Digital Media Trends (2022) to Help You Keep Your Finger On The Pulse
The last thing you want is to sit back without doing anything and anxiously watch your competition take big strides. Does not sound too good, right?
More so when technological advancements have brought technology to your fingertips, you ought to harness the power of the digital world to stay ahead of the curve.
Believe it or not, a great way to jump-start your success journey is to stay relevant to all marketing trends. The idea is to expand your market reach, connect with the target audience, entice prospects, and boost conversions. Leverage the following exhaustive list of top digital media trends 2022 to get an edge over the competition.
Table of Contents
Popular Digital Media Trends 2022
With the rapid explosion of the Internet, what sets you apart from the competition is the way you leverage technology.
Stories
Did you know that stories are going to be the future of digital media? Given the rising popularity of social media Stories, it would be a mistake not to include this feature in your bigger marketing strategy to grab your share of the audience.
The Stories feature on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat presents your business with new opportunities. It has become easier than ever to interact with your target audience in real time, leveraging every second of the day to build connections.
On social media, Snapchat was the pioneer of Stories. Facebook and Youtube have joined the Stories bandwagon along with Instagram and Twitter Moments. Skype Highlights feature is no different. Of all social marketing platforms, Facebook and Instagram lead the pack. Instagram offers different ways to capture a video. You can get creative with simple text and stickers.
In order to make the Stories feature work in your favor, it is critically important to provide true value for your audience. So your focus should be to inform, educate, and entertain with an eye on boosting sales and conversions. Social media stories offer your business a branding opportunity while keeping the audience engaged.
Leverage the multimedia format to show prospective customers how your products or services fit into their lives.
The Stories feature promises to transform your social media reach and enable you to access an already interested audience. The best digital storytelling strategy is focused on striking a balance between quality stories and simple real-time experiences that establish a connection with users.
With the advent of social media stories and the exploding number of social accounts using this feature, it will be a cardinal sin for your brand not to explore the world of visual content.
Young Arabs are social media savvy, just like their peers in the West, who prefer to look for news on Facebook and Twitter to television. Facebook alone has 164 million active users in the Arab world while 12 million users log in to Snapchat everyday in the Gulf region.
Sociallystorted statistics reveal that there are over 450 million active users spread across Instagram and Snapchat Stories, and WhatsApp Status.
Internet Advertising
There are plenty of options when it comes to online advertising. From Instagram to Facebook and other social media platforms, you have a range of options to gain traction in the online marketplace.
Your choice of an Internet advertising channel depends on your specific business and target audience.
Facebook users are everywhere, with over 2 billion users every month. The company statistics claim that one of every 5 minutes is spent on either Facebook or Instagram, its sister site. Paid advertising is one feature that best serves your interest to expand your reach and get in front of a wider audience.
Paid ads have a higher chance of appearing in a user’s feed. Let people discover your brandeasily and spread the word about it. Facebook also features display ads that can be inserted into user feed as photos, videos, or slideshows. It is even possible to advertise in the Messenger app.
With more than 500 million users of which 60% include daily active accounts, Instagram can positively impact your business reach. It is a visually appealing platform, where you can grab eyeballs with eye-popping photos and interactive videos.Besides pushing content on Instagram, you might do better with a clear vision, knowledge of the target audience being consistent. Combine these elements and you can harness the potential of Instagram to deliver remarkable results for your business.
It will help to incorporate trending hashtags into your Instagram posts and expand your reach. Leverage the power of visual storyboards and build a loyal following on Instagram.
Inspire conversation in order to create interest in your target audience on Twitter. A mix of images and content is more likely to convert. So try to create visually appealing content and back each post with one or two relevant hashtags. Post your tweets at the right time when your target audience is likely to be online.
Engage with your audience, improve customer experience, monitor brand, and measure results. Additionally, you could opt for paid ads on Twitter. Promoted tweets are part of a daily campaign that targets your potential audience. These tweets are more likely to appear in the feed of users not following your account.
Twitter is one of the best online platforms to interact with customers and encourage word-of-mouth marketing.
