January has arrived, and everyone is looking at the new year according to their own taste and ambition, making plans, gathering strength, and hoping that they will stand their ground against the challenges that 2022 will throw at them. Because there will be plenty of those, especially if we want to make a name for ourselves in the online space. Entrepreneurs and online marketing agencies alike feel that digital noise is constantly changing and deepening. The purpose of this article is to provide a guide for all those who want to navigate the 2022 online marketing trends. Let’s get started.
1. TikTok continues to thrive
What started as a music-focused app for Generation Z in 2016 has now become a global medium with one billion users. Hungary contributes 2 million users to this, giving you a great opportunity to reach them easily and relatively cheaply. That is, if you’re willing to delve a little into the platform’s workings. Whatever service or product you want to promote on TikTok, it’s worth translating it into the language of the judges: this could be a dance video, a trending sound sync, a challenge, a montage, a tutorial, or if you want to be sure, then boost your content with a cute pet. (Of course, the list is not exhaustive, but spend an hour browsing TikTok, and you’ll get the hang of it.)
A good example of an “average” successful TikTok marketing campaign is what Chipotle does. The Mexican restaurant chain didn’t reinvent the wheel, it simply followed the platform’s most popular trends: it shared dance challenges, recipes, and tips, and since joining in 2018, it now has 1.7 million followers with a lot of fan-made content.
If you think your service/product isn’t suitable for “TikTokification”, think again. If Aldi, RyanAir, or a Hungarian painter can successfully TikTok, so can you! It’s true that you need to be creative, but that’s exactly what can make you stand out on the platform. Get inspired, gather ideas, or ask for help (for example, from Chiro). Believe me, it’s worth it, because in 2022, TikTok remains one of the brightest stars in online marketing.
Life after cookies (spoiler: not too sweet)
If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be that this year we can say goodbye to the good old third-party internet cookies. For many years, they have made life easier for marketers (and everyone else) by tracking users’ paths across the internet. This made it possible to regulate and optimize when, to whom, and how many times advertisers should show ads. In 2022, we can finally say goodbye to cookies, as Firefox and Safari have already stopped using them, and the most popular browser, Chrome, will follow suit from 2023. With this step, we can say goodbye to 80% of customer and visitor data.
From an advertiser’s perspective, this means more expensive ads. From a user’s perspective, it means the disappearance of personalized ads. Any company advertising on the internet that doesn’t prepare for this in advance could be in for a rude awakening. What could be the solution to this? A new online marketing strategy. You can read more about this soon on the Chiro blog.
The rise of artificial intelligence
If you thought this was just a movie cliché or the privilege of Google and other giant companies, then wake up, you can start using artificial intelligence to boost your business today! In fact, not only can you start, but you must, because your competition is already using it. There are plenty of tools at your disposal. If you want to learn more about the topic, read our article “The possibilities of online marketing in the mirror of artificial intelligence” on the Chiro website.
The shortage of professionals in online marketing (is) growing
This is an extremely complex issue that is observable globally, but it is particularly true for our small country. The market’s ability to hire professionals is growing day by day. According to the needs, and the majority of truly well-trained, knowledgeable marketers cannot be retained by domestic companies. Especially in light of the fact that it is easy to work for a New York company from the comfort of a Budapest café. This requires a serious change in mindset on the part of domestic companies, one way of which could be the application of employer branding. Simplifying a bit, this means a special blend of HR and marketing, where you view your business as a product to be sold and accordingly, your future employees are your target audience.
An example of how to do employer branding well is the Four Seasons Hotel. The company, which employs more than 45,000 people worldwide, has a separate Facebook page for its employees, where it presents the lives of those working at the hotel in an extremely exciting way.
If you want to delve deeper into the depths of employer branding, you can do so shortly on the Chiro blog.
Of course, this does not only affect the field of online marketing, but increasingly every market segment. If you are also struggling with a labor shortage, in 2022 you must definitely focus on employer branding.
