Future Of Digital Marketing: Trends You Can’t Afford To Ignore

The digital medium has gained more prominence than ever before in the last decade, thanks to easy access to the internet and rapid advancements in technology. Moreover, our increasing dependence on the internet has ensured that businesses maintain a sizable online presence to woo prospects. 

 

Given the popularity of digital platforms, the proliferating number of internet users prefer to go online and search for products, services, queries, information, and much more. Businesses across industries bank on digital marketing to promote and grow their brands. This is because more prospects rely on the internet today than ever before. 

 

Digital marketing is an excellent choice for business owners because:

 

• It can adapt to your needs faster

• Helps a brand reach a global target audience

• Helps raise awareness about a brand

• Is economical as it costs way lesser than traditional marketing/advertising 

 

That said, digital marketing is forever changing. Its ceaseless evolution keeps marketers and businesses on their toes. The number of new trends in digital marketing makes it a challenging space to conquer. But at the same time, one can excel at digital marketing if they are vigilant and move ahead with times. All you need to do is keep an eye on the latest trends and tweak your digital marketing strategy accordingly. 

 

In this article, we will list the newest digital marketing trends that look promising and will shape the future of online marketing for good. We aim to educate and inform you about these vital trends so that you can modify your current digital marketing tactics and make them more effective and relevant in the longer run. So, let’s dive in.

 

Also Read | AI in Digital Marketing: Examples and Benefits

 

Digital Marketing Trends That Will Shape The Future 

 

You might argue that you can always hire an SEO advertising agency to do the hard yards for you in terms of marketing and optimization. But the fact of the matter is that your business managers also need to individually understand the latest trends in digital marketing. You may ask why.

 

Well, when your internal team is well-versed with the latest digital marketing trends, they can assist an agency and its team better. Moreover, you can identify the trends that will align with your existing marketing strategies and the ones which would not. 

 

Therefore, we have curated a list of the most revolutionary digital marketing trends that will not just dominate 2022 but have the clear potential to shape the future of digital marketing as a whole. These trends are as follows: 

 

1. Aware Consumers: Responsible Consumerism 

 

We live in a world marred by numerous societal and environmental challenges. Thankfully, people are becoming increasingly aware of these challenges and making conscious decisions in their daily lives. 

 

As a result of this awareness, consumers have started making informed buying choices. These choices aim to have a positive impact on the environment and the societal practices at large. In other words, a considerable chunk of customers thinks twice before associating with a brand or product. They want to ensure that they make responsible decisions, decisions that are beneficial for future generations and our present world. 

 

The phenomenon is called responsible consumerism. It is here to stay, and you must incorporate its best practices in your digital marketing strategy if you want to project a positive image of your brand. 

 

Not just environmental movements, societal movements such as Black Lives Matter, gender equality, LGBTQIA+, etc., are also impacting the way brands should approach their digital marketing efforts. Today, people don’t just seek their favorite brands to support these movements. They want active support for tangibly fighting environmental and social injustice. 

 

As a brand with an online presence, you should actively participate in CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) and non-profit activities. It is your duty as a responsible brand to undertake such initiatives, and it goes way beyond marketing. 

 

But you can simultaneously market the good and ethical work you do as a brand. When you promote your sustainable and ethical practices, you tilt the public tide in your favor. In this way, responsible consumerism will play a significant role in shaping your digital marketing endeavors in the time to come. 

 

2. Google Analytics 4 

 

Google Analytics has been a tool of choice for digital marketers over the years. Now, Google Analytics 4 is finally here to change the rules of the game altogether. It is a revolutionary version of Google Analytics because of two primary reasons: 

 

• It works on an event-driven model 

 

Google analytics has always worked on a session-based model to pull information on user behavior, meaning that page views are grouped into sessions for each break longer than 30 minutes. In this model, marketers use reports that calculate metrics like bounce rates, pages per session, time on page, etc. 

 

Now, with GA4, Google will offer an event-based model where Google uses a flexible events system to gather user behavior data. Some additional advantages of this system are data privacy, user-configurable reports & dashboards, better visibility of your data, and more.

 

• It lays the foundation for a Cookie-Less Future

 

It uses machine learning to group user data, meaning that it seeks to do away with collecting cookies to gauge user behavior. It builds on the event-driven data model and tracks plus records user interactions using a cookie-less lifecycle. Since cookies have been categorized as a security concern, GA4 will prove to be a positive change in the right direction. 

 

How Will Digital Marketers Benefit from Google Analytics 4?

 

Google Analytics will play a vital role in digital marketing because of it following benefits: 

 

• It will allow marketers to measure user behavior on multiple devices and platforms simultaneously. 

• Will increase the relevance and value of the user data collected using analytics because of its cookie-less model. The effect of cookie blockers and other legislation could be nullified/reduced. 

• Google Analytics comes integrated with AI and machine learning algorithms, making it more capable of gathering smarter insights. With better and more accurate user-behavior insights, digital marketers can make informed choices and help increase your ROI.

• Better accuracy in tracking email marketing performance metrics, website performance metrics, and much more. 

 

3. Prevalence of Automation: AI Like Never Before

 

It’s not like Artificial Intelligence and automation are new phenomena. No doubt they have been creating ripples across industries for some years now, but their effectiveness and prevalence have increased manifold recently. Artificial intelligence plays a vital role in transforming industries. 