Believe it or not, LinkedIn is a powerful business marketing tool that gives a purely professional touch to all of your business-related conversations on the platform. The world’s largest professional network gives you the best tool to build yourbrand image online. In LinkedIn, you have the right tool to showcase your products and services and keep the target audience updated with the latest news of launches and special events.
Use your company page to provide just enough information forthe prospective audience and entice them to do more research themselves.
Leverage LinkedIn ads to spread the word about your business, increase brand awareness, and generate leads. You may create LinkedIn ad campaigns to push forward your marketing goals.Keep a constant watch on your LinkedIn analytics to make data-driven decisions for better results.
YouTube
YouTube is the second most popular search engine online. It would be a mistake not to include YouTube in your marketing mix to increase sales and boost conversions.
Your YouTube marketing strategy should be based on reaching out to a wider audience through optimized, engaging, and interactive videos that provide value for your audience. Focus on producing quality video content to dramatically improve your chances of reaching a greater audience.
Post new content regularly at the appropriate time when your video has a higher chance to reach out to a huge audience, allowing the search engine time to index the same. This ensures that the video reaches the right viewers at the right time when they are more likely to watch.
User-Generated Content
Harness the power of user-generated content (UGC) to boost sales. One of the most popular digital media trends, UGC may include reviews, testimonials, comments, and ratings. The Nielsen Consumer Trust Index figures show that a majority of consumers make their purchase decisions based on organic, user-generated content compared to traditional advertising. UGC is believed to be unbiased and created by users, so it is seen as social proof of honesty and authenticity of a brand.
So it is a good idea to encourage users to leave feedback on your product page, website, social media business profile, and third-party sites. See negative reviews as an opportunity to build trust and make your customers feel heard and valued. This is the right way to generate interest, expand reach, and get an edge.
Automated Messaging and Chatbot
From data collection to lead generation, chatbot software and marketing automation tools make life easier for marketers. In fact, chatbots promise to be vital players for the marketing industry. With automated messaging and chatbots, it is easier to deliver timely support to customers and prospects, personalize brand messaging, and improve engagement. However, while automation is effective and you can automate messaging to save time and help customers get quick answers,your focus should also be to solve customer problems.
There should always be room for human agents so most critical customer queries get solved, without frustrating them with bots and automated messaging. Leverage features that incorporate both automated and live responses. This allows you to transition back and forth as and when the need arises.
Immersive Technologies
Amid the rising distrust of brands, the need to develop an affinity with prospects cannot be overstated. Additionally, there is a rise in digital expectations and a fall in attention span. This calls for a blurring of boundaries between the virtual and physical world.
This is where immersive technology can come in handy.
What is immersive technology?
Well, it is the kind of technology that tries to emulate a physical world through simulation, thus creating a sense of immersion.
Branded immersive experiences are evolving at a fast pace. Realizing the importance of delivering a unique customer experience, brands are coming up with unique stories. Leverage immersive technology to supply a 3D experience to engage the target audience at a deeper level.
A type of immersive technology, virtual reality has a bright future ahead. In the digital marketing space, it’s set to become a major driver of brand engagement. It is a kind of experience that shuts out a user completely from the real world. Users are able to experience real and imagined scenario.
Statistics show that the same content presented in VR and 2D gets a 27 percent higher engagement.
Remember, an emotional connection with the audience is more likely to click and drive them to act. They are more likely to memorize your brand and at the same time spread the word about it.
Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality for Your Business
A brand that can directly connect with customers, address their pain points, and keep pace with technology can easily survive the competitive race. With the advancement in technology, customers desire change. A brand that keeps pace with those changes stays in the memory of customers that are happy to spread the word about.
Augmented reality (AR) is becoming increasingly popular as a marketing tool for brands to provide customers with unique experience and influence their purchase decisions. The proliferation of smartphones has given brands another powerful tool in the form of augmented reality to drive sales and enhancethe brand value.
AR is the ability to weave digital elements into reality and perceive a live view on the camera to personalize the experience. About 63% of customers see the transformation of shopping experiences through the integration of augmented reality in marketing.
