11 digital marketing trends in 2022

Digital Marketing Trends You Can't Ignore in 2022

Artificial intelligence, data-driven marketing, and voice search engine optimization (VSEO) were formerly considered far-fetched concepts. These are some of the most popular digital marketing trends nowadays.

What's to say they aren't? After all, if your company wants to stay competitive in today's crowded online marketplace, it needs to keep up with the latest developments.

We will go over the 11 most significant digital marketing trends you can't miss this year since they will help your company not only survive, but prosper in this age of never-ending marketing changes.

1.???AI-Powered Optimization:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the technology underpinning a variety of services, including content production, chatbots, and search engines, and it has grown in popularity since the outbreak of COVID-19.

A PwC survey of over 1,000 U.S.-based businesses found that 52 percent have increased their AI deployment plans. The following are the primary advantages:

Jarvis is an example of AI-powered software that has been "taught to generate original, creative material" in terms of content creation. Jarvis was reportedly taught how to create blog articles and website copy by top SEO gurus.

AI can also help organizations understand how customers locate their products and services by analyzing consumer behavior and search patterns, as well as using data from social media sites like Instagram and blog posts.

Google is one such business that has placed AI at the center of its value proposition. Its use of AI has helped its search engine to better grasp what consumers are looking for and what kind of material best serves their search intent over the previous few years.

Google knows what consumers are looking for and what type of material will best meet their needs. When you search for "fish oil," for example, Google recognizes that the most common search purpose is to learn about the health advantages and side effects:

As a result, ranking #1 for this keyword with an e-commerce product page is quite unlikely. If you get this step incorrect, all of your content creation, promotion, and link-building efforts will go for naught.

This means that nailing the search intent is more important than ever, and content optimization is a great approach to accomplish so. Using a solution like ClickFlow to integrate content optimization into your SEO and content workflows is the simplest way to do so.

The Content Editor function in ClickFlow pulls data from the top 20 current ranking pages and assists your writing staff in creating an optimized piece of content.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) to serve up subtopics and associated keywords would make any article ultra-comprehensive and increase its chances of ranking on page one. It provides you with a suggested word count, readability feedback, and an overall optimization score based on the keywords and subtopics covered:

This was one of the most important methods employed in this case study, which saw ElectricityRates.com grow organic clicks by 327 percent in just 30 days. Using the Text Editor, they were able to determine that their previous content was insufficiently detailed and that critical keywords were missing:

Businesses that implement AI now will be able to reduce staffing expenses and speed growth, giving them a competitive advantage.

2.???Programmatic Advertising

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate ad buying is known as programmatic advertising. Companies get a more reliable and cost-effective answer to their demands when humans are removed from the ad buying process.

Global programmatic advertising spending has surpassed $130 billion, with the United States accounting for 61% of the total. According to eMarketer, programmatic display ad expenditure in the United States will climb 18.4% next year, a figure that is similar to what has been seen in recent years:

The power of programmatic advertising, according to SmartyAds, resides in its optimization scale capability, which exceeds that of a human:

"Most manual search-driven advertising campaigns (even those using professional tools) consider three or four factors: the term, the time of day, and the location.

When combined with customer data platforms, solutions like programmatic demand-side platforms can employ hundreds of targeting signals to personalize the advertisement and even target based on lifestyle or behavior habits."

You should start paying attention to programmatic advertising if paid media buying is a critical client acquisition channel for you.

Real-time bidding (also known as RTB) is a popular programmatic ad buying technique that uses real-time auctions to acquire guaranteed ad impressions in advance from specified publisher sites.

3.???Conversational Marketing

With all of the chatbot rhetoric, the reality of current marketing emerges: it's more conversational than ever before. People want it that way, therefore brands are catering to their needs. When customers have a question, 82 percent want a "quick" answer.

Conversational marketing allows marketers and customers to connect in a personal and immediate way:

Unlike traditional marketing methods, this type of marketing is now available across many channels, allowing firms to reach customers on their own terms: on the devices, platforms, and timeframes that are most convenient for them.

"Today's shoppers want to get what they're looking for now, not later," says David Cancel, founder, and CEO of Drift. "[And] in the way individuals choose to connect."

