Today it’s no longer possible to imagine a successful brand operating only offline. That’s why digital marketing plays a crucial role in the promotion of a company. The main thing is to keep up with all the trends. Here’re 10 trends companies will have to follow in 2022.
No More Cookies
Google has announced that it will stop tracking Cookies in early 2022. It’s not a convenient change for brands, but it’s a timely one. Users are increasingly concerned about how securely their data is stored and handled. Some sites already have a feature to disable third-party cookies. But soon that won’t be enough.
Brands need to switch to first-party and even zero-party cookies. First-party cookies implies receiving data when the user is on the company’s own website, and zero-party cookies is a practice where users provide data themselves, e.g. in a survey format.
Gamification
Gamification is the introduction of game elements in the work of sites. What makes live dealer NationalCasino games or PC games fun, addictive, and engaging can be used in marketing to increase customer loyalty, brand awareness, and sales.
One of the most accessible examples is the points system. A user can earn points, for example, for registering, adding reviews and comments. Points can add up to a personal discount or other bonuses. Another uncomplicated option is a tournament table for the most active users, which adds a competitive element.
Quality Moves to Quantity
In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay called Content is King. And this statement has been relevant for a long time. But times are changing. Thousands of pieces of content are being uploaded every day, and it is no surprise. So now the new king is quality.
To build your reputation and gain customer loyalty, it pays to work on useful, informative content. It is not necessary to publish posts every day. It’s better to share quality content less frequently and make sure it’s relevant, interesting and useful to users.
Dialogue Marketing
In 2022, everyone has to hone their storytelling skills. Consumers don’t want to hear a listing of key features of a product or service. They’re interested in hearing a story about how that very product helped someone solve a particular problem, or about the emotions users are experiencing.
Many brands still use ornate descriptions. What they lack is vitality, real stories that show what a product is good for.
Search Without Clicks
Users don’t always click on the links offered to them in the search results. Sometimes all they need to do is browse to the null position, a block of information about the query that appears above all the other results.
The challenge for businesses is not only to optimize the headlines on the site so that their content shows up in the null position, but also to get users interested enough that they still click on the link and keep reading.
Local SEO
Having a Google My Business account with a location increases the chances that a brand’s site will show up in searches with the word “nearby,” such as “movie theater nearby” or “barber shop nearby.” Besides, consumers immediately see key information about the company: hours of operation, address, rating according to other users. Information about products and special offers can also be posted here.
Voice and Visual Search
Voice assistants are still popular. So, when creating content, it’s important to use keywords that users can use when asking Siri a question. This way, the site has a better chance of ranking high in search results.
Today another trend is developing: users can upload an image and get information about the object in the picture. For example, from a photo of a plant you can find out about its biological species, from a photo of a landmark you can get a historical reference, and from a photo of a product you can get similar offers. Therefore, it is advisable to add good quality photos and keywords with descriptions to the site.
Web Design for Smartphones
For a couple of years now, smartphones have been ahead of computers in terms of Internet traffic. Simply put, people are more likely to access the Internet from smartphones than computers. This does not mean that computer users can begin to be ignored, but it is worthwhile to start using the principle of mobile first when creating websites. This means that the site should be first of all convenient when viewed from a smartphone. To do this, you can engage in development, focusing on a smaller screen.
Increasing Loading Speed
Slow loading is the main reason why users leave the site within a minute of opening it. Even if the delay is only 1-2 seconds, it can have a negative impact on conversions.
The good news is that sometimes achieving an increase in loading speed is quite easy. For example, it is worth checking the size of uploaded images and, where necessary, compress them to 100 KB. You can also reduce the number of internal links with redirects.
User-generated Content
User-generated content is key to audience trust. 79% of users state that user-generated content strongly influences their purchase decision. From this point of view, it is 9.8 times more effective than Influencer marketing.
User-generated content doesn’t have to be complicated or overly emotional – it can be a product review, a comment on a brand blog, or a Q&A session where people can communicate directly with the company. You can get high quality content for your website. Better quality content will improve your digital marketing strategies. You will surely discover better traffic and potential customers.
By connecting users to create content, the brand gets to build a stronger, longer-term relationship with its audience. You can search for user-generated content by brand name, or you can ask followers on social media to share content using a specific hashtag.
