As we wrap up another long year, filled with change and innovation, we look to the future. What will 2022 bring for our clients marketing needs? It’s easy to set lofty goals for the new year, and our clients will. But I wanted to see what the marketing environment may look like as we move forward into 2022 and how that will impact reaching them, especially as we break into helping more and more unique industries.
I found a few great articles that went over some marketing trends to expect in the coming year and pulled a few out that I think apply best to us and our clients!
- The Future of Events Will Be Hybrid
- Content Alignment Will Never Be More Important
- Marketing Companies Will Take More Ownership
- Engaging Nonprofits Will Be a Big Part of Marketing Plans
- A.I. Will Make Influencer Marketing Easier and More Results-Driven
- Marketers Will Find Alternatives to Third-Party Cookies
- While Google has postponed the end to third-party cookies, it has not stopped the need to find better ways to market your product/services. Only slowed it down, and not by much. Utilizing first-party data is going to be a huge push that all marketers and businesses should get on board with.
- Invest in Online Events
- Own Your Audiences
- Invest Time (and Money) in Building a Strong Brand Image
- Become a Thought-Leader and Educate Rather Than Hard-Sell
- Consumers actually get defensive when advertisements feel pressuring, it no longer works to push them to buy. Instead focus on educating a consumer why your product would be beneficial in their lives. What do you offer that makes their life better or more convenient? Example this article gave was Apple, they sell a “lifestyle” or at least the feeling of one. Their “Genius Bars” are also a great example of education over selling, as the employees hardly ever push someone to buy. They explain the product, give benefits, compare it to other products and then let the consumer make the final call. It doesn’t feel like pressure to buy something when they get to learn about it and then just DECIDE to buy it.
- Content Is No Longer the King, Simplicity Is
- Embrace Personalization
- Create Business-to-Business Content
- Become a Better Storyteller
- This one is for you salespeople and marketers out there: “Consumers don’t want to hear how fantastic your product or service is. What they want to know is the story about the time you helped to solve a specific problem.” This plays a part with the other points I mentioned with content quality and educating over selling.
- Adopt Marketing Automation
- Think Outside the Box
- Video marketing will become crucial to the success of your marketing plan
- Content marketing will still be king
- Speaking from experience, reading content to make this DD happen a lot of info on the internet is just SEO fodder with little helpful information. And consumers are starting to tell the difference between content and QUALITY content. While all types of companies need to prioritize content and product education for 2022, don’t just make blog posts for the sake of making a blog post. Keep it unique, interactive, and shorter if you can.
- Marketing teams are going to focus more on data analytics and metrics
- Social media content will become even more important for marketers
- Marketing will be less about the product and more about the customer’s needs
- Marketing teams will work closely with product development teams in order to improve customer experience and increase conversion rates
- Marketing roles are evolving — they’re becoming educators and leaders rather than just advertisers
You’ll notice a lot of what I chose to bring up related to the same thing: what consumers will want to see in 2022 and how they will want to be treated. The environment of advertising changes constantly (remember when people actually went into stores to shop mostly?) and this year will be no different but with some help, businesses will be just as successful… if they adjust their messaging and focus on the customers needs, that is.
https://www.inc.com/john-hall/6-marketing-trends-to-prepare-for-in-2022.html
https://bettermarketing.pub/the-top-10-marketing-trends-you-need-to-adopt-in-2022-7566ea6c5920
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/394483
Brianna Kennedy is a Senior Account Manager for Diamond Media Solutions.
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