Industry Insights

You want to make sure you’re providing your clients the best possible work with the highest possible rate of success — that means staying on top, and ahead, of the trends in digital marketing.

We have a few months left to go in 2022; here are some digital trends to be mindful of and incorporate in order to finish the year strong.

1. Bring back events.
   Remember how people used to throw parties and produce launch events before the pandemic? It might be time to consider bringing that back, even if it’s virtual. Invites can be physical or digital, gift bags can be sent out in advance with strict instruction to open only during the event; it’s also a great chance for networking thanks to a chat function on most virtual conference platforms. Events are a fun way to bring people together and show off what your client has been working on, and trends in your specific area of expertise. A great, well-executed event will create a buzz that can help spread your message even further. Don’t forget the Q&A session after the formal presentation to keep the conversation going.  
   
   
2. Continued incorporation and use of automation/artificial intelligence.
   If you haven’t started incorporating automation and AI into your marketing strategies, it’s time to get on board. From simple chatbots to learn more about your client’s customers and their likes and dislikes to automated help with orders or product inquiries, there’s an automation or AI platform for just about everything. Learning about what makes customers tick helps you better market to them. AI can also help find new customers, directing them to your client’s website and social media channels for more information. And speaking of social media, the algorithms used by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in particular are all AI-based and can change in a moment without notice; using machine learning to understand digital social trends and algorithm changes is a must in order to stay relevant and expand your reach.
   
   
3. Programmatic advertising.
   This is using AI in a different way, to take people out of ad-buying decisions and instead utilizing technology to better reach an audience where they live — whether that’s on social media, blogs, LinkedIn, shopping online for something related, etc. Programmatic advertising is a $130 billion market adopted by more than half of all U.S. companies and those numbers will continue to expand.  Programmatic advertising can be scaled based on successful transactions and traffic, making real-time adjustments based on the data it is constantly analyzing, instead of relying on a person to monitor effectiveness and evaluate trends and transactions over time.
   
   
4. Think about going into the Metaverse.
   It’s still a new frontier for many people and companies, but Facebook has made it clear that its future will be taking place in the Metaverse, an augmented reality/virtual reality world it is creating. Digital avatars of people, companies, brands, etc., interact together in this virtual world, playing games, going on adventures, exploring, and creating together. While this is a brand-new concept that’s just starting to be realized, if you have clients in the technology sphere, it’s important to get them in while there’s still a ground floor on which to claim space.
   
   
5. Voice optimization.
   It wasn’t all that long ago that a voice-operated personal assistant seemed the stuff of Star Trek and the Jetsons. But now there are smart speakers in homes and Siri, Alexa, and Google Home devices are just a question away. Voice-to-text options on phones help send messages and emails when there’s no time to type. Teenagers are more likely to speak an inquiry into their phones for search than to type it out. The market for voice-operated assistants and home technology will only continue to grow, meaning people will continue to simply ask for things they are looking for, especially as accuracy continues to improve and the capability is integrated into more products. Shopping via a voice assistant will also increase, something digital marketers can take advantage of by improving their SEO practices and tagging on websites. The downside to voice searching is that it tends to bring back a single result, instead of multiple, so your search strategy will need to be focused on optimizing anything and everything pertaining to what you’re marketing in order to be that one result.

Contact Method Recruiting Today

The digital future is here and now and a good digital marketer is always on the lookout for what’s coming up next. Are you prepared to meet these trends for your clients?

If these concepts are brand new to you and you’d like to learn more, call Method Recruiting. Our team of experts will gladly help you add to your skillset and toolbox in order to best serve your clients. Reach out to Method Recruiting today to see how much there is to learn — and share!