In fact, according to Drift, 41.3 percent of consumers make purchases using conversational marketing technologies.

Companies utilize a variety of strategies to carry out a conversational marketing plan, including:

• Chatbots
• Personalized videos
• Personalized emails
• Virtual selling assistants

ThoughtSpot is an example of a company that benefits from conversational marketing, with 10X more sales discussions, 70% more marketing qualified leads, and 64% more meetings scheduled following its implementation.

4.???Chatbots

Chatbots are one example of conversational marketing in action. Chatbots use artificial intelligence (AI) to send automated human-like messages to website users in real-time:

According to surveys:

• For businesses, the most significant advantages of chatbots include 24-hour service (64 percent), rapid responses to inquiries (55 percent), and answers to simple questions (55 percent ).
• According to Uberall, 80 percent of customers have had great encounters with chatbots.
• According to Juniper Research, by 2023, eCommerce transactions via chatbots would total $112 billion.
• Consumer retail spending via chatbots is expected to reach $142 billion by 2024, according to Insider Intelligence, up from $2.8 billion in 2019.

Many customers enjoy engaging with chatbots because they are available 24 hours a day, respond quickly, and recall their whole purchase history properly. These virtual assistants provide excellent customer service by anticipating and automating repetitive chores, allowing you to focus on more important responsibilities.

Chatbots will become increasingly important for a great customer experience as more people become acclimated to them.

5.???Personalization

Personalize your marketing in 2022 if you want to stand out, which involves personalizing content, products, emails, and so on. Personalization turns out to be a hit with customers:

• According to SmarterHQ, just 72 percent of customers respond to marketing messages that are tailored to their specific interests.
• According to a Salesforce poll, marketers regard personalization as having the greatest impact on their customer experience (64 percent), conversion rate (63 percent), and visitor engagement (55 percent):
• "Personalized, triggered emails based on activity are 3X better than batch-and-blast emails," claims Kevin George of EmailMonks.

Netflix and Amazon, with their very successful customized recommended products or movie titles, are impossible to overlook when looking for instances of the power of personalization. Here are a few more businesses that are using personalization effectively today:

• EasyJet: launched a data-driven email campaign that builds bespoke tales based on consumers' travel experience with the airline, recommending where they might like to fly next. About 12.5 million unique emails were sent, with a click-through rate of 25% higher than non-personalized emails.
• Cadbury’s: designed a customized video campaign that matches consumers with a Dairy Milk flavor based on information from their Facebook profile, such as age, interests, and geography. The campaign had a click-through rate of 65 percent and a conversion rate of 33.6 percent, demonstrating that personalization works.
• Starbucks: uses a gamified mobile app to get as personal as possible, allowing users to customize their drinks and encouraging future use with its rewards system—which boosted sales to $2.56 billion.

6.???Video Marketing

Today, and for the next 5-10 years, video marketing is one of the most crucial marketing trends. According to a Biteable poll:

• Video is used by 60% of organizations as a marketing tool.
• Video is a "very important or extremely vital" aspect of 61 percent of marketers' marketing strategies.
• Video gives a higher return on investment than static pictures, according to 74% of respondents.
• Video, according to 52% of respondents, helps them create confidence with potential clients.

Don't just think of YouTube when we talk about video marketing. With video marketing, there are numerous strategies to increase engagement. On Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, for example, you can post a video or start a live broadcast. Using RecurPost's automation tool to plan Instagram posts for optimal interaction is one option. Cordital can help you with your video marketing so take a look if you're interested!

Video is a helpful channel for repurposing and republishing old content, as well as vice versa. On the one hand, this entails converting a piece of content, such as a blog article, into a video.

We used this strategy, for example, with this Amazon advertising 101 essay, which Eric turned into a video:

You can, on the other hand, make a video, post it to your website and YouTube channel, and then do the following:

• Have it transcribed and turned into an article (with an embedded YouTube video for better rankings)
• Upload the raw video to Facebook with the transcription as subtitles (native Facebook videos get a much higher impression share and engagement than shared YouTube videos)
• Take the audio and turn it into a podcast episode.
• Use video thumbnails and the word "video" in subject lines in your email marketing campaigns, since this has been proved to raise open rates by 19%.

