Marketing Trends for 2022 (and how last year’s predictions have held up)

For the past 5 years, we have published a marketing trend report each January to see what is coming up. But not only that, we also look back on the past year’s predictions and see how those have held up. We rely on reports, analysis, and stats issued by market research and large marketing companies, and the experience we and our peers have had. Influencer marketing, AV, VR, email markeitng, video, audio content, events, and many other trends discussed below.

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Full disclosure: I’m not God, nor a magician, so I can’t see the future. But it’s a good idea to see how people behave and try to make some intelligent guesses.

Last year prediction: The rise of on-demand content

✅ Confirmed: Customers are used