When it comes to building brand recognition, connecting with your audiences and keeping up with your competitors, digital marketing is key. We turned to the digital marketing experts at Forbes to learn about the top trends that will drive digital marketing in the year ahead.
- Email is a high priority: CMO of Litmus, Melissa Sargeant, says personalization, automation and privacy have contributed to the prioritization of email. Litmus recently released a report confirming that email has become marketing’s most important channel, with 91% of survey respondents stating that email marketing is critical to their company’s success. More than 40% of companies plan to increase their investment on email marketing in 2022—we couldn’t agree more!
- Say goodbye to loyalty: Loyalty programs will be replaced by membership programs. There’s some psychological thinking behind this; people crave being part of something, and membership programs help provide that. Rather than needing to entice customers / audiences to join loyalty programs, the perceived added value that memberships offer will be so compelling that people are willing to pay to join (think Amazon Prime).
- Always look forward: While reflection will always be beneficial in determining ROI, direct access to consumers and real-time analytics make foresight key to keeping up with customers’ needs and feedback.
- Discounts are on their way out: Digital marketing has expanded how brands offer value, trending away from simply offering discounts that don’t keep customers / audiences around long term. Instead, unique selling points and specific offers based on what they know shoppers want will take the place of blanket discounts.
- Data shift: As shoppers’ data is becoming more protected, first-party data (which is data about a company’s customers that is collected and owned by that company) will become the foundation for marketing initiatives.
- Video. Video. Video: Video has been taking over digital platforms for years—from social media, ads, websites and more—and that trend is only continuing full-steam ahead.
- Stand out with direct mail: While we’ve established that digital marketing is key, it can be easy for some campaigns to get lost in the shuffle. Creating both digital and direct mail aspects of a marketing campaign offers a one two punch, and more opportunities for your message to be seen by your audience.
- Postcards are your friends: Speaking of direct mail, postcards have become a welcomed delivery in peoples’ snail mailboxes, since they offer a tangible piece of marketing that they can physically hold on to; coupled with an email in their inbox around the same time helps build brand awareness, and ideally, sales and referrals.
- Tell a story: To stand out to your audience (and hopefully from your competition), it’s vital to inform them of how your services / products can help them—improve their lives—and not just about you and your business. This is a widely-known best-practice in theory, but one that many companies still struggle to get right.
- An eye on Facebook / Meta: It’s been a tumultuous ride for Facebook / Meta recently, and that’s only going to be carried into the new year. Many businesses (especially ones who utilize Facebook and Instagram) are surely keeping their ears open to news of changes and how it could affect its users.
What 2022 has in store for us is anyone’s guess, but we’re optimistic that great marketing and creative will help carry us through to a successful year. If you’re not sure how to start marketing your business, Elements is here to help in many ways; from starting from square one with a customized marketing plan to implementing existing print and digital initiatives, we’re ready! You can reach me at amy@elementsdesign.com or 203-776-1323.
– Amy
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