Marketing Trends for 2022 (And How Video Can Help!)
In a recent article, Entrepreneur cited video marketing as “the future of marketing.” With this statement and the ever-rising popularity of non-static media, it’s relatively safe to assume that video is something you’re going to want to consider for your marketing strategy in 2022. Luckily, video can be incorporated into your marketing plan in numerous ways, so let’s dive into some marketing trends you can expect to see this coming year and how video can help you get ahead of your competition.
Trend 1: Digital Storytelling
Rumour has it that digital storytelling is on the rise. Digital storytelling is essentially exactly what it sounds like: the use of technology and multimedia to tell a story or sell a certain narrative. It can take visual or audio form and doesn’t have to look only one way. Examples can include anything from an audio-guided tour in a museum, to an interview over podcast, to a commercial for a well-known company. According to Forbes, “companies who can leverage persuasive storytelling will have their digital content create value and relatability and not just be content for content’s sake.”
Video is a natural choice if your company is looking to embark on a digital storytelling journey. It’s a way to appeal to your clients through both visual and audio content and to appeal to them on an emotional level. When your content affects people in this way, something called a “share trigger” might happen, which are elements in the content that make people more likely to share it. These include media that invokes emotion, is particularly funny or positive, or supports a certain cause that people are passionate about. When going about creating a video for digital storytelling, think about what share triggers you can include. This can help increase your reach and build your audience out.
If you need some help getting started with digital storytelling, check out the explainer video below from the University of Guelph. It breaks down the process into a few easy steps.
Trend 2: Cross-Channel Marketing
In this day and age, it’s important to be omnipresent. You want to make it as easy as possible for prospective clients to find you and to engage with your content. This means that you have knowledge of and are able to utilize various platforms to get your content out there and to communicate with your audience. For many clients, showing evidence that you are capable of smooth, streamlined communication is important.
There are numerous platforms to consider when going about content distribution. First, there are the more obvious contenders of your website and your social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. You’ll want to ensure that content that is posted on your website also works for mobile devices and tablets. It is crucial to optimize your content for smaller screens as that’s how several people access the internet nowadays. Email is another important consideration when planning your distribution. Your email subscriber list is a great way to reach out to a large portion of your audience directly, in a more personalized way. You can even segment your emailing list to more adequately cater to different groups in your audience.
So, how can video help with this? The great thing about video is that it can be used in many ways once it’s been created. Say you’ve put together a two-minute video to go along with a blog post such as this one. Now that you have that video, you can cut it down to a one-minute or thirty-second teaser for your social media platforms, encouraging people to check out your blog post. You can include it in your email newsletter, giving people something easy to digest when they check their inbox in the morning, rather than a bunch of text.
Overall, using video is an easy way to have content ready to use for various channels and gives you a way to show that you aren’t limited to just one platform or communication style.
Trend 3: Keep the Process Smooth
Going off of the last point a little bit, it is crucial that you try to make your customer journey as smooth as possible. Having a clunky website or clunky social content can discourage people from spending time on your platforms and getting to know your brand, potentially causing you to lose out on customers. You want to ensure that you make the conversion as easy as possible.
Go through your website and see where there might be some potential hangups. Are you providing enough information so your prospective clients understand what your services are? Are you providing so much information that it’s overwhelming for visitors? Spend some time trying to figure out where your visitors might be experiencing hiccups.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, video can also help ensure that your website provides a smooth experience for prospective clients and can help keep things looking tidy. One example of how video can assist your customer journey is through the use of a frequently asked questions video. If there are common questions that you’ve found arise, you can compile your answers in a video format. Depending on how fancy you want to get, you can have employees answer the questions, or hire actors for a more professional feel. This can help streamline your conversion process, as it can help eliminate back-and-forth with prospective clients before they’re ready to buy and instead provide them with readily-available information.
Another example would be to include testimonial videos on your website. This allows visitors to be able to find out information on your company and first-hand experiences from people who have worked with you all in one place. It saves them from having to search for external reviews and also shows that people enjoyed working with your company enough to take the time out of their day to film such a video. By providing these videos, you’re helping eliminate questions as to whether or not your business is trustworthy, further moving along the customer journey.
Trend 4: In-Feed Posts are Making a Comeback
In recent years, temporary social media posts have gained popularity. Many platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have followed in the likes of Snapchat and introduced (and sometimes removed) features that allow users to post content that disappears after 24-hours, typically known as “stories” on most platforms. Often, the 24-hour content can be saved to profile “highlights” though that still is separate from the regular feed content.
On the contrary, in-feed posts are permanent–so to speak–posts that show up all the time when somebody clicks on your profile. These can look like Facebook statuses or LinkedIn updates or a regular square photo on Instagram. According to Hubspot, this is once again the kind of content that is more beneficial when it comes to using social media for your business. A survey they conducted found that permanent posts had a better return on investment than their temporary counterparts, and that “44% of global marketers plan to increase their investment in permanent social media content.”
All that said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to stop using ephemeral content altogether. Hubspot suggests that you use a combination of permanent posts and 24-hour content. Doing so will help expand your reach on the platform you are using.
Video is, once again, a great tool to use for both permanent content and short-lived content, especially as social media platforms continue to specifically push video content. You might have noticed when you open Instagram, or even Facebook, that you’re coming into contact with increasing amounts of video, and that’s because the platforms have changed their algorithms to prioritize video to remain competitive with the likes of TikTok. The good news about video is that it can exist in several ways on social.
The first option is posting a video in your feed the same way you would post a photo or a status update. Recently, many social media platforms have increased the length of in-feed videos they can support, giving you more freedom with what kind of videos you can post. If there’s a particularly funny or interesting moment from a video you want to share beyond your already established audience and it fits with your company’s strategy, you can take that clip and post it as a Reel on Instagram or share it on TikTok. Both of these options can also easily be shared and play on your story for a temporary component. Live videos are another way that video can be both temporary and permanent, with the option to save live streams to your social media profiles so viewers who weren’t available at the moment can still view the content. All in all, there are numerous ways that video can assist your content strategy both through permanent and ephemeral means.
Trend 5: Video Marketing (Of Course!)
As you might have gathered by now, video marketing is a great move to consider as you roll out your 2022 marketing strategies. Even better, Entrepreneur provides stats to back it up. In the United States, more people between the ages of 18-49 are watching content on YouTube than they are cable television. Further, social media platforms are seeing more engagement and views with video than they are any static content.
Something to consider as you move forward with these trends and plan your video content is that videos are currently trending on the shorter side. This isn’t to say that long-form videos aren’t useful and great for sharing information, but in a market as saturated with content as the internet is, people have increasingly shorter attention spans. By keeping your videos short and to the point, you’re more likely to have your message heard than if the video is dragged out.
So what makes video work? The great thing about video is that it allows you to connect with your audience and build relationships with them. It allows you to humanize your brand and company.
What all of this really circles back to is the idea of storytelling. Human beings naturally want to connect with and relate to stories, and video is the best medium to create a clear narrative in a short time period. This also makes your content more easily digestible, as you are providing helpful information but doing so in such a way that it’s enjoyable and entertaining.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, after all this, you’re feeling a little better equipped to tackle the world of digital marketing in 2022 and are readily armed with tips and tricks for how video can help you out. Whether it be through the use of a video production company or have the resources in-house, creating and utilizing video can open up a variety of new marketing tactics for your business.