To set up a marketing and/or advertising strategy in 2022, it is essential to study the trends that are emerging. These trends are often needs expressed by customers or new marketing tools that must be seized. Finally, these trends, more than just fashion effects, are essential points to take into account in order to develop an effective and impactful strategy. Indeed, the marketing trends of 2022 concern above all the salient points of our society. Thus, we find technological advances such as Web 3.0 as well as the need for an ecological awareness that consumers want to find with brands.
Therefore, following and understanding the 2022 digital marketing trends allows you to be closer to your customers’ demands. Let’s discover together which specificities to take into consideration to build your marketing strategy.
The announced end of third-party cookies
First of all, it is impossible to envisage the year 2022 without including the end of third-party cookies in your thinking. Of course, this change will only take place next year. However, it is important to prepare for it now so as not to be caught off guard in 2023.
If some people say that this is a disaster for digital marketing, we remain more cautious. On the one hand, we don’t know the impact of these changes yet, as they haven’t taken place yet. On the other hand, advertisers will undoubtedly be able to adapt, as they did with the deployment of the RGPD.
Moreover, Google is already preparing alternatives. The company recently introduced Topics. This initiative replaces FLoC, which was not as well received as expected. With Topics, the user will transmit his or her interests on a weekly basis. The user will then be able to consult this list and delete certain items.
While waiting for the deployment of Google’s new proposal, there is no lack of digital opportunities to target your audience in a relevant way. Especially since solutions are emerging such as the Facebook Conversions API. In addition, you can also take advantage of the 2022 trends to continue to have a significant impact on your target audience.
Content marketing is still a must
One of the indispensable pillars of your digital marketing strategy to reach new customers is without a doubt content marketing. An attractive content is ideal to generate qualified traffic and develop your visibility. Moreover, this long term vision allows you to build customer loyalty and take care of your brand image.
This content is not necessarily textual. It can be made up of blog texts, but also of videos or podcasts. In any case, it is useless to drown your customers or prospects under a deluge of publications. Above all, it is essential to develop qualitative content.
The trend in 2022 is for short, impactful content. They are grouped under the term “Short Marketing” and make sense on platforms like TikTok. In fact, TikTok has experienced a very significant growth in 2020 to reach 1 billion users each month. These users spend more than 52 minutes a day on this social network consuming videos that last between 3 and 60 seconds.
Other formats to focus on are stories. These ads are perfect to get straight to the point and mark your target. Of course, to hit the mark it is necessary to identify your targets by creating buyers personas. Then, it is advisable to set up an editorial strategy that must fully integrate your digital communication plan.
Eco-responsible, authentic and inclusive campaigns
Consumers are increasingly well informed, that’s a fact. More aware of social and environmental issues, customers are looking for authentic discourse and actions. Did you know, for example, that 57% of consumers are more loyal to brands that are actively committed to fighting social inequality?
This translates into a number of ways. First, brands need to be transparent about what they are doing. For example, you can highlight your employees or show how factories or product design work. This approach is ideal for creating a form of proximity with your customers.
Secondly, they expect to see climate commitments or inclusion within companies. For this reason, it is essential to communicate on your initiatives in favor of these social issues that are essential today.
Moreover, as part of your social media strategy, the tone and images used must be thoughtful so as not to offend your target audience. As today’s consumers are very sensitive to words or metaphors, it is essential to think about the inclusiveness of everyone when broadcasting publications or ads on different digital channels.
Personalizing the customer experience
To increase your conversion rate, you will need to pay special attention to personalization. Customers are demanding and want you to show them interest. This is one of the big challenges of marketing campaigns.
In most cases, they consume a large amount of content on the internet. They are therefore well-informed and it becomes more and more complex to surprise them.
Moreover, a very large part of the published content turns out to be user-generated content, especially on Instagram or TikTok platforms. Therefore, it is essential to be impactful and familiar with the codes of the targeted communities of Internet users. Knowing your potential customers better allows you to better reach your target by intervening at the right time and place.
If adapting the tone of your communications is inevitable, you must go further. At the individual level, address the individual by their first and/or last name in the emails or SMS you send them. Also propose geolocalized content to take advantage of the appeal of the local business.
Finally, cross-reference customer data from web browsing or checkout in retail outlets. All this information will allow you to wish your customer a happy birthday by offering him a voucher or to set up retargeting actions to boost his interest via marketing automation.
Beyond the physical and the online: The Phygital
These personalization efforts are easily integrated into an efficient and seamless omnichannel strategy.
The buying process on your website must be frictionless. From the search for information to the payment, it is necessary to eliminate all irritating points that could remain.
Beyond the improvement of the ergonomics, your strategy must be deployed on all available channels: Google Search, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or even emailing. The complexity will be to reconcile these different contact points within a coherent strategy taking into account both the physical and the digital: the phygital.
Indeed, customers do not want to choose between a physical or a digital channel, they want to be able to acquire a product or a service at the chosen moment and via the channel they want. To promote and maintain this phygital approach, there is no lack of solutions:
Online reservations
Click and collect
Store Locator
Augmented reality experiences
The idea is to break down the barriers between physical and digital to offer a qualitative experience through all available acquisition levers. This must go hand in hand with the implementation of an optimized customer journey, which can start with the decision to develop quality content on the Web and end with an efficient after-sales service in physical stores. The return on investment of this approach is significant, as it clearly strengthens the power of your acquisition and conversion strategy.
Get ready for Web 3.0 today
If interactivity and personalization are already key to a successful digital strategy, Web 3.0 is the next step. Although its contours are still rather vague and we have been talking about this concept for years in marketing, it is essential to be one step ahead of the competition. This is why you must take into account these new uses now.
Recently, the Metaverse, which is one of the components of this Web 3.0 has been in the news. Facebook, renamed in Meta for the occasion, but also Microsoft have started to advance their pawns to conquer this new market. Concretely, these interactive virtual worlds will be exploitable via augmented reality or virtual reality experiences. If the Metaverse is starting to materialize through online games like Fortnite or Minecraft, the main part is still to come.
In the Metaverse, it will be possible to propose original, community and immersive experiences that will be perfectly adapted to improve your brand awareness and reach your marketing objectives. So you can start refining your knowledge of interactive experiences today, whether it’s publishing augmented reality ads on Instagram or developing concepts accessible via virtual reality.
