What is the future of marketing? Is it Tiktok videos or live streams? Omnichannel marketing or automation? Which trends will rule the digital marketing world in the latter half of 2022? Continue reading to find out. In this blog, we shall understand the importance of following trends in the sphere of digital marketing and the top trends of the year.
Why should I care about Digital Marketing Trends?
Digital marketing is a field with a lot of competition, be it as a creator or a company. Keeping up to date with marketing trends is crucial for those who want to build a future in digital marketing. The scope of digital marketing keeps increasing with every passing year, and upskilling to stay in touch with the changing trends is critical to staying relevant in this field. This can be done by attending digital marketing courses, boot camps and workshops. Having a sound understanding of the latest updates is helpful for you at any stage of your career, from early professionals to those with experience.
Knowing the latest updates and upcoming features can give you a first-mover advantage. Following digital marketing trends helps you set up the most strategic marketing and advertising campaigns for yourself or your company. So, without further ado, let’s explore five trends that can make you a marketing guru in the second half of 2022.
5 Digital Marketing Trends of 2022
1. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a great way to curate customer experience in digital marketing.
Augmented reality or AR uses digital overlays to add a 3D experience to a surface, such as a page from a magazine. The user can scan the surface on their mobile apps and be transported to an immersive 3D overlay.
Customers can envision products and services before they pay. Imagine the applications of this technology for a marketer! From trying on the latest lipstick shade to experiencing the thrill of a new car without having to drive it. There are three main types of augmented reality overlays:
● Information – displayed on top of or next to the static objects. This can be used in museums and art displays.
● Visual objects – IKEA’s AR App famously allowed its customers to view their living rooms furnished with virtual product pieces before buying them. You can sometimes try on spectacles and sunglasses on your face before purchase.
● Digital packaging – Scan something you have bought or are considering buying in a physical store, and voila! Your app will give you additional information about it that would usually go on the package.
AR is a trend to watch out for in 2022. More and more companies will embrace AR to sell products and services more effectively and create experiences for their customers.
2. Livestream Commerce
Did you know that Amazon has launched a live streaming platform and shopping service called Amazon Live? Here, customers can chat with influencers and also view product promotions from the comfort of their armchairs. The future is here. Interaction is crucial to digital marketing, and live streaming is a way to capture the audience’s attention in real-time. Get ready to jump on the live shopping bandwagon in 2022.
A Livestream is an event hosted by a brand or an influencer on their social media platform or website. It promotes products and services using online video streaming, in which the influencer or brand representative shows and discusses the various products on offer. This is a chance for the audience to interact with the brand or the influencer in real-time. Influencers can answer questions and hype up the products and services.
As they watch the live stream, viewers can click or tap on the product or service listing, which is displayed at the bottom or a corner of the screen. They could check out the list of offerings and, without any hassle, make purchases right there on the app or website. Companies may host brand-specific Livestream shopping sessions with their newest range of products. Similarly, influencers may also become brand ambassadors and showcase products. Influencers also often choose to promote products and services from different brands within a single live stream video.
3. Social Proofing and Micro-influencers
Did you know that 72% of buyers are more likely to trust businesses with positive customer reviews? This is a classic example of social proof. In this day and age, customers have grown suspicious of blatant advertising and selling. They question the content they are continually exposed to and are more likely to trust their peers than big brands. While influencer marketing is still huge, potential buyers sometimes find big influencers unreliable, disconnected, and unrepresentative of their wants and needs. If 2020 was the age of influencer marketing, 2022 is about the rise of micro-influencers.
What’s a micro-influencer? Micro-influencers have a social media presence that is significantly smaller than a big celebrity but still large enough to create an impact. Usually, that means between 1000 and 100000 followers. Micro-influencers are people like the audience who have increased their reach through quality content and engagement; they are unlikely to be public figures or celebrities. They have a highly specialised focus and are affordable partners for most brands.
What are the benefits of micro-influencer marketing?
● There are more micro-influencers than big celebrity influencers.
● They are more localised and enjoy higher social proof.
● They have a close-knit relationship with their followers.
● They charge less than the average macro-influencer.
4. Automation in Marketing
An average of 56% of companies are choosing automation as of May 2022? It is vital that you understand what marketing automation is all about today, as the trend is all set to grow in the coming months. So, what is automation in marketing? As a company, your goal is to create the maximum impact with the least effort and cost. Automation helps you achieve that. It unifies a business’s processes and people with the clever use of technology.
Imagine if you’re on a food delivery app. You add a few items to your cart, but then you change your mind and exit the app. You are likely to get a notification or an email suggesting that you go back to the cart and complete your order. Suppose you do complete your order, but you entered the incorrect address or want to add further instructions. You can simply communicate with the chatbot and get your queries answered. Finally, you can leave feedback on the efficiency of the service in an email or within the app. Once upon a time, all of these tasks would have been done by an actual customer service workforce.
Automation has allowed brands to create efficiency and increase productivity without adding to the company’s headcount and time. Companies can now service clients 24/7 without putting their workforce in shifts. But marketing automation tools achieve more than that. They allow the modern-age digital marketers to customise their brand messaging according to the customer, perform outreach to potential customers, and engage the loyal buyer. These multifold benefits make this digital marketing trend of 2022 one that’s here to stay.
5. User-generated Content
Have you ever followed or participated in a hashtag challenge on Instagram or TikTok? A hashtag challenge is where a brand invites its audience to share pictures or videos using their products in unique ways or posting content with a particular campaign hashtag. It’s a way to get people talking about a brand and to create user-generated marketing content.
What are the advantages of user-generated content?
● It capitalises on word-of-mouth marketing.
● It incentivises interaction with the brand or its products.
● It makes advertising cool and interactive.
● It creates brand engagement with the followers.
● It is customer experience-centric.
Inviting UGC is a pretty old marketing hack. Yet, did you know that user-generated social media content receives 28% more engagement rates than a regular brand post? It’s no wonder that user-generated content is here to stay. In 2022, we are likely to see businesses come up with more innovative ways to invite content from their users. Watch out and stay on trend!