 

In terms of digital marketing, AI has made way for automating basic repetitive tasks like boosting SEO, monitoring the traffic on your website, intuitive reporting, and more. AI not just automates tasks but also predicts how users interact with marketing campaigns and brands. It possesses the ability to predict what users expect in the time to come because of its unparalleled ability to analyze and understand complex data. 

 

AI is on course to completely transform how digital marketing works in the years to come. It is arguably one of the most vital trends in digital marketing for a long time to come. Some of how AI will change digital marketing are as follows: 

 

• Personalization and Marketing Automation 

 

AI can help you simultaneously personalize and automate marketing aspects such as the production of content. The combination of personalization and automation gives businesses an edge over their competition because highly customized marketing tactics win over prospects with more ease. 

 

AI solutions can help digital marketing teams automate SEO, SEM(search engine marketing), pay-per-click(PPC) ads, social media marketing(SSM), display ads, website analytics, keyword research, conversion rates, and much more. 

 

• Content Marketing through AI

 

AI has become more adept at predicting what users might expect from brands. AI-based tools help content marketing teams research consumer behavior on micro and macro levels to predict the type of content that clicks. In this way, AI helps marketers determine the right time and the right content to be delivered to the right audience. 

 

• Customer Relationship Management(CRM)

 

CRM is a crucial part of doing well as a business, more so in the digital realm. AI has proven to be a boon for improving CRM over the years and has the potential to help brands: 

 

• By using predictive analytics and assigning priority cases to the most suitable support group.

• By helping businesses gain valuable real-time insights on the interaction of users across various channels and platforms.

• By closely and accurately analyzing user data to identify leads that have the highest likelihood of converting. 

• By helping brands interact with customers and prospects more humanly, even with the use of chatbots and the like. 

 

Also Read | 6 Advantages of Customer Relationship Management

 

• Personalized Recommendations based on Predictive-Analytics 

 

AI and machine learning are capable of predictive modeling or predictive analytics wherein they learn about the future behavior of individuals based on test runs and their past activities on the web. 

 

This feature is a game-changer in empowering marketers to work towards retaining more users, creating more impact on the target audience, and personalizing marketing tactics. 

 

 

4. Dawn of Metaverse: This is what AR and VR were gearing us up for

 

Mark Zuckerburg introduced the world to the real-life incarnation of the concept of Metaverse in 2021. Metaverse is a collection of three-dimensional virtual worlds designed to foster social interaction. You may also define it as a version of the web with a universal virtual environment that is assisted by the use of AR(augmented reality) and VR(virtual reality) headsets. 

 

While Metaverse is still in its starting phase, the potential and opportunities it can offer are endless. It is primed to become an inalienable part of our lives in the time to come especially given the popularity and penetration of digital media during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

VR and AR marketing will be growing digital marketing trends going forward, as mobile devices get more capable and VR sets become more accessible. There are a slew of apps that function with augmented reality that can be accessed via smartphone cameras. Therefore, digital marketers must gear up and prepare for a future of metaverse.

 

 

5. Rise of Niche Marketing

 

Niche marketing has risen as an effective way to attract and retain customers. It focuses on a single product or service to form a closer bond with your target customer. It allows you to establish yourself as an authority figure and attract brand evangelists. 

 

It allows you to grow over time and reach larger markets once you've built a solid network as a small business. Moreover, it also helps you focus more on the quality of your delivery and create relationships with a smaller audience. Because there is less competition, it is much easier to discover and target your audience, either through paid marketing or taking the organic route.  

 

 

6. NFTs and Cryptocurrencies 

 

We have collectively witnessed the rise and rise of cryptocurrencies in the last couple of years. NFTs are another addition to the bandwagon, as another digital commodity that is recorded on a blockchain. At this point, you might wonder about the relevance of cryptocurrencies and NFTs for digital marketing. Don’t worry. We will join the dots for you. 

 

Social media behemoths such as Meta (erstwhile Facebook) and Twitter have been actively taking steps to integrate payments through popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Not just that, Meta’s Facebook has also mulled over introducing NFT display pictures and has actively promoted the same recently. 

 

Now, these recent social media activities surrounding NFTs and crypto are reason enough for more brands and businesses jumping on the bandwagon soon enough. Given the developments, it’s safe to say that these digital commodities will shape how marketing is done, amongst other things on the internet.

 

 

7. Changing Data Approach: Rise of First-party Data 

 

As third-party cookies are set to disappear for good later this year, marketers need to embrace the use of first-party data. In other words, it’s high time that digital marketers change their approach towards collecting and analyzing data. First-party data is nothing but the information collected by a company directly from its customers.

 

Accurate data is a necessity for targeting the right users for promotion and sales purposes. With the use of first-party data, you first take the consent of users before collecting. This ensures that you don’t violate their privacy and the right to choose what they want to share about their internet habits. 

 

As a digital marketer, you should make it a habit to create relationships driven by retention and try to get personal and close to your target audience. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, we have covered some of the emerging trends that are sure to disrupt and transform how marketers approach digital marketing. You can analyze your digital marketing strategy and tweak it based on this information to make it future-proof.