25 Digital Marketing Trends To Look Out For In 2022

With every passing year, digital marketing is changing. Some may say it’s getting more complicated by the day. When you have to manage the changing algorithms, SEO, PPC, User Interfaces, and a lot more, it may be overwhelming. To make sense of it all, we have created a list of 25 digital marketing trends to look out for in 2022.  Some may take themselves forward from 2021, whereas some may surprise you. Let’s have a look.

Digital Marketing Trends To Look Out for in 2022

1. Metaverse

Facebook currently owns the Metaverse. The idea is to have a world within a world, and a virtual world at that. It combines augmented and virtual reality concepts to create a world with virtual avatars of people living in a virtual world. People can play games, socialize, and even work in the Metaverse. Now, many think that a consumer may not take the advertising seriously in the beginning stages of the technology, but the brands will surely get the first-mover advantage if they start building their strategies right from 2022 for Metaverse.

2. NFT & Crypto

NFT stands for Non-fungible tokens, and it is unlike the traditional transactions we are familiar with. For example, a 100$ note can be exchanged for two 50$ notes. That would make a dollar a fungible token. Non-fungible tokens do not work the same way and therefore, they can be used as a mark of authenticity when paired with blockchain. They can be an image, GIF, animation, etc.

Last year, companies like Coca-cola also issued their NFT. For digital marketers, this technology can be a way to build and interact with the community.

In the same ballpark, we have cryptocurrency and blockchain. According to CreditSuisse, we are currently on the way to accepting blockchain transactions into the mainstream, and it will be completely adopted by 2025.

For digital marketers, with cryptocurrencies becoming more and more mainstream, it will change the way how brands and products engage and interact with their customers.

3. Marketing Automation

In the last few years, the automation for lead collection and nurturing has picked up, and for the right reasons. However, if your website has a large number of visitors, but no leads, a well-set-up automated lead generating and nurturing process can be one of the most impactful digital marketing strategies in 2022. It will make your marketing efforts quick and effective.

Moreover, automation is not limited to lead collection only, you can also set up the stage by stage nurturing to make the most out of your marketing automation and get more conversions.

4. Video Marketing

The world is moving towards consuming content that is in video format. The text walls can become tedious to read for many people. A video that can represent the same information for a brand across devices in a much more effective way. According to Seotribunal, A website with a video is likely to bring 50 times more organic traffic compared to a website without a video.

Research from Impactplus shows that 72% of businesses believe that a video has improved their conversion rate and 70% of customers say they share a brand video. Moreover, in the same research, 52% of customers said watching a video increases their confidence in the online purchase of a product.

A digital marketer can include video marketing to their arsenal by the means of live streams on mobiles, short-form videos like Youtube Shorts or Instagrams Reels, informative/educational videos, advertisements, and much more.

5. First-party data

What is first-party data? First-party data is the consumer data that is collected and owned by the company itself through the software and systems of that particular company. This data can be used to create content, personalized experiences, ads, and more to cater to the individual interests of the consumer.

It eliminates the need for second-party data from a trusted partner, or third-party data from an outside source that has collected the data. The first-party data allows digital marketers to own the data of their customers, instead of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social networks owning the data.

As a company, if you have a digital marketer or hire a digital marketer, you must integrate a system or method to collect consumer data with their privacy in mind. More first-party data will translate to more personalized campaigns and experiences, resulting in more conversions.

6. Live stream commerce

Companies like Walmart have gone to platforms like TikTok and Instagram to sell their products. On a completely other end of the spectrum, small businesses also compete on social media platforms since they lack the advertising and marketing budget to compete with big fishes with mainstream marketing.

Now, on these platforms, live stream commerce is also gaining popularity. According to Rob Illidge, the CEO of Social Republic, people indulge three times longer in live streams.

Live stream commerce can be used to indulge customers in your products and services, and it can also be an alternative to the in-store experience for your customers.

7. Simple content

In 2022, ‘Content is king’ is still the relevant statement. Content Marketing would be an important part of marketing strategies. But, in an age where your customer will have a plethora of options to choose from, content that stands out will be the content that sells.

However, it doesn’t have to be flowery. A user is looking for clarity, and your content should provide just that. Simple and clear content that addresses exactly what your consumer is looking for, will take you a long way.

As a Digital Marketer, one should also keep an eye on Google’s BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) AI, which is capable of finding answers to content from its search results. This makes it easy for you as there is no need to simplify answers for Google and write the answers directly for the users.

8. Accessibility

Many brands today are thinking about more and more accessibility features. Whether your firm has a website or an application, inclusivity is the way to move forward.

