Marketing trends aren’t new. In fact, they’ve existed since the time of the industrial revolution. The 1950s were a golden era for marketing where some of the most significant trends, like TV advertisements and brand endorsements by famous personalities, first emerged. These trends proved so effective that they are widely used to this day.
Unlike regular ole marketing trends in the 1950s, however, digital marketing trends are constantly expanding to keep up with changing consumer behavior and the evolution of technology and devices. This year has been no exception—we started feeling as if we were rounding the corner of the global pandemic only to be faced with resurgence. That means it’s time to go back to the drawing board to come up with our playbook for an uncertain 2022.
To help you incorporate the right digital marketing trends into your strategy, we’re taking a look at the trends you need to know for 2022 for five of the most popular industries:
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Hospitality
- E-commerce
- Small and local businesses
1. Digital marketing trends for finance
Like every other industry, finance was at the forefront in the battle with the pandemic. This industry has had to find ways around traditional methods to reach its customers. Some trends that took shape as a result of this are:
Cross-channel marketing
In the digital age, customers no longer want to wait to deposit cash, make withdrawals, or get answers to their queries. They want instant answers. Banks and other financial institutions realize this and are shifting to cross-channel marketing (also known as omnichannel marketing), wherein customers have multiple touchpoints instead of just the physical location of the banks. This includes social media, mobile applications, and customer support services.
Data-driven targeting
With a boom in machine learning and AI, financial institutions are using the abundance of historical data available while innovating with new technologies. They are using AI to learn behaviors and patterns, conduct predictive analysis to detect frauds, improve customer service, and much more.
Personalization of services
More than 55% of financial services have increased their investment in personalized marketing. Personalized services use AI and machine learning to study customer behavior and create customized loan and investment plans for your customers. It also makes pre-approvals and mortgage approvals easier.
Related: Get data-backed finance marketing strategies from our proprietary study.
2. Digital marketing trends for healthcare
The most affected industry in the pandemic has been healthcare. It has been at the forefront of fighting COVID-19 while maintaining a high-quality patient care experience. Since 2020 was such a formative year for this industry, we’ve seen healthcare digital marketing trends emerge in 2021 that will carry into 2022, including:
A greater focus on telehealth
With COVID-19 limiting many people to their homes, telehealth has become the new norm. Hospitals and clinics need a well-designed website that has all the relevant information as well as scheduling information. Free consultations and webinars to enhance patient care will also be crucial in the upcoming days.
Get more details about how telehealth should be a cornerstone of your healthcare marketing strategy by downloading this guide.
Reputation management
Word of mouth remains the most prominent way to earn a patient’s trust in the healthcare industry. But, with everything becoming digital, online reviews and testimonials have become the new word of mouth. Therefore, the healthcare industry will be focusing more on online reputation management in 2021 and into 2022.
Location-based SEO
SEO has been an integral part of effective healthcare marketing strategies for years. Every day, there are about 93 million searches by Americans on Google about healthcare. However, with people being closer to home in 2021, the focus has shifted to local SEO.
Some ways to take advantage of this digital marketing trend for local SEO are listing your business on Google My Business, optimizing your website for location-based searches, and optimizing content for voice search. All of these will be significant for the healthcare industry to capture new patients this year and next year.
3. Digital marketing trends for the hospitality industry
With countless restrictions for worldwide and domestic travel, the hospitality industry took a big hit in 2020, but things are starting to look up as travelers are returning to the roads—and skies.
Digital marketing is set to play a vital role in helping the hospitality industry bounce back. Some hospitality marketing trends for 2022 you need to watch out for include:
Virtual tours
With most people are still remaining indoors this year, it has been difficult for hospitality businesses to market their services outside of their usual, real-world experiences. An alternative that emerged during 2020 and 2021 is virtual tours.
A prominent example of that is the incredible video from Atlantis Dubai by VR Pro Tour. The video presents the destination with an irresistible charm, making the viewers want to go there on their next vacation.
A mobile-first strategy
People are spending more time on their phones, and Google is shifting to mobile-first indexing, meaning the hospitality industry needs to make its websites mobile-friendly and invest in a mobile marketing strategy. To do so, you can reduce the loading time, adapt the call-to-action buttons to the mobile screen, and provide interactive platforms like apps to increase direct bookings and generate new leads.
A rise in staycations
As more travelers opt for road trips or stays close to home, the hospitality industry is looking locally for perhaps the first time. Hotels can promote specials for those driving in or who live in the state and showcase locally curated experiences for their guests.
4. E-commerce digital marketing trends
In contrast to other industries, the e-commerce industry saw a huge boom during the pandemic. Backed by this success, the industry has come up with more ways to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity for growth. Some trends that you can see in this industry are:
Influencer marketing
Social media and e-commerce run hand in hand. In 2021 and into 2022, influencers will take the lead and become brand partners with major e-commerce businesses. Influencers bring considerable social media presence with them, while e-commerce gives them an avenue to provide and support authentic products. It is therefore a mutually beneficial partnership that’s digitally friendly.
Voice and visual search
The industry will focus on voice and visual search to streamline the online search experience. Industry leaders are exploring avenues to integrate devices with voice and picture recognition technologies to improve customer experience.
Going beyond B2C
On the back of the latest growth results, the industry is looking for new soils to spread its roots. One way to do that is by exploring e-commerce beyond B2C. D2C and D2B are set to become increasingly popular in the coming years.
These trends will make e-commerce more than just about delivering the goods to the end consumer. It will make giant strikes towards enhancing the overall shopping experience.
5. Digital marketing trends for small and local businesses
Small and local businesses have experienced unique challenges over the last year and a half. Changing guidelines, community situations, and consumer behavior have caused many to think outside the box and adapt their businesses and their marketing strategies at a quicker-than-usual pace. This has led to the adoption of more advanced technologies. Here are the top digital marketing trends for small businesses into 2022.
Automating marketing
With so much on a business owner’s or manager’s plate already, automation has been a growing trend. Automating email marketing, lead nurturing, PPC optimizations, and social media posts have helped small businesses stay on top of getting new customers without compromising the time they need to dedicate to operations.
Get tips for automating your marketing here.
Visual search and video marketing
Visual search, video search, and audio search are becoming important components of a strong SEO strategy. Between juggling work, family, and navigating the pandemic, potential customers are now multitasking more than ever; and therefore, looking for more creative ways to search while their hands are full. To keep up with this, small businesses are more focused on incorporating these trends into their marketing strategies, like with more of an investment in video marketing.
Consolidated reporting
With so many places for small businesses to market to customers, analyzing campaign and marketing data is more important than ever. But, no one person can accurately crunch all their digital marketing data in one easy step–especially a business owner with 100 other things to do. Therefore, small businesses are leaning on their marketing partners for advanced analytics, segmentation, and insights in their reporting to achieve the best results in 2021 and into 2022.
Get ahead of the 2022 trend curve
What matters is how you set your business apart from others in the industry. These digital marketing trends provide opportunities to get noticed by your customers and earn their loyalty before someone else takes your place. You need to align your marketing strategies with current and future trends to stay ahead of the curve. A little bit of creativity and experimentation can make all the difference.
About the Author
Sean Davis is a professional content developer at DashClicks, a white-label digital marketing platform for small and medium-scale agencies. He has several years of experience in the digital marketing industry and uses his expertise to spread knowledge through his writing. He is highly proficient in describing complex technical concepts with simplicity to make them widely accessible.
