Digital Marketing Predictions for 2022

Digital marketing is always changing, but 2022 will likely hold some massive developments. Businesses and brands must not only plan for the future of digital marketing but also be prepared to take advantage of it. We’ve summarized 11 key digital marketing predictions for 2022 and beyond.

Influencers

Influencer marketing was set to reach $13.8 billion in 2021, and if you’ve been paying attention at all, you’ll see how that is possible. Influencer campaigns inherently provide context and relevance since they are endorsing the product. B2B brands also continue to embrace influencers, and this will continue well into the future.

Advertising is challenged by privacy

Modern digital ads are heavily reliant on data to automatically optimize. New privacy regulations like the iOS15 update and the pending removal of cookies have been reducing the data used in artificial intelligence. 

Because of this, marketers should assess the impact this will have on their advertising and be proactive. 

LinkedIn is still growing

LinkedIn continues to be a rising star in the digital space. Each quarter, the platform shows considerable gains in monthly active users and engagements. They are also continuously launching new features that drive better results for businesses and pages. Honestly, it’s time to go all-in on LinkedIn.

SEO is less game and more integrated

Search engine optimization is one of the oldest and most valuable forms of digital marketing. As search algorithms continuously become smarter and more contextual, marketers need to focus less on the “hacks” and “tricks” of the SEO game and more on providing an outstanding and meaningful experience for their users. 

Experiences are the new social currency

Businesses still clamor to drive word-of-mouth and earn social attention. As the advertising landscape becomes noisier, earned media and word-of-mouth become more important to breakthrough.

Digital jobs continue to grow

According to LinkedIn, digital skills are the most in-demand. However, there is a big skills gap between the number of businesses searching for people with specific digital skills and the actual skills in the marketplace. Marketers should upskill to stay relevant and leaders should have digital upskill plans for their organizations moving forward.

Websites get faster

We all want a fast website, especially as website traffic moves overwhelmingly mobile. However, most websites still don’t have fully mobile-optimized experiences. As Google launched Core Web Vitals site design, speed will become even more important.

Algorithms are everything

Every part of digital marketing—social media news feeds, display ads, social ads, SEO and even email marketing—is becoming algorithm-driven. The algorithms all optimize for the same basic thing: user experience. 

To stay relevant, marketers should provide a user experience that customers want or their content will be less visible.

Content selling

More and more marketers realize the importance of content marketing. According to a report by Content Marketing Institute, 93 percent of the most successful B2B content marketers reported their organization is extremely or very committed to content marketing. 

Companies are changing their approach to creating marketing collateral. That’s where the term content selling comes into play. This essentially means that content should be created to support sales processes. Marketing teams need to have a strategic approach to content creation and should work toward aligning content strategy with the customer journey.

Hyper-targeted advertising

Marketers know the term “banner blindness” all too well. It implies that people ignore ads as most of them are irrelevant and intrusive. However, even though people are overwhelmed by bad digital ads, they don’t really mind the good ones.

According to Digital Connections, 49 percent of people will disregard a brand if it bombards them with ads or if they perceive the advertising to be irrelevant, while 36 percent of respondents are more likely to buy from a brand that sends them tailored messages. 

This means that the future of digital advertising is exposing users only to hyper-relevant ads and using precise targeting audiences.

Transparency

Ninety-four percent of consumers said they would remain loyal to a brand that provides complete transparency. Needless to say, companies failing to deliver transparency and authenticity will miss out.

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Staying up to date with digital marketing trends is cardinal for small and large enterprises. Companies should adapt to the changes in the digital realm to remain relevant, discernible and popular in their target markets. We take it upon ourselves at Epic Search Partners to stay ahead of the curve, providing the very best to our clients and candidates alike.