Marketing Trends For 2022 – Part 2

We see the trends expected to emerge or continue to grow in 2022 in 4 main categories – Marketing Concepts, Social Media, Search and Content.

In Part 2 of our Marketing Trends for 2022, we are looking at the third and fourth categories for the main trends going into next year – Search and Content. Marketing Trends For 2022 – Part 1, took a look at the first 2 categories.

We might be a bit biased, but we believe that search and content will continue to dominate as the foundational must have’s for any business to get found online in the coming year and the foreseeable future. There is no substitute for producing great content that draws visitors to you!

Some key updates, changes or further developments we expect to see in each category include:

Search

As with all other areas of your marketing, the biggest shift in SEO this year will be further honing in on user intent and providing an exceptional user experience. This shift will be required because Google will be refining its algorithms to continue weighting the intent of the searcher and signals that they found what they were searching for.

Google bots are becoming more sophisticated and can determine the content that is genuinely helpful and not just created to satisfy search terms and algorithms.

Speaking of things Google will continue to weigh heavily when indexing and assigning authority, website speed and mobile optimization are no longer great to have or one of many ranking factors – they are THE ranking factors that cascade into most of the others and determine if Google considers your site and content to be accessible and high quality. User’s experience on your site is everything when it comes to search rankings. Speed and mobile optimization are expected and you appear to be falling very behind if you haven’t tackled these core issues.

Local SEO has been very important for businesses looking to attract the attention of potential customers near them but it is now becoming more and more important. Hyperlocalized search terms will get you more traction in the Maps area. You can also consider location based marketing where your ads are shown to those within a certain geographic range of your location. With the right demographic and audience size, this can pay off big dividends!

Voice and visual search will also continue to grow this year meaning now is the time to start considering how voice search is different from typed search and how your visual content can be optimized to appear in search results. Voice searches tend to be longer in nature and question based. Consider more conversational based content that answers questions when strategizing to capture those using voice search.

Watch for our upcoming blogs breaking down each of these concepts with practical advice on how to apply them in your marketing.

Content

Like everything other category this year, the biggest impact on it will be the further focusing on the experience of the user. No category will be disrupted more than content because your content is the key to a great online user experience.

From the first search term typed to the time the user is looking for support for your product or service, they are coming into contact with your content. What you say on your website, the resources you make available, email marketing, social media and literally everything you create and publish to inform customers needs to be focused on THEM, not on YOU!

Resist the temptation to talk about you, but even more important is to resist the temptation to create your content with ranking or solely conversion in mind. Yes, you need to consider these factors but content that truly satisfies the needs of your users will always rise to the top, especially now as Google refines its algorithms to look for solid user experiences more than ever. Even the social media platforms are tweaking how they deliver content to favour what audiences want and what works best for them.

And what works best for the user?

Solution focused content that hits their underlying emotions rather than just serving up logic and basic information. Dig deeper into your customer personas and understand their emotional needs, what drives their decisions and purchases and why do they buy what you are selling. Focus your content on providing these answers and you’ll be well on your way to mastering amazing content!

Some other key content tips are:

● Video, video, video – We can say this enough, just produce and publish more video!

● Visual content rules – On top of video, other visuals such as memes, infographics, Reels, Tik Toks and great images are all great to incorporate into your content.

● Lives – This is expected to grow exponentially this year so consider offering live sessions on social media channels or opening up your podcast recordings to live Q&A. Be sure to capture this content and share it across channels and where it can have the greatest impact.

● User generated content – Nothing gives a great referral better than content that your users create and share with you. Videos using your products, tags when they are talking about your services or visiting your business and so much more. You can get really creative but the point is to engage your customers in a way that is shareable with the rest of the world.

The phrase “Content is King” isn’t going anywhere this coming year, but as marketers, we are being called to get deeper and better at creating content that our audiences place a high value on.

We’ll continue exploring each of these trends in social media and the other key trend areas in our blog and on our podcast over the next few months. Be sure to follow, subscribe and stay tuned for more!