22 Digital Marketing Trends Every Marketer Should Follow in 2022

If you want your business to stay savvy in the realm of marketing, then you should always keep up with the latest and greatest digital marketing trends. That way, your business will stay up to date and one step ahead of the competition.

So, are you ready to catch a glimpse of the top digital marketing trends in 2022?

In this article, you will uncover the most influential digital marketing trends in 2022 so you can spend less time researching and more time strategizing for the new year!

Without further ado, here are the top 22 must-follow digital marketing trends that you can expect to see this coming year.

1. Invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Influencer Marketing

According to a recent PwC survey, an astonishing 52% of participating U.S.-based companies plan to adopt AI into their digital marketing strategy in the coming years.

Amongst the most popular AI trends for 2022, influencer identification and performance influencer marketing technology are at the top of the list. In particular, AI that helps to monitor and assess millions of influencer content. For example, AI for videos is currently on the rise because it helps marketers predict consumer trends without having to do it all by hand.

Speaking of AI…

2. Add a Conversational Chatbot to Your Website

It is no secret that chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in the digital world. After all, automated processes are a huge convenience for businesses in general.

However, chatbots are often easily realized as robots to the user and can leave the conversation feeling a little ‘fake.’ Therefore, a must-follow digital marketing trend in 2022 is the addition of a more robust, human-like, conversational chatbot.

The perfect example of a conversational customer service chatbot is the one used by Amazon. For example, when a user clicks the “Get Help” button on an Amazon order, a friendly and engaging “Seller Messaging Assistant” chatbox will offer quick, easy-to-follow help.

When you utilize a chatbot like Amazon Lex and HappyFox Chatbot, you can mimic human conversations that rouse positive, friendly emotions. Doing so makes it feel like the user is actually talking to a person. This increases customer interaction, satisfaction, and overall experience.

3. Hybridize Your Events

Can you believe that it’s already been almost 2 years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? In the wake of such a life-altering pandemic, Zoom conferences, remote work, and virtual events have become the new normal.

With that being said, as some organizations make their way back to the office in 2022, a hybrid approach to meetings and events is a definite must.

Advantages of Hybrid Events

The trend to combine in-person, live events with digitally streamed access allows viewers to attend in the comfort of their own homes if they are not ready to venture outside. In fact, in this day and age, it can actually be considered common courtesy to offer both in-person and online versions of your event.

For instance, a non-profit organization can sponsor a live silent auction and offer online bidding for participants who would rather stay at home. That way, the organization can reap the benefits of everyone who wants to attend – not just a select few.

If you want to follow this trend for yourself, consider using modern technologies like AR and VR to fully immerse your virtual audience. Or, you can simply live stream the event through a viable platform of your choice.

4. Create Non-Disruptive Ads through Native Advertising

Have you ever tried to watch a video on social media and have your content interrupted several times by ads? So annoying!

Image Source

Unfortunately, the one trend that you do NOT want to follow in 2022 is having your ads blocked by ad blockers because consumers found them to be disruptive. Instead, it’s time to follow a new trend: native advertising.

Simply put, native advertising is a form of digital advertising where the ad is non-disruptive to the consumer. This is because it seamlessly flows with the content and design of the web page that it is published on. The ad is so disguised that consumers have a hard time distinguishing native ads from the content itself, making it blend in perfectly with its surroundings.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to stop annoying your audience with traditional pop-up ads and start camouflaging them instead!

5. Prioritize Mobile-Friendly Content

In today’s digital world, smartphones and tablets are used for everything! In fact, they are increasingly used more often than desktops to browse the web.

One thing is for certain: it is more important than ever to implement a mobile-first marketing strategy. Mobile-friendly websites and content are vital if you want to continue to increase your rank in search engines in 2022.

For starters, your website should be optimized to automatically adjust for a smartphone screen. Next, you need to make sure smartphone users can easily access all of the content on your website, just as they can through a laptop or desktop. Finally, you can even add accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to make your load speeds faster for smartphones.

