The stage of digital marketing is ever-changing, with multiple factors constantly being brought in and thrown out. Since it is a content-driven medium, the audience is king. Trends attract audiences and thus drive content, making analyzing trends of prime importance for marketing. So, let’s see what the ten digital marketing trends to look out for in 2022 are.
1. Alternative social media platforms: Diverging from the big three
The growth of digital marketing has in the recent past been dominated by the big three platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and Pinterest have begun pulling audience sizes comparable to that of the big three. These platforms are relatively young and unexplored, making advertising costs relatively cheap. These underutilized platforms are guaranteed to become one of the latest digital marketing trends in 2022.
2. Shifting the focus to brand affinity
The digital marketing trends for the future seem to be focused more on brand affinity than anything else. Brand affinity focuses on building loyal customers who actively promote your product. If brand affinity can be executed properly, the customers act as passive salesmen who boost your goodwill in the marketplace and bring in new customers without even targeting said customer group.
3. Podcasts: The new age of audio advertising
Podcasts are the new mode of entertainment for the person on the go. The audience has tripled between 2009 and 2019 while showing no signs of reaching saturation. Podcast advertisement is not only significantly cheaper but allows for more in-depth product descriptions and better product placement. Brand sponsorships for podcasts are another fast-growing digital marketing trend, with podcast hosts often promoting their sponsor’s products as part of the show’s main content.
4. Brand Personality: Bolder marketing and advertising
Brand personality has never been as relevant as in the age of digital marketing. People don’t buy products, but experiences, and a part of that experience is to be attached to a company that has a unique personality. Bolder and creative marketing schemes, especially through advertisement, work heavily to build a public opinion of a company’s personality. Digital marketing trends in 2022 are heavily shifting towards creating bolder online personalities for their companies in line with the attitudes of the younger generation.
5. Emphasis on storytelling and visual medium of advertising
With the advent of social media and other platforms like YouTube and Pinterest, the drive for visual-based content has become a necessity even in digital marketing. Research shows that even with the rise of audio-based content, video content is still more desired by people. That being said, building a narrative through quality video content is challenging due to the shortening attention spans of audiences. Thus, using features such as ‘stories’ on Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook have emerged as one of the social media marketing trends of 2022 to keep an eye on.
6. Focus on GenZ
The previous decades have seen digital media marketing trends focus heavily on ‘millennials’ as the primary group to target. Those trends have now saturated themselves, and marketing should focus on the future demographic of GenZ. The market is always dominated by companies who push to gain the first mover’s advantage. Digital marketing strategies should thus start focusing on building brand loyalty and affinity with the demographic of future potential customers.
7. Artificial Intelligence and automation
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data have been reshaping the entire way business is done today. Artificial Intelligence and Big Data empower marketing teams to analyze consumer behavior, allowing for more personalized and localized marketing campaigns. The use of automation through chatbots and push notifications has also allowed for a more personalized online customer experience. Thus, AI, coupled with automation and Big Data, will shape digital media marketing trends for years to come.
8. Focus on interactive content
Where audience retention has become a big problem facing the digital media marketing world, interactive content emerges as a bright solution. Studies show that interactive content has much higher audience retention due to personal involvement. The use of games, DIY, quizzes, VR content, 360-degree view videos, contests are great examples of how brands can leverage interactive content in digital media marketing.
9. Exclusive content and live video
The need to be part of something exclusive or special is deeply rooted in the human psyche. Exploiting mediums such as live videos on Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram for followers or organizing members-only events can be a new way of marketing in 2022. The FOMO (fear of missing out) effect is a great phenomenon to exploit, especially in social media marketing as people watch live content three times longer than that of pre-recorded content.
10. Voice search
The voice search phenomenon has brought about new opportunities and challenges in the sphere of digital media marketing. With more than 20% of searches in 2021 being voice searches, the question of marketing through this medium is on the horizon. With the growth of smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Echo, the opportunities of sponsor messages for specific searches and audio search optimization can become some of the latest digital marketing trends that brands should consider.
Conclusion
Now that we have seen some of the upcoming trends in the digital marketing space, it’s time to implement them. But how can a business make sure to properly analyze and deploy these trends so as to market their product to the right customer? This is where Amura Marketing Technologies come in. Amura is one of the best digital marketing agencies in Mumbai. It specializes in growth marketing and works on a data-driven model to provide the client with creative marketing solutions which effectively and efficiently target desired audiences.
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