As we already know, marketing trends come and go. They are continuously changing as businesses attempt to adapt better to new technologies and respond to market movements.
It’s no longer just about making a big statement or producing attention-getting content. It’s MORE! Businesses must then interact with prospective customers in meaningful ways, establish a reputation as a reliable source of information, and cultivate those relationships after making target audiences are aware of their existence. Long story short, businesses have to build trust and strong connections with their customers!
When so many people are engaged with coping with the effects of the global pandemic on their lives, that’s a lot to ask. In this environment, brands would be smart to take advantage of emerging marketing trends that promise to provide them a competitive advantage.
We wanted to see what the trends for 2022 would be, so we did a bit of research. Here here are 6 tendencies that will impact marketing this year!
1. Let’s talk about the relationship between brands and influencers!
We’ve already seen a lot of brands collaborate with online influencers in order to endorse their products! That happens especially on social media platforms, where the influencer and the target audience can actually interact.
These are not one-time deals, but actually long-term campaigns, that can make people more connected. They have the chance to get to know the brand and the product more.
As Danielle Wiley from the Sway Group says, longer-running campaigns that use influencer expertise and credibility over time will allow brands to develop more authentic connections with their audiences.
2. E-Commerce with a Personal Touch
As Goran Paun from ArtVersion says, all businesses who sell online will need to use experiential e-commerce. To meet user expectations, they’ll need to use dynamic, engaging, and highly personalized paths across the board, from stores and subscription sites to software as a service platform. Brands are looking for consumer attention, and experiential e-commerce will become victorious during this time.
3. Interactive Content Is Taking Off
Buyers are becoming increasingly self-supporting in their search. As marketers, businesses should take this into account and make things easier for their customers. Businesses may need to devote more time and effort to keeping prospects interested and assisting them in finding what they are searching for, thus the rise of interactive content could be a trend to watch out for in 2022.
4. Pages with a Long-Form “Guide”
As Peter Boyd from the PaperStreet Web Design says, the best pages will come out on top. Everyone is writing long-form “guide” pages. As a result, this puts them in the best possible structure, and making them legible and shareable will be extremely important. Those who can make their pages entertaining will win, and their Web presence will be more successful.
5. Social commerce
in 2021, retailers ranging from Walmart to Saks tested social commerce on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. This trend will continue in 2022 because the brands strive to reduce the time between discovery and conversion.
“It allows advertisers a whole new approach to get their products in front of potential customers,” said Steve Pogson, e-commerce strategy lead at FirstPier.
6. Gender neutrality
In 2021, several brands, such as Old Navy and Pacific Sunwear, released gender-neutral clothing collections. This inclusiveness movement is still very strong. There are also other movements that people find really important, such as the body positivity one, where brands promote products for all body types that exist, not just for standard sizes.
Indeed, Damien Buxton, the managing director of a web design firm called Midas Creative, says that he is expecting to see more companies that will avoid using traditional gender roles in their marketing to avoid alienating their customers.
He stated that both household and individual dynamics have changed and that they will continue this transformation process. In addition to that, Damien Buxton said that marketing will become more gender-neutral, with less emphasis placed on preconceived beliefs about people’s gender and what they should see.
TAKEAWAY
We believe that these marketing trends are not going to die soon, so it doesn’t hurt to try them all and see what fits best for each business! As Milan Kundera used to say, “the business has only two functions – marketing and innovation”.