Want to know what are the Inbound Marketing Trends of 2022? You are in the right place. Discover the five trends to master to plan the best online strategy.
We must always be ‘on the track’ to lead new leads to the brand. Experiment with new techniques and perfect the most efficient ones. The purpose of inbound marketing is to attract audiences as profiled as possible while at the same time increasing brand awareness. A corporate marketing philosophy that goes beyond purely commercial techniques and those based on promotional carpet bombing. The customer is at the center of every action, and the company mission is to intrigue him, attract him and finally tie him (as long as possible) to your brand/product. To this end, we present five inbound marketing tactics to consider in 2022 carefully.
The Content Does Not Abdicate
The Web still has a master, and its name is “content”, which is certainly not new. The novelty, if anything, is the longevity of life of this monarch: content marketing is still one of the pillars of Inbound Marketing. What content will be trending in 2022? All quality, original and well-crafted ones, be it photographs or infographics, ebooks or research reports, niche guides or blog posts. We will explore in detail some types of trending content in 2022 (such as short videos and podcasts ).
The advantage of content marketing? It has a low cost compared to the results in awareness, lead generation, and audience engagement. Speaking of engagement, it is impossible not to mention the contents published on social networks that facilitate communication between people, the company, and the brand, always giving new opportunities to interact and share preferences and opinions.
Intercepting what your audience is interested in is one of the keys to success in content marketing. The increasingly sophisticated tools for researching keywords and relevant queries allow you to create exciting and therefore performing content.
Short Video
If the content is the king, the video is its scepter: the symbol of power and the ability to reign on the Web. Outside of metaphor: no other type of content can compete with the video, neither in terms of volumes nor in terms of engagement. Among the videos, then, the short format ones are furious. With the growth of Instagram first and then of TikTok, it has become a vital tool in content marketing and corporate Inbound Marketing strategies.
As for the platforms to be manned, we have already mentioned two (TikTok and Instagram), and the other is YouTube. Among other things, the latter allows diversifying the production of video content: on the one hand, those with longer duration, ideal for providing in-depth information and explaining in detail the functionality of the service/product; on the other hand the short videos, in fact, perfect for increasing brand awareness.
Short videos also have a threefold advantage:
- they have a greater reach because they satisfy one of the primary needs of the Web audience, which is to collect the highlights quickly;
- allow you to overcome a massive obstacle in an online competition that is to attract the attention of the target audience and, above all, to be able to keep it
- They optimize the use of resources since it is possible – knowing the target – to create potentially viral videos even at a low budget to guarantee a good ROI (Return On Investment).
Podcast
What about audio content? While they’re not as consummate and sought after as video, they’re no longer a niche like a few years ago. The numbers attest to this. The growth trend has become evident in the last two years: + 15%, in Italy, in 2020 compared to 2019 (Nielsen statistics). Another statistical survey, conducted in the US by Statista, shows how the phenomenon is global. In 2021, 78% of Americans said they knew the podcast and knew how to use it (+ 3% compared to 2020) and 58%% of those who use it prefer it to social media.
The podcast, in particular, is an excellent Inbound Marketing tool, mainly when used to educate the customer. Once again, Statista’s study comes to the rescue: 74% of respondents said they listen to the podcast to learn new things. If we decide to use this audio format, it will be more effective in the support phase for customer knowledge, where we direct the user to help him learn more about the service/product.
Influencer Marketing And Creator Marketing
The WOM (Word Of Mouth) formula, otherwise known as “word of mouth”, has never gone out of fashion: it has simply changed shape with the changing tools. If you asked your acquaintance, an expert on the subject, which object he advised us to buy or the name of a valid professional to contact, nowadays we have new points of reference: influencers and content creators.
The ‘stars of the web’ are fundamental in Inbound Marketing, both when we move in the field of B2C, both in the context of B2B. The customer trusts their face and, recognizing their competence and authority, entrusts their judgment to theirs. No sector can think of doing without it because they have become the custodians of the success of what was called “buying advice” in the old fashioned way.
By changing the means, the technique is also different: the user is no longer a taxable person but is called into question directly and entertainingly, so much so that the choice of the product/service is then a direct consequence of this engaging experience.
No platform other than TikTok supports this concept: video entertainment is how pure entertainment is achieved; the direct effect is the increase in popularity of the brand and, in cascade, the various positive results connected to it. Influencer marketing increases campaign reach and brand visibility/awareness.
And especially if we move into the B2B sector, this translates into a significant increase in ROI. After all, one of the main cost items in marketing campaigns is reserved for audience segmentation to generate valuable traffic for the business. Influencers and content creators reduce this expense: if you find the right ‘testimonial’ for your sector, you will have an increase in organic traffic in exchange.
Local marketing
In the last two years, we have come to terms with a limitation of the range of movement, which has led to a forced and rapid change of mentality: we have started buying online from the big giants and neighborhood shops.
Compared to the e-commerce giants, the latter can exploit an essential competitive advantage: the relationship of trust with the customer. The local shop or professional has a face and a soul, which causes them to be perceived by the public as something beyond the purchase. That’s why local marketing still has a lot to say in Inbound Marketing.
But how is this opportunity grasped? Implementing some techniques, among which the main ones are aimed at customer satisfaction. Satisfying the customer is the first commandment of local marketing: the goal is to stand out, in a specific territory, by becoming a reference point in the sector. Customer satisfaction must be monitored, and expectations not only met but possibly exceeded: this is the key to winning the competition from the big chains and giants of online sales.
Another aspect to take care of in a maniacal way is Local SEO or optimization for search engines with a view to local users. The aim is to intercept the local audience that needs your product/service. Let’s think of two different types of research: “Spaghetti allay carbonara” and “Spaghetti alla carbonara Rome”. On the one hand, the search engine will show the main sites with the recipe in question; on the other hand, the restaurants in Rome offer this specialty on their menu. If you have a restaurant in Rome, you will have to compete on this search key.
Inbound Marketing 2022: Goodbye Cookies!
To implement the best Inbound Marketing techniques in 2022, it is appropriate to keep in mind a change officially announced by Google and, like all activities related to Big G, promises to impact anyone who has any digital marketing strategy in place. Since the beginning of this year, Google has stopped monitoring third-party cookies, i.e. those blocks of data created by a server to identify the computer while browsing a web page.
How will this change affect marketing activities? Third-party cookies used to track visitor information on the site and offer them a better experience represented an excellent opportunity to analyze user behavior and profile them in detail. By deleting the cookies, a lead generation tool is eliminated and replaced by others.
Companies and professionals will carry out direct tracking through customer interaction, with surveys, contact forms or other types of interactions. To optimize the purpose of the collection, these data should be channeled into a CRM chosen based on the needs of the business.
Also Read: Instagram Marketing Mistakes You Must Avoid in 2022
