), nearly 8 out of 10 advertisers plan to use AR or VR in some form in their marketing campaigns over the next two years. The study also found that more than half of those marketers already use AR and VR in their campaigns today.
A question might rise — When it comes to converting more customers, which one is better?
Here are three reasons why AR may be better than VR for conversion:
- AR is less expensive than VR because it doesn’t need special equipment.
- AR has a wider audience than VR because you can use it on any device with a screen — even without an Internet connection.
- AR can be used as an educational tool to help customers understand how products work and how they fit into their lives.
In 2022, VR and AR marketing will become more popular as mobile devices get more advanced and VR sets become more accessible. We are yet to see how it will play out. But, it is safe to say that it is a trend that will be adopted rapidly, especially with the steady development of the Metaverse.
Conclusion
In summary, the digital marketing scene has seen tremendous advancements in the last couple of years, including the growth and development of its parent disciplines. Personalization and Artificial Intelligence form the crux of the next wave of digital marketing. The most successful brands will be those that can blend these with their current tactics to create new, more effective ways of engaging consumers.
Also Read: 4 Steps to Boost Sales By Improving Your Social Media Presence?