Business Apart from helping existing customers, chatbots are also an effective lead generation tool. Brands need to add this automation to their marketing toolkit in 2022, as chatbots are no longer just a 'nice-to-have' feature. Live chats allow customers to interact with brands By Yuvika Iyer for Wrike at their own convenience and on the platform of their choice, such as WhatsApp for Business or EVERY MARKETER LOVES to discover online Facebook Messenger. marketing trends they can adapt to ahead of their Omnichannel Experience competitors. However, the truth is that the majority 25% of consumers say that convenience drives of business growth will come from the core digital their decision-making when they scout for ideas, marketing areas that include search engine products, or experiences. They expect to engage optimization, content marketing, email marketing, with a brand on the device and at the time of their and social media marketing. preference. Optimize your digital marketing by adopting a Take this for example: When a customer curated mix of new trends while strengthening contemplates buying headphones, they may start the core. Here are the top trends that we expect to their product research on their smartphone, then flourish next year: visit an electronics store to check out options, and Social Media Stories finally complete their purchase on a laptop. Everyone loves a good story. Many brands use Did you know that brands with an omnichannel storytelling to attract customers, solve their pain presence are able to retain 56% more customers points, and engage with them over the long term. than brands without one? With 500 million people using Instagram Video Marketing Stories every single day, crafting compelling 85% of people want to see videos from brands. content here can be a great way to attract, engage, They consume video with an astonishing capacity and retain customers. Take a look at the ABCD across platforms from TikTok to YouTube. framework for creating content on social media: Consumers prefer watching a brief video to • Attention: Attract and engage customers with learn something over reading a longer article. an interesting story Data-driven marketers already have video in their • Branding: Highlight the brand consistently marketing mix — 93% say that video is a significant • Connection: Build connections with part of their marketing efforts, and they plan to consumers using emotions — make them think spend more on video marketing in the future. and feel Podcasts • Direction: Subtly nudge customers towards 105 million US adults are regular podcast listeners. taking a desired action That's about one in every three Americans, and Research by Google confirms that content the number is growing every single month. driven by the ABCD framework gives a 30% With podcasts exploding in popularity, brands boost to short-term sales. Combine social media cannot afford to miss this crucial digital marketing storytelling with the rest of these online marketing trend. Even Google is displaying individual podcast trends to advance your business projects and episodes in its SERPs. Squarespace is a great delight customers. example of a company that has been an early Conversational Marketing adopter of podcast advertising. Organizations have engaged with their customers Consider adding podcast sponsorship to your through live chat for many years. In fact, 46% of marketing mix in 2022. Here are some tips to customers prefer live chat to email or social choose a podcast for sponsorship: media. • Identify a podcast whose listener demographics
Digital Marketing Trends for 2022
28
January-February 2022
DAWN
www.africabusinessassociation.org