In the digital marketing world, trends change at the speed of tech. Data-gathering and cookie policies shift by the quarter. Social media audiences evolve by the year. And there’s always a new search engine optimization strategy ready to increase your site traffic.
Because we’re in the business of saving you time and energy, we’ve summarized the top digital marketing trends we expect to rule the web in the second half of 2022 (and beyond!).
Ready to cut through the noise? Check out these 3 hot digital marketing trends:
1. Digital Marketing Trend #1: Consent-based marketing
Consent marketing allows consumers to share as much (or as little) personal data as they want. They’re given the option to opt in and opt out of your email list with ease. They can choose to have a highly personalized paid ad experience, or block tracking altogether.
At first glance, it may seem like consent marketing is ineffective. Won’t everyone just opt out of your campaigns??
Consumers are overwhelmed by constant advertising— on their phones, on every website, and even on their daily commutes. The more marketing noise a consumer hears, the better they become at tuning it all out. And that’s exactly what makes consent marketing all the more powerful. It’s marketing they choose, and in turn, hear.
As it turns out, when consumers are given a choice, they almost always choose personalized experiences over data-blocking. In fact, according to a recent Sailthru and Coresight report:
- 80% of consumers will gladly share personal data to earn customer loyalty perks
and
- 70% of consumers will share their data to get discounts and offers
Further, treating their data with respect is now a top brand loyalty factor among consumers. Asking for data, and using that data respectfully, not only ensures your customers pay attention, it improves your overall loyalty.
Gathering your own consent-based first-party data may take a bit of extra effort, but the payoff is clear: More engaged customers, better personalization, and marketing that actually gets through!
2. Digital Marketing Trend #2: Personalized marketing
This digital marketing trend goes hand-in-hand with consent-based marketing.
Personalized marketing makes every single customer feel understood, valued, and tailored to. And it’s another powerful loyalty builder.
In a survey from the Wise Marketer, they saw a 110% YoY increase in the number of respondents who cited “the ability to understand me as an individual” as a factor in their brand loyalty. In other words, personalization is an increasingly crucial element of strong digital marketing strategies.
What does personalized marketing look like? Emails that speak directly to your customers’ pain points. Targeted ads that show up at just the right time. Custom emails and videos that address your customers by name. A website that adapts overtime as your customers become more engaged in your brand. These are all great examples of marketing that doesn’t talk at your audience, it engages with them.
3. Digital Marketing Trend #3: Storytelling
And not just in B2C marketing! B2B companies are increasingly leaning on the power of story to build a brand that resonates with other businesses.
Why does this trend work? As our attention spans get shorter and shorter, stories have an almost magical (but actually, psychology-based!) way of engaging consumers and drawing them into the vision.
Story paints the picture of life before your product or service, and the aspirational, successful life they’ll experience after they engage. And the most powerful brand stories (think Rolls-Royce, Peloton, or Nike) leave little up to the imagination!
We expect this trend to play out in a few ways:
- More unedited customer stories. Brands will post videos of real customer testimonials on their social platforms and website.
- More user-generated content. We’ll see a rise in companies asking for and promoting videos and posts their customers create.
- Less focus on benefits, more on aspirations. Marketing messages will shift away from features and benefits-focused copy. Instead, we’ll see more language around success, aspirations, and the positive future customers will have with this product or service in their life.
Ready for an on-trend digital marketing strategy that gets results?
At MediaSpark, we use current research and data to build tailored strategies that drive visible results for our clients.
When you’re ready for a new marketing team, give us a call! We’ll work with you to develop a highly effective, data-backed strategy that gets your amazing offering in front of your dream customer. To start the conversation, click here!
