Over the past year, the pandemic has brought transformational changes to consumer behaviour and shifted the landscape of digital marketing. The core of digitalisation has evolved from the pursuit of survival in a contemporary world to thrive in it. Take note of the upcoming digital marketing trends in 2022. Think big, go further!

Digital marketing is a field that is constantly changing at a rapid pace. Certain tactics that work now do not guarantee future success. Staying on top of digital marketing trends not only keeps your brand in tune with the business environment but also maintains your presence in the industry.

Actively study the digital marketing trends helps to:

• Stay ahead of your competitors through gaining specific digital capabilities
• Keep abreast of shifts in consumer behaviour 
• Have a better understanding of how your target customers shop and research your products and services
• Adapt to business environmental changes 
• Ensure relevance in the market and among your competitors

5 Preemptive Digital Marketing Trends You Should Take Advantage Of In 2022

1.Short Form Video Content

TikTok is by far the most rapidly growing social media app. It takes a faster route to accomplish its first billion users milestone achievement compared to other social media platforms. It greatly shows the potential and profound impact of TikTok in digital marketing. 

Youngsters, especially Generation Z are easily attracted to vivid animation content compared to static graphics. Leveraging the trending hashtags and industry keywords help your brand to reach the niche effectively. Hence, brands are encouraged to take a leap to TikTok for promoting their products in an entertaining, engaging way when they want to target the youths.

The majority of users find that advertisements on TikTok are less intrusive. TikTok’s unique algorithms know its users’ preferences well and recommend relevant content to them. Overall, TikTok delivers a seamless user experience and this is the key for its users to spend longer on the app daily.

2. Conversational Marketing

WhatsApp Business will be the most popular conversational marketing medium for businesses to build their responsive customer support and maintain close relationships with customers. 

Statistics substantiate the potential of WhatsApp Business in digital marketing. According to SlickText’s research on text messaging, 71% of consumers reflect that using text messaging to communicate with a company is effective because they prefer troubleshooting problems directly and getting prompt responses. 64% of consumers perceive brands who employ text messaging value their time and would have a positive attitude towards the companies. 45% of consumers say it is a personalised sales medium to convince them to select one brand over another.

Dynamic features launched on WhatsApp Business complement its versatility as a communication tool to connect with prospects and generate leads. Companies are capable of sending text blasts, labeling contacts to different categories, showcasing products catalog in terms of collections, customer ratings, away messages and quick replies.

3. Voice Search & Zero-Click Search

As voice search becomes more prevalent, zero-click search is on the rise. Instead of having to visit a website to gather the relevant information they want, users can now get information instantly.

Zero-click search appears when search engines like Google display snippets of information directly from online sources in their search findings. It refers to the search results that occur on the first search engine results page or SERP. When you ask a question using the voice search feature, Google will display the answer directly on the first search results page.

To take advantage of zero-click search, make sure your website content is optimised for featured snippets. Hubspot research showed that 51.47% of users think that zero-click searches provide them with immediate and effortlessly relevant information, and the majority of users are satisfied with the zero-click feature.

4. Immersive Shopping Experience

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are interactive design techniques used to supplement online-offline shopping experiences and hybrid events. Not only delivering an immersive shopping experience but also creating excitement for the customers to review products innovatively. 

Virtual reality (VR) is viewing a computer-generated lifelike scenario that is applicable for hybrid events. For instance, a 360-degree virtual reality content that allows the audience to see the whole product from different angles and show usage demonstrations. This helps deepen the consumer’s understanding of the product.

Augmented reality (AR) refers to the real world augmented with visual, haptic, olfactory, or visual additions, enabling customers to virtually try on products such as fashion items and home furniture. Consumers can instantly see how they look in the products and this inspires them to purchase satisfying products due to lower perceived risks.

5. AI-Powered Influencer Marketing 

Artificial intelligence helps improve the performance of influencer marketing by looking for the most appropriate influencers for your brand and campaign. Employing AI in influencer marketing enables analysis of influencer content in just a few clicks and identifies influencer followers that match the target demographic of your campaign.

AI-powered technology can assess sentiment from engagement and detect fake engagement metrics. It will effectively prevent your brand from influencer fraud.

Predicting the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns is the biggest advantage of AI-Powered influencer marketing. Artificial intelligence can predict how influencers will achieve campaign objectives through the use of natural language processing (NLP).