COVID-19 has changed the way that many businesses work and has sped up the process of transferring into digital media for those who were yet to do so.

With each coming year, digital marketing gets more complicated, but where is digital marketing headed in 2022? 

Here are 5 top digital marketing trends to be aware of this year…

Video Marketing

Video marketing will be one of the biggest marketing trends of 2022 and is exploding across all audiences. 74% of marketers in a recent survey advised that video has a better ROI than static imagery.

The rising number of moving ads, video channels and live streams are generating superior engagement across markets. Social and video commerce offer a direct journey for the consumer. If you are a business looking to grow, videos may be your best bet.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is still very relevant in 2022. It’s a great way for a brand to bond with its potential audience and appear more humane. There are thousands of ways you can implement influencers in your digital marketing strategies.

Some marketers use influencer marketing to establish credibility in the market, others to create social conversations around their brand, and others to drive online or in-store sales of their products. Therefore, the value that influencer marketing creates can be measured in multiple ways.

Influencer marketing derives its value from 3 sources:

• Social reach: Influencers can reach millions of consumers through their social channels and blogs.
• Original content: Influencers produce original, and oftentimes effective, marketing content for the brand.
• Consumer trust: Influencers maintain strong relationships with their audience, who have a certain level of trust in the influencer’s opinions.

Make Use of Micro-Moments

Micro-moments occur when people reflexively turn to a device – increasingly a smartphone – to act on a need to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something, or buy something. “I want it NOW.” That sounds like something a toddler in the terrible twos would say, but it’s also what today’s buyers are saying.

Showing up gets your brand in the game to be chosen, not just seen. By being there at these “moments”, your brand has the chance to address consumer needs at the perfect time and help move them along their decision journey. In these moments, consumers’ expectations are higher than ever. Because of today’s technology, we expect brands to immediately deliver exactly what we’re looking for when we’re looking. We want things right, and we want things right away.

1 out of 3 smartphone users has purchased from a company or brand other than the one they intended to because of information provided in the moment they needed it. That’s why it’s so important to talk to your customers or listen to online discussions in your industry to figure out when, where, and how they’re researching and making purchase decisions to make the most out of your online ads.

Personalise Your Message

For best business, you have to pay attention to personalise your digital marketing message and deliver it at the right moment. 

Personalised marketing, also known as one-to-one marketing or individual marketing, is a marketing strategy by which companies leverage data analysis and digital technology to deliver individualised messages and product offerings to current or prospective customers.

With advanced tools, you can create different ads or campaigns, and divide users into categories based on where they are located etc. When creating ads, you can’t just target all your followers. You have to think of different customer types that might be interested in your products and find out what their preferences are.

Social Commerce

Social Commerce will become seamless in 2022. This year is set to see the experience of social shopping evolve as platforms work behind the scenes to enable customer payments without leaving social media apps, creating a seamless customer experience. Gen Z and Millennials are predicted to be the biggest spenders as they will account for 62% of global social eCommerce revenue by 2025.

The key to driving engagement is for brands to put time into presenting their shop windows on Instagram. It’s no longer enough to rely on one great image, companies need to have multiple images per product and add keyword-rich descriptions.