Short videos are the new trend
When Örkény István wrote his brilliant one-minute pieces, he probably didn’t realize that half a century later the whole world would adopt this form of communication from him. It’s simply that people’s concentration is constantly decreasing, while their threshold for stimuli is increasing.
The solution? What TikTok is built on, as you can see in Youtube Shorts, which is why Instagram Reels was created, but Facebook Stories also work on this principle. You’ve probably noticed that when you browse online, more and more short content comes your way. This is because algorithms rank 1-minute or shorter content much higher. If you want to achieve high reach, start thinking about delivering your message in the shortest and most impactful way possible.
How is a successful short video ad built?
The secret lies in creating content that doesn’t even seem like an ad. The best video ads capture people’s attention just like “cat content”. Their goal is entertainment, at least seemingly. A great example of this is the TikTok ad format. The platform sneaks paid ads – which are also videos – between organic videos. And we can only tell from the small text at the bottom of the screen, otherwise it looks like we’re consuming organic, unpaid content. There’s no time limit, so if we don’t like it, we can scroll past it immediately. Most of us have a pretty well-developed sense of smell for ads by now. If we sense that someone is trying to sell us something, we move on. So ads that scream “just another ad” from the first second have less chance of success. Content is king, after all.
Companies that leave out this display format from their marketing strategy in 2022 will be at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage. According to Wyzowl’s research, people share twice as much video content as anything else, and 84% of them are most persuaded by video content about buying.
Virtual playgrounds
The pandemic came, saw, and completely transformed our lives. This “trend” unfortunately seems to persist in 2022 as well. And although we have left the full lockdowns behind us for now, the new online social connection forms have created opportunities that will surely stay with us. How can you take advantage of these?
One example among many: If your company is agile enough, employ an international team. This way, you can not only enjoy the benefits of a multicultural environment, but you can also shorten the solution time of your projects. As while an “average” team working from one location is active for 8 hours a day, team members from different time zones can cover the day with work hours for 24 hours.
These hybrid solutions are developing at an increasingly rapid pace. Facebook, now operating under the name Meta, is a good example of this. Its not-so-secret goal is to create the Metaverse, where it aims to create a more immersive online space using augmented reality. Imagine working in an office created in virtual reality every day. Or attending a professional award ceremony with your virtual alter ego. How will you be able to effectively reach your audience in such an environment? Is your business structure flexible enough to accommodate such a change? It’s good to start thinking about these things now. A digital marketing agency can help you navigate these changes.
Social responsibility is the new pet project of online marketing
What a year we’ve had! It was full of uncertainty, everything changed from one minute to the next. And many people found themselves in difficult situations. It’s natural that in times like these, people come together more and start looking for opportunities to help each other. 2022 is the age of conscious consumers. The company that can clearly and credibly communicate the importance of its social responsibility gains a huge competitive advantage. Define how you want to impact your environment and the people around you, and then make it happen! Believe me, your customers will be much happier to spend their money with you if they know that the world is becoming a slightly better place because of it.
If your target audience is made up of younger generation members, it’s worth considering supporting something that has to do with saving the Earth, such as reducing your carbon footprint. The simple reason for this is that younger people are much more sensitive to this issue. (Understandably, as they will have to deal with the environmental damage caused by previous generations.)
While we’re on the subject, Chiro is not idle when it comes to helping. We will soon be launching our online marketing training! This aims to provide comprehensive and effective support to Hungarian public benefit foundations and non-profit organizations, of course, for free. Keep an eye on the Chiro website, we’ll bring you more information about this soon!
Summary
In 2022, digital marketing continues to maintain its rapid pace of growth from previous years. It becomes an inevitable factor as its methods are adopted by more and more corporate sectors. The principle of supply and demand applies here as well. In the future, high-quality marketing services will be significantly valued. This is a huge challenge and opportunity in the hands of ethical marketing professionals to create a more livable world together. Consult a marketing agency in Budapest to stay ahead of these trends, because good marketing is good karma!
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