Snapchat Filters are a typical example of AR. You can use technology to overlay digital images of any character onto your face in Snapchat. If you wish to see clouds and stars, just move your phone around for such an enriched experience.
Pokemon Go is another example of AR. You can walk around your neighborhood moving your mobile phones to find Pokemon overlaid on the surrounding environment.
Virtual and augmented worlds are evolving to create experiential marketing opportunities as more and more consumers are getting inclined to perception stimuli.
Contrary to augmented reality where customers can experience the real and virtual world, virtual reality tricks the brain into believing the computer-generated environment through touch, senses, and sound. The headset is an integral part of the VR kit. Typically, the headset creates a barrier between the virtual reality and the real world.
VR offers a great marketing opportunity to entice customers into a product or service through a completely immersive experience. The management team can leverage VR’s realistic simulations to train staff on using a costly appliance.
Video Marketing
Video is speedily taking over the world by storm. It is integral to your marketing plan. Getting started with video production is easy and cost-effective, thanks to the influx of smartphones. You can create a high-quality video with your mobile phone, without the need for expert help.For startups, it can’t get easier than this. You can save money by creating engaging, interactive, and quick videosto expand your reach.
There are plenty of options in video creation, from onboarding videos to customer stories, brand videos, demo videos, educational videos, and meet the team videos, you can create a personalized customer experience.
Some of the popular video editing tools include Doodly, VideoMakerFX, Animaker, and Powtoon, among others.
Live video marketing
Unlike a normal video promotion, live video is a marketing tactic to interact with viewers and offer them an exclusive behind-the-scenes peep into your business. With a live video, you can draw higher engagement rates. Statistics show that live videos are more popular with viewers, who love to spend 8.1x longer time compared to a normal video.
There are many options to engage viewers in live videos, from live-stream interviews to events and presentations. You can always encourage viewers to ask questions.
Tap into the social media live stream and engage your audience better.
Influencer Marketing and Micro Influencers
One of the most powerful marketing tools, influencer marketing is all about using key brand advocates to spread the word about your products or services to the larger market. Instead of marketing directly, you may choose people with large social followings to influence your target audience and get out the word for you. People are willing to trust familiar people more and expect to receive an honest opinion, unlike celebrities that rave only because they are paid.
This type of marketing is a cost-effective way to influence your audience in an organic way and boost your Instagram accounts and sales. Statistics reveal that 51% of marketers vouch for influencer marketing as a means to influence customers. This includes micro influencers, and consumers trust word of mouth more than brand advertising.
Since micro influencers are more accessible for your target audience, they influence a wider audience and interact with their followers regularly. Higher interaction and engagement gives micro-influencers thumbs up in being the focus of your marketing strategy. In doing so, you can join the bandwagon of competitors that have already realized the potential of micro-influencers in influencing purchase decisions of the target audience.
About 40% of Twitter users admit to having made a purchase after a Tweet from a micro-influencer.
Create Good and Enticing Content
You cannot post hundreds of articles online and wait for the conversions to happen. There is more to content marketing than publishing articles alone. What is more important here is the quality of the content. Do you create informative, engaging content? Does your content inspire interest? Does your content connect with the audience and provide value? Do you try to address customer pain points through words?
Harness the power of the word to set yourself as a leader in the industry, who has all the answers to customer problems. Amazing content optimized with the right keywords will drive you more traffic. Try including infographics in each of your content pieces to make your page stand out from the crowd. Remember, when words do not appeal, visually appealing content can.
Then you should be aware of the right way to market your content. Social networks are one of the most popular channels to drive engagement through quality content.
Email Marketing, Newsletters & Automation
Email marketing continues to be one of the most popular digital media trends 2020. If you thought email is dead, you are gravely mistaken. Rather, you cannot ignore the power email marketing to build relationships with leads, customers, and prospects. It is the best tool to speak directly with your audience and even connect with past customers. Believe it or not, email is the primary communication tool used by more than half of the global population.