7.???Google Lens

Google Lens is a visual search engine developed by Google that uses a camera app to recognize items and landmarks. When you take a photo of the following items, you can do the following:

• 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.

8.???Voice Search

The growing popularity of voice search has prompted businesses to reconsider their digital marketing methods. Consider the following if you're still on the fence regarding voice search:

• 20% of all internet searches are voice-based.
• 58% of consumers used voice search to find local business information.
• 40% of adults use voice search daily.
• 1 billion voice searches take place every month.

For search engine users, voice search already plays a critical role in providing relevant information. Google Assistant has one million actions, while Alexa has over 100,000 skills, which are functionalities that allow their voice assistants to respond to user requests and questions very specifically:

Keep in mind that not only will more businesses create audio content in the hopes of increasing brand awareness (which you should do as well), but commercials are also on the way. This means Alexa will respond to your inquiry with a "message from her sponsor" in addition to the response.

The most recent statistics (which is now a few years old, so we can presume that this number is greater) shows that voice-activated searches account for 27% of all mobile queries, with "trigger words" like "how," "what," "best," and "easy" being the most common.

Remember that voice search isn't just another way to push out messages and sales. Instead, marketers must create a distinct approach to consumer contact, and this channel should be part of a larger, more integrated brand experience.

9.???Social Commerce

Social commerce has been around for a long time, but it has only recently gained traction. Instagram and TikTok are two apps that have given new meaning to social commerce.

Instagram has a billion users, and 90% of them already follow active retail businesses, with many of them checking in on these pages on a daily basis. Here's a list of Instagram features you can use to sell:

• Live Shopping: This is an implementation of live streaming (more below, on trend #31).
• Shop Tab Ads: Perfect for e-commerce stores that want to promote their ads on users’ shop tabs.
• Reels Ads: Just like Stories ads, but for Reels.
• IGTV Ads: The same as before, but for IGTV.
• Instagram Checkout: A seamless and secure way to sell your products directly on Instagram.

TikTok isn't far behind, with 1 billion monthly active users. TikTok Shopping was released in 2022, allowing creators to add a shopping page to their TikTok profiles:

Furthermore, a Shopify integration will pull products from a creator's Shopify product catalogs and display them on their TikTok profile, similar to the Shop Tab on Instagram. Users will be able to purchase a product without having to leave the app, similar to how Instagram Checkout works.

TikTok Shopping is currently only available to Shopify retailers in the United States and the United Kingdom who have a TikTok for Business account.

10. Interactive Content

When we talk about rapid access, we're talking about interactive content, which has become one of the most popular digital marketing trends in recent years.

In 2022, we'll see a shift away from text-based content and toward dynamic, engaging material that provides consumers with an immersive experience, such as:

• Quizzes and polls
• Embedded calculators
• Augmented reality ads
• 360-degree videos

Interactive content is more engaging, memorable, and likely to produce the outcomes your company requires. People appreciate it because it makes them feel more connected to brands and more active in the purchasing process, not just because it's new and different.

11. Geo-Fencing

While the concept of marketing to people based on their location isn't new, we anticipate seeing a surge in the use of geo-fencing, which is expected to reach $2.4 billion by 2023, thanks to the rise of mobile usage:

Geo-fencing allows users to be targeted in real-time based on their location. When a user reaches or departs a target region, such as within a mile of a restaurant, they receive a push notification, text message, or other kinds of marketing contact.

According to Reveal Mobile, the top five retail sites for geofencing are restaurants and bars, health and beauty, entertainment, grocery stores, and pet stores, according to more than half of marketers polled:

Furthermore, they discovered that geotargeted audiences perform better or the same as other targeting methods on average:

Waze is used by the American gas company 76 to designate their gas stations on a map around California. As vehicles approach, a logo appears on their map, directing them to a gas station and offering them entry into a contest if they fuel up. A 6.5 percent navigation rate to fuel stations was achieved as a result of their "Tank 5" campaign:

Geo-fencing will become increasingly crucial in the marketing strategy of sectors that need to convert digital users into brick-and-mortar customers.