23 Dec Marketing Trends To Try In 2022
Set Your Top 3 Marketing Priorities
When it comes to your 2022 marketing goals, it’s virtually impossible to pursue all the shiny objects. Budgets, time constraints, and﹘let’s face it﹘shifting priorities of your work/life balance over the past two years means being strategic when it comes to your marketing resources.
“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done,” writes Greg Mckeown in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Investing in the right digital markets is essential to finding your customers, whether it’s social media, paid ads, SEO strategy and more. Doing the wrong thing, for example, might be marketing on TikTok when your older customers simply aren’t on the platform, or heavily investing in Facebook advertising to a younger demographic.
Forbes reports that overall marketing budgets reduced significantly in 2021, while expectations for marketing teams and results are on the rise. They offer these three metrics when setting your 2022 marketing budget:
- Is the budget flexible?
- Is it efficient?
- Is it measurable?
Marketing Trends to Try in 2022
With big tech’s ever-shifting privacy initiatives (like Apple’s iOS 15’s impact on Facebook ads and email marketing), plus algorithm hoops to navigate, finding your customer in the vast digital ocean means smartly investing in trends while measuring their effectiveness. These trends are not going away, so it’s time to embrace one or two of them and do them well.
Short-form video
TikTok may have started the trend by users combining music clips with unique content, but with short-form video showing the second-highest ROI for marketers, it’s here to stay. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have now hopped on the bandwagon, and mp4 ads with movement are taking social media by storm. According to hubspot, one-third of marketers already use short-form video, while another third plan to add it to their marketing plans in 2022. Increasing brand awareness and advertising, plus earning revenue with the increasing number of platforms that offer in-app shopping, are measurable goals. Check out Threadgill Agency’s tips and content ideas for leveraging short-form videos online.
Audio content
This may seem like you’re taking a step backward technology-wise, but “screen-free media” is gaining ground in the age of podcasts and social audio. Either host your own industry podcast or pitch yourself as a guest expert on existing podcasts in your niche. Cover topics interesting to your customer, take their FAQs and cover them episode by episode, or provide an interesting behind-the-scenes look into your business. While the technology can be fairly inexpensive, make sure you have quality audio to broadcast﹘no one likes static. Read these 3 Tips to Advance Your Audio Marketing Efforts.
Overall user experience
Your social media campaigns may be on fire, but one bad customer service experience means they’ll find somewhere else to shop faster than you can type, “We apologize for any inconvenience.” Customers want an excellent overall user experience﹘from online to IRL (in real life). Websites need to be fast and optimized for mobile. Algorithms are getting more contextual, so while keywords and SEO remain important, each stage of interaction should offer value.
“Experiences are the new social currency,” cites Forbes guest writer Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital. This “trend” should be a priority every year, but with growing AI and machine-learning, now is the time to beef up user experience that will benefit you for years to come.
Bonus: Try something “new again”
To round out your marketing plan for 2022, branch out to embrace the new and dust off some of these tried-and-true tools:
- Influencer marketing﹘Find influencers in your space, such as industry bloggers or Instagram influencers. In the Not Another State of Marketing Report, 1,500 marketers surveyed said influencer marketing was their biggest ROI out of 27 trends and strategies listed. Even micro-influencers with 100,000 followers or less can be highly effective bringing credibility and attention to your brand.
- Email list﹘Email marketing is still a vital part of your marketing strategy; in fact, 77% of marketers reported increased email engagement in 2021. Along with websites and social media, email is a top-three channel used by businesses. ROI is unmatched, with $36 return for every $1 spent. The key is email is personalization, segmentation, and again providing an excellent user experience. Try these expert tips for creating more interactive emails.
- LinkedIn﹘This professional social platform has revived in recent years, and it’s a great place to network. Make sure your interactions aren’t always one-sided (aka sharing your content but never interacting or sharing others’). You can share video, long-form articles and papers, and industry-related news. For ideas, check out How to Master LinkedIn Content Marketing.
Experts agree to find one or two channels to focus on and do them well, while being willing to pivot if results aren’t measuring up. What marketing trends are going to make your list in 2022? Contact us at The Threadgill Agency to help set your marketing goals, target your resources wisely, and measure the outcomes for a successful 2022.