What trends dominated the internet over the past year and are only gonna get hotter in 2022?
Can you guess what it is?
Now let’s count down the five biggest digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2022, starting with number five and ending with the biggest one of them all.
Number five, less SEO and more value. So in my opinion, this isn’t so much of a marketing trend as it is a marketing fact. Sorry, not sorry. Over the last couple of years, there was a lot of focus placed on the importance of SEO and webpage optimization.
Make sure you’re optimizing your website or you won’t get any attention and you won’t get any sales. Now don’t come at me SEO peeps, (chuckles) because I will be the first one to tell you that, yes, if you can optimize your website, sales pages and blog posts, for search engine traffic without sacrificing the value of your content and messaging, then that is amazing, you should absolutely be doing that. But here’s the real kicker and what smart marketers already know. SEO is not, and will never be more important than the value you deliver.
So if the content and messaging you’re delivering is valuable in and of itself, that is the number one always, always, always most important thing. And SEO and optimization are secondary. And this is even more true now than ever before, because here’s the thing, right? Those pesky algorithms we know and love to hate are getting smarter and they change all the damn time, which means it’s getting really hard to trick or hack the algorithm and search engines in your favor. So instead of racking your brain on what keyword density will land you on page one of Google, or playing a game of cat and mouse with the algorithm, focus instead on what really matters, your customers and the value they walk away with after visiting your website, right?
Google is prioritizing quality authority content above all else, so this is truly the most important SEO tip of them all and it is a marketing trend that will never go out of style.
Number four, influencer marketing and user-generated content. So influencer and content marketing have been growing steadily for years. So again, this isn’t new per se, but it’s a trend that’s continuing to grow on an astronomical scale.
According to the IPA, no, not the beer, but the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, after the pandemic hit, the advertising industry saw about a 20% decline, whereas influencer and content marketing enjoyed a 46% increase. I mean, consider this for a second, right? Influencer marketing was only worth approximately $1.7 billion in 2017 only, (chuckles) but in 2021, influencer marketing racked in approximately $10.24 billion.
That rate of growth is insane and it is the proof you need that this stuff works, but why does it work so much better than traditional paid advertising? Well, for the simple fact that people trust people, way more than they trust advertisements run by big companies. It’s the good old fashioned word of mouth concept tailored for the 21st century of online connection.
So seeing an influencer or just any other human in general, using a real product in the real life and saying good things about it, is one of the best ways to showcase social proof for any brand or business today. So this year, listen up, take full advantage of influencer marketing and user-generated content anywhere and everywhere you can.
And don’t sweat it, your influencers don’t need to have a following of a 100K in order to be effective. Remember, that virtually any video testimonial you can get from a real life customer, works just as well. So consider asking some of your best customers or some of your clients’ best customers or previous students, for video reviews or testimonials. This is something I do a lot at the Posse and my students are happy to share their thoughts on video, or sometimes even create reels for my Instagram, like these ones here.
Another option is to invite your past customers to promote your product or service as an affiliate.
That way they feel incentivized to talk about and openly promote your products and services because they’ll get a little commission on the backend. The catch here though, is to remember that your affiliates and influencers need to be legit sources, you know, people who have actually taken your course or tried your product and loved it. People who are genuinely excited about promoting your product, will deliver the best results every single time.
Now on to trend number three on my list, LinkedIn is growing. Say what? I know, right? Maybe you already knew this, but LinkedIn has never really been one of the big guys when it comes to social media platforms, mostly because it’s geared towards a very specific market, professionals looking to connect with other professionals. But recently, LinkedIn has been seeing massive growth in it’s active users and platform engagement. Don’t believe me?
Just take a look at these stats. LinkedIn saw a 55% increase in conversations among connections in 2020. Content creation on LinkedIn increased 60% in 2020. And LinkedIn live streams increased by 437% in 2020. Even my very own LinkedIn newsletter, The Right Phrase Pays, saw amazing growth this past year, and I now have almost 75,000 subscribers.
That’s more than I have on my Instagram and Twitter combined. So with the rise of online freelancers combined with the new features LinkedIn has launched, this platform should absolutely be part of your marketing strategy in 2022.
Number two, online events and live video. Oh yeah, baby, making the list again this year, of course you knew I was gonna say this, is video.
This was actually my number one trend last year, and it makes the list again this year at number two and for damn good reason. Online events like webinars, masterclasses, and lives, are one of the most popular ways for people to connect with the brands and businesses they follow, no matter where in the world they are. Video and online events have been on the rise for years, and listen up, 2022 will be no exception. I know, I know this is probably a trend that will be hard for some of you to get behind, I mean, do we really have to put our faces on video to get ahead in this digital marketing age? Well, the data says, yes, you definitely should be showing your face in front of your audience if you wanna stay alive and thrive this year.
Video continues to be the most engaging form of online content. So in 2020, 96% of consumers increased their online video consumption.
Nine out of 10 viewers, that’s 90% of viewers, said they wanted to see more videos from brands and businesses. And it’s estimated that in 2022, the average person will spend 100 minutes per day watching video (chuckles). So copy might be queen and content might be king, but no matter which form of online marketing you’re conducting, video reigns supreme.
So now we’re moving on to the number one trend on my list. Can you guess what it is?
Number one is email, email, email. Remember that massive global server crash that happened back in October of 2021, that took down Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, like for an entire day.
Yeah, for an entire day, businesses, brands, and marketers everywhere were completely disconnected from their online audiences and social followings.
Well, that server crash was a major eye-opener that many digital marketers needed. And that is this, you do not own your social audiences, which means that when a server crashes or worst case scenario, the platform just shuts down altogether, you lose all of those leads, all of those followers, all of those customers, all of those eyeballs, right? Yikes. But 2021 woke us up to the reality that email marketing is currently and always will be the single best way to market your brand or business, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions.
It is better than paid advertising. It is better than social media.
And it is better from organic traffic that you would get from SEO. But don’t just take my word for it.
Here are some stats to prove it. It is estimated that there are 4 billion active email users right now, and that number is projected to go up. Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels, earning on average $42 for every dollar spent.
And if you don’t wanna do the math on that, that’s an ROI of 4200%. And according to MarketingSherpa, email is still the most preferred marketing channel that consumers want businesses to communicate with them through.
Yes, even for Millennials and Gen Zers, they prefer email to social media for brand to customer communication. And not only is email your consumer’s favorite way to communicate with you, but it should be your favorite too, because your list is yours, it belongs to you, it is an asset that you have in your business. So the number one marketing trend that you need to be paying attention to in 2022 and beyond is email marketing. You should be emailing your list on a regular and consistent basis. Now, if you wanna learn exactly how to write emails that sell, make sure to check out my email marketing program, Own The Inbox.
In it you’ll learn about the marketing psychology that gets people to open, click, and read your emails, along with my coveted Posse playbook of 12 emails that create authority, build anticipation, and turn sign-ups into sales. So that you can write an engaging, memorable, and high converting email marketing campaign in just five days. So you can find out more about that program in the description box below. And that is all I have for you today, the five marketing trends you need to watch out for in 2022.