Digital Marketing Trends to Expect In 2022

Rolling out the red carpets for a new year!

With the passing of each year comes hot off the press marketing fads and trends. 2021 marked an era branded by social media marketing, data privacy, and trust-building. But old keys won’t open new locks.

If you’re thinking this is another “voice search is the next search” resource, you’re barking up the wrong tree. To give you a headstart (and ample time to start building your digital marketing empire while your competitors are still finding their feet) our experts bring you digital marketing trends, tactics, and strategies for implementation.

Start plugging away with these digital marketing predictions using what should be your ‘cheat sheet’ for the year 2022.

Here, we’ve covered:

• Video and social media marketing
• Personalised communication
• SMS
• Segmentation/personalisation across digital marketing channels
• Privacy

Get buckled in as we pick the brains of our experts on where the digital marketing pendulum will likely swing for the year 2022

First in line is customer success with both timeless and time-bound tips from APSIS’ Customer Success Manager Panu Sandholm. Panu’s depth of knowledge in digital marketing and application as our very own ‘customer nanny’ means he knows where the shoe pinches for many customers. His predictions are not to be taken with a ‘pinch’ of salt.

Businesses making the shift from manufacturer to media

The jury is out. The year 2022 will see companies more alert to the rude awakening that there’s more to being just a ‘manufacturer’ in the business space. Rather than being just distributors or retailers, they’d look to leverage the media for marketing. This means more videos, more media posts, more content in general to garner brand exposure, conversion, and increased loyalty.

This trend will, of course, be accelerated by the phalanx of viral videos doing the rounds on the internet. Whether through Tiktok, Snapchat, or Instagram. We’ll probably also see new flashes creating a lot of buzz among marketers and making them think they too need to be ‘out there’. After a while, the noise subsides (remember Clubhouse?)

It’s obvious: Video feeds on social media are great. Motion makes them intriguing, while subtitles, auto-play, and no sound make them suitable for public viewing. Without a doubt, further developments in app-based video creation and editing will make it easier for businesses to use.

The Email Marketing Show Continues

As far as email marketing efforts go, it’s not over until the fat lady sings. If you think the buzz around emerging mediums suggest an unceremonious fall from grace for e-mail and a start to some supreme reign of other mediums, then think again.

Other mediums making their imprint in the digital space will only nudge businesses to push the boundaries of marketing beyond the old chestnut of ‘email marketing.’ But emails will be a valuable cog in the wheel of marketing efforts.

One thing jumps out of this jumble of events: that when it comes to marketing tactics, it’s best not to choose a tool or media based on its perceived intrinsic value, or how long it’s been around.

Marketing professionals will need to call BS on conventional marketing wisdom and ask more user-targeted questions like, "where do we have the best chance of reaching those we seek to serve?" and then, "what do they need to know?” and finally, "how do we serve them this information?".

Sidenote: Email lists are still a yes because that's an audience you own. You might want to play around with social media platforms to find new ways to drive audiences to your services (and to sign up to the email list, of course!)

Let’s switch gears and focus on something which is, a bit of a head-scratcher for most businesses—Growth hacking. We’ve got Viktoria Korman—Account manager at APSIS—to tell us about the SMS/communication prediction, which is also a possible trend for the coming year. Korman has a keen interest in growth. For her, marketing is just but a necessity. Here’re Korman’s 2022 digital marketing predictions:

SMS will continue to be an absolute game-changer

SMS is not dead. On the contrary, it’s brimming with much aliveness. Kickin’! Communication is enhanced when the right message is delivered at the right time, particularly to the right person. Once a customer receives an SMS about something he or she is interested in, they are more likely to devote a certain level of trust.

To be fair, SMS may become an essential tool of retail communication in 2022. It's an ideal way to reach out to customers. If you think SMS leads the pack of the horsemen of the Email apocalypse, it might interest you to know that if used smartly, SMS, in fact, powers up your email marketing. After all, we all check through our SMS immediately when they pop up on our phones.

Augmenting your email marketing strategy with SMS? Bee’s knees!

