Top 2022 Marketing Trends

The new year is here and as we gear up for another trip around the sun, let’s take a look at the top 2022 marketing trends in content marketing and digital publishing.

The team here at Issuu is constantly speaking with customers, watching our own marketing channels, and keeping a pulse on the content and publishing industry to determine what content marketing trends will be important moving forward. The marketing trends not only inform some of our own marketing plans but are a great resource for all of the content creators building their own marketing strategies.

Issuu Year in Review

For additional background on the 2022 marketing trends, we can look to the Issuu 2021 Year in Review. Many of the 2022 marketing trends are identified based on the activities we’ve noticed on the Issuu platform recently or from what we hear from our customers about their marketing and publishing successes. 2021 overall was another really busy for creators around the world. In total, our customers have published nearly 60 million documents on Issuu with 262 billion pages having been read! So let’s get ready for another exciting year of content creation and publishing for all of our creators.

2022 Marketing Trends

The power of content marketing and building your brand through content is a proven marketing tactic. Now here are the 2022 marketing trends to watch for:

• Reuse, recycle, refresh: creators repurposing content more effectively

• Digital content continues to grow: the shift from print to digital

• Hybrid events are here to stay

• Workplaces are being redefined

• Content is becoming more personalized

• The rise of micro-influencers

• Growth of social commerce within the creator economy

• NFTs and tokenization shake up the economy

• Sustainability as an organization strategy 

We are going to learn a bit more about each of these marketing trends and how you can incorporate the trends into your own 2022 marketing plans.

Reuse, Recycle, Refresh: Creators Repurposing Content More Effectively

“Content is king” might be a phrase you are familiar with, and how true it is! However, we all understand that creating content — and we mean really great content — isn’t easy or quick. Often the content that performs the best for your brand or organization takes many many hours and resources to create. Making the most of all the awesome content you create is how you can justify the investment of time and resources into the content piece. Whether the content item you are working on is a lookbook, eBook, blog post, video, or brochure, you will want to maximize the life of that content asset. This means making sure that no matter the original form of the content piece, you repurpose the asset for a variety of channels. For example, turn the long-form content piece into a social post, plus transform it into an email asset, or a moving graphic such as a GIF. It should only take you a few steps to repurpose the original asset into a version ready for another marketing channel, but this will ensure you are maximizing the life of your asset. Content marketing tools such as Issuu enable you to seamlessly transform your uploaded content into flipbooks, email graphics, social stories, and more. 

The power of digital content to connect people, engage readers, and build brands will only increase in 2022. Even as countries and economies around the world reopen, we have transitioned many of our activities to the digital space and digital content will continue to shape our lives. Digital content not only offers us an easy and contactless method to still engage with one another, but it’s cost-effective and can easily be shared across social channels, email, text, etc. without the need to be in the same location. Across all industries and sectors from publishing, retail, education, real estate, non-profit, government, start-ups, and so much more, digital content creation will play a major role in their marketing, customer service, events, human resources, and internal communications. The shift from print to digital has happened and digital content creation and distribution tools such as Issuu.com will play a major role in connecting organizations to their audiences.

Hybrid Events Are Here to Stay

If we’ve learned anything in the past two years as we endure the ongoing global pandemic, it’s that digital and virtual activities are a great option for people to still engage, connect and collaborate together. Thankfully we have moved on from needing to cancel all in-person activities, but we’ve also realized that digital events are still a huge opportunity to engage with an audience who may not have the time or means to make the visit in-person. Instead, we anticipate events will continue to include hybrid event schedules including the digital and in-person elements. Event attendees will have the options and opportunities to live stream keynote speakers, panelists and engage through chat rooms in a way that they might have once chatted on a convention floor. The expectation will be for the event materials, content, and digital elements to also be available in a digital format tool. Issuu offers a simple solution for hybrid events and the need to offer digital materials in addition to the on-site experience. Simply upload all of the event materials to Issuu and in just a few clicks, all of the content will be available as a digital flipbook and ready to share via the event website, emails, or social channels. 

