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The technology is growing at an incredibly fast rate. It is influencing many aspects of life, digitalising our everyday life. And at the core of our everyday life is the internet. Your work is dependent on it, and so is marketing. Companies in digital marketing are dependent on it.
Digital marketing has changed so much since it started and with the advent of new technologies, it is expected to reach a new level every year. In 2021, it gets more interesting and complicated but exciting as marketers now see new ways to reach their target.
So what will change in digital marketing in 2022?
Digital marketing in 2022
Growth in AI technology
Artificial Intelligence is already taking over simple jobs and many aspects on the internet. You can see it everywhere – in chatbots, in emails, product recommendations on e-Commerce sites, on Netflix when it suggests you new shows and movies, etc.
It’s not long that many companies will start implementing AI in their marketing and business
to boost their growth rate. In fact, according to Techgrabyte, “Artificial intelligence is the biggest commercial opportunity for companies, industries, and nations over the next few decades” and “will increase global GDP by up to 14% between now and 2030,” which means that “AI latecomers will find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage within the next several years.”
Some of the reasons why companies are beginning to implement AI are:
- It will help them get a competitive advantage
- Will help them move into new businesses
- Customers will want AI-driven services
- Reduced costs in many areas of software and development
- Makes multi-tasking, organising and managing data easier.
In digital marketing, AI can help you find search and consumer behaviour patterns on e-Commerce sites. This is useful when you need data to help you create more effective campaigns and finetune your marketing strategies. So, AI is the one growing digital marketing trends in 2022.
Influencer-driven campaigns
Influencer marketing is on the rise as the number of influencers is rising as well. 2022 was an opportunity for many content creators to grow their following on social media and other online channels. This proved advantageous as brands started leaning more towards influencer marketing since it is more effective than ads.
With influencer marketing, brands don’t have to approach an agency to grow their business on social media. They can reach their goals easily and less expensively by approaching influencers.
Why influencer marketing –
- Influencers seem more authentic than a corporate face
- Influencers already have an established niche audience which makes it easier for brands to market to the right people
- More than 60% of people trust an influencer’s recommendation and opinions on products than what brands say about themselves.
In 2021, influencer marketing is expected to rise at a higher rate. The ad spend for influencer marketing is expected to reach by 10 billion dollars in 2021 and beyond. (source – singlebrain).
Automation
Marketing automation is a process of using software to manage tasks that are repetitive and to nurture more sales leads, personalise messages & content. Marketing automation helps marketers to send personalised messages, emails and content to the right people at the time. It makes bulk work easier and more organised.
Marketing automation helps you understand your better so that you can do better marketing and communicate better.
Why marketing automation –
- Provides useful data
- Allows you to track every interaction
- Allows you track engagement on multiple platforms
- Fine-tune your marketing campaigns
- Generates better quality and relevant leads
- Personalise customer’s journey
Visual Search
Google lens is becoming more and more popular because of its accuracy and effectiveness in helping people find what they want quicker. It’s also changing the search behaviour and SEO. Even though visual search is still new, Google lens has already been used over 1 billion times as it’s excellent at analysing images you’re searching for.
Visual search is increasingly being used to search for similar products. People now just scan objects around them and search for it online. So image optimisation has become important, especially if you have an e-Commerce website. Visual search is definitely going to be on the rise from 2021 and marketers need to update their SEO knowledge.
Why visual search –
- Pinterest gets over 600 million visual searches a month
- 36% of consumers have used visual search
- Google lens has been used a billion times till now
- Google lens can detect 1 billion objects
- 62% of millennials want visual search over any other technology
- 55% of consumers say Visual Search is instrumental in developing their style and taste
- By 2021, brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%
- For online furniture or clothing shopping, more than 85% of respondents put more importance on visual information than text information.
- Google Shopping ads see budget increase of 33%, versus a rise of just 3% for text ads
Voice search
Voice search is changing SEO these days as the user behaviour – how they search is changing. Because it’s becoming increasingly convenient and easy to use, more and more people are using voice search to find something on the search engines. The search queries are becoming more conversational and longer compared to typed queries. As a result, voice search is going to rule digital marketing in 2021.
Web content will see more optimisation for voice SEO and local SEO. Keywords and key phrases will be more conversational like, “how do I go to Mumbai from Bangalore?’. Things like these are bound to have a major impact on SEO, which will change digital marketing.
Read more: Voice search Optimisation – How to optimise content in 2021
Marketing on OTT platforms
India has a large audience base on OTT platforms like Disney + Hotstar. Ever the lockdowns were imposed in 2022, the number of paid subscribers grew rapidly as shows like IPL were streamed. Since Indians are a huge fan of cricket, viewership for IPL exploded in 2022 and marketers saw this as an opportunity to advertise their products on the platform in between shows.
Those 30-seconds of unskippable ads streamed in the midroll or during breaks proved highly beneficial for advertisers. They were able to create brand awareness on such a large scale and also reach out to a large base of niche audiences. When IPL reduced the advertising cost on their shows, more small business owners too started advertising, boosting their customer reach.
All this proved how beneficial OTT platforms can be. At more than 400 million subscribers, OTT platforms surely is a powerful tool in digital marketing and this year is going to see an increase in the use and number of subscribers too.
Social commerce
Social media for business is growing at an alarming rate. That’s because users can learn more about their favourite brands on social media than on websites and connect with them on an emotional level. They can also tell which brands are trustworthy. All these aspects of social media for business makes a customer’s decision in purchasing products/services easier.
Moreover, most of the social media users are young people, making the platforms ideal for social commerce. Facebook sees a rapid growth in the use of shoppable posts and since Instagram launched a new feature where people can complete their purchase within the app, more brands have started using it to boost their sales.
Why social commerce:
- Large base of audience
- Users don’t have to sign in to on unknown site, thus reducing the number of abandoned cart
- More reliable and convenient than sites
- Shoppable posts within the apps
- Extremely effective in creating brand awareness
Read More – New era of social media marketing
Conclusion
Digital marketing is at the hands of user’s behaviour on search engines, social media and other online channels. It is also constantly influenced by new technologies. But whatever changes, one thing remains unchanged – digital marketing is here to stay as long as search engines exist. The numerous benefits it offers continue to motivate brands to use it more often and also constantly update their knowledge in the latest trends.
WEBI7 DIGITAL MEDIA is a leading digital marketing company in Bangalore providing growth-oriented services to startups and small businesses. Are you looking to grow your business online? Contact us for a free consultation.
