7 Marketing & Communications Themes That Have Stood Out So Far in 2022

When one year ends and another begins, there is no shortage of trend articles covering a wide range of marketing and communications subjects. What should marketers include in the new year's marketing plans and budgets? What isn't yet worth the investment? We've all read them, and we've hopefully incorporated some of the themes and recommendations into our programs?(where it makes sense).

But the marketing and communications world is constantly changing, so wouldn’t we be remiss to not reflect on what trends, themes and topics are resonating most in our profession more than once a year? Now that we’re well into 2022, it’s a good time to reflect.

Based on my work managing integrated communications programs for several B2B and B2C companies, combined with the content I’ve been reading/watching over the past few months, here are 7 themes that have stood out so far in 2022:

1. Communications is more valued than ever. The results of the?2021 JOTW Strategic Communications Survey?support this statement. In the fourth annual survey of communications professionals, 80% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” their organizations now place a greater value on communications. This is one of the silver linings that came out of the pandemic. Communicating clearly and frequently – both internally with employees and externally with customers/clients – has been imperative during the past two years. The necessity of communications has fundamentally changed – for the better.
2. ?A commitment to internal communications is critical – but it’s only one part of the “what makes me stay” puzzle for employees. Building off number one, employees expect leaders to be transparent and authentic and to showcase empathy and inclusivity, but great internal comms is only one part of the equation when it comes to retaining employees. Maintaining strong internal communications is increasingly difficult in a hybrid environment, but we have to figure out what works. Read this Forbes article for some stellar advice on this topic.
3. Media relations is always changing, but one constant remains: Journalists and public relations professionals can (and should) have a mutually beneficial relationship. If you or your team works with journalists, you know how difficult it is to garner media attention right now, even if you have a fantastic story to tell. The average journalist now covers four beats, according to Muck Rack's The State of Journalism 2022 report (up from three beats last year). Journalists are overworked – period. ?However, 60% of journalists think their connection with PR professionals is mutually beneficial, and 80% of journalists say pitches account for a quarter or more of their articles. I’m part of a Slack community for PR and marketing professionals, and a journalist in that group recently shared that while reporters are inundated with ongoing world news stories related to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and myriad other happenings, they want to balance reporting with positive, entertaining stories. So continue pitching but be patient with our journalist friends…and give them a reason to care about what you’re pitching.
4. Great storytelling reigns supreme. Building off the point above, whether it’s in a pitch, video for your website, email newsletter or social media content, knowing how to tell an amazing story through your content is a non-negotiable in today’s attention-fragmented world. Great storytelling evokes emotion and connection. It inspires action and builds trust. Misinformation and disinformation run rampant on the Internet. Be a source of truth and trust for the people you want to connect with to purchase your products or services. To create an effective story, you have to truly understand (and care about) your audience. Which leads me to…
5. ?Prioritize customer experience and communication across all marketing channels. I included this topic in a Forbes article about three themes to include in your 2022 social media strategy, but focusing on customer experience has to extend to each and every channel you use to connect with customers. Customer experience has always been a foundational component of marketing, but similar to many things in the past two years, the pandemic put a bright spotlight on the need for brands to invest in creating a great customer experience. If you’re struggling with this one, here’s a tip: Do your marketing and sales teams regularly communicate? Are they sharing best practices and challenges? Do customer inquiries and feedback that come through your sales team get funneled to marketing and communications teams to help with their strategies? If not, you have some homework!
6. Content must be maximized across many channels. We all work too hard on creating content for it to live in a vacuum on a single channel. Don’t confuse content maximization with copy/paste. I’m not encouraging you to copy your newsletter verbatim and slap it into a LinkedIn post (seriously, please don’t do that!). There’s a communications professional I’ve known for 10+ years who specializes in social media strategy who does a phenomenal job at content maximization. He’ll write a blog post, but then share a slightly different perspective (and in a much-condensed manner) for LinkedIn. Then he chunks that content out even more for his weekly newsletter. Not everyone subscribes to your newsletter or blog or follows you on social channels, so don’t assume one stellar piece of content on one channel will get the job done. Slicing and dicing content that’s tailored to the right audience on the right channel will help you extend the shelf-life and reach of your content.
7. Get back to the basics with your marketing. I saved my favorite for last. My team and I at Franco have been ruminating on this topic for a few months now. And it was validated when I reached out to the same Slack community I referenced earlier to get an outsider’s perspective for this article that not one, but two people independently gave me “back to the basics” feedback. Dave Clarke, head of strategy at Think It First, shared this comment: “I think there’s a big ‘back to basics’ trend among marketing, particularly in the digital space. There are so many tools, strategies and automations that the actual goal of making real, authentic connections has been lost a little. So what are those ‘basics?’ Being real. Focusing on the qualitative element of engagement. Transparency. Making it easy for your audience to do the things they want to do. Removing all the hurdles we’ve put in front of them. Delivering value that’s actually useful and delightful for your audience.” Amy Kenigsberg, COO and co-founder at K2 Global Communications, shared similar feedback: “Marketing and PR are going back to the basics. Create and deliver useful information that our target markets require without pushing product, product, product, but that also makes the case to buy the products.”

What other marketing and communications trends are you seeing so far this year?