Digital Marketing Trends in 2022

The last year has been a period of great changes, which will undoubtedly influence the trends when it comes to implementing digital marketing strategies in 2022. Changes in Google's algorithm and SERP, the metaverse or the prospect of a world without cookies have been the main changes that have taken place for marketers. 

Digital Marketing Trends 2022

This year is being a particularly important year in terms of digital strategy, especially with the situation we are living. There is a saturation of products without differentiation, being able to find the same thing in hundreds of stores, whether they are small, medium, let's talk about Amazon or Aliexpress. This situation means that, in order to differentiate ourselves, we have to put much more effort into developing a good brand experience strategy.

Below, we will discuss several of the trends in digital marketing. 

1. The metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), virtual reality and augmented reality breakthroughs

It's been a long time since we've heard of Second Life. You may even have wondered what would have become of this project that was so much talked about in the mid-2000s. All it took was for Facebook to announce its name change to Meta and declare its intentions to make a strategic commitment to this format for marketers to pay attention to this issue.

The metaverse is a digital reality that we will access through special devices, such as virtual or augmented reality glasses, in which we will be able to interact with other users. Each of these users will have an avatar (their character in the virtual world) and will interact through objects in immersive worlds.

We are talking about a second digital reality in which we will be able to interact with our friends, work with our colleagues, enjoy our partners and even have a job in the digital space.

And just as the metaverse is a parallel digital universe where we can find everything, you also have to anticipate and think about how you can use it to make your brand known and sell your products. It's all to be done, but there are already brands doing things.

2. Welcome to a world without cookies

The changes in legislation to guarantee and protect user privacy, along with the measures taken by Apple and Google in its Chrome browser to increase user privacy, have brought us head over heels in recent months.

Some advertising platforms like Facebook's have been seriously affected and we have seen remarketing audience sizes and audiences decrease, conversions drop and their automated sales and conversion-oriented bidding algorithms compromised.

In this sense, in 2022 we will bet on first party data. In addition, we will have to invest in the management and unification of the data we collect from each user and begin to settle the future of a world without cookies.

On the other hand, we will also see how Google and Facebook, who are already working on this, offer us alternatives. However, it remains to be seen whether they will be as effective as they have been so far.

3. Featured snippets in Google searches

Google will continue to be central to digital marketing. This year we have seen one of the biggest shifts in the SEO industry. With the growth of mobile and voice search, users are changing the way they use search engines like Google. Being number one on SERP results pages is no longer necessarily the goal to aim for.

You've probably noticed that your own search and browsing behavior has changed over the past few years due to Google's changes and the fact that we search for information faster when we're on the go.

Featured snippets and other information in SERPs mean that you no longer need to click through to a website to get the information you are looking for. It's right there on the Google search results page.

This information can appear in many places, but the most searched position is right at the top of the page, before the list of organic pages. More than 60% of the search results returned by Google are now featured snippets.

4. No-code automation in marketing

Tools to program automated processes for the marketer are becoming increasingly intuitive and give marketing teams complete independence from teams of programmers. In 2022, the degree of automation and sophistication of automations will increase thanks to these tools.

In addition, not only sequential automations will no longer be used, but also per-user automation based on events and the journey that follows. All this with the aim of creating unique and personalized experiences.

5. CRM evolves in 2022

On the other hand, digital marketing trends in 2022 point to a change in brand-user relationships. The use of social media communication channels (Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, for example) as CRM tools will appear as a complement to email marketing campaigns to accelerate the passage between customer interest and desire in the customer journey and contribute to closing the purchase.

If we want to bet on first party data, we need a complete and integrated view of our users' interactions with our brand. This is why customer data platforms appear as an evolution of CRM that allows us to integrate a total view of the user and our brand across all devices and media, providing a single, integrated view.

When managing a large number of inbound leads, it is not only very useful to establish lead scoring processes agreed with sales, but also the use of sales enablement tools so that the leads enter into sales cadences automatically. This will minimize the overload of the sales department and, at the same time, improve the speed of lead processing. 

In addition, email marketing will also adapt to the demands and preferences of users with greater interactivity. 

6. Omni-channel marketing: one of the strongest trends.

This is one of the digital marketing trends in 2022 that has become more relevant. Partly because the various digital platforms we use are increasingly interconnected. But there is also a new technology on the horizon that could accentuate this change: 5G. Although it has already begun to be implemented, during 2022 it will take full force, with many changes in online marketing channels.

5G will enable larger formats, both in terms of video and images. That will drive the move to much more visual campaigns. At some point, email marketing will start to allow video integration as a standard.

The pandemic has driven the evolution of digital marketing, forcing many companies to take it more seriously and invest more in digital visibility. This has led to increased competition and more expensive digital media buys. With these digital marketing trends you will be able to differentiate yourselves from the competition.