The number is only likely to increase in the coming years. Email marketing is a relatively inexpensive promotion tool for small businesses. You can leverage email automation tools, suchas Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign, to improve the relevancy of your marketing campaigns. If consumers take a specific action, you can use workflows to automate messages.
For e commerce businesses, email marketing is all the more important. Sending timely messages to the target audience can deliver amazing results.Rather than sending bulk emails to everyone on your list every day, it makes sense to send messages targeted to specific groups of customers at crucial points in their buying journey. Such trigger emails are based on consumer purchase behavior.
Mobile Marketing
There is an influx of smartphones everywhere. If your digital marketing campaign is not optimized for mobile when the whole world is shifting to mobile, you might lose out in the race. It all starts with making your website responsive and creating mobile-friendly optimized content. Statistics reveal that 41% of mobile users prefer texting to talking over the phone.Connect with the audience at a personal level and try to find answers to their questions.
Since mobile is proliferating, it does not mean you can ignore desktop users. There are still many consumers that prefer desktop to mobile. So you cannot neglect desktop while creating a marketing campaign. It’s all about allocating the budget correctly.
One underrated and undervalued marketing tool is WhatsApp that has a huge potential to increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversions. With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp Leverage the tool to get close and personal with customers because messaging is the new normal. However, it is important to use WhatsApp in the intended market.
Statistics from Nielsen’s Facebook Messaging Survey reveal that 67 percent of WhatsApp users prefer to use chat more for business communication. Additionally, 53 percent are more likely to do business with a brand they can chat with directly.
Design Your Own Ads Easily
Technological evolution has made it easier for users from non-technical background to create your own ads through user-friendly tools and templates. You do not need any design skills to make the most of this feature. Some of the most popular tools include Canva, Stencil, DesignBold, Fotor, etc.
Canva – You can create beautiful custom designs and publish anywhere with Canva, converting raw data into visually appealing graphs. The easy-to-use graph maker enables you to quickly make beautiful graphs or diagrams.
Stencil – It is one of the simplest image creation tools for online marketers. Create eye-popping images within seconds and increase engagement. Leverage the tool to create email images, graphics, and social media posts.
DesignBold– Create an awesome design in an instant with thousands of trendy DesignBold templates and leverage them to generate interest.
For ecommerce business,PlaceIt is a great tool to preview your designs on different products, such as T-shirts, mobile, books, laptops, etc.You can create a mockup of a post with different dimensions.
Reporting on a Clear Dashboard
Did you know that you can have your reports ready automatically in a dashboard without asking anyone to send you one manually (to avoid wasting time and discrepancies while exporting)? It is fast, safe, and reliable. The setup might be tricky for some people. If you wish to harness the power reports and analytics connect with me for instructions or consultation. You can drop me an email to omar@nsouly.com.
Tools
Supermetrics: Imagine being able to access all of your marketing metrics at one place? Perhaps, Supermetrics is the #1 reporting automation tool, which works as a simple figure extractor from all ad/campaign managers for SEO, PPC,social and web analytics. The tool enjoys best-in-class integrations with popular social networks and marketing platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Uniformity: Similar toSupermetrics, Uniformity shows figures in an easy-to-read dashboard, which is great for businesses that have online ads running on multiple channels.
Google Data Studio: It’s easier than ever to convert piles of data into interactive data visualization art. You can easily sync data fromGoogle Analytics, Ads, spreadsheets, and Big Query.
Google Analytics: Get quick reporting results with Google Analytics that shows the big picture. The all-in-one analytics tool is another name for effortless reporting, with all your data in a single place.
Cyfe: With its all-in-one, single dashboard, Cyfe offers one of the best reporting tools for marketers and advertisers. The tool is easy to integrate with most social networks, CRM platforms, and analytics. Cyfe goes a step further in compiling a dashboard with all of your statistics, showing how changes in one could impact results everywhere else, that too, without the need to log out of any tool.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the most popular digital media trends 2020. Did I miss out on any popular trend? You are welcome to post it in the comments. If the article was insightful enough, do not hesitate to leave a comment. I would love to hear your suggestions.2
