The Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2022

Where will marketing be heading in 2022? Let’s take a look at five trends that are predicted to change the face of marketing.

I. Omnichannel – the future is digital

More and more digital channels are emerging as a result of increased customer engagement with the online world. Effective marketing entails consolidating data and customer experience across multiple channels. Customers expect and want branding consistency throughout the various channels they use to communicate with friends and family, and such consistency is what ultimately enhances brand recognition and trust.

Accordingly, marketers must be able to seamlessly transition conversations from voice to SMS to social media. The challenge is how to present an attractive and coherent brand experience that works across all channels and the many ways in which customers access information.

II. Outsourcing – do it faster, do it better

Recent years have seen marketing become increasingly complex and personalized. As a result, successful marketing strategies and activities have become ever more diverse and multifaceted. Sometimes in-house teams are unable to cope with the constant changes required, and companies are starting to outsource a growing number of activities in order to harness external expertise.

By outsourcing their marketing, companies can obtain immediate access to highly qualified talent while at the same time removing a significant business function from their workflow. This allows them to concentrate more on core activities. It’s a no-brainer: leave those specialist marketing tasks to the experts. They have the knowledge and skills needed to win you new business, develop client relationships, and take your company to the next level, while you can get on with what you do best.

III. Producing Attractive Content – don’t forget the pictures

The use of smart speakers and voice search has escalated dramatically in recent years, and this trend is certainly having an effect on how marketing content is conceived and created. But does it also diminish the importance of visuals and graphic design? The answer is a clear “no”.

People respond strongly to attention-grabbing visual images. Research consistently indicates that people prefer visual content to plain text. Proof of the power of the image can be seen in the expansion of platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. Be sure you do not neglect visual content in your marketing strategies.

IV. Social Commerce – on the up

Social commerce isn’t a new concept, but now it’s finally catching on as a significant factor in people’s shopping habits. And successful brands are keeping pace with this trend, employing a range of increasingly sophisticated techniques such as e-commerce platforms that mesh smoothly with social media channels, the adept use of influencer marketing, and generating advertising that fits seamlessly into social media feeds.

According to research by Statista*, social commerce will be a growth area in 2022, and there is no indication that this growth will slow in the foreseeable future.

Instagram and Tik Tok have played a big role in pushing forward this social commerce trend. Instagram Checkout, for example, has been zeroing in on the e-commerce market by allowing brands to easily promote and sell their products in-app. Meanwhile, with tools like Creator Marketplace (where brands can link up with creators who are a good fit with their products and priorities), Tik Tok is completely re-writing the rules when it comes to influencer marketing. Likewise, Tik Tok Shopping skillfully enables brands to engage with their customers right through the app. Social commerce is clearly an area that cannot be ignored.

V. Keep the Customer Happy – privacy & security

Just as importantly, we expect the trend of customers’ high regard for their own privacy to continue in 2022. Many people are apprehensive of trusting businesses, even those they’ve trusted in the past, due to well-publicized concerns about big firms and social media platforms collecting and using personal information about their customers. As a result, we’ve seen many firms, including social media platforms, rushing to provide guarantees about how they will protect their customers’ privacy and security.

Notable in this trend have been Google and Meta, two tech behemoths, both of which have come in for adverse publicity about privacy issues. Meta (formerly Facebook) was rebranded in part to distance itself from poor consumer impressions of its record on privacy, and with that transition will come new security initiatives. Similarly, Google announced plans to limit data collecting on its Chrome browser back in 2020.

While it is recognized that time will be needed to put an end to the use of basic data gathering features like cookies, there is no doubt that in 2022, the level of privacy expected and demanded by users is going to rise. Brands will need to respond constructively to this demand to avoid losing out to their competitors.

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