Not only does it help you reach people who wouldn’t reach your products because of their disability, but it also helps you reach their friends and family. Accessibility features are a great way to widen your audience.

For example, In the last few years, voice searches have also been up with the rise in smart speakers. With voice search result accuracy increasing day by day, the feature will only gain more traction. More and more people would be using voice search for online shopping. Therefore, along with other accessibility features, voice search should also be in your digital marketing strategies in 2022.

Along with voice search, subtitles & transcripts for your video content, audio description for your text, better fonts, and legible interlinks are the ways to increase accessibility to your website.

9. Personalization/Personalized Remarketing

To stand out in front of your potential customers, personalization is the key. Personalize your emails, content, and products for a better and more engaging customer experience.

According to Instapage research, 63% of customers are annoyed upon receiving a generic advertising message and 80% of them would likely do business with a company when they are offered a personalized experience.

Amazon and Netflix not only recommend the movies based on personal preferences on the app, but their emails also feature personalized recommendations for customers.
Personalized Remarking is also one of the Digital marketing trends to look out for in 2022 since there is nothing easier than convincing people who are already interested in the products to buy them!

10. B2B Marketing Trends

If your company deals with other companies, the strategies for indulging your clients will differ a bit. Communication between two businesses is called B2B communication.
In 2022, B2B digital marketing is likely to see many changes. There is likely to be Blockchain communication, and consolidation of large MarTech stacks, and the focus would be more on meaningful data and not on vanity metrics.

11. Micro-moments

Micro-moments are something that the digital age has brought to us. More and more people, when making a reflexive decision, turn to their smartphones. Google distinguishes these micro-moments in four instances: I want to know, go, do, and buy.

With attention spans getting lower and lower, a brand needs to get customers’ attention in these moments really fast. This would again fall into the category of targeted marketing and remarketing, but in 2022, it would be important to feature where your customers are, in their micro-moments.

12. Zero click searches

When you optimize your content to be featured as high as possible in SERP results, sometimes it can get featured in snippets. This is one of the desired results for a digital marketer since it will put you above all the SERP results. Addressing the queries in a way that Google can show it as an answer for a certain keyword puts you at a higher chance of featuring in a snippet. Featuring on top of all the results can bring you better CTR.

Sometimes, however, the problem with that snippet is, that if the information that Google has chosen to feature is crucial to the user, the user might not click the website link and will leave from there and will not visit your site since they have already got what they were looking for. To remedy this, you can focus on the subjects that need more exploration and explanations. You can also observe how Google chooses the content to get featured in the snippet.

13. Membership Programs

More and more membership and subscription programs are coming up every day. People love the feeling of community when they are a part of the membership program.

According to Digital Marketing Trends described by Forbes, people are more attracted to membership than loyalty programs. If your membership model adds value to their lives with benefits, they are likely to subscribe for one!

Moreover, discounts are also losing their charm, both from the buyers and companies. If a brand is offering value to a customer, they are ready to replace it with upfront steep discounts.

14. Digital Storytelling

Moving to 2022, digital marketing is still about storytelling, and it is here to stay. It uses multimedia to tell your brand story. The formats can be anything, audio, video, or images. A story told by these mediums, or a combination of these mediums is called digital storytelling.
Many brands have hit the nail on the head with this digital marketing tool, whereas many are still struggling to get it right. With digital storytelling, a digital marketer creates value and relatability for potential customers.

15. Programmatic Advertising

Instead of face-to-face negotiation in physical advertising, programmatic ad buying uses software for your digital advertising. Unlike Google ads, it is not limited to one platform, and it also allows data from third parties.

For those who are unaware, programmatic advertising offers real-time bidding for the ads. When someone clicks on the page, the publisher of that page puts up the ad impression for auction. The ad marketplace holds an auction for the advertisers for impressions. The advertiser who is willing to bid the most will get to display the ad.

16. Geofencing/Hyper-local SEO/Vernacular SEO

Geo-fencing is a location-based service that would target a geographic location to market your product and services when a mobile device enters or exits a geographic boundary. Offline stores can set notifications in their apps when a potential customer is nearby, and some shops have also used it to show current discounts when a customer enters their store. This helps in better customer interactions.

Along the same lines, hyperlocal SEO focuses on a person’s Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) to show them personalized queries such as ‘coffee shop near me,’ ‘ATM near me,’ and so on. When done properly, hyperlocal SEO will help digital marketers with a strong regional grip on the market.

