2022 Digital Marketing Trends: Half-Way
6 months into the year, here is how the trends changed
--
As we are placing ourselves mid-way through June and halfway through the year, 2022, this is where I place the progress and how far we have come from the start of the year.
From when I started taking Medium seriously at the start of the year, “2022 Digital Marketing Trends: The Future” was born. This is a continuation of that article.
Here is the update and progress which we’ve made from January when the first article was published:
Content Marketing
As you are continuing to strategies your marketing efforts, each month and quarter.
However, you also need the ability to see the progress six months through the year, being halfway through and being able to adapt all your content marketing strategies.
This is where you can go through each section to be able to update your strategies and see which pieces you can take to ensure that you’re staying ahead of the trends and your competition.
Data-Driven
Through each effort which you’re placing on your content marketing, you need to ensure that there is data backing up this strategy. For each idea that you think of being able to surround it with data can be extremely beneficial.
As mentioned in the original article, continue to use Google Search Console and Google Analytics in conjunction with all your favourite third-party tools to be able to improve your content marketing efforts.
Although, this time around, the difference is that you need to start collecting data through Google Analytics 4. This is because on the 1st of July 2023, standard universal properties will stop processing new hits and three months later Analytics 360 will no longer be operational.
Every element, from the keywords, and titles, to the call to action, need to be influenced through data — this is crucial.
Content-Length
This is an issue which I mentioned through the original content piece at the start of the year about the difference between quality and length of content.
This is because there have been a lot of content pieces, which I’ve seen, where it is evident that they’ve sacrificed quality. After all, they want to ensure that content length is to a certain point.
However, this isn’t something that should be done, because it needs to be able to suit the needs of your audience and demographics, if it can’t do that, it's not a quality piece of content.
As I predicted, from the start of the year, it seems that the content quality has been more prioritised rather than content length. Although it is important to have a target of length, don’t focus on it too deeply.
Determine what your audience wants through data and give them it, it's about serving their search intent and focusing on this.
Refresh & Reuse Content
6 months later, and I repeat what I said at the start of the year, refreshing, updating and reusing your content is one of the most important elements in your content marketing and SEO strategy.
Honestly, being able to utilise this content is probably one of the most important elements of your overall marketing strategy.
With your older pieces of content, especially if they’re 6–9 months old within your directory of content, it is worth going back and determining each piece of content.
Although previously, I just said you should update this content, you need to determine if this content is worth updating. Being able to understand if it should be updated, because some of the content can just be deleted.
If it's short, outdated, unless the content and worthless — you could take elements and create a new piece, but just delete this content, as it's dead for your website.
Repurposing
Through the ability to ensure that your content is omnichannel, should be one of the main pieces which you branch of your other methods in your content marketing strategy.
Whether you’re updating an older piece of content, or you’ve recently released a new piece of content, being able to distribute the content in different creative ways is extremely important.
This is important because you need to be able to get as many content pieces out of one piece as you can.
Ensure that content works for you, you don’t work to get many content pieces.
But, what does this mean? How can you repurpose your content? Here are a few ways and ideas you can repurpose all your content today!
- Write More Content —From that singular written piece, there are more topics which you can gather from that piece to be able to expand upon. This doesn’t that each piece has to be really long or as in-depth as the first. However, you need to ensure that it is really high-quality content, and helpful for your audience.
- Infographics/Detailed Imagery — Although infographics aren’t necessarily crucial for the ability to be able to distribute this content. Being able to use this content and explain it through imagery is important. This is because it can also be shared on other social channels.
- Video & Podcasts — Through video and podcasting features, being able to introduce your writing content into these mediums is important to be able to portray. As well as being able to push your content through these platforms, you are also able to gain a new audience from these channels.
SEO
Being one of the most important elements of your overall marketing campaign, introducing or improving your SEO efforts is critical to attracting consumers to your platform.