Perhaps we get way too many emails that we sometimes forget to read them. SMS integrates seamlessly with other channels like contact centre management systems, CRM systems, and—you guessed it—emails. Marketers can use SMS to serve as follow-up for customers to open that all-important email that gives them the best shot at conversion. This alone could increase email open rates significantly.

… And what better Martech solution to help you get on the winning side of SMS marketing than APSIS One?

Rikke Sondergaard is a creative, solution-minded, and driven production adoption manager at APSIS. With several years of experience in marketing, she has chosen to share how customer privacy may turn the tides in 2022.

Privacy remains a competitive edge

If you’ve not had your head in the sand, you’ll know that privacy is fast becoming a benchmark for competitive advantage. Here’s the sitch: Privacy inspires trust. When customers trust you, they’re more than likely to stay loyal to your brand. Sooner, new privacy settings will raise the bar for what it actually means to connect.

The jig is up. Come 2022, customers will demand a higher sense of privacy as they are beginning to realise how much their data is truly worth. So, respecting customers' privacy and truly striving to stay connected via a transparent model of data protection and policy will go a long way.

Think how cynical you’d be A.D. 2022 to be shown long-winded privacy statements or copy instead of a good-to-honest user experience (which is more convincing). Show not tell. Customers never read those. In fact, they find it pretentious, and that way, long-term relationships may be an overreach.

It sounds like a long time from now, but the tide is turning. Customer power is growing stronger day by day. Steep gains are on the horizon for brands who swiftly take position action towards these steps.

Kristiina. J. Benjaminsson is APSIS’ consultancy manager, and we’ve also been able to get her two cents on what digital marketing trends to take stock of. Kristiina leads and mentors a team of customer onboarding specialists in the Nordics, and she’s big on creating world-class experiences for customers. With over 12 years of marketing experience under her belt, here’s what she has to say:

Personalised communication is a must

The past few years have seen companies commit to the creation of uninterrupted digital customer experiences—the use of responsive designs, implementation of Omnichannel strategy, and personalised marketing techniques.

Every marketer and their dog well know how personalisation can enhance customer bond and engagement. With the pandemic, we have had to embrace various digital solutions and technologies to maintain connectivity.

Investments in useful tools such as live chats and intelligent chatbots have promoted conversational marketing and made it possible to increase customer engagement on a personal level, unlock brand awareness, and secure conversions.

But what hasn’t been tested is how much of that attention they can hold. The answer? Interaction. Attention spans are at an all-time low. If we want to keep customers or visitors engaged for longer spells, then it’s time to leverage interactive content. We’re talking AR (Augmented Reality), Infographics, and Live Videos.

If this sounds like your audience’s jam, you can even gamify the user experience to make it more fun.

Next up is the brilliant Patrick Lidberg. As a sales team manager, Patrick’s expertise spans customer service and all things sales enablement. His predictions for 2022 also touch on personalisation:

The digital marketing bubble won’t pop!

It’s clear as crystal—automated, personalised campaigns are becoming the in-thing. As a matter of fact, trends are rising out of the regular digital forerunner industries and may continue to rise over the next decade.

We predict that digital marketing will continue to pay homage to its very foundation—content marketing. Only, this time, brands will stretch their boundaries by using strong influencers as brand ambassadors, and might well integrate them into their overall brand messaging.

What to do about this? Set up a systematic approach to filter out your true brand ambassadors and engage with them. Let them be the unfiltered voice of your brand and praise them for their support.

If properly set up, this could be done at a low cost with exponential results. It’ll also generate fantastic insight on how to further build on strong areas.

Wrap Up

When it comes to digital marketing, the only certain thing is its ‘uncertainty’. Most of the tactics used today may phase out, personalisation will prevail, and the trends in digital marketing will only get better.

Thanks to the introduction of GDPR and other privacy-protection measures, businesses can now seek out less intrusive ways to promote their brands and make the most out of digital marketing. Brands that hammer on data collection as an end in itself rather than a means to building authentic connection will be left eating dust.