Uncertainty and digital transformation are likely to impact B2B marketing over the next year significantly. Marketing departments are starting to adopt mobile-first approaches, investing more in social media and using cutting-edge technologies like chatbots and email marketing. This will be crucial to reach customers and increase sales effectively.
The Online Marketing Trends 2022 presented here can help companies adapt to a market where shoppers are increasingly interested in digital channels and personalized content. Marketing must adapt to the upcoming online marketing trends of 2022 to reach the target groups more effectively next year. Let’s start from the beginning.
Table of Contents
Shift Spend To A Mobile-First Strategy
In 2022, mobile and digital advertising will continue to take center stage in B2B marketing efforts. At the same time, marketers are adapting to the reality of working from home. Around 70% of B2B buyers and decision-makers prefer to interact with suppliers remotely or digitally.
Gartner predicts that the number will increase by another 10% by 2025.
Many marketers will likely transition to a digital-first marketing approach that prioritizes mobile advertising and content over offline – and more traditional strategies. That will probably come alongside rising ad spending — through growth next year will be slower than it has been in the past, in part due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
As the number of millennials in decision-making positions has increased, so has the number of shoppers who want a sales-free experience. Therefore, less personal and direct marketing approaches could gain popularity among B2B marketers.
Changed lead generation channels
Generating quality leads remains a crucial goal of B2B marketers. The way they are developed is likely to change significantly in 2022 and the rest of the decade.
COVID-19 has impacted the way events, such as trade fairs or training courses are held. While some companies resorted to online events and others chose to postpone or cancel them, all marketers were quick to adjust to the fact that in-person events were no longer or always available to generate leads.
Growing Focus On Neuromarketing
The “neuromarketing” strategy allows marketing to spend more time on the individual psychology of essential buyers and decision-makers. This can look like a shift from topic-based to people-based marketing in B2B. Marketers will focus on understanding their audiences’ unique needs, wants, and interests to create more effective ads, content, and events.
Buyer personas will therefore become a more critical marketing criterion. There will also be more focus on fulfilling searcher intent and developing more in-depth content. This brings us to the next point:
Organic Search And Quality Content
Search networks have increasingly become a valuable tool for B2B marketers. In 2022, organic search is likely to become even more critical to marketing efforts.
According to data from the 2020 Demand Gen Report, B2B buyers are increasingly considering a company’s organic content when making purchasing decisions. This has become a vital trust mark, signaling to buyers that the company relies on shared and transparent knowledge.
As content has become a trust mark, simply writing posts is no longer enough to generate traffic and leads. The information needs to be of high quality to encourage buyers to investigate the brand further or get in touch with the company’s sales team.
Different content strategies will likely be required to deliver quality information relevant to the interests of B2B buyers. Certain types of content will probably be more valuable than others. A company’s niche, original research papers, white papers, and other valuable and in-depth content can offer the most value to readers – they inspire trust and interest.
Video Content
Video content remains among the most popular content, overtaking blog posts and lead magnets in popularity. However, the high cost of producing video content can be a barrier to some businesses consuming this content.
We see a good mix of different media as the ideal solution here:
- Draw attention to your company with video content and entertain and captivate your target audience.
- Enrich your search engine marketing with blog posts and inform your target group about exciting industry news
- Make high-quality lead magnets available for download and expand the already interested target group into new customers
Our Conclusion On The Online Marketing Trends 2022
Many of the presented online marketing trends for 2022 are already known and SEO-relevant changes, such as the shift to a mobile-only strategy, are not a big surprise. Nevertheless, in your future marketing campaigns, you should consider the Online Marketing Trends 2022 to be one step ahead of your competition, especially in the long term.