Workplaces Are Being Redefined

Around the world, offices, headquarters, warehouses, neighborhood shops, and many workplaces are being redefined following the global pandemic which sent so many workers home to work remotely. Even professions that seemed unlikely to be accomplished in a remote capacity made the switch in March 2020, and now two years later, many workers, don’t want to return full-time to their offices. Instead, as workplaces return, it doesn’t necessarily look the exact same as before the pandemic. Many organizations and companies are offering flexible or hybrid working environments that allow employees to choose when and how often they come into the office. Or in some cases, workplaces may offer a mix of roles, some that are fully remote and then some that do require onsite work. This workplace “shake up” means that organizations must find tools and technologies that are agile, cloud-based, and multi-functional. The Issuu platform meets the needs of today’s redefined workforce and we continue to add integrations and feature enhancements to the Issuu Story Cloud too.

Content is Becoming More Personalized

As the need for content has increased, so has the demand for creating more personalized content. The trend towards personalization is tied to brands and organizations building stronger online communities and connecting with their customers so they get to know their customers better. Personalization shouldn’t be a result of receiving third-party data on customers.  Customers expect personalization from loyalty programs, through customer profiles, email marketing, and through online engagement in which the customer knowingly provides the information. Brand and organizations should do the work to learn more about each customer so they can create the personalized experience that customers are looking for. 

The Rise of Micro-influencers

Brands and big businesses have always tapped the power of “celebrity” for endorsements of their products and company. Now the definition of celebrity is changing. Initially, the rise of social media created “influencers” who have large follower numbers on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, and those followers are eager to watch, read, and consume the content the influencer is posting. Originally the larger the number of followers meant the greater the power of your influence on social media. Recently brands have discovered that “micro-influencers,” or social media influencers with 10,000-50,000 followers are also very powerful endorsements. In fact, these micro-influencers are often even more connected with their followers and can drive high engagement for brands. Consider building a relationship with micro-influencers in your industry or niche as a way to reach new customers and increase awareness for your organization.

Growth of Social Commerce Within the Creator Economy

The creator economy has been building for years now, and throughout the pandemic, many creators have had the opportunity and challenge to really focus on their content creation to build their business. The creator economy is wide-ranging from online courses, coaching services, creative services, or custom-designed goods to video producers, lifestyle curators, and so much more. Social commerce is tied into the creator economy as the creators who have built up their business and influence promote and enable shopping directly from their content. Whether it’s a link to shop from their Instagram post or TikTok video or sponsored content that leads to a brand’s website — social commerce offers a huge opportunity for the creator economy to grow even more. Issuu is leading the way in supporting creators by offering powerful digital publishing and distribution tools including our premium digital sales feature that is 100% commission-free. Platforms and tools that enable the creator economy to grow and innovate and even drive social commerce will continue to find success in 2022.

NFTs and Tokenization Shake Up the Economy

NFTs are definitely a buzzword we’ve noticed in the past year, and we don’t think it is going away any time soon. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique unit of data employing technology that allows digital content to be logged and authenticated on crytocurrency blockchains. By logging the data on the blockchain, it makes it easier to actually recognize the owner of digital media and to sell digital media. The process of creating the digital tokens that represent the ownership of the real-life asset is known as tokenization. In 2021, NFTs made headlines including the sale of an NFT by the artist Beeple for $69 million. Although NFTs and tokenization are only in their earliest days of development, the world is watching and NFTs seem to only be gaining in value. 

Sustainability As An Organization Structure 

This trend is one Issuu is proud to already practice. Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword that you should know, it’s actually a business model and business practice goal that every business should start working towards. As a business model, the business is not focused on growth just for growth’s sake, but instead creating valuable products, sustainable business models, and driving value for customers and employees alike. Sustainability doesn’t have to come at the expense of profits either. Oftentimes businesses focused on sustainability are producing strong revenues and are more focused on the longer-term health of their business. Issuu CEO Joe Hyrkin recently published “The Guide to the ProGro Business” with the organization sustainability at the heart of the guide to affirm the value of both growth and profitability. 

Needless to say, these nine marketing trends will keep you busy in 2022! Whether you try to tackle all of them or slowly incorporate the marketing trends that best fit your organization, it’s never wrong to experiment with new ideas or strategies. Let us know if you have any other marketing trends to watch out for this year or which trends you don’t think will have staying power by tweeting us @Issuu. Cheers to another exciting and creative year in content marketing and digital publishing.

Join Issuu today to get a head start on the 2022 content marketing trends. This year start creating and sharing interactive and beautiful digital marketing!