6. Collect and Analyze First-Party Data

One of the biggest digital marketing trends in 2022 that you can expect to see is the cease of use of third-party cookies… FINALLY! Many users are happy to say “good riddance” to cookies because it means stronger privacy protection.

Shift to First-Party Data

Due to this grand shift, you can expect a trend to form around the collection of first-party data. For starters, first-party data encompasses all of the data that is collected and stored in the software that your business owns. For instance, data may include:

• Purchase history
• Consumer behavior
• Digital interactions
• Product preferences

First-party data is extremely important to collect in the marketing world because it comes straight from the source of origin: your business’s very own software and systems. It highlights actual interactions your customers have had with your company.

With that being said, you will want to develop a strong strategy (which may include useful tools like Google Analytics and Google’s Privacy Sandbox) to help you harness as much first-party data from your website as possible.

7. Optimize Your Content for Alternative Search Engines

Speaking of privacy, there has also been a recent shift to alternative search engines that protect user search intent like DuckDuckGo.

In fact, DuckDuckGo’s tagline is “Privacy, simplified”. They claim to protect your information by providing ads on your current search rather than your search history:

“​​We make our money from private ads on our search engine. On other search engines, ads are based on profiles compiled about you using your personal information like search, browsing, and purchase history. Since we don’t collect that information, search ads on DuckDuckGo are based on the search results page you are viewing, not on you as a person.”

With an influx of privacy-conscious users and a direction change towards alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Baidu, marketers should take their audience into consideration and optimize their content for other search engines.

By the way, if you’re looking for an example of a quality piece of web content, this guide to measurement-based care by C4 Consulting is a great piece to take a look at.

8. Local SEO is the Way to Go

Localized SEO is and has been an integral part of the success of businesses around the world. In particular, if you operate a brick-and-mortar business, you definitely need to ensure all of your information is properly loaded into your Google My Business profile.

This will instantly tell your potential customers who you are. They can access the following at a glance:

• Hours of operation
• Location
• Website
• Pricing
• Product images
• Google reviews

Not to mention, this type of publicity will also boost your SEO and help your business rank on localized searches!

9. Obtain More Online Reviews

This next trend goes hand in hand with your localized SEO efforts and is a must-have if you want to score extra SEO points.

To really stand out as a business online in 2022, it is imperative that you have online reviews and testimonials to back up your products, services, and claims. In particular, you should strive to obtain star ratings and reviews on your Google profile. This promotes your business as credible and trustworthy in the public eye.

Incorporate a goal to receive reviews in your marketing strategy so you can continue to boost your local SEO!

10. Plug into the Metaverse

In November of 2021, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the company’s pivotal move to the Metaverse. In fact, Zuckerberg claims that this major technological shift to a virtual world will open up thousands of new jobs. Additionally, businesses will have new creative capabilities to establish themselves digitally on the platform.

“3D spaces in the metaverse will let you socialize, learn, collaborate, work, and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine. It will deliver a deep feeling of presence. This technology will be built around people and how we actually experience the world.” –Welcome to Meta

A Whole New World for Digital Marketing

Can you imagine what kind of opportunities this revolutionary Meta world will offer marketers? It’s so unlike any social media platform that we’ve worked with in the past. Not only will it open up new formats to buy and sell products and services, but it will also give the consumer a totally different type of user experience (UX)!

Just think, brand presence can also be taken to a whole new level in this fascinating virtual domain. People who are normally thousands of miles away in the real world will be able to connect and interact with your business in just seconds within the metaverse.

Although the program is still in its infancy, you might want to consider adding Meta to your digital marketing strategy sooner rather than later. That way you can potentially reap big rewards for your marketing endeavors in the future of this platform.

11. Get to Know the Changes Coming to WhatsApp

WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users worldwide, making it one of the most used social messaging apps out there. Not to mention, many businesses use the app to communicate effectively with their team and even with their clients!

With that being said, there are some exciting new features coming to WhatsApp in 2022. For instance, some new changes include:

• Multi-device mode
• Report a chat feature
• Hide information privacy option
• Mute videos button
• Audio transcription tool
• Nearby business directory locator

If you use WhatsApp for your business, you can definitely take advantage of these new modifications and improvements in the coming year.

