Regardless of the strategy you use, digital marketing has always provided a slew of benefits that you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
Email marketing, for example, continues to give an excellent return on investment. Email creates $42 for every $1 invested, or a 4,200% ROI, making it one of the most effective solutions.
Similarly, if small businesses marketers are prioritizing blogging efforts, they commonly see a 13x positive return on investment than those who don’t.
At the same time, it's critical to remember that the world of digital marketing is ever-changing. For many small businesses blogging was and is still enough depending on your local area and competition. However, for others, that time has long passed. People's attention is being drawn in more places than ever before, and you need to do something different to stand out from the crowd.
Fortunately, several of the top trends for 2022 and beyond show us how to achieve just that. Here are five of those trends:
Trend #1: The Continued Rise of Influencer Marketing
Regardless of how you look at it, incorporating influencers into your digital marketing strategy makes a great deal of sense. By doing so, you are employing someone your audience already trusts and respects to your advantage. This will help you produce the sort of brand value that would otherwise be difficult to achieve on your own, and it will do so more quickly.
Although it is not a new trend, influencer marketing is one of the top trends many small businesses can't afford to ignore in 2022. Jacinda Santora of Influencer Marketing Hub writes that:
Despite initial concerns that influencer marketing might decrease thanks to COVID-19, it's actually increased. While some industries, mainly travel, have had to reconfigure their marketing, others have adapted their marketing models to COVID-19.
From $1.7 billion in 2016, influencer marketing is estimated to have grown to have a market size of $9.7 billion in 2020. That's expected to reach $13.8 billion in 2021.
(Source: 100 Influencer Marketing Statistics For 2021)
All this indicates that this trend is still gaining momentum, much to the benefit of marketers everywhere. Influencer marketing has several advantages, which this post can best describe the benefits of influencer marketing.
Trend #2: The Chatbots Have Arrived
Chatbots, another digital marketing trend that has grown in popularity in recent years, should be ready for prime time in 2022.
Chatbots are a fantastic, low-cost, and largely automated solution. They can help provide clients with more engaging and more personalized experiences. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other related technologies enable chatbots to improve their interactions with people over time to the point where you may be conversing with one without realizing it.
Recent improvements have even allowed chatbots to develop their own "personalities," resulting in a delightful experience for visitors that frees up your time so you can focus on running your business. Chatbots will grow even more popular in 2022, primarily as small businesses struggle to accomplish more with less.
Trend #3: The Mobile-First Era Is Here
Smartphone ownership has been on the increase since Steve Jobs initially unveiled the iPhone in 2007. At this point, 85% of U.S. adults own one. But ownership isn’t as significant as the notion of how they use it.
The number of people who use a smartphone as their primary mode of Internet access is constantly increasing and sits at 15% currently. People who conduct mobile searches are more likely to visit a physical business if it is located near their house.
This is also a major reason why 2022 will be the year when more small businesses will be implementing truly mobile-first marketing strategies. This means you should be developing and optimizing campaigns for smaller devices with touchscreen interfaces, such as smartphones and tablets.
This has a few crucial advantages, such as the fact that it nearly guarantees that the vast majority of prospects who see your content will have a positive experience with it. Not only that, but it also helps you distinguish yourself from your competition – which is possibly the most important purpose of all.
Trend #4 and #5: User-generated Content Will Remain Vital
User-generated content can be defined as the content that your clients themselves create without any “interference” from your brand. These are often in the form of social media posts or reviews.
Social Media
Especially given all that is going on globally, this user-generated content trend will only become more critical. Social proof has never been more valuable, and this includes more than just positive reviews and written testimonials.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram will play an important role as user-generated content and influencer marketing are also intertwined. One of the most effective methods to launch this sort of campaign is to have an influencer issue a "challenge" on a site like TikTok. This method has the influencer show an example of the type of content you want and then get as many people to recreate it as possible.
This is not only a terrific method to generate free content for your digital marketing campaign, but each new individual who attempts the "challenge" exposes your messaging to their friends and family members. It's inexpensive and expands your reach simultaneously, making it a "win-win" situation if ever there was one.
User Reviews and Testimonials
According to the business dictionary, a testimonial is defined as a “Written recommendation from a celebrity or satisfied customer affirming the performance, quality, and/or value of a product or service. Testimonials are one of the most potent tools of marketing.” Regardless of their size, many businesses will have an entire page on their website dedicated to testimonials. This shows off how their clients have benefited from their product or service. This is user-generated content at its best!
Conclusion
As with any trends report, it is simply a prediction of what people think the future will hold. Who knows if these will hold up. But if history is any indication, many of these trends will become commonplace in our daily lives.
