The landscape of marketing is constantly changing, and you’ll need to be up-to-date on those changes to make the biggest impact. There are several marketing trends that will define success in 2022, including video marketing, content marketing, analytics, and social media. The new year will also continue with a focus on customer needs rather than selling a product. Read on to learn more!

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Video Marketing

You’ll regret missing out on video marketing later if you don’t implement it soon. Videos are often easier for people to process quickly, and video content can allow you to engage and connect with your audience more effectively. Using videos in marketing is also a smart move in terms of reach and visibility. For example, YouTube videos reach more 18-49 year olds than any cable network in the US.

Videos quite literally put a face to your brand while building trust and helping the audience get a better understanding of your products or services. You can also use SEO keywords in video titles and descriptions to increase visibility. This marketing trend promises to be one of the top strategies in the future. 

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Written Content Marketing Remains On Top

Content marketing is still king. SEO (search engine optimization, sometimes also referred to as keyword optimization) is a big part of this, but another draw for potential customers is the value you provide to them through informative and entertaining content. Providing this free value to prospects builds credibility over time and frames you as an authority on your industry’s topics.

On the flip side of that, potential customers can be turned off by low-quality content. Whether it’s an article infused with grammatical errors or simply unhelpful information, content marketing that doesn’t hit its mark is liable to cause problems for your business. Invest in content marketing that will showcase your value in an effective and attractive way. 

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Analytics

Trying to market without data analytics is a lot like trying to impress a manager that has never shared their expectations of your job position—nearly impossible. Without data, you never really know if your efforts are making an impact, and you could potentially be blindly throwing your money away with nothing to show for it.

This is why data analytics, metrics, and KPIs (key performance indicators) are so important. They tell you where you stand and how your marketing efforts are going. If you’re making an impact, you’ll know because you’ll see it in your engagement rates, sales numbers, and revenue. If you’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way, you can fix it quickly and monitor your progress. Analyzing your data also helps you track customer behavior so you can make more strategic business decisions as you grow.

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Social Media

Social media is another well-established marketing tool that will be even more impactful in 2022. Coming into the new year, brands may want to consider readjusting their approach by storytelling rather than trying to make a hard sale. Social media is more visual than ever, which is why brands should invest in creating high-quality visual content like images, videos, and infographics to catch the attention of customers. 

Live content like TikTok, Reels, FaceBook Live, and other forms of social media are expected to increase in popularity. In fact, one source shows that going live on Facebook resulted in 15 times more engagement than traditional video posts.  

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Focus on Customer Needs, Not Selling

As noted above, the focus for marketers will center more on storytelling and relieving customers’ pain points than on hard selling. This is because, as we move into the future, the focus of marketing will be customer needs instead of the product or service itself. Now that companies can better understand their customers, they can build better relationships with them. Ultimately, this leads to brand loyalty and more revenue in the long run. 

The goal posts are shifting from product-pushing to customer-centric marketing. People don’t like dealing with salesy posts and pitches. To make an impact with your product, focus on the features your customer will look for and then show how your product suits their needs. Building trusting relationships is the key to marketing success in the future. 

Instead of looking at marketing in the traditional “funnel” sense, many marketers are now starting to think of it as a flywheel, with growth at the center driven by attracting, delighting, and engaging prospects, strangers, promoters, and customers. The flywheel model illustrates why a focus on needs and customer satisfaction is far more rewarding than a sales funnel. 

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The Bottom Line.. 

As we step into 2022, written content marketing and video marketing will remain integral to your marketing strategy. Data analytics continues to be a reliable way to gauge what’s important to your customers and fine-tune your marketing efforts, while social media keeps you at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. Marketing efforts are shifting from a focus on selling to a focus on customer needs and satisfaction.

Effective marketing requires a great deal of research and time. If you need help with your marketing strategy, partner with Madak. Let us do the marketing for you so you can focus on what’s most important to you: making your vision a reality.