The life-changing events of 2021 have altered the way people interact on social media, purchase products and services, and interact with brands. As people evolve their behaviors and the world moves forward, marketing campaigns must evolve with their customers. In this article we will discuss marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2022.
Interactive Virtual Events
Customers preferences are quickly evolving. They are already growing tired of typical video conferences and presentations. Audiences crave two-way communication. In order to continue meeting customer demands, virtual events should offer interactive communication, not one-way communication.
At first events were held virtually as a necessity. Beyond safety concerns, brands are incentivized to continue holding events virtually due to cost savings and easier accessibility for a larger audience. A marketing trend to watch out for throughout 2022 is that events will continue to be held virtually but they will become more interactive.
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Brands will adapt with their audience and start offering a level of connectability, accessibility, and interactivity with their virtual events. Customers are looking to have intimate conversations with their favorite brands centered around specific topics, run by an influential person they trust. Talking at your customers instead of with them will not benefit your brand in 2022.
Social Commerce
A marketing trend to keep an eye on in 2022 is the growth of social commerce. In 2022, it won’t be enough to just have an online store. Brands need to meet their customers where they already shop and spend time online.
Social commerce is the use of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to promote and sell products or services. Social commerce promotes social interaction on various platforms to inform, promote, and purchase products.
Recommended Reading: How to Increase Your Brand Exposure With TikTok Marketing in 2021
Audiences are already spending a large amount of time interacting on social media. The use of influencers, especially local and micro influencers, can help create authentic messages that connect with audiences.
Marketing campaigns in 2022 will also use different marketing content on each social media platform. Videos that perform well on TikTok are not necessarily made for Instagram. Slide decks of photos aren’t necessarily meant for Facebook. The content being posted on each platform will match the tone and rhythm of each platform.
Evolving Technology for Businesses
As companies continue allowing their employees to work from home even after quarantine restrictions are lifted, they are going to require new tools to succeed. In addition to video conferencing, employees also need additional software that offers e-signatures, antivirus, and online presentations.
Employees will have to adapt their communication with each other and with customers as video conferencing fatigue has long set in. Software will continue to evolve throughout 2021 to meet the ever-changing demands of the workforce.
Personalization
A marketing trend to keep an eye on in 2022 is the personalization of the way brands communicate. With the accessibility people have to brands and celebrities in 2022, customers want communication to feel like a conversation.
Gone are the days of simply shouting out a message in one-way communication. Customers are now looking for interactive, two-way communication with brands.
The goal behind personalizing brand messaging is to increase engagement. One method of increasing personalization and engagement is to add video content to your marketing. Videos add a personal touch by showing the people behind the brand.
Recommended Reading: 10 Email Marketing Strategies to Improve Audience Engagement
This effort toward personalization is especially applicable for email marketing. With the rise of online shopping and promotional emails in 2021, every day can start to feel like Cyber Monday. Your brand’s emails should have a personal touch and provide value so as to not get lost in people’s inboxes.
Customer-Centric Marketing
Customer buying behaviors changed in 2021. As we move forward in 2022, marketers need to understand how these buying behaviors have changed and craft their campaigns around these new behaviors. If your marketing efforts don’t evolve with your customers, your brand can be left behind.
Simply having an online store or a Facebook page won’t be enough anymore. The accessibility and experience of buying your products or services needs to meet the customer where they are. Interactions with your brand needs to provide customers with an accessible and enjoyable experience.
We are seeing marketers crafting their campaigns to be truly customer-centric. Brands are really learning who their customer is and anticipating what they’re looking for next. Marketers should be developing new products and services in anticipation of the evolving needs of their customers.
Not only should your brand be solving new problems for its customer base, it needs to do this quickly. Rebuilding your website or testing new pages needs to happen quickly and efficiently in order to keep up with your competitors and customers.
Flexible Marketing Campaigns
Another marketing lesson learned after in 2020 is that marketing campaigns need to be flexible. They have to be capable of adapting and changing to meet the current public sentiment at the last minute. Throughout 2021, campaigns that had been in the works for several months had to be pulled due to COVID so as to not appear insensitive.
Ultimately, marketers in 2022 need to prioritize the messages that truly matter to their brand and their audience. The risk behind creating a campaign centered around fluff messages is that it could be axed last minute if it doesn’t align with current events so as to prevent your brand from sounding tone deaf.
If the message is something that truly matters to your brand and connects with your audience, the message should still translate even if the timeline changes. Marketers had to be more creative and adaptable than ever after 2021, and they will take these lessons with them into 2022 marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
This article discussed several marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2022. They included hosting interactive virtual events, using social commerce, utilizing evolving software, personalizing brand messaging, focusing on customer-centric marketing campaigns, and having flexible campaigns.
Brands will continue holding virtual events moving forward out of concerns for safety, but will also save money and offer accessibility to their audience. People are looking for meaningful interaction with their favorite brands centered around a certain topic. As companies keep their workers at home, software like e-signature, antivirus, and online presentation will become more popular.
Brands must learn to use social commerce to promote and sell their products and services. Influencers can help brands create relationships with their audience. For 2022, brands will be putting customers at the center of campaigns. Your brand must continue growing and solving the new problems of your customer base.
For 2021, marketing campaigns need to be flexible in aligning with current events. In 2021, entire marketing plans were scrapped because of COVID and not wanting to appear tone deaf as a brand. After the tumultuous world events in 2021, marketing campaigns in 2022 need to be able to pivot on a moment’s notice.
The message should still connect with your audience and properly show your brand even if the timing of the campaign’s execution changes.
After learning more about the trends we discussed, what marketing trends are you noticing in 2022?