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Our experts reviewed the most talked-about marketing trends of 2022 to see what could be learned from them. We found they could be bundled into three categories: The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Here are some common marketing tactics that fall into each category, along with insights about whether you should keep using them or put them out to promotional pasture.
The Good: Online Marketing and Sales Activity Is Still Healthy
The pandemic forced the growth of online marketing and sales.
COVID-19 made most people stay home, forcing them to conduct business online. This move online made all types of companies, including unexpected ones like healthcare practices, rapidly improve their online experiences to meet the unexpected demand.
Once businesses upped their online games, most soon discovered it was a more efficient way to generate leads, close sales, conduct business, transfer records, and more.
The good news: People like doing business online. They continue to do buyer research, shop, and conduct business online even though brick-and-mortar locations have reopened. The continued interest in online commerce has allowed firms to improve their online experiences and make them more efficient. This change is bringing in more customers and lowering the cost of doing business.
2022 saw the promise of e-commerce fully realized, and that’s a good thing.
The Bad: Metaverse Marketing and AI Show Promise, But Businesses Don’t “Get” Them
The metaverse is one of the most significant innovations in technology today. It is a unique virtual environment that has taken over the internet. The metaverse is what many computer experts believe is the next generation of the internet. The concept envisions a single, shared, immersive, persistent, 3D virtual space where humans experience life in ways they cannot in the physical world.
Metaverse marketing was discussed in a big way in 2022 and will be with us for a long time to come.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another term that was tossed around a lot in 2022. This form of machine learning can help determine what consumers are likely to do — and want — next in the digital realm, plus a whole lot more.
The issue that makes the metaverse and artificial intelligence fall into the “bad” category – despite being significant technological advancements – is that most business owners (and many consumers) don’t understand them, much less feel confident leveraging them in their marketing efforts. It’s probably wise to get up-to-speed, so you can be ready for these tech revolutions when they’re fully realized.
The Ugly: The Downfall of Cookies
Businesses have used third-party cookies to track website visits, improve their online user experience, and collect data. Cookies help them serve and understand their consumers better.
Here’s where it gets ugly: All this is coming to an end by the end of 2024.
Businesses that utilize third-party cookies have already experienced changes related to this in 2022.
Companies will have to devise new, creative ways to get website visitors to volunteer their information so they can be tracked and served effectively. You must offer these users something of value, whether it’s personalized content, unique experiences, or individual recommendations, in exchange for their information (and attention).
If you haven’t started exploring your options for replacing cookies, it’s time. The clock on cookies is running down fast!
The Good: Live Content Continues to Boom
Social media marketing is ubiquitous. So much messaging flows through these channels, it’s almost impossible to stand out. One way businesses did this in 2022 was through live video.
All the major platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, support live videos. In 2022, this novel form of video content has changed how businesses interact with the people they’re targeting. They help you promote your brand with more authenticity than other formats afford. You can hide a lot on a highly edited piece of content – and people know it. But you are what you are when you go live.
According to Vimeo, 80 percent of audiences would rather watch live videos from a brand than read a blog post. If you haven’t tried this form of content, what are you waiting for?
The Bad: Increasing Online Competition
As already covered in the previous section, the pandemic forced companies to do business online. In most cases, it has resulted in more — and more efficient — sales. That’s a good thing.
The bad news: In 2022, most businesses refined their digital marketing and experiences and made them super efficient. In many sectors, this rush has made online competition fierce.
This competitive trend promises to continue in 2023 and beyond.
Business owners and marketers should not necessarily view this competitive environment as a negative thing, however. Rather, it should make them want to get into fighting shape. In 2023 and beyond, businesses must be willing to invest more time, money, and effort into their marketing campaigns to retain their current customers and bring in new ones.
The Ugly: Influencer Marketing May Have Peaked
Influencers are leaders or experts in different fields – or highly popular entertainers. Whatever the case, influencers typically have a significant number of followers on social media platforms. Those followers are highly engaged and moved by the content they share.
You most likely know about influencers already because they’re everywhere. If 2022 revealed anything, though, it’s that influencers aren’t as influential as they were in years past.
As people have become aware that most influencers play for pay (whether it’s for the products and services they promote or the content they share), they’ve become more cynical. Consequently, they take what influencers put out with a grain of salt. The field of influencers has also expanded exponentially, making many individual creators less potent on the whole.
That doesn’t mean you should give up on influencer marketing. This tactic can still be powerful when done right, especially if you honestly partner with an above-board and respected influencer. For instance, what could be more potent to a prospective patient than a doctor’s content endorsed by the Mayo Clinic?
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of 2022 Marketing
Use the lessons learned in 2022 to boost your marketing game in 2023 and beyond. The biggest mistake is to not learn from the lessons of the past and to become stagnant, or worse, continue making the same mistakes over and over again.
