After two years of a global pandemic which led to many more people working and doing more activities from home, the digital world has taken a giant leap in order to keep up with the demands of the “new-normal”. After researching top publications online from magazines like Forbes, consulting firms like LLYC, and Universities like IEBS, we have selected five trends that will be the key for digital transformation and digital marketing in 2022. These are:
1. Artificial Intelligence as a Protagonist of Digital Marketing
We have to take a decisive step in order to predict and make things happen. This is an unparalleled challenge, as it forces us to look for answers outside a defined and controlled perimeter of information. In this new scenario, companies have to manage a tangle of unstructured information that makes it very difficult to analyze and obtain insights without the help of technology.
Artificial intelligence (AI) gives all those who work in marketing and communication the ability to look beyond, to understand the very different realities of each of the stakeholders, and to give personalized answers to their different needs through its capabilities for the analysis of large volumes of data.
Technologies such as natural language processing, image or audio recognition, together with data visualization software, make it possible today to structure, analyze and visualize in a simple way how stakeholders are self-segmented. These segmentations could be on the basis of shared interests, to understand the specific needs and challenges of each of these clusters, and how to connect with them.
We are going to see how artificial intelligence and automation become the real protagonists of digital advertising campaigns. It will be more important to reduce the number of campaigns in order to have more aggregated data. Undoubtedly, investing in AI in 2022 will allow many companies to save costs and accelerate growth, thus outperforming their main competitors.
2. Exploring the Metaverse and Augmented Reality
It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about Second Life. We have all wondered what has happened to that project since the middle of 2000. All it took was for Facebook to announce its name change to Meta and declare its intentions to make a strategic commitment to this format for marketers to pay attention to this issue. We are talking about a second digital reality in which we will be able to interact with our friends, work with our colleagues, enjoy our partners and even have a job in the digital space.
The pillars of what will become the metaverse are being laid by many people (entrepreneurs, technologists and investors) in a collective movement reminiscent of the beginnings of the Internet as we know it in the late 1990s. There are virtual worlds to inhabit.
The best known are Fortnite (which already has an environment of conversation between avatars, it’s not just a game) and Roblox, a space in which teenagers and pre-teens play, buy and sell virtual objects, and can create their own world. But there are other lesser-known metaverses for adults but in which a lot of money is being moved: Decentraland (where virtual land is bought and sold) or The Sandbox, both managed with the use of cryptocurrencies. A good example of the use of Metaverse for marketing is the brand Balenciaga, which creates a digital apparel collection for the game Fortnite, which was then translated into the real world.
3. Saying Goodbye to Cookies
The changes in legislation to guarantee and protect user privacy, along with the measures taken by Apple and Google in its Chrome browser to increase user privacy, have brought us upside down in recent months.
Some advertising platforms like Facebook’s have been seriously affected and we have seen remarketing audience sizes and audiences decrease, conversions drop and their automated sales and conversion-oriented bidding algorithms compromised.
In this sense, in 2022 we will bet on first party data. In addition, we will have to invest in the management and unification of the data we collect from each user and begin to establish the future of a world without cookies.
At the user level, these changes will bring greater control in the management of the personal data they choose to share with companies on the Internet. They will have greater ability to decide what they want to share with which companies. But, on the other hand, they will lose quality of experience, and may be impacted by irrelevant or uninteresting ads. However, users who have visited an advertiser’s site that has set its own cookie will be able to receive personalized ads from that brand.
Google and other companies are working on initiatives such as the Privacy Sandbox, which allow the industry to continue to display personalized ads but without being able to access users’ personal data. Within the Privacy Sandbox there are initiatives such as FLoC, with which Google intends to replace third-party cookies with statistical information on groups of users instead of information on individual users.
In short, we will see the development of business models for creating information that is not based on cookies, which are more transparent and cleaner. For example, through personality tests.
The big bet for brands is the construction of a powerful first party data, which counteracts the deficiencies that may exist in the prospecting of new audiences. The most important thing is
to start as soon as possible in the collection and processing of these data sources in order to have inputs based on large volumes of data that can be used in the creation of segments and personalized experiences.
