Digital Marketing Trends For 2022

As 2022 approaches, this is the perfect time to review your marketing strategies and plan for the new year. This past year brought came with enormous changes in the digital marketing world, therefore, the importance of studying the field and preparing for what is to come is essential.

Five Digital and Content Marketing Trends You Need to Know For 2022

• Prioritize bite-sized content. In a fast-paced world, people are constantly in the move and too much information can be overwhelming. People are looking for short and easy-to-digest information. Such thinking is reinforced by the idea that as technology and media become more widespread, people's attention spans decrease.

Therefore, bite-sized content is going to be one of the biggest trends we will be seeing in 2022. But what is bite-sized content? We consider it any form of short, concise content. For example, articles of 600 words or less and 30-second to one-minute-long videos.

• Growth of User-Generated Content (UGC). User-generated content, also known as user-created content, is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media.

This type of content promotes authenticity and credibility. According to Business Wire, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands. Also, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, and 70% trust online consumer opinions.

• Short-form videos are everywhere nowadays. As platforms expand their short-form offerings, brands are continuing to take notice. Social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Google, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are putting great importance on video content and brands need to invest their efforts creating engaging and useful videos for their audiences to keep relevant.

According to a study by HubSpot, 51% of marketers who use short-form video plan to increase their investment in 2022. The short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy.

There are many ways to implement short-form video content into your strategy this upcoming year:

1. Brand Challenges: When short-form videos first gained popularity, it was through viral content based on dances, songs, and sounds. Brand challenges are a great way to gain a burst of traffic, build community and engage your audience.

2. Influencer Ads: Brands have been leveraging influencer marketing for years, that’s nothing new. With short-form content lending itself well to native advertising, brands can create videos that are more likely to generate conversions.

3. Product Teasers: Think about the average commercial you see: It’s usually anywhere between six and 60 seconds. This also happens to be the average length of a short-form video. Because of this, brands can leverage short-form video platforms to promote their products organically.

4. Explainer or Educational Videos: Educational videos are great added-value content because they help audiences in their day-to-day lives. Brands that make education a priority in their marketing strategy can improve lead generation and build stronger brand loyalty. Similarly, explainer videos target users who are at the decision-making stage of the buyer’s journey and, if done right, they can turn decision-makers into customers. Think how-to’s, DIYs, and explainer videos.

• Social Media as A Shopping Tool: About two-thirds of shoppers today use social media as part of their shopping strategy. Forbe’s also found that a third of shoppers turn to social media influencers in order to learn about products. Influencer marketing is still a vital part of any online advertising strategy.

• Responsive or Mobile-First Marketing: Mobile-first marketing means that as a company strategizes its digital communications platforms and strategies, it focuses on mobile experience and how customers will interact with it from their many devices. It is evident that mobile-first marketing is important in designing a customer-centric experience. The first step in creating an excellent mobile marketing strategy for a brand is making sure that any content or information marketed to a target audience can be seen accurately on a mobile device.

Creating a strategy that is unique to the capabilities of mobile devices is more engaging for consumers and also puts a creative spin on traditional marketing tactics. For example, asking consumers to text a number to get 10% off their purchase or showing a screenshot from their social account at checkout.

Are you ready to implement these into your content and digital marketing strategy for the new year? We can help you create a cohesive plan for you brand, let's create something great together!