Content personalization & visualization and AI automation, are just a few marketing trends to include in your business strategy in 2022. With consumers like generation Z and millennials, marketers need to make smart decisions to ensure business strategy wins. Digital marketing has been getting more diverse and complex with each passing year.
A great start is to regularly update your marketing strategy. It can also help you make the most of the latest tools and software available for marketers. Technology can be of great help to marketers, and you can only benefit from it if you know which tools are beneficial and which ones are overhyped.
In this article today, we will walk you through marketing trends for 2022 that you must keep an eye out for. Below are the top 7 marketing trends in 2022 that can help you bring in more customers.
Let’s get started.
Top 7 Marketing Trends in 2022
Marketing is an ever-evolving process. Every year we see new trends both in traditional marketing and digital marketing. It is important to cope with the trends to stay ahead of the competition and include them in your marketing plan. A marketing plan that incorporates the latest trends and updates results in successful business strategies. Since it is relevant to the current customer behavior, it is easier for the marketers to take the customers to the next stage of the marketing funnel.
- Content Visualisation
Visual content speaks louder than plain text. Images are likely to get more engagement on social media platforms, landing pages, websites, etc. People remember what they see longer than what they read. And, this is crucial with a diminishing attention span of the audience – which is less than 8 seconds. On the other hand, if you add images and videos to your posts, you will instantly attract more people, plus they will remember the content over a longer period of time.
The popularity of platforms like Pinterest and Instagram is proof that images, gifs, and videos are more popular than written content. However, when it comes to visualization for marketing there are certain things you should keep in mind.
It is important for the content visualization to be story-driven. They should tell a unique story about your brand and it should resonate with the audience. Relevancy is the key when it comes to visual content. Just randomly throwing out an image won’t do your business much good. But if the image or video you have shared with your audience is telling a story, it will resonate with them more.
The visual content might include:
- Images
- Graphics
- Videos
- Charts
- Infographics
When creating visual content like infographics, make sure you also add data to make them more credible. People also find it easier to digest complex data when it is presented to them in the form of an infographic.
- Personalization
Personalization is the key to the success of your marketing strategies. Adopt personalization whether it is an email sequence, a cold calling, or responding to customer queries on social media. Real human connections are based on personalization, and that’s how you build real businesses.
A great way to start personalization is understanding the preferences of your target audience, likes, dislikes, etc. Head to your social media platform that has a higher engagement rate, or any popular forum where your target audience hangs out. They give you a great insight into the behavior of your target audience. You can go beyond learning their names and figure out how to interact with them in a more personalized manner. Once you get hold of it, it is easier to adopt and implement personalization into your marketing strategy.
People get dozens of marketing messages and emails every day, which is why they tune out most of them. But if they receive a personalized message, they will be less likely to ignore it.
Incorporate AI into your business strategy to ensure personalization. AI-based personalization helps businesses to understand customer preferences accurately and precisely. It ensures real-time results including customer engagement, and improving sales. More specifically, AI-based personalization helps businesses to create content that aligns with their audience’s needs.
- Customer Satisfaction
Adopt the ‘customer always comes first’ approach to make sure your marketing strategy wins. Make sure your customer care representative is equipped with all the knowledge and information you need to give your customer a memorable experience. Train your team when needed.
Handle all the customer queries with care. Be sensitive towards how carefully you deal with any customer issues they face, whether it is a delay in the product/service delivery or any glitches they find when using your application. Add chatbots to websites to ensure your customers get what they look for no matter whether your actual customer representative is in the office or not.
Any delay in customer service would cost you a fortune. Your audience will instantly choose your competitor if you fail to provide them with what they need at the right time. Great customer care will result in higher customer satisfaction that will help you earn long-term loyal clients.
- Prioritize First-Party Data
Data is precious. And, if you make decisions based on data, you will always have a winning marketing plan. Data allows marketers to sell the product/service to the right audience, at the right time, at the right price. They can collect data about various parameters including age, gender, income levels, education, and jobs, and then analyze the data to make informed decisions.
Due to the data breaches in the recent past, marketers are concerned about the customer’s privacy. However, not all marketers realize that their audience is owned by the tools they use, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. For a better marketing plan, they need to rethink the strategy.
In the past, marketers have been collecting data on prospects using third-party cookies. However, Google plans to phase out third-party cookies in 2023. This is because, Google cares for the customer’s privacy, and it encourages businesses to prioritize customer privacy. Instead of getting the data through third-party cookies, a great way is to collect data through customer surveys, emails, social media, newsletters, and CRM which are the tools for first-party data.
- Social eCommerce is on the Rise
It’s surprising how social media has risen as an incredible eCommerce platform for both small and large businesses alike, and particularly for eCommerce businesses. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and the growing popularity of TikTok and their shoppable features have revolutionized the eCommerce industry. They give marketers a whole new way to approach customers to sell their products to the right audience at the right time.
Social media features like reels, live streams, and shoppable live streams have successfully engaged audiences like never before. Marketers can entice the audience to take an action while they watch a live stream about the product – this option is effective particularly if brands are promoting skin care products, hair products, or lifestyle items. It is one such alternative that gives customers the option to purchase a product while watching a live video.
Customers can ask questions about products during the shoppable live streams. It also helps strengthen the connection between the brand and its customers.
Other options include influencer marketing, brand collaborations, paid campaigns, etc. In short, social media is an ever-expanding hub for businesses that provides creative ways to target and retarget audiences in the most effective way.
As shopping keeps going towards digital, shoppers tend to become more and more used to this kind of consumption, businesses need to keep up with the latest trends if they aim to stay ahead of the competition.
- Gender Neutrality
If you are still holding on to the idea that pink is for girls and blue is for boys, then you need to rethink your strategy. The future is gender neutral and the sooner you adapt to this change, the better. Gender-neutral products in industries including toys, cosmetics, and apparel have been popular over the years. Today we even see diverse models for promoting the same products, thus ensuring gender-neutral marketing.
Gender-based marketing will no longer work effectively because immersive brand experiences are loved by Generation Z and millennials. In fact, 38% of the consumers and 48% of Generation Z are attracted to brands that promote gender-neutral products.
Marketers need to realize that consumers’ social values are going to affect their decision making and that’s why we need to understand their social behavior before we could implement the marketing strategies.
- Push Notification Marketing
Push notifications have been quite popular during the last few years. With the increasing number of mobile phone users, push notifications are an easy way to target your audience. People use phones for almost every decision they make, whether it’s online shopping, banking, brand search, competitor research, or knowing the latest trends. They can be informed of new product releases and discount offers through push notifications.
While it is great to have a push notification strategy for your business, make sure you don’t overdo this. Research shows that the unsubscribe rate for push notifications remains 1%. However, if the total number of pushes increases up to 10, the unsubscribe rate significantly rises.
One of the reasons to turn to push notifications is the oversaturation of the email marketing landscape. It has become quite difficult for brands to connect with consumers through emails. But with push notifications, you can instantly grab the attention of customers.
Conclusion
Marketing trends are always changing, but not all changes are good. So, before you decide to adopt a new marketing strategy, make sure that it fits with your brand and aligns with your target audience.
Strategic marketing transformation is the only way you can make the most of the latest trends. Go through the list of marketing trends mentioned above and then adopt the ones that you think can be beneficial for your business.
