It seems like yesterday we saw drastic disruptions in marketing due to COVID-19. The pandemic changed the way we worked, forged new habits, and pushed digital to the forefront, shaping consumer behavior for years to come.

Significant trends that will impact marketing in 2022-2024 include:

Virtual events

Gone are the enormous in-person conferences of yesterday. Virtual conferences will become a mainstay with increased spending on social media and other platforms. We are seeing massive growth in technology-driven event platforms. Airmeet, Hopin,  Hublio, and VFairs are just a few of the leading event platforms in the market. I’ve personally used Hopin, and I have to say that I was impressed. The experience was seamless.

These platforms take the destination conference experience and recreate it in a virtual environment. They offer custom branding, team management, online registration, keynotes, choice of sessions, networking opportunities, vendor expos, tech support, recordings, real-time analytics, and much more. 

Marketers will have several opportunities to consider the event timeline and promote their brand before, during, and after the event.

Aligned content

Think of content as your 24-hour sales team. Your audience’s time is valuable. Regardless of what marketing channel or platform you use to communicate – keep it simple and to the point.

Customers are used to self-service experiences, and those experiences are growing. Providing easy-to-access answers, information, and interactive tools to create an exceptional user experience is crucial.

Capitalize on and integrate the marketing channels owned by your brand for your content strategy and speak to your audience in a genuine way that connects with them. Be conscious of who you are talking to and what platform to tailor that message to the audience. It’s also essential that your “WHY” aligns with your audience’s values authentically and genuinely.

Lastly, a strong SEO strategy is crucial to getting found online.

Marketers will find alternatives to third-party “cookies”

In January 2020, Google announced its plan to block third-party cookies from the Chrome browser by 2022 and replace them with Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), a “privacy-first” and “interest-based” advertising technology.

Because third-party cookies drive a lot of online ads, publishers and brands will need to adopt new strategies for connecting with consumers.

Currently, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for replacing cookies. Still, some of the top contenders are Identity solutions, Contextual advertising, Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and first-party data collection. Marketers can benefit from testing all these solutions to see which works best with their website traffic. Snigel is one solution to access all these options.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI will predict whether an influencer’s “influence” will improve or deteriorate. With AI, brands can better analyze influencer audiences to align with their brand and make more informed decisions.

Marketers will be able to leverage historical data from influencers and use that data to make critical decisions. Algorithms will decide what incentives are most effective for an influencer and when.  

In many instances, brands will also be able to automate the entire contract process. For example, AI can identify an influencer’s likelihood of breaking a contract or NDA before they even sign and prevent infringements before they happen. Marketers will have expanded abilities to contain their brand’s products and campaigns and monitor competitor products.

By analyzing potential ROI from hundreds of angles: influencer-brand combo, seasonal trends, benchmarks, content, and more, brands can automatically adapt to the influencer’s uniqueness and choose the best content for each influencer campaign.

Mobile-first marketing

Technology, remote workers, and the need for work-life balance are pushing businesses to prioritize mobile apps and mobile web capabilities over desktops.

To keep up with the growth, we are seeing in mobile commerce, adopting a mobile-first marketing approach is the best way to capture and cultivate new online clientele.

Omnichannel marketing

The most effective marketing strategy in the mobile age is omnichannel-marketing because it gives marketers the ability to leverage a broad range of touchpoints such as social media, chat, content marketing, email, SMS, webinars, digital and print advertising, and more to deliver a consistent customer experience.

5G technology

The increased use of 5G technology will expand data-driven experiences that were previously unavailable due to bandwidth and speed limitations. As more consumers update their devices, we will need to adapt to 5 G’s increased bandwidth, enabling high-definition VR experiences and 4k streaming video and high-speed data delivery.

Conversational AI chatbots

Chatbots that respond to customer questions and mimic human interaction through a combination of pre-programmed scripts and AI will continue to expand. Chatbots will make reservations, and appointments, provide 24/7 support, streamline customer service, and quickly answer frequently asked questions through an ever-growing database.

Marketers will be able to glean information about consumers as they interact with chatbots, leading to future marketing opportunities and increased engagement.

Voice search

By 2022, 55% of all US households will own a smart speaker. Voice search allows consumers to use virtual assistants like Google, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana from mobile devices. 

In 2022 and beyond, SEO strategy will be vital in considering conversational styles, abbreviations, and more to include voice search into your marketing plan successfully.

Location-based marketing (aka geomarketing)

Location-targeted mobile ads are becoming more prevalent. These ads are designed to deliver location-focused ads to consumers on the go. Targeted mobile location ad spending is slated to surpass $32 billion before 2024 in the US alone. Geomarketing is highly effective in cutting through the clutter to meet consumers’ needs when that need is prevalent.

Geomarketing includes:

• Geofencing: Generates a specific radius around a physical location where targeted ads are served to attract customers.
• Geotargeting: Targets audiences based on past visits to particular locations to deliver relevant content and ads based on these locations to create effective marketing campaigns.
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• Geoconquesting: Creates targeted audiences from visitors to competitors to lure those visitors to your business. For example, through mobile coupons.

Social messaging

Conversational marketing has become popular through social messaging apps such as Facebook and Instagram Messenger, Facebook Business Suite, WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business. These apps provide a forum for marketers to communicate directly with consumers.

A communications platform can help marketers efficiently organize and manage conversations, allowing the marketer to have conversations through multiple channels easily.

Opportunities in the gaming industry

Increased digital sales and distribution force publishers to prioritize digital distribution when setting their marketing strategy in the gaming industry.

As business models evolve, they are driving changes in consumer behaviors. Marketers need to understand what gamer behavior indicators to measure to augment that data into their marketing efforts to reach the audiences who are likely to spend.

We’ll also continue to see the rise of gaming as a social forum and immersive space. The popularity of content creators and live streaming video game watching is growing across many demographics, creating opportunities for brands to engage with new audiences.

As the gaming industry shifts towards digital, it will become easier to build closed-loop marketing strategies with easier access to more granular data. 

Cloud gaming platforms will disrupt the traditional routes to market for publishers with the promise of Amazon and Netflix-style access to libraries of instant games. Marketers need to understand which platforms are best for acquiring gamers and keeping them engaged. 

Marketing to Generation (Gen) Z

Gen Z was born between 1996 and 2010. They grew up with technology (internet, smartphones, social media, and other digital technologies).

Using the same marketing approach, marketers have used with millennials will not work for this racially and ethnically diverse, savvy, and value-conscious generation. This generation is bold, creative, and drawn to brands with clear values, a strong mission and vision, engaging, inclusive, providing access to online communities, and genuine.

Need help with your business, brand, marketing, or communications strategy? Book your FREE 30-minute Business360 Method Strategy Session with Tammy!