Digital Marketing Trends

The relevance of digital online marketing has grown substantially over the years. Only in the last three years, the interest in internet marketing has doubled to reach an all-time peak in 2021.

The pandemic has nudged more companies to take their digital strategies more seriously, but customers have also reinforced the shift toward digital communications. 

It’s likely a mix of these and other contributing factors making digital marketing solutions the go-to growth strategy for businesses across all industries.

Although the learning curve is steep and new methods pop up regularly, the following marketing trends are stealing the spotlight today.

1. Video content creation on the rise

It’s not just the TikTok craze. Video marketing is possible everywhere: on Instagram and Facebook, not to mention the video-focused YouTube platform, and even LinkedIn loves them. 

Brands post videos on their sites to promote new products instead of how-to articles and showcase their work and case studies. Both sales and marketing teams today leverage short and easy-to-produce videos to engage customers and generate more leads. 

We, humans, are very visual creatures. That’s why videos are the perfect medium for brands to engage customers and inspire interaction and repeat business. When you’re buying those new shoes, you’re much more likely to check out a video review by a satisfied customer to see those shoes in action. 

If you’re after that cheesecake recipe, you’re also much more likely to follow video-based instructions—not only is it highly appetizing, but it also puts each step in the right perspective. 

The interest in video content is growing at a head-spinning rate. The pandemic alone has pushed this trend forward, as 91% of marketers agree that the health crisis has made videos much more relevant for their campaigns. 

In 2021, video ROI was also staggeringly higher than in previous years, as now 87% of marketers reported a positive ROI for their videos (compared to only 33% from 2015):

Besides, producing and editing quality videos today is far more affordable and easy to master. Even if you’d like to learn marketing in home conditions, all you need is a good phone camera, a tool like DaVinci Resolve, and you’re in business. 

The result? The rise of video content creation to strengthen your digital marketing strategy.

2. All eyes on inbound

The pandemic and the resulting increase in remote work have both elevated the phenomenon known as screen fatigue. 

Naturally, too many Zoom meetings and too much time interacting via digital outlets have made people less tolerant of pushy, interruptive content. To meet customer expectations, inbound marketing has stepped in to save the day.

Even before 2020, people’s interest transitioned more to value-driven content that educates and entertains rather than intruding with ads and pop-up offers. The health crisis only strengthened this shift, with people leaning more towards brands that build trust and awareness above all else.

3. Micro-influencers with major impact

Although having several thousand or tens of thousands of followers doesn’t sound “micro” at all, it really is in the world of influencers. Despite the lack of celebrity-level impact, these social media names have become a powerful asset for brands to forge trust-based relationships with customers. 

Working with micro-influencers has reshaped how brands grow their reputation.

Authentic and often unscripted, micro-influencer campaigns are a natural continuation of word-of-mouth marketing on social media. 

Brands love them because they’re more candid and cost-effective, and customers appreciate them because they have a much more close-knit relationship with their audience.

4. Ephemeral paired with permanent

Stories on Facebook and Instagram have a 24-hour lifespan, making them the perfect vessel for inspiring FOMO—the fear of missing out, so pervasive among younger audiences. 

This kind of ephemeral content is helping businesses boost engagement on social media but also gain more site visits through embedded links. 

Knowing that stories disappear after a day, customers are much more likely to feel curious about them. However, keep in mind that people are most active on social platforms during the workweek, apparently needing a break from their chores and stress. 

This is your chance to offer them interesting, value-driven permanent content on the newsfeed to fortify your ephemeral efforts.

5. AI-powered learning and personalization

Whenever you interact with a site’s chatbot to ask for advice, you’re interacting with artificial intelligence. Amazon makes on-site recommendations based on your digital footprint, and their AI helps make more meaningful, person-specific offers. 

Marketers are turning to AI for all kinds of problem-solving processes. So much so that AI is expected to generate up to $2.6 trillion in value over the next three years. Not to mention that the use of AI in marketing has skyrocketed from a measly 29% in 2018 to a staggering 84% in 2020. 

AI-based tools and deep-learning apps speed up the learning process and data analysis. They help marketers and sales experts make better forecasts, recognize emerging trends (much like we’re doing now), and personalize the customer experience.

AI is not designed to replace us. It’s meant to help reduce the time-consuming menial work prone to bias and human error and help us focus on creating more meaningful experiences for customers. 

6. Performance must prevail

With faster internet connections and better phones, we’re getting more impatient by the day. It means your customers don’t want to wait that extra second for the page to load, nor do they have the patience to scroll through a site not optimized for mobile.

So, before you move on to producing videos and writing brilliant blogs, make sure your site works smoothly for every user on every device. Consider this an evergreen prerequisite rather than a seasonal marketing trend.

7. Hey, Google, what’s all the fuss about voice search optimization?

You’ve finally decided to make that delicious cheesecake, and your hands are messy from making the base from butter and cracker crumbs. But you have no clue what to do next. So, naturally, you yell at your phone. 

Smart assistants, both as standalone devices and on our phones, aren’t that new, but they’re quickly changing the SEO landscape. We’re using longer phrases in question and instruction form to browse, and search engines are adapting accordingly. 

With the vast majority of customers favoring voice queries over typing, marketers are taking notice. Your content needs to be optimized to reach people conducting voice searches. Otherwise, you risk falling behind those who do.

Best ways to generate leads

One of the top goals in digital marketing today for any growth-oriented business is to generate new leads. That said, it’s not about the quantity of generated leads. It’s about their quality – hence the term qualified leads.

A qualified lead is someone truly interested in what you’re selling and is therefore highly likely to convert into a customer. Of course, it’s up to you to generate a qualified lead using the right digital marketing solutions and attract the best potential customers in your industry.

To do this, you need to know your audience and understand their interests, passions, and values, as well as the problems and pain points they are trying to overcome. You also need to take into account the critical lead generation statistics and trends, like the fact that video can generate 66% more leads in a year.

This is the only way to create and optimize fantastic lead generation tactics that will bring new customers to your business.

Now, lead generation comes in many forms, and you should use inbound lead generation tactics primarily to appeal to the younger generation of consumers. But it doesn’t mean that you should neglect outbound lead generation altogether.

Based on the trends we just discussed, we can identify some of the top-performing lead generation strategies for 2022 and possibly beyond.

Even though artificial intelligence will play an important role in the future of lead generation technology, it will be up to you to create and implement the following solutions.