Over the past two years, we've seen the marketing landscape change as it never has before. Here's a primer on what you can expect in the future, and how we can help you achieve best marketing practices in 2022 and beyond.
Having relevant content is, well, just as relevant as ever. Is your marketing customer journey centered? Are your SEO keywords painstakingly targeted? Are you able to track your marketing campaign results? As we make our predictions for how the marketing technology landscape will transform in the New Year, here are some changes and strategies we have observed.
The Shift from Outbound to Inbound Marketing
People want to be helped, not sold to. With the exception of touching Christmas ads or flashy Superbowl commercials, when's the last time you were on the edge of your seat waiting for an advertisement? 2022 is calling for a shift to inbound marketing like never before!
Inbound marketing is an umbrella term used to refer to advertising strategies such as pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO).
The Rise of Content Marketing
In general, content marketing uses the company’s own resources like blog posts, articles, videos, etc., to reach out to potential consumers/clients and give them valuable information. In the current market, consumers want to BUY products, not BE SOLD them. You'll be able to rise to the top of Google by providing useful, informative content that helps people solve their own problems. Learning how to leverage influencer marketing will also give your strategy a boost.
Organize Around the Customer, Not the Channel
Content marketing has become an important part of any digital strategy because consumers expect companies to provide them with relevant information at every stage of their buying journey. You need to focus on organizing yourself around the customer journey instead of focusing on channels. Each piece of content should be written for the purpose of increasing sales or improving customer satisfaction. It also means that every touchpoint from email to social media to app must be designed for one thing alone: To help people get closer to their goals.
In order to do this well, marketers will need to build out a robust content strategy that places consumer experience above all.
SEO is about the RIGHT content
Search engine optimization is one of the most foundational tools in your toolkit. And we know, we know: you're entranced by your sleek and informative website. But as we head into the New Year, have you made sure that your content is optimized for mobile search as well? Even the best SEO strategies can fall short when mobile apps or searches aren't honed. Also, make it a habit to use keyword research to ensure that your content matches the consumer's intent. Search engines will pass over highly-detailed pages in favor of less optimized pages which align more closely with users' intent.
SEO goes hand in hand with PPC (pay per click) advertising, which is vital to increasingly important inbound marketing. Inbound marketing techniques place your company’s products/services in front of potential buyers when they're most interested — not just once but multiple times throughout their journey. People want to be helped, not sold to, and these practices will help to make the consumer experience more intuitive and drive more traffic to your site.
Digital Ad Regulations and Restrictions We Face
The ongoing drama with Facebook--excuse us, Meta--has made consumers jumpier than ever about the handling of their data. Their attitudes toward privacy issues are largely influenced by all the media attention they've seen surrounding GDPR and CCPA laws. This is your opportunity to empower consumers and build trust with them by giving them more choices and controls over how they use their personal data. By asking for permission before collecting consumer data, your brand will merit a more positive perception and more importantly--reliability.
NFTs Crypto and the Blockchain
Believe the buzz around digital assets: Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are equipping content creators with more power than ever before. Still, scratching your head when it comes to NFTs? To put it briefly, non-fungible tokens are assets that cannot be easily replaced by another one. They're unique because they represent something specific like artworks, collectibles, real estate, etc. As these tokens gain traction, brands are bringing NFTs into their data-driven marketing approach.
How does this concern you? Some companies are using nonfungible tokens to both market their products and generate revenue from them. Let's not forget how Pizza Hut sold a pixelated pizza slice in order to promote its new menu (and will now receive 1% of each of its sales from now until eternity).
Pack a bigger marketing punch by learning how to leverage these digital assets!
The Return of Direct Mailers and Street Teams
Stop believing that print is dead, and start gaining the advantage on those that do. You might be asking how direct mail marketing still works, and that answer lies in the advantages! When it comes to the new year’s marketing landscape, see how you can reinforce your CTA and drive customer responses by using digital mail previews that are linked to physical mail pieces arriving in mailboxes. With the low threshold of competition and the interactive nature of physical mail, you have more room than you think to maneuver higher conversion rates.
The Importance of Full Saturation Marketing
As a full-service marketing company, we can appreciate taking a holistic approach to marketing more than most. For all of the importance of niching down, it is equally important to create skillful plans of attack from multiple angles. From advertising and online communications to direct marketing and public relations, all activities within an integrated marketing campaign work together to ensure that the customer has a consistent experience across channels.
Therefore, if you want to reach your target audience through different mediums, you need to make sure that you are reaching out to them at every possible opportunity. If you don't, then you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers.
Diversity Marketing and How to Get it Right
"Diversity" is one of the biggest buzzwords of the decade, and the momentum isn't slowing down. Diversity Marketing means recognizing the different characteristics of people who belong to certain groups, such as race, ethnic background, religious beliefs, disabilities, ages, genders, etc., so that we can tailor our messages to them.
In order for an organization to be successful at creating diverse content, it must first understand its audience’s cultural background. Don't make the mistake of having a target market that's too narrow--honing your diversity marketing strategies will help your brand to reach a much larger audience.
Tracking Email Campaigns Effectively
Once you've learned how to write strong emails for your business, you'll want to learn how to track and measure their effectiveness over time. Email marketing campaigns often include multiple components such as an opt-in form, landing page, and follow-up emails. Understanding which of these different elements affects conversions helps marketers improve their conversion rates. If you're not sure whether something works for you, interpret your results to see if there's anything else you could be doing to improve them further.
Trying Out New Marketing Strategies
So, how can companies adapt and align themselves to these new demands? If you haven't already, consider taking the plunge into more interactive marketing messages. Experiential marketing involves engaging consumers by providing them with an experience they’ll never forget.
Whether that comes in the form of enhancing the experience with technology, strategically using partner locations, or other twists on traditional marketing, experiential marketing provides a memorable experience that can lead to increased sales.
Conclusion
Sound like a lot to take in? No worries! We are a full-service marketing company offering services in website/app design, UX/UI design, SEO, social media management, domains, and hosting, and we are more than happy to help you on your way.
Rest assured we will be digging deeper into each of these topics in the coming months with additional blogs and other partnerships. The new marketing landscape is the Wild West, and we're ready to ride. Coming, partner?
In summary, these are some key takeaways:
- Content marketing is king.
- Inbound marketing is the new black.
- SEO is no longer optional.
- Digital marketing is becoming more complex.
- Mobile is the new desktop.
- Social media is evolving.
- Data is the new currency.
- Brands are shifting away from outbound marketing.
- Consumers want to be helped, NOT sold to.