“It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!”

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Brian Halligan

To effectively leave an impact of your brand on the minds of your target audience, it is essential that you master the art of hopping on the trends that your audience adores. 

Being in the digital marketing world myself for the past decade, I have effectively understood the need and importance of digital marketing in the business world. In the world of rapidly transforming technological advancements, digital marketing is like oxygen for businesses that they require to survive in the contemporary world of business. 

Probing further, the major target audience for many businesses is often Gen Z and Millennials, and to target them effectively, it is essential to target them through their preferred channel. Moreover, nobody can deny the fact that both of these generations are tech-savvy and are majorly active in the digital world. 

In fact, according to the JungleScout survey, 89% of Gen Z and 91% of millennials prefer shopping online. To target both generations, it is crucial for businesses to hop on every trend that is occurring in the digital world. Hence, it has now become crucial for marketers to either create new trends or stay updated with the ongoing trends that are ruling the digital world. 

Hence, this blog will focus on multiple digital marketing trends such as personalizing content, omnichannel marketing, and so on. So, let us delve deeper into the blog without further ado. 

5 Essential Digital Marketing Trends to Follow in 2022

1 Enhancing Personalization 

Remember how it felt when you received your birthday wish via email from your favorite brand? It not only makes you feel special but also you will always remember the brand that made an extra effort of wishing you on your birthday.  That is exactly how the personalization of messages or content works on various digital platforms. 

In fact, According to Evergage, 98% of marketers claim that personalization improves their customer relationships. To elaborate, when brands focus on connecting with their customers first instead of directly asking them to buy their products, it builds their relationship with the target audience on a more personal level. It will assist in gaining the trust and loyalty of your customers by showing that you care and value them more than anything else. 

Along with this, Netflix and Amazon along with many OTT platforms also have special personalized recommendation lists based on your preference and what you would like to watch. That is another form of personalization in which data is segregated, arranged, and presented to the user reflecting their preferences.

In fact, Gary Vaynerchuk once said that the best marketing strategy a company can use is to show that you care for its customers. To make that happen efficiently, adding a personal touch to your content is the best possible tactic that can come in handy. The reason is, due to lack of time and busy schedules people only want to engage with the brands that provide them personalized offers and recommendations that can save them their time and efforts. 

To substantiate, let’s have a look at some of the interesting facts to validate the importance of presenting personalized content to the customers.

1. As per Accenture, 91% of the consumers say that they will always prefer to shop from brands that offer them better offers and recommendations based on their preferences.

2. According to Invesp, 56% of online shoppers are more likely to return to a website that recommends relevant products. 

3. Harvard Business Reviews say that a company’s revenue goes up by 38% when customers receive more transparent and relevant ads based on customers’ activity. 

4. At last, Accenture states that 83% of the consumers are willing to share their personal data in order to get a better-personalized experience. 

Probing further, multiple technological advancements like machine learning and AI have made it easier for brands to collect solid insights that can assist in defining and identifying the needs of their customers. This can assist in creating a personalized experience for the consumers which can further assist in the attainment of your SMART goals.

Looking at the importance and benefits of personalization for consumers and businesses both, it is safe to say that personalization of the content will be one of the key future trends of digital marketing. 

2 Focusing on omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing is the utilization of multiple platforms in order to interact and reach out to the target audience. Multiple channels that can be utilized in the trend of omnichannel marketing are SMS, WhatsApp, social media, websites, or apps. One of the best examples to effectively understand the concept of omnichannel marketing is Amazon which is using multiple marketing channels to deliver the same brand message to its target audience. To elaborate, customers can have access to Amazon through their website, email, and apps as well. 

Probing further, the main motive of a brand behind adopting the trend of omnichannel marketing is to enhance the customer experience in the most efficient way possible. To further elaborate, some of the key advantages of omnichannel marketing are mentioned below, 

1. Better experience – As said above, making it convenient for customers to interact and reach out to your brand will enhance their experience of interacting with your business. 

2. Enhanced data collection – Being available on various marketing platforms not only assists in being accessible to the customers but will also increase the efficiency of data analytics. This data can be effectively utilized to engage the audience more by presenting personalized data. This can further assist in retaining customers with a brand for a longer period of time. 

3. Increased revenue –  When you engage the audience through various platforms, it can assist in generating more leads that can further be converted into sales. This way, omnichannel marketing can also help in increasing the revenue of the company.    

