The rate of how fast technologies are changing each day is daunting, yet liberating with new opportunities. It’s more important now than ever to stay up-to-date with technological changes and keep your digital marketing strategies current. Here are the top 5 Digital Marketing trends of 2022.

1. Mobile is Crucial in your Digital Marketing Strategies

You probably noticed the importance of mobile phones and the time consumers spend on their mobile devices every day. On a daily basis, we’re taking in a vast amount of information the digital age provides. And yet, some businesses aren’t implementing this valuable knowledge in their digital marketing strategies. It is crucial to strategize your marketing efforts with mobile in focus. From mobile-optimized website designs to mobile marketing elements, mobile strategies will be a top priority for marketers going forward.

Before testing ‘new’ mobile strategies, such as utilizing text to send reminders to customers, make sure your existing digital assets are mobile optimized. I mention ‘mobile-optimized’ and not ‘mobile-friendly’ because, if it is not optimized to achieve your specific goals, your digital marketing efforts are being wasted and not reaching the maximum potential.

2. Quality Content is Now a Must

Whether you get your world news from the Internet, TV, or daily papers, these news media companies essentially control the conversation of the day, week, and month. In communication studies, they call this media framing. Media framing can simply be described as the angle or perspective from which a news story is told. While the news is often thought to be objective and value-free this is rarely if ever the case.

So what is the best way to control the conversation in front of your prospects and customers? The answer is quality content. Take control of your industry topics and create helpful, authentic, and interesting content. Depending on your target demographic, the type of content can vary from a well-written blog post to Instagram story videos to podcasts.

We know “Content is King” and there is a reason why. Creating quality content provides diverse benefits to your digital marketing efforts, which include: steering conversations, managing brand images, and boosting SEO rankings. Every business should be focused on creating quality content and think like a media company.

3. Chatbots Will Dominate Customer Service

Chatbots. What are chatbots? Think of it as an A.I customer service representative that responds to your customer's questions and comments. Chatbots are a great way to engage, answer questions, and even close sales. This can help manage time and resources, allowing your business to focus on other tasks while the chatbot does most of the common grunt work.

When the chatbots are set up correctly, it’s hard to tell if you’re speaking to a computer or a real person. It’s quite amazing actually. However, I want to stress the importance of making sure these chatbots are set up correctly. If it isn’t, it can create a negative experience for the customer. In addition, implement an option to connect to a live agent in case any unforeseen technical difficulties arise.

To start, you can launch a Facebook chatbot to engage with your customers. Create an engaging and fun way to start the conversation. This helps to get the conversation started as the customers need to initiate the chat. With an average open rate of about 80%, chatbots are far more effective than email, making them a unique channel for businesses not to ignore.

4. Reviews Can Make or Break Your Conversions

Organic traffic from search engines still proves to be one of the top sources of web traffic for many businesses. This means great search ranking and search result presence are crucial. While there are various factors that go into your organic search ranking, the number of reviews you have (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) is a key factor.

Furthermore, 50% of adults under the age of 50 regularly check online reviews before making a purchase. So, not only are reviews important for your search ranking, but they can also be the deciding factor for a sale.

5. Videos are Now an Essential

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that video content is a valuable medium. In fact, 1 in 4 consumers loses interest in a company if it doesn’t have any video. Great video content is effective in keeping the consumers engaged, getting the message across more efficiently, and achieving better conversion as a result.

You don’t need an expensive camera or a film crew to start creating great video content. Get started with engaging Instagram/Facebook story videos and posts. If you’re in the business of selling physical items, you can also entice your customers to create unboxing videos. But always remember to produce quality over quantity.

As you get more familiar with the process, commit to creating at least 3 videos a month focusing on 3 different objectives and goals you want to achieve with the video content.

Now that we covered these 5 digital marketing trends, assess your digital marketing goals, pick a trend and start executing today.

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