Pandemic and Covid have been a watershed that has changed our consumption habits in the past two years and triggered processes that will continue to grow in 2022. Out of necessity, many consumers have approached the digital ecosystem, learned about online payment methods and how to navigate around it.
Neighborhood merchants and restaurateurs have had to find new ways to sell their products; online sales or booking portals have grown, as have delivery services. In tourism, the decline in travel bookings to distant destinations has caused us to rediscover closer villages. Online communications have become the new normal: think telecommuting or smart working, distance learning or even interviews via Zoom or Meet.
Companies have had to rethink their processes and channels for communicating and intercepting their audiences. Those who have innovated are now in an advantageous position; others must run to keep up. The year 2022 will be an even more digital year. Technology, automation and artificial intelligence will increasingly enter every industry. Let’s see, specifically, what the 7 digital marketing trends will be in 2022.
Customer experience
Last year we learned about Core Web Vitals: Google forced us to rethink our websites in terms of user experience. We had to build faster and easier-to-navigate websites to please the search engine and the visitor. Thanks Google.
In 2022 this process toward a better web will continue. The user does not want slow websites or websites with hard-to-find information. In such cases, he will close the page and go elsewhere-the alternatives are many. It will be our job as digital marketers to improve the user experience both from desktop and, most importantly, from mobile. Designers and developers will have to work more and more together with marketers to truly meet user needs.
Segmentation and personalization
There used to be only the neighborhood store. The merchant knew us, called us by name and suggested that product we had liked the previous time. Online we need to do the same. In an e-commerce we need to know our customers so that we can offer them the best products based on their buying habits and interests. But this also applies to other websites, for example, those that provide information or offer online services.
Segmentation by interests and consumption habits is the key that can enable us to always offer the best solution for everyone. Think, for example, of Amazon’s recommended products or TV series chosen for you by Netflix.
Marketing automation
Marketing automation is the tool that allows us to move toward the personalization we were talking about earlier. This discipline brings together various tools of e-mail marketing, analytics, CRM, lead generation and allows you to deliver the right message at the right time.
In 2022, with the growth of multichannel, it will be increasingly necessary to put together the huge amount of data available and make the perfect output. Companies will not be able to do without marketing professionals who can communicate with the IT developers whose important work builds the technical infrastructure of marketing automation.
Machine learning
Google Bert is the algorithm update that enables the search engine to understand natural language processing(NLP) through deep learning. Thus, the basis of it all is Artificial Intelligence. Similarly, Netflix observes us and learns our tastes through Artificial Intelligence.
This area of research will become crucial as early as 2022 in many sectors and in digital marketing it will allow us to go precisely in the direction of personalization that we have seen previously. Machines will become intelligent, they will be able to learn, but they will have to be trained in the right way. That of Artificial Intelligence will be one of the most exciting challenges of the coming years.
Short videos
Reels from Instagram and TikTok have accustomed us to short, emotional and impactful videos. The attention of the user, bombarded by many messages on different channels, is very volatile. We need to be able to hit it in a few seconds and then hold it back. Video is one of the best solutions, and synthesis is the key.
You’re not Kubrick, so you can’t afford to make a movie. Synthesize the message into a few concepts and hit. Accurate, direct and quick. And if you’re Kubrick, leave us the movies in theaters but online don’t dwell on them too much.
Once again Google is showing us the way with updates to its algorithm. The Medical Update and the EAT content concept push us in the direction of quality: we need to talk about the things we know. Real experts will become increasingly important to newsmakers, and specialized sites that target specific niches will grow.
Relevance will be increasingly crucial, and we will need to focus on building thematic and semantic clusters for which we need to become authoritative. Instead of talking roughly about everything, we will have to talk correctly about specific topics. And we will have to be original, starting right from our expert perspective.
Authentic brand values
In the last year, various social issues such as those related to the environment or civil rights have come to the fore. We have seen the birth or growth of movements such as Fridays for Future, Black Lives Matter, Me Too and different communities such as LGBT or against violence against women. People, often physically isolated because of the pandemic, are increasingly seeking contexts of belonging and sharing experiences and values. This is also where brands are moving.
Values are the true and strong connector between companies and consumers, and communication is the means of connecting these parties. Brands must have the courage to take a stand on social issues, and they must do so credibly: not just with words, but with real, concrete actions. This is a delicate context in which it is easy to make mistakes, but it is precisely here that the strong bond can be created that will turn customers into brand ambassadors.
