2022 is just beginning, Covid-19 is still present in our daily activities and one of its main lessons is that business and personal life can change suddenly. The challenge is great! Given this, it is best to be informed and prepared. As for digital marketing, being one of the most changing industries, it is always pertinent to know the trends that will become important in the short term. Although all rankings have a bias, depending on who makes them, the following list can be useful for many marketing, sales and communication professionals.
1. Influencer marketing
It came to stay. Its success lies in creating a closer link between advertisers and target. For many people, the recommendations of the influencers are credible because they have prestige, thanks to which they have obtained their followers. And we must not forget the usefulness of micro influencers for local or niche businesses.
2. Marketing focused on people (Human Centric Marketing)
If companies don’t connect with their audience, they won’t be successful. Empathy and user experience (UX) play an increasingly important role and must be present in all digital properties. It is necessary to understand that for the same brand there may be different buyer personas. That is why it is no longer possible to see consumers as a mass, but as individual people. One of the applications of this trend is to adapt and humanize the content to each social network.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
It is used in digital marketing to predict what customers are going to buy based on their previous purchases. Applied, for example, to chatbots and working together with automation and augmented reality, they will be very useful in e-commerce sites.
4. Protection of personal data
It will be increasingly difficult to collect data from internet users. Given this, the option is to try to get to know the audience through interactive content or other traditional methods such as focus groups. In the case of websites, one way to generate traffic without obtaining data from your visitors is through organic positioning, also known as SEO.
5. Prioritize mobile devices even more
The use of smartphones and tablets to browse the internet continues to increase. Searching for information and shopping online are more common through cell phones than on computers. Mastering concepts such as geolocation, device types and internet browsing habits are essential.
6. Voice searches
While not new, searches by “talking” to internet-connected devices are on the rise, especially since talking is faster than typing. According to Google data, at least 20% of searches are performed by voice. Websites must adapt their content to different search variations, whether by text or voice. It is necessary to think about what words people would use to reach our pages, whether they write them or say them.
7. Align SEO with Google’s Core Web Vitals
Now Google measures the user experience through metrics called Core Web Vitals and they are part of the factors that it takes into account for organic positioning.
8. Live streaming shopping
It is a trend that emerged in China. It consists of making a live broadcast on a social network, where different products are shown and viewers buy them in real time. It can be very successful in sales and outreach for brand awareness and recognition purposes. It is ideal for fashion products, beauty, food, decoration and electronic devices. Simply put, it’s live trading. Limited time strategies like discounts or coupons help a lot in this trend.
9. Chat bots y live chats
Installed on websites or social networks, they are very useful for answering user questions. Among other reasons to use them are: to solve common doubts, detect obstacles in the sales funnel and speed up the process of generating leads. A correctly configured chatbot can offer very satisfactory customer service.
10. TikTok
It gains more and more strength. In 2021 it exceeded 1,000 million monthly active users; with this it was located above Facebook and Instagram. TikTok has brought a new way to generate content on social networks, through short videos. This network has helped many people generate income from views and interaction. In addition, they created the hashtag #TikTokResumes in which users who are looking for a job can upload a video resume. Some companies are already accepting job applications using this medium.
11. Brands associated with social causes
The point is that they are perceived as authentic and not just as opportunists who want to sympathize with a certain sector of the population. When supporting a cause, there must be coherence both inside and outside the company. Among the most common causes are support for the LGBTQ community, the environment and women’s empowerment.
12. Instagram Reels
They offer advertisers a greater reach than a different publication on this social network. For those who don’t know, a reel on Instagram is a video, in vertical format, whose duration is between 15 and 60 seconds maximum, which can be edited with Instagram’s own filters and music. They differ from stories or stories, because the reels do not disappear 24 hours after being published. Some companies use them as explainers, to show their releases or as tutorials on how to use their products.
itzayana.rios@eleconomista.mx