Coming to Vernacular SEO, a Google KPMG survey reported by Economic Times noted that advertisements done in local languages are 88% likely to get businesses a customer. It should not be assumed that your products are only being searched in English. If you have an audience based on a certain geographical area, Vernacular SEO is the way to go.

17. People Also Ask

We all have seen the people also ask (PAA) section by Google, placed right below the 2nd or 3rd search result. Even for highly competitive keywords, if your article features in PAA, it can get high click-through rates. Thus, if your webpage has the answer to a commonly asked query, you can feature on the first page of Google, regardless of the top 10 results.

18. Omnichannel Marketing/Social Media

In omnichannel marketing, a digital marketer uses numerous platforms as multiple touchpoints to market their products/services. Many customers nowadays use various platforms before deciding to purchase something, and that’s why omnichannel marketing is an essential digital marketing tool in 2022. It also gives customers a sense of personalization which also helps in elevated experience.

Social media sites are the best for this way of marketing. We have already talked about the Metaverse, but currently, social media stories are also a great way to market. Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, all of them offer you a short-video format in form of stories, reels, or shorts to be used as a marketing platform.

Using multimedia also helps in boosting brand awareness when these shorts or other types of content is shared by the users. It is also a great way to stay relevant as a brand. Just integrate proper CTAs that form a genuine connection with your audience.

19. Micro-Influencers

When it comes to influencer marketing, macro-influencer marketing has not been as well taken as once thought. People can see the stage product placements, and the connection is missing between the brand ambassadors and the brand values.

In 2022, the market is supposed to turn towards micro-influencers, the influencers who by definition have less than 10,000 followers. This is supposed to create a sense of authenticity and relatability with your potential customers. As a digital marketer, if you are looking forward to influencer marketing, micro-influencers are the way to go in the future.

20. Personalized Pop-ups, Push Notifications, & Chatbots

Personalized pop-ups are exactly what they sound like. Based on customer behavior, you trigger different pop-ups on different pages. Moreover, you can add deadlines or freebies to them, and the customer will be prompted to take action. Push notifications are also a great way to get your audience to your website or apps. Time and again, they have proven to bring great results.

Talking about the chatbots, the AI-based chatbots are here to engage with customers, and they are getting better and better each day. They help you help your customers and engage them on your website. It will serve your need to have customer support 24/7, saving your time for other productive work!

21. Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are web applications that behave like native mobile apps, therefore, your user does not have to install your native app from the app store. According to Beezer’s PWA statistics, PWA has a 36% higher conversion rate compared to native apps. The average bounce rate with PWA is just 42.86% and has a 50% higher customer engagement.

22. Interactive Content

Interactive content is the audience can take part in the content progressively instead of just reading or watching the content. The best examples of this marketing strategy are those interactive content that would be those BuzzFeed quizzes that all of us have taken.

Interactive content can be helpful in driving traffic to the website and starting a conversation about your brand. Most important of all, the reader is supposed to share the result of the content with others compared to normal content.

23. Google Ads Smart Bidding

Google’s smart bidding feature still rules the Digital marketing trends in 2022. It is basically Google taking care of your Pay-per-click (PPC) with its AI. Google’s AI system optimizes your budget for maximizing your ROI by considering the factors like language, browsers, OS, devices, location, time and date, etc. for optimization.

24. Direct mail and Postcards

This might seem counterintuitive to many. What does direct mail have to do with digital marketing? Well, there are very few ways other than direct mail to reach your customers on a personal level. Where other companies are bombarding emails after emails to their customers, here’s a nostalgic medium for you to make your customer feel special. Postcards also help you in targeting potential customers based on their locality. Especially for small businesses that work in specific areas of their city/town, they can be a great marketing strategy to implement.

25. DEI/Gender neutrality/CSR and Non-profit activities

Last but not least, the definition of the global village is becoming more and more important today when it comes to brands. Customers attach a value to the brands and that can take you a long way. The core values of your company can reflect really well with customers.

Giving a portion of your profit to NGOs, taking steps to save the environment, and conserving more are the way to go in 2022. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in your organization and marketing strategies would translate to more gender-neutral and ethnically inclusive campaigns that reflect your core values and put your brand in the right light.

Quick Recap!

These are the most important and likely to be impactful digital marketing trends to look out for in 2022. From Metaverse, NFT & Crypto, and marketing automation to video marketing, live streaming and reels, personalization, micro-influencers, and direct mails, there is a lot to unpack.

If you want to take care of your digital marketing activities with such up-to-date technologies and concepts, you can hire a digital marketer today with Infiraise.