Whether it's for your branding or business, utilise the abilities of SEO to improve your overall website and digital efforts to be able to improve metrics which you need to improve — whether this is views or revenue, SEO can help.
Artificial Intelligence
Especially from the start of the year, the growth of artificial intelligence within content marketing and SEO has grown massively and will continue to do so.
Whether this is through tools or other content-assisted based features, you can utilise the artificial intelligence within our writing to improve it massively.
Being able to show your SEO marketing efforts, the growth of the collaboration between AI and SEO is now starting to be prominent and will continue to grow.
With Google’s RankBrain in play and the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in the system, it is evident that it may also be important to implement some of the techniques for yourself.
Obviously, the limit of which Google is doing it, for some is overall, but with the ability of automation, it could improve your SERP results and save you more time on your other marketing efforts!
Google Algorithms
Being one of the most important factors of your SEO pieces, content quality becomes a piece which is pushed by Google and other search engine algorithms.
From one of the most important, frequent algorithm updates, the E-A-T update which focuses on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness becomes the pieces you need to focus on with your content.
Although the E-A-T update is important, also do the keyword research and understand the other internal and external factors which are pushed towards improving your SEO efforts.
Mobile-First Abilities
Honestly, at this point, a mobile-first index isn’t something which should be on your list to do. At this point through your SEO efforts, if your website isn’t mobile-first and has a huge focus on mobile, you’re so far behind — you need to stop everything and seriously catch up.
When you are creating content, you need to ensure that these factors are in your content, which will help to improve your overall website traffic and rankings.
When you place these efforts, ensure that you’re playing with the other factors for Search engine optimisation — through these pieces, ensuring it all works on mobile will be overall beneficial.
Voice Search
Although I haven’t much of an increasing trend in voice search, and it doesn’t seem to be growing in popularity — it is still being used. This is why it is still crucial that you optimise for these elements.
Linking back to the mobile-first index above, although there aren’t any device specifications and information towards voice search, this results that mobile should be your priority to be at the forefront of what’s possible.
Social Media
Meta AKA Facebook
Through Meta, it is safe to say that other factors are most important and popular than the Facebook platform.
Although at the same time, they are trying to change this with all the factors of the metaverse, which will most likely have some integrations within the Facebook platform to try and keep it alive — or more alive with the younger generations.
From the last update in the original Digital Marketing Trends, there hasn’t been too much of an update, other than the recency with oculus rift and the pieces within the metaverse.
With Instagram continuing close to the top of the pecking order of social media channels, in 2022 Instagram will release new features and technologies to stay at the top of the list.
Especially within popularity and people continue to thrive within the Instagram platform — people will continue to do so.
As Instagram continues to thrive, but can only do so by keeping up to date, here’s how they’ve done so:
- Live Video
Continuing to be incredibly popular through the Instagram platform, and with the ability to promote that live stream through different methodologies on the platform— it's safe to say you can do well!
Related to another section coming up for Instagram, through Live Video, Instagram is going to enable more monetisation opens for creators and business profiles.
Being able to monetize on Instagram, you can utilize live video and content for selling products, which brings more abilities to these profiles for additional revenue.
When live on Instagram, fans and people watching may be able to give gifts and extra incentives for the ability to further create content for the Instagram channel — which becomes an extra revenue piece for the creator.
- Shopping
Through the different ways of creating shopping opportunities on Instagram, whether personal or business platforms, you can utilise these to increase revenue and traffic options for your website.
Being the only way which you can somewhat directly make money on Instagram — you need to be able to utilise the posts and stories, you should utilise these options to promote your pieces.
As well as being able to utilise the shopping options, you should be able to utilise these options which will bring more attention to your posts and stories — all because its new features which Instagram want to promote more — so use it!
- Visual Changes & Updates
Through a visual refresh, which is announced at the end of May, with new energy and purpose to the different aspects of the Instagram features.
