In 2022, digital marketing will see a shift from traditional sales channels to digital channels. Consumers are demanding the same level of interaction and personalization they experience on sites like Amazon. Brands will need to adapt to these changes in both their methods of marketing and the way they sell their products.
The most significant change will be integrating artificial intelligence into all facets of business-related operations, including research, predictions, customer relationship management, and sales management. The use of AI as a highly intelligent interface is projected to be commonplace in 2022, making it easier for businesses with limited resources to benefit from these powerful tools.
This article covers 7 major trends that will shape how businesses use digital marketing in 2022:
1. Influencer Marketing
The term “influencer” refers to someone that is trusted by a group of individuals known as “followers.” The purpose of influencer marketing is to collaborate with influencers to endorse your brand, products, or services. In return, you offer payment, products, exclusive deals, or other benefits to influencers.
Today, few people trust brands as much as they once did, and even fewer appreciate advertisements. Most people either use ad blockers or change their media habits to avoid commercials.
People trust influencer recommendations more than what brands or commercials say about themselves. In the end, their relatability won out against the celebrity’s fame.
When all is said and done, influencer marketing is a cheaper form of advertising than more traditional marketing methods.
The influencer marketing process includes steps such as discovery of influencers, relationship and campaign management, as well as ROI measurement and analysis. Despite the fact that most brands do influencer marketing on their own, an influencer marketing platform is able to offer end-to-end solutions at affordable costs.
2. Marketing Automation
Basically, marketing automation refers to automating repetitive tasks so that tools perform them instead of machine learning (also known as artificial intelligence) is an expansive topic encompassing a wide range of methods such as customer services, emails tailored to website visitors, or customer-solving chatbots.
The benefits of marketing automation are twofold: they make your sales team more productive if you use it for sales lead generation and lead nurturing. There are eCommerce tools for marketing automation that can offer customers discounts if they convert in the vicinity of your website and deliver special offers targeted specifically to them by cross-referencing their data with previous purchases or site-surfing history.
Lead scoring and segmentation tools help sales teams get more qualified sales leads. Patterns can be deciphered by tools such as these that the human eye cannot see.
3. User Experience Optimization
User experience design is an effort to improve the quality of users’ experiences. It is the process of making informed decisions by investigating, establishing a vision, designing and implementing a user experience, assessing the results, and revising when necessary. Building a compelling user experience is not only about design; it’s also about impact.
If you want to develop an effective design, it’s essential to consider your audience’s preferences. Understanding the user’s concerns and thoughts is crucial to improving experiences.
Website heatmap tools can assist you in collecting data more efficiently and making better decisions.
Heatmaps enable you to see how users interact with a website through color. Warmer colors indicate more engagement, whereas cooler colors indicate less engagement.
4. Make Backlinks a Priority
Links to your site from other sites are a significant search engine ranking factor. Such prominent websites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing might take note that your website contains valuable and trustworthy information.
Whenever it comes to backlinks, quality takes precedence over quantity. You’re better off getting one backlink from a quality website than 100 shady ones.
Getting backlinks: what’s the best way? Through valuable content that readers want to share. If you write long-form articles or infographics that answer potential customers’ questions, you’ll be more likely to receive that all-important confirmation.
5. Take Advantage of Social Proof
Digital marketing efforts can be greatly enhanced by social proof. A testimonial from a satisfied client establishes your business as more trustworthy.
Ninety percent of people nowadays check online reviews before they buy something, and this could result in increased business opportunities.
Contact your valued customers to get a testimonial from them or a case study to do.
In that way, you’ll be able to distribute this content across your relevant websites, on social media pages, and in promotional brochures.
6. Start off with Your Local SEO
As a small business owner, you can benefit greatly from local SEO when it comes to online marketing.
The key to successful SEO is focusing on and providing services and products for a particular area and also targeting that geographic location with keywords. To boost your presence in the community, there are a few simple ways:
- Set up your Google My Business profile.
- Localize keywords (e.g., ‘web app development services in Vancouver’).
- Get links to your site from geographically relevant websites.
- State which geographic regions your products and services are offered to. This includes specifying a localized landing page.
- Create SEO-optimized blogs and web content for your local audience.
7. Take Voice Search into Consideration
With the rise of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, Google voice search has grown in popularity in recent years.
If you are seeking an improved internet marketing approach for your small business, you will be able to do this.
Voice search differs from typing a search query directly into a search engine. People ask questions, are a bit less formal, and tend to use more common phrases. Your brand will benefit by adapting your website pages to accommodate voice searchers.
Conclusion
Future businesses with a strong digital marketing strategy will be able to make the most of their time and money. They won’t have to worry about counterfeit products or malicious advertising. They will be able to reach a wider audience and convert them into customers.