Digital Trends for 2022

The digital space is constantly—and rapidly—evolving, and it seems the like the pace of transformation just gets faster over time. The challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have ushered in digital strategies that are becoming the new normal, and by all indications, the trend will continue in 2022.

For your digital marketing strategy, evolving trends mean that you’ll need a more agile approach than ever before, built on a foundation of understanding the anticipated changes in the ways that people interact with digital content. To help you prepare, consider these digital trends that our experts at Salem Surround expect to see in 2022.

Hybrid, Hybrid Everywhere

Lockdowns, quarantines, and closed offices spurred a new way of doing business in the age of COVID-19, and these changes don’t seem to be going anywhere. Increasingly, companies are seeing the benefits of a hybrid workplace culture, in which employees can work and attend meetings remotely and only come to the office or travel on business trips when necessary. This digital approach to work is becoming a powerful recruitment tool, allowing companies to bring in top talent regardless of location and to increase employee satisfaction while reducing overhead costs by cutting back on office space and travel expenses.

For your marketing efforts, hybrid events can be an important part of your plan. Customers have similarly become conditioned to attending virtual events, so hosting hybrid, or even virtual-only, events can help you grow your customer base. For example, if you want to debut a new product, you could host an in-store event that has a digital component for people who can’t attend in person, to maximize your reach.

AI and Influencer Marketing

Connecting with an influencer who is relevant to your market to promote your products and services can be an effective way to connect with customers. The impact of influencer marketing as part of an overall digital marketing strategy is clear, but in 2022, expect to see AI, or artificial intelligence, combined with influencer marketing for even better results.

There are many ways that AI can be used to enhance influencer marketing. One such benefit is using AI to identify appropriate influencers who appeal to your customer base. Allowing AI to watch influencer videos and track interactions with those videos may help you identify impactful influencers much more effectively. AI can also be helpful for performance-based influencer marketing, in which companies only pay influencers after a campaign is over with pricing based on the number of sales they generated. AI makes it simple to track these numbers, thus turning the traditional influencer marketing model, in which influencers receive upfront payment regardless of the outcome of the campaign, into one that offers a much better return on investment.

5G Expansion

5G capability is quickly expanding around the globe, with an explosion in availability expected in 2022. With about twice the speed of LTE data transfer rates, 5G will make mobile devices more powerful than ever. In the years building up to the release and growth of 5G technology, experts have anticipated it having a revolutionary effect on the way that people use their smartphones and other mobile devices.

From a digital marketing perspective, the speed of 5G may require you to consider new kinds of content. Video will be easier to view on the go than ever before, so expect companies to lean into video content creation to market their products and services. This change will likely only increase the number of people who use their mobile devices exclusively to shop and research services, so optimizing your website for mobile will be even more critical.

Virtual Assistance Services

If your company hasn’t embraced the idea of having a virtual assistant on standby to help customers, 2022 may be the year you can’t avoid it any longer. Thanks to AI, virtual assistants have become much more capable of delivering a good customer experience, even allowing you to customize the personality of your chatbot to match your brand.

Virtual assistants make it much easier to meet customers’ needs as they encounter your brand by filtering them automatically to the right place for help and answering questions quickly and efficiently, so customers don’t have to wait. Additionally, because the expansion in 5G means more customers will also use voice search shopping in 2022, virtual assistants are a great way to enhance that experience.

Continued Growth in Content Marketing

Content marketing is a cornerstone of effective digital marketing, and its impact will only continue to grow in 2022. Content marketing helps to establish that you are an expert in your field and keeps your name in front of customers who are likely to be in the market for your goods or services. A schedule of regularly published content that gets shared online is a great way to boost your SEO and make sure customers see your brand. Whether you’re writing for a consumer audience or addressing B2B clients, great content gives you a chance to show off your expertise without going for a hard sell.

In 2022, expect to see the power of content market get even larger, particularly for brands that incorporate other digital trends into their work. For instance, creating more videos to go with your written content will let you benefit from the expansion of 5G with shareable, engaging videos that customers want to see.

At Salem Surround, we always have our finger on the pulse of digital trends, so that we can help our clients stay one step ahead. Don’t get left behind by digital trends in 2022. Let one of our experts help you build a digital marketing strategy that surrounds your customers online, so that your brand is exactly where your customers are on the web. From social media engagement to live chat and everything in between, our pros can design a strategy that works for you. Take the first step towards refreshing your digital marketing journey today by calling us at 1-844-277-5797.

 
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