The last year has been a period of great changes in digital marketing , which will undoubtedly influence trends when applying digital marketing strategies in 2022. Changes in the algorithm and in the Google SERP, the metaverse or the perspective of a world without cookies have been the main headaches for marketers. Therefore, if you want to know what the next steps are to take in your digital marketing strategy, don't miss this post on digital marketing trends in 2022 .
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Digital Marketing Trends for 2022
Next year will be a particularly important year in terms of digital strategy, and even more so given the situation we are experiencing. There is a saturation of products without differentiation , being able to find the same thing in hundreds of stores, whether they are small, medium, let's talk about Amazon or Aliexpress. This situation means that, in order to differentiate ourselves, we have to put much more effort into developing a good brand experience strategy .
Jesús Nieto, professor of the Master in Digital Marketing , considers that «the pandemic has driven the evolution of digital marketing, forcing many companies to take it more seriously and invest more in digital visibility. This has caused an increase in competition and a more expensive purchase of digital media.
1# Irritation of the metaverse, nfts, virtual reality and augmented reality
We haven't heard of Second Life in a long time . I'm sure you've even wondered what would have become of that project that caused so much talk in the mid-2000s. Well, it only took Facebook to announce its name change to Meta and declare its intentions to make a strategic commitment to this format for us marketers to pay attention to this matter.
The metaverse is a digital reality that we will access through special devices, such as virtual or augmented reality glasses, in which we can interact with other users. Each of these users will have an avatar (their character in the virtual world) and will interact through objects in immersive worlds.
We are talking about a second digital reality in which we can interact with our friends, work with our colleagues, enjoy our partners and even have a job in the digital space .
And just as the metaverse is a parallel digital universe where we can find everything, you also have to anticipate and think about how you can use it to make your brand known and sell your products. Everything remains to be done, but there are already brands doing things.
We all know that Facebook is a company that lives by selling ads. For this reason, during 2022 we must remain vigilant to see how digital marketing evolves with respect to the metaverse.
I would also recommend you understand what NFTs are and how companies like Alpine F1 use concepts like FAN TOKENS with NFTs. Or how Gucci is able to create a metaverse in Roblox and sell bags for more than €3,000.
2# Welcome to a world without cookies
The changes experienced in legislation to guarantee and protect the privacy of users, together with the measures taken by Apple and Google in their Chrome browser to increase the privacy of their users, have brought us crazy in recent months.
Some advertising platforms such as Facebook have been seriously affected and we have seen how the sizes of the audiences of remarketing and audiences decreased , conversions decreased and their automated sales and conversion-oriented bidding algorithms were compromised.
In this sense, in 2022 we will bet on first-hand data. The so-called first party dates . In addition, we will have to invest in the management and unification of the data that we collect from each user and begin to establish the future of a world without cookies .
On the other hand, we will also see how Google and Facebook, which are already working on it, offer us alternatives. However, it remains to be seen if they will be as effective as before.
3 # Quality content VS quantity of content
The core updates carried out by Google this year have made it clear that Google wants to provide reliable and quality answers to users. For this reason, you will take into account the authority of the domain for a certain topic and the authority of the content writer.
It has also made it clear that it increasingly understands the intention of the user's search. Therefore, it will search for the best answer to each search intention.
The changes in the SERPs will also make us think what new opportunities exist, considering that Google is giving more and more results so that users do not leave Google by introducing new snippets .
4# Featured snippets in Google searches
As we have mentioned, Google will continue to be essential in digital marketing. This year we have seen one of the biggest changes in the SEO industry. With the growth of mobile and voice search, users are changing the way they use search engines like Google. Being number one on the SERP results pages is no longer necessarily the goal we should aim for.
You've probably noticed that your own search and browsing behavior has changed in recent years due to Google's changes and the fact that we search for information faster when we're on the go.
Featured snippets and other information in the SERPs mean you no longer need to click through to a website to get the information you're looking for. It's right there on the Google search results page.
This information can appear in many places, but the most searched position is right at the top of the page, before the list of organic pages. Over 60% of search results returned by Google are now featured snippets.
5 # Conversational marketing
As Gartner predicted, users increasingly want more non-intrusive self-service experiences. For this reason, the conversational marketing application such as chatbots in eCommerce and live chats that accompany and provide security to users in the last mile of the purchase will have a critical role.
Chatbots in full funnel strategies or Typeform -type questionnaires, with conversational surveys or questionnaires, also demonstrate their great ability to attract leads . We must bear in mind that these leads can be very different from the rest of the qualified leads , but they can help us generate audiences and obtain data that, with a good inbound marketing strategy , will promote many sales.
6 # Video marketing is imposed
According to a CISCO study, in 2022 video will represent 82% of all online traffic. Videos are 53 times more likely to rank high in SERPs than other SEO techniques . In fact, 93% of marketers say video is now a core part of their content strategy.
Brands will need to integrate video content like product demos, webinars, and live video events to keep their content fresh and aligned with what consumers are looking for.
Furthermore, the live video industry is expected to continue to grow. It's already incredibly popular with consumers, with users spending three times as much time watching live videos as they do pre-recorded videos.
Ultimately, video marketing is the most popular way for consumers to learn about new products.
7 # Automation does not code in marketing
The tools to program automated processes for the marketing professional are becoming more intuitive and give marketing teams complete independence from the programming teams. In 2022, the degree of automation and sophistication of automations will increase thanks to these tools.
In addition, not only will sequential automations be used, but an automation per user based on events and the journey itself will be applied . All this with the aim of creating unique and personalized experiences .