Tensions in the industry are going to be a reality. There may be a move towards signed-in user systems, cohort systems or others that are being considered. But brands, in order to prepare themselves, should start working on their first party data as soon as possible, and data providers should start looking for other segmentation sources not based on cookies.
4. CRM Evolution: Customer Relationship Management and Humanization
Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most popular strategies. Adapting content and, above all, humanizing it on the different platforms allows you to get the most out of each of them and enjoy a larger audience. Even tools like WhatsApp can be an indispensable ally for new businesses looking for frequent and loyal customers. In addition, automating this strategy can be very useful to get customers to buy or be attracted to your product without overloading marketing staff.
Hyperfocus on the customer: During 2022, technology will be leveraged much more to generate better human experiences. In addition to personalizing marketing and sales actions, as well as working on empathy and brand trust towards potential customers.
The keys to take into account in digital marketing trends for 2022 are:
- The customer increasingly demands self-service and automation.
- They want more immediacy and personalization
- We must know our buyer persona and their buyer journey.
On the other hand, digital marketing trends in 2022 point to a change in the relationship between brand and user. The use of social media communication channels (Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, for example) as CRM tools will appear as a complement to email marketing campaigns to accelerate the transition between customer interest and desire in the customer journey and contribute to closing the purchase.
If we want to bet on first party data, we need a complete and integrated view of our users’ interactions with our brand. This is why customer data platforms appear as an evolution of CRM that allows us to integrate a total view of the user and our brand across all devices and media, providing a single, integrated view.
5. The importance of quality content, influencer relationships and inclusion
The core updates made by Google this year have made it clear that Google wants to give reliable and quality answers to users. That is why it will take into account the authority of the domain for a given topic and the authority of the content writer.
It has also made it clear that it increasingly understands the intentionality of the user’s search. It will therefore look for the best response to each search intent.
The SERP changes will also make us think about what new opportunities exist, bearing in mind that Google is increasingly providing results to keep users from leaving Google by introducing new snippets.
We’re likely to see an increase in long-term influencer-brand relationships, with creators taking on a variety of brand ambassador roles and an overall shift toward always-on programming, as opposed to one-time deals. Brands will have the opportunity to build more authentic connections with their audiences through longer-running programs that leverage influencer expertise and credibility over time. – Danielle Wiley, Sway Group
Buyers are becoming more and more independent in their journey. So, as marketers, we need to take this into consideration and make things easier for the users. Businesses might have to put more time and effort into keeping the prospect engaged and helping them find what they are looking for, so one trend that might manifest itself in 2022 is the rise of interactive content.
TikTok is the new trendy social network. In fact, it is growing steadily, getting closer and closer to Instagram, with some 800 million monthly active users. Brands increasingly understand how to take advantage of this network, creating strategies based on the narrative model and betting on user generated content.
With the most varied content, brands are trying to connect with the platform’s audience. If there is one thing we have learned from social networks, it is that there is no single way or infallible tandem. In fact, we are talking about all content that has to do with entertainment and learning.
Final Words
From collaborations with influencers or the creation of videos that help us connect with our audience to hashtag challenges or the promotion of events. TikTok will continue to be a golden opportunity and one of the key digital marketing trends for 2022 to reach a young audience increasingly difficult to engage on other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
The benefits are clear: improved economic results, identification of new growth areas, increased customer satisfaction, improved branding and alignment with company values, for example.
However, within the new reality of digitalization, fast and liquid, society has a strong voice that demands a digitalization that is not only person-centered, but fully inclusive.
The debate should no longer be about whether technology is good or bad for the human being or whether it is at the center: this is already a reality. The question now is how we should use digital media to bridge the digital divide. And one of them, existing globally, and not only in digital, is inclusion. This is a major problem, since we live in a society in which diversity has hardly any place. At the same time, the diversity of abilities in society is a reality. Therefore, digital marketing must focus on the human being, but go a step further and focus on the inclusion of every human being under the principles of universal design.
We are living in a world of digital transformation at an unprecedented rapid pace and companies need to adapt themselves to these trends in order to stay competitive and relevant. At a first glance it may seem like a very difficult task, especially for small and medium sized companies, but little by little and with the help of great experts in the Digital Marketing world, companies can be assured that they will keep their relevance and continue to grow their sales and services.