To validate, the above-given benefits, let’s shed some light on a few facts that every marketer should be aware of 

1. The purchase frequency of omnichannel brands is 250% higher as compared to brands with single-channel marketing. 

2. Brands that include SMS in their omnichannel marketing campaign are more likely to end in conversion by 47.7%. 

3. The retention rate of consumers is 90% higher in omnichannel marketing in comparison to a single channel.

Moreover, 90% of customers also expect consistent interactions from brands across all the channels. Further, you can also use various key performance indicators to track the efficiency and performance of your omnichannel marketing strategy. To fulfill the needs and expectations of consumers, almost every brand will focus on creating an effective omnichannel marketing strategy. Hence, the trend of omnichannel marketing will be more visible and prevalent in the upcoming years.  

3 Greater engagement via videos 

In the world of social media, Tic Tocs, Shorts on Youtube, and Igtv on Instagram have gained massive popularity all across the globe. Videos today have become a new way of storytelling and grabbing the attention of the audience. In fact, as per invideo, by 2022, almost 82% of the consumer internet will be because of online videos.  This clearly depicts that ignoring the trend of videos in 2022 will not be beneficial for businesses. 

Videos not only deliver a message more efficiently than other formats but also assist in increasing the engagement of the target audience. There are dozens of formats of videos in which content can be presented, for example,

1. Explainer video – The videos that are used to explain the utilization or features of the product to the audience. 

2. Short videos – Trends of Reels on Instagram and Tic Toks are rapidly growing each day. Many businesses are focusing on creating unique and engaging content of short videos in order to hook target audiences. 

3. Testimonials – Testimonial videos are basically when a consumer explains their experience of purchasing from a particular business. 

Probing further, influencer marketing became another reason for videos getting widely popular on digital media platforms. The reason is that people like to see and utilize the products used by their favorite influencers or celebrities. Hence, many businesses are using influencers to deliver their brand message to their target audience. 

Moving ahead, below are a few stats that can effectively validate the benefits of using videos to deliver brand messages in the digital world. 

1. 87% of the marketers claim that video has helped them in increasing traffic. 
2. 81% of the businesses say that video has assisted them in increasing their sales directly. 
3. 87% of the marketers state that video has helped in generating good ROI. 

Every business aims to generate a good return on every investment and in the future, every marketer will effectively look for cost-effective ways to generate leads and increase profits. On the same hand, a video is an effective marketing medium that requires minimum investments.  Hence, videos can also be one of the crucial digital marketing trends that will require the attention of businesses in 2022. 

4 Increasing popularity of metaverse 

One of the most recent trends that changed the face of the digital world dynamically is the introduction of a metaverse in digital marketing. For some who are not familiar with the concept yet, the metaverse is like a digital space created in the 3D format to create a digital environment in which people can interact with each other by creating their own digital avatars. The trend of the metaverse is rapidly increasing day by day and in fact, it is estimated that the market of metaverse will be worth $800 Billion by 2024. 

In order to hop on the trend of the metaverse, many businesses are introducing their own digital games and platforms in order to engage their customers and expand their customer base. For instance, Gucci launched its Gucci Virtual 25, in which the consumers’ avatars can try their new collection of sneakers with the help of augmented reality and metaverse. 

Moreover, this will assist in creating a life-like experience for consumers to try their sneakers anytime and anywhere with the use of metaverse. In addition to this, Gucci also launched its  Gucci Garden on Roblox which can give its target audience an experience of their Gucci Garden Archetypes in Florence, Italy. 

These types of technologies can assist in engaging the audience by keeping them entertained and hooked to your brand. Metaverse can further assist in gaining the trust of the audience because of enhanced engagement. This can further lead to increasing the leads and sales of a business. 

5 Escalating SEO 

Everybody is very well aware of the fact that ignoring SEO in digital marketing would be the biggest blunder a business can make. Therefore, it requires effective SEO tactics along with multiple efficient SEO tools that can assist in attracting organic traffic and enhance the visibility of your business. 

Below are multiple trends in SEO that can be efficiently utilized by businesses to rank themselves higher on the Search Engine Results Page(SERP).

1. Enhance voice search – Voice searches are becoming more and more popular as the days pass. Introducing a voice search feature on your websites can improve the rank of your website on search engines. 

2. Focus on EAT principle – EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Moreover, it is crucial for businesses to set the quality standards of their content while keeping the EAT principle in mind.

3. Increase the length of content – According to The State of Content Marketing Report 2019 by SEMrush, articles of 3000 words get 3 times more traffic and 4 times more shares than 1000 word articles. 

Ranking higher in SERP can increase the visibility and authority of your business for consumers and other stakeholders. Furthermore, it can also increase the revenue of the company by generating potential leads. All these benefits with a minimal implementation of cost can assist in making SEO a crucial marketing trend for 2022. 

Wrapping up 

To encapsulate, following marketing trends and implementing them effectively in the business can drive many benefits that can contribute to the growth of the company. Moreover, the above stated are some of the recent trends that can assist businesses in targeting the right audience in the most efficient and effective way possible.