8# Integration of the experience in social networks
In a world without cookies where Facebook does not have access to the data of your website or only a part of it, this being insufficient to generate a minimum volume of data that allows the automation to work correctly, the only solution is to bring the interaction experience with our brand within the social network itself. For this reason, among the digital marketing trends of 2022, we will see how more and more stores are created within Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or WhatsApp . On the other hand, the formats of interaction with ads and lead generation will also increase.
In addition, video ads and valuable micro-content will be especially important to qualify audiences within each platform based on user engagement with our ad. This will allow us to create sequential audiences without the need to drive users to our website.
9 # Artificial intelligence, the best friend of marketers
Another of the d*igital marketing trends for 2022* is artificial intelligence. We are going to see how artificial intelligence and automation become the true protagonists of digital advertising campaigns. Alejandro Martin, professor of the Master in Digital Marketing , comments that “increasingly, managers will have to focus on strategy and how to increase funnel conversion . And less and less in the segmentations or choice of keywords ”. It will be more important to reduce the number of campaigns to have more aggregated data.
In communications with customers or potential buyers, marketing automation is already well known. With the advances in artificial intelligence we begin to see new models and interesting solutions to segment the public .
Undoubtedly, investing in AI in 2022 will allow many companies to save costs and accelerate growth, thus outperforming their main competitors.
10 # Hyperfocus on the client
Another of the digital marketing trends in 2022 , as we have mentioned, is that, having experienced the pandemic, many stores, shopping centers and even hotels or other companies have been forced to close. This has meant that many consumers have to buy any type of product online .
During 2022, technology will be used much more to generate better human experiences. In addition to personalizing marketing and sales actions, as well as working on the empathy and trust of the brand towards its potential customers.
The keys to keep in mind in digital marketing trends for 2022 are:
The customer demands more and more self-service and automation
Want more immediacy and personalization
We must know our buyer persona and their buyer journey . Data will help us create unique experiences
11# The moment of truth for SMEs
This year more than ever, small and medium-sized companies are becoming aware of the need to invest in online strategies. Now you can't wait any longer. It is the definitive moment and the demand for specialists in corporate communication at all levels will grow even more: social networks , SEO, social selling , ads...
Jesús Nieto adds that “in the face of artificial intelligence, big data , virtual and augmented reality or chatbots , which will undoubtedly continue to grow in 2022, small businesses, SMEs and the self-employed professional will begin to integrate what is easier, cheaper and at the same time useful as it can be to get clients and take away hours of work. And in that, automated marketing systems can record significant growth, although others consider it outdated.
12# Programmatic advertising will continue to be a trend in 2022
Programmatic advertising refers to advertising in which the advertiser buys the audiences and not the spaces, as is the case with traditional advertising. The advertiser chooses the public they want to target, taking into account multiple details of their profile: tastes, demographics, connections... During 2022, programmatic advertising will extend its use by most platforms.
Companies are increasingly using this technology to make real-time decisions about which ad they want to deliver to customers. It is the type of advertising that has grown the most in recent years and will continue to be one of the digital marketing trends for 2022.
13# CRM evolves in 2022
On the other hand, digital marketing trends in 2022 point to a change in the relationship between brand and user. The use of social network communication channels (Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, for example) as CRM tools will appear as a complement in email marketing campaigns to speed up the passage between interest and desire of the customer in the customer journey and contribute to the closing of the purchase.
If we want to bet on first party data , we need a complete and integrated vision of the interactions of our users with our brand. That is why customer data platforms appear as an evolution of CRM that allows us to integrate a total vision of the user and our brand in all devices and media, providing a single and integrated vision.
As Roger Bretau, professor of the Master in Digital Marketing , comments , “when managing a large number of inbound leads , it is not only very useful to establish lead scoring processes agreed with sales, but also the use of sales enablement tools to that the leads enter into sales cadences automatically”. In this way, it will be possible to minimize the overload of the sales department and, at the same time, improve the speed of processing leads .
In addition, email marketing will also adapt to the demands and preferences of users with greater interactivity.
14# Video Snack
TikTok is the new trendy social network. In fact, it does not stop growing, getting closer and closer to Instagram , with some 800 million active users per month. Brands increasingly understand how to take advantage of this network, creating strategies based on the narrative model and betting on user generated content .
With the most varied content, the brands try to connect with the public of the platform. If we have learned anything from social networks, it is that there is not a single way or an infallible tandem. In fact, we are talking about all the content that has to do with entertainment and learning.
From collaborations with influencers or the creation of videos that help us connect with our audience to hashtag challenges or the promotion of events. TikTok will continue to be a golden opportunity and one of the key digital marketing trends for 2022 to reach a young audience that is increasingly difficult to engage on other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
15# Omnichannel marketing: one of the strongest trends
This is one of the digital marketing trends in 2022 that has become more relevant. Partly because the various digital platforms we use are increasingly interconnected. But there is also a new technology on the horizon that could accentuate this change: 5G . Although it has already begun to be implemented, during 2022 it will take full force, with many changes in online marketing channels.
5G will allow working with larger formats , both at the video and image levels. That will drive the move to much more visual campaigns. At some point, email marketing will start to allow video integration as a standard.
What do you think of the digital marketing trends in 2022 ? Comment and share!
And if you would like to go deeper and become a great professional in the sector, do not hesitate to train with our Master in Digital Marketing . You will learn the necessary marketing techniques to be a pioneer in the digital world. We will wait for you!
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