12. Deliver Quality Content Over Quantity

In the early stages of SEO, it wasn’t uncommon for creators to generate hundreds of articles and blogs in hopes of climbing to the top of a Google search. In many cases, this strategy actually worked!

However, in 2022, the days of quantity over quality are over. With so much content saturating the internet nowadays, it’s far more important to produce high-quality content that is useful, engaging, unique, and informative.

If you want your content to stand out from the crowd and rack up SEO points, be sure to write longer, more educational, and thought-provoking pieces. Additionally, they should be meticulously groomed to ensure there are no grammatical incongruencies. Bonus points if your content is relevant and engaging!

Speaking of engagement, keep reading to learn the next trend that is on our digital marketing trends in the 2022 list.

13. Improve Your Storytelling Game

In today’s day and age, it is more important than ever to make sure you have a skilled and creative copywriter on your team. Here’s why: Storytelling is an absolute must when it comes to content creation.

Whether you need to produce imagery, videos, or written content, it all has to tell a story!

Why Storytelling?

When it comes to storytelling, we’re not just talking about adding spicy and flowery language to your web copy. Instead, you have to strategically incorporate legitimate storytelling techniques into your content in order to deliver a message that your consumers are open to hearing.

Here’s why.

Long gone are the days where people are open to hearing about how amazing your product or service is. That kind of content focuses too much on the business rather than the consumer’s needs… and people are tired of it!

So, what is one, fool-proof way to capture more leads through storytelling?

Center Your Storytelling Around the Audience

Like all of your marketing endeavors, your content should revolve around your consumers, not around what you are trying to sell.

If you can strategically place the wants, needs, and desires of your audience in the center of the story, then your narrative will directly respond to your audience’s emotional needs. This engulfs them into the story rather than just preaching to them about why they should buy your product.

This digital marketing trend is an absolute must-follow if you want to increase conversion rates in 2022!

14. Partner with Nonprofits

Here’s a positive trend that will make you smile: people are seeking more engagement with nonprofit organizations. In fact, consumers are more likely to support businesses that take the initiative to give back.

If you align your business with a philanthropic mission that helps make the world a better place, you not only build trust and credibility with your customers but will also have a positive impact on your community. It’s a win-win!

One way to include a nonprofit organization into your digital marketing campaign is to offer affiliate marketing and effective product placement into your strategy. This can help you reach new audiences that want to support your company’s mission to do good in the world.

15. Achieve a Position Zero Search

By now, you’ve probably already heard about the featured snippet concept on a Google search. In 2022, Google has plans to incorporate even more AI into its algorithm. This means you can expect to see even more of their ranking results as zero-click searches and featured snippets.

These zero-click searches show up as a suggested paragraph at the top of a search engine result page. This paragraph is called Position Zero and is a highly-coveted spot for businesses who want their page to rank as high as possible on Google. After all, it puts your content right in front of the user!

If you want to score a Position Zero spot on Google, then you will have to really focus your efforts on effective SEO practices in 2022. For starters, make sure your page titles, headings, meta description, and slug are optimized and ready for SEO bots to take you to the top.

16. Voice Activation is the Way of the Future

In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that there are over 40 million Alexa users. Compare that to the 500 million Siri users worldwide, and you will quickly realize just how popular voice-activated digital assistants have become in recent years.

Voice search is rapidly becoming an integral part of peoples’ daily routines, which means you might want to consider optimizing your content for voice-activated searches in 2022!

Optimize for Voice Searches

One way to optimize content for voice search is to choose long-tail keywords that relate to common questions that people may ask their voice assistants.

Furthermore, it is useful to note that the average voice search result is between 25-30 words long because Google prefers quick and concise answers to questions. However, the results are often cherry-picked from long-form content that is above 2,000 words in length.

“Alexa, add this trend to my digital marketing strategy in 2022!”

