In 2022, the marketing world is set to change. This blog will outline what these changes are expected to be and how they will affect marketing efforts.
The End of 3rd Party Cookies
Lots of businesses are working out how to gather data without 3rd party cookies. It is no secret that the future of the internet will be very different from today. There are countless different directions that it can go in, each more unpredictable than the last. What is certain is that third-party cookies are on the way out, and so from this knowledge, you should be preparing accordingly.
The good news is that internet marketers are still currently able to use third-party cookies and will still be able to for at least 6 months from the date of this article. As such you should be able to reverse engineer what data you do have of your customer base, create a contextual image of the consumer and work out what your audiences look like and how to better tailor to them.
While 3rd party cookies are being removed, remember that 1st party cookies will still be usable. Therefore, streamlining and improving your customer’s immediate site experience will still be possible and if anything will become one of your main focuses as a digital marketer.
As digital advertisers, we should always be asking ourselves “what if the market changes?” or “what if international policy changes the way my business operates?”. These things are inevitable and the landscape is always changing. Instead of viewing this change as an annoyance, we should instead view it as an opportunity as all other agencies will be facing the same problem.
So instead of feeling like it’s the end of the cookieverse, it should be seen as the birth of a potentially new and vibrant (but also challenging) marketing world. Ultimately the way to go is to concentrate on more basic down to earth marketing strategies to decrease our reliance on vulnerable technology. To see this as an opportunity rather than a negative.
The Rise of Push Notifications
More websites are encouraging their visitors to subscribe to get notifications from them about the latest news and new product releases. Website push notifications can appear on an internet user’s devices, including a desktop. With push notifications becoming increasingly common for companies to use on their websites, this poses a challenge to marketers.
Firstly, when should a company implement push notifications? If you are a company that is already contacting your visitors regularly (via SMS or email marketing), you may want to consider switching to push notifications. Not only is the user engagement greater (according to PushEngage, push notifications have an average open rate of 20% compared to less than 2% average for emails), but you also get instant reactions. Think about how long it takes for you to read a notification on your phone compared to the content of a new email in your inbox.
Marketers must also consider the type of push notifications they are sending and how regularly they are being sent. Being a relatively new digital phenomenon, there remains little research into the optimal number of notifications to send to a user within a certain time period. Users do not want to be inundated with notifications otherwise they will be more inclined to turn them off. With the character limit being strict on these notifications, more emphasis is placed on copywriting. It should effectively capture the attention of the device user so that they click it.
Change in PPC Advertising
With the increasing importance of 1st party cookies rather than 3rd party, the landscape of digital advertising is having to rapidly adapt. Soon ETA’s will be a thing of the past and AI-driven PPC ads will become the norm. Only those who are able to adapt will be able to thrive in this fluid environment.
Google is promoting their automation systems as the future of online advertising with their new responsive search ads (RSA’s) and dynamic search ads (DSA’s) being the harbingers of the oncoming AI revolution in digital marketing. If you are in this industry then learning to get used to these automated systems will be fundamental to your agency’s survival.
Naturally, this all means giving Google a great deal of power, so it is up to you as the advertiser to ensure that the content you put forward is of high quality and represents your brand in the best possible way. In many ways, this is all positive, as it means Google will now be responsible for the heavy lifting, and you can focus on the content and campaigns to a much finer degree.
Further on in this blog, we will discuss the importance of diversification in your agency and how to engage with experimental approaches and social media. Remember to be malleable and take risks, adaptability is the most important trait you can have for you and your agency.
Increase in Voice Shopping
With the rise of voice assistants in the home and workplace, more are turning towards voice shopping. This, as a result, leads to more impulse buying. As marketers, our ads and content marketing must be tailored to this trend and adapted appropriately.
When searching via voice assistant, people tend to use longer-tail keywords than when searching by text. As well as this, searches are more likely to be locally driven, which means there should be more of a focus on local SEO if you want to build a website that will give virtual assistants the answers they need and appear in featured snippets.
Shorter Written Content, More Video
Blogs and online written content under 1,000 words are becoming the preference for most website users. With more video content than ever, many web users are becoming less inclined to read long-form content. In 2022, it is estimated that 82% of global internet traffic will come from video.
Our marketing can be tailored to this by advertising on video streaming platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. TikTok is now a bigger website than Google, with more traffic and over 1 billion monthly active users.
Ad Blocker and Influencer Marketing
More people using ad blocker poses challenges to marketers trying to get through to get their message across and reach potential customers via paid advertisement. Most advertisements are blocked by web users as they find them interruptive, distracting, or making the web pages load too slowly.
Marketers must therefore work to put out advertisements that are timely, will be well received by web users, and not blocked. One of the most popular ways of doing this is by using influencer marketing. Influencers advertise products or services and this sponsored content reaches its target audience in an organic way, bypassing ad blockers and appealing more to both client and customer.
Content Marketing is *Still* King
Content marketing is always a priority for marketers. It is an organic way of sharing content to attract customers to visit a site and buy their products. The companies and websites that build the best online content have a better chance of reaching a wider, more diverse online audience.
With increased opportunities for more diverse content on different platforms, content marketing is going to continue to grow in terms of its importance. Content is scalable, adaptable, and manageable. It is easy to adjust the format of a piece of content marketing to suit a different audience or try a new strategy. It is also easy to personalise content to match a company’s brand and offer something unique.
Green Websites and Marketing
With more people than ever before being environmentally conscious, online efforts need to reflect this. More companies are making green websites, with green web hosting and content that works to cut down on the energy a website uses. Over 60% of potential customers said they’re more likely to purchase from a green website.
As well as the switch to green websites, green marketing must also be considered. Green marketing means being transparent about everything. From where products are made, to how they are being promoted without having a negative impact on the environment. Alongside this, more people are becoming aware of the need for ethical marketing and business.
If you are looking to keep your business ahead of the marketing trends this year, talk to us.
