Trends in digital marketing in 2022 by FASTSITE

Looking after your online visibility means keeping an eye on trends in online marketing. Hence our second article on predictions for 2022. Once again, we have relied on our own thoughts rather than bailing on popular reports. In addition, we asked our community on LinkedIn about the most relevant direction in online marketing. You can find out our conclusions and the results of the survey by reading this article.

We are FASTSITE, building an online presence. We support companies, freelancers, influencers or NGOs to develop their brand online. This article is aimed at entrepreneurs looking to develop their online visibility. See also:

• Popular mistakes in website design
• The profession of the future – influencer
• I need a website, what do I need to know? 5 tips for entrepreneurs
• Website development in 2022 – the trend

Video content achieved the best score in the FASTSITE survey

The results of the survey did not surprise us, ⅔ of the indications of video content and chatbots in second place fit with our analysis and confirm our conclusions.TikTok’s 1.2 billion users, Instagram introducing Reels, YouTube making Shorts available only show how high the interest in the short audiovisual content format is on the internet. 

So how do you adapt video for your company’s online communication? Social media is a goldmine of valuable material for learning new skills or interesting information. Short audiovisual formats are therefore suitable for educating an audience, i.e. using content marketing. The creations can be varied, for example, training companies can smuggle in extracts from training courses in the form of short teasers. The only limit is the ingenuity of the creators.

Chatbot always on duty

According to research by Tidio, a Polish startup developing chatbots for SMEs, 68% of those surveyed are willing to put household budget planning and chores in the hands of artificial technology. The advantage of using chatbots in customer service, especially in e-commerce, is that they are permanently ready to act. Even if the algorithm does not know the answer to the customer’s query, it will pass it on and enable a faster solution to the problem. 

Unlike voicebots, chatbots are not so rejecting to the audience. This is confirmed by online research.In the past year, voice robots have had an outstandingly bad reputation, especially with those who don’t need PV!Written communication is not as personally perceived as a voice conversation, hence causes less discomfort for the participant. It is therefore worth considering casting a chatbot as the online receptionist for your business.

Transparent business, honest communication

The past year has shown that lies and manipulations are relatively easy to expose.Content plagiarism, reklamowanie szkodliwych produktów and other misdeeds sooner or later come to light and damage the reputation of those caught. This applies to influencers, media personalities, entrepreneurs and companies alike. Socially responsible business carried out with mere slogans and insignificant actions reflects negatively on the brand.

Hence, we anticipate that the role of transparency, understood as honesty and truthfulness, will play an increasingly important role. Number of organisations fact-checking continues to growtherefore, the probability of detecting inaccuracies becomes much higher. Hence, actions such as greenwashing will, in the long term, have a negative impact on brand image and reputation.

Microinfluencers better integrate small communities 

What is the dream job of the average teenager today?Influencer, YouTuber, TikToker.Leaving aside the legitimacy of such an occupation, we cannot get past the fact that being a social media celebrity today is simply fashionable. Up to now, the spotlight of publicity and business has focused on individuals with reach in the millions or at least hundreds of thousands. However, over time, the costs of such collaborations have become detached from measurable effects calculated by reaching a well-defined audience.

In our opinion, the coming year will show that smaller influencers are much better at reaching their audience by staying in close contact with them. In our opinion, directional activities using several personalities will result in a much better reach to the target audience. Heavily exploited accounts of popular influencers are simply becoming less convincing. A recommendation from someone closer will therefore mean more than using a well-known face in a campaign.

What else is worth paying attention to?

We would like to highlight two more trends. We describe them collectively because their nature is not as universal as the above-mentioned inspirations.

• The rebel archetype – going outside the box and against the rules is very appealing. This was shown, for example, by the reaction of some brands to the youth word of the year. Some brands such as Pizza Giuseppe, Inpost and Samsung made fun of marketers’ attempts to incorporate ‘youth’ words. This was met with a positive reaction from audiences bored with successive attempts at creations containing winning words.
• Strenghtening the local brand – standing up to globalisation is nothing new, but with the rise of micro-influencers, this is gaining more traction. In an age of material shortages and delivery delays, brands with a local focus can ensure that their consumers get their orders delivered on time. Thus, they gain satisfied customers and brand ambassadors.

Summary

As is the case with such predictions, we do not know if all our observations will come true in 2022. However, we are confident that betting on transparent communication will always be a good choice. Tools change, but some principles are universal. As for the tools, there is no doubt that short video content will continue to grow in importance. If you need to talk about developing your company’s online presence, write to us. We’d be happy to consult with you and share our ideas. Until we hear from you!