17. Engage Your Audience with Gamification

It’s no secret that VR, AR, and online gaming have increased in popularity. So, why not incorporate these engaging features into your digital marketing strategy?

This concept is known as gamification, and it is said to be all the rage in 2022! This captivating digital marketing trend is used to increase user experience, interaction, engagement, and even customer loyalty through the form of games.

For example, a business can incorporate a “spin-the-wheel” game on their website that will offer first-time visitors a promotion or discount if they choose to play. Not only does gamification tap into the user’s emotions, but it also provides a new and exciting avenue to offer incentives, promotions, and other information.

18. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

You already know how valuable reviews and testimonials submitted by your users can be for your brand awareness. Along these same lines, all forms of user-generated content, or UGC, are extremely beneficial to business.

Think of it like word-of-mouth. The more people like your brand, the more willing they will be to tell their friends about it. When it comes to UGC, it’s the same concept – but in a digital form instead!

UGC can range from online reviews, videos of people using your product, images posted by users on their own social media accounts, etc.

For instance, if you own a clothing boutique, a fan of your clothes might post a photo of themselves wearing a new dress that they bought from your shop and then hashtag or @ the name of your business in the comments section. This will provide you with free, organic, and positive advertising!

The more you can encourage and harness the power of UGC in 2022, the better brand awareness you will receive.

19. Go Green with Green Marketing

Calling all tree-huggers! This next top digital marketing trend in 2022 is for you!

Green marketing, or eco-marketing, is a marketing strategy that centers a portion of, if not all advertising around environmental sustainability. For instance, green marketing can promote sustainable manufacturing or the use of recycled and renewable materials in products.

As greater importance on sustainability, climate change, and environmental sensitivity is sweeping across the globe in 2022, consumers are placing a higher value on environmentally-friendly practices.

In fact, according to a NielsenIQ report, 90% of millennials showed a willingness to pay more for products that are made with sustainable or environmentally friendly materials. As you can see, now is the time to incorporate a green marketing strategy into your business!

20. Utilize Google Lens for Image Search

Voice searches aren’t the only revolutionary type of search people are going to be using more in 2022. Image search is also growing in popularity!

For starters, ​​Google Lens is an image search engine created by Google that can recognize and then search objects found through your camera app. A great example of this is when you hover your camera over a barcode on a product and a link pops up that will direct you to the product online.

In 2022, Google Lens will let users look up landmarks, buildings, paintings, books, plants, animals, products, events, and so much more – all through a photo captured by your camera! It’s always a good idea to make sure your products and promotional materials are compatible with these modern forms of searches so you can keep up with the trend as well.

21. 5G is the New Name of the Game

Have you heard the news? Many telecom and cellular service companies like AT&T are shutting down their 3G services in 2022. Because of this, many businesses (and consumers, for that matter) have already upgraded to 5G technology.

With 5G on the rise, it is predicted that the technology will power the coverage of 100x more connected devices and bring millions of users into high-speed data lanes. This is a huge benefit for marketers because they can now reach more people through smartphones and other digital devices than ever!

22. Consider a Top Tier Digital Marketing Agency

As you enter into 2022, you might be overwhelmed by all of the new technological advances that are coming your way. You might even be asking yourself, “How on earth am I going to set up my digital marketing strategy to take advantage of all of these new opportunities? Which ones should I focus on?”

This is where a digital marketing agency comes into play.

Year after year, you research the newest Search Engine Optimization (SEO) regulations, the top social media trends, the most recent automation systems, and the list goes on. However, when you have a skilled digital marketing agency on your side, they will do all of the hard work for you!

And the best part? Digital marketing agencies are equipped with an entire team of content creators, copywriters, SEO strategists, web designers, and industry experts. That way, your business will always stay up-to-date and follow the best digital marketing trends in 2022.

Partner with an Award-Winning Agency in 2022

When you choose to partner with a top agency like Chatter Buzz Media, we will help you develop a solid digital marketing strategy that will help your business keep up with the latest and greatest trends coming your way in 2022.

Contact us to learn how our team of digital marketing experts can propel you into the future of content marketing!