Through new visuals and typefaces, you can see the content-first approach through the new visual changes to your app and website, which enables simplicity and self-expression.
Being in the space for full-screen imagery, for your in-app experience and celebrating the creativity — especially with the push of the community every day for your audience.
As Twitter continues to grow it brings a community feel to the app and brings the levels of entertainment depending on the entertainment you need.
Twitter continues to grow through the millions of users, where do the Twitter users continue to grow from here?
- Twitter Blue
With the release of Twitter Blue, the new subscription service from Twitter, this will continue throughout 2022 and grow through the subscription model with some advancing features.
With Twitter Blue only being available in the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, if it has continued success, in the second half of the year this will expand to other countries enabling more people to access Twitter Blue subscription options.
Although as of yet, with the first half of the year, this hasn’t expanded at all — so it’ll be interesting to see if this improves and by how much before the end of the year.
- Elon Musk
As Elon Musk becomes the majority shareholder of Twitter and continues to be on the board of the platform, it seems that there will be a lot of changes to the platform — especially regarding the free speech initiative.
Although there isn’t much of an update with this since it has only recently happened, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens from here out.
With this being said, the biggest change was announced earlier in the year, Jack Dorcey who founded Twitter stepped down from the board and left Twitter — and this got confirmed further as Elon Musk joined the board and continues to make relative changes.
- Communities
Through the range of communities, as an example of #MarketingTwitter or #WritingCommunity, some of these pieces you can explore these communities further and you can utilise these to explore these.
When you’re utilising these communities, you can utilise and take into consideration these elements, you can place yourself into this to grow your following and pieces which you’re promoting across your feed.
Through the LinkedIn platform, although there haven’t been some of the biggest changes, there has been increased popularity on the platform.
Through profile updates, and audio sections to your LinkedIn profiles, continuing to help those build their business brand and gain jobs, you can gain progress from the LinkedIn network.
From the placement of employment & recruitment, as the place of the platform as a recruitment and employment social platform. In 2022, this will also become a focus for the platform to help more people gain employment and help businesses gain employees.
TikTok
Continuing its popularity, TikTok has easily surpassed a billion users and still has the potential of passing Instagram and the use cases.
Although there are more possibilities for your brand on Instagram — although you can grow easier on TikTok.
Bring the pieces of creator support, through the TikTok shop which has exploded in popularity across the platform, when you have a certain amount of followers, you can grow your revenue through these channels. (Although I’ve heard that the revenue per item you sell isn’t very good — for those with bigger audiences, it can be good for you.)
On the side of advertising for the TikTok platform, it does not have as much advertising pressure and usage as such as Instagram and Facebook. Hence there isn’t a levelled popularity on the platform, and the costs for advertising will remain at very competitive rates.
Although the advertising has grown more on the platform and will continue to do so, you can use the advertising platform and you’ll be able to gain returns when you’re executing it properly.
BeReal
As a new platform, which has been released as of 2020, you can gain further abilities within your marketing through the app of BeReal.
This is an app which has become even more popular among the younger generation, up to those in their 30s.
Being a content app which takes the photo using both of your cameras — there was popularity with the app in the app store, but it doesn't seem to have much variety around the app — and has fallen off a bit.
Continues to be the app which tries to bring authenticity to the platform through the imagery of both cameras — who knows how authentic the app will be and the progress of the platform?
With the wrap up at the end of the year, we will see where this app goes and if there is any progress in this section?
From the progress of these different marketing methodologies, platforms and strategies, through the original Digital Marketing Trends, these are the ways to progress your marketing efforts.
As a wrap up as an update from the start of the year when that got originally released, this is the progress from then, what’re your opinions on this now? Leave a comment!
If you want to learn more about marketing, social media, and strategies, do it stress-free without the paywall — join me on Medium.
If you want to understand the elements in each more depth, my substack is the place to be!
Hopefully, this article helped you, or you have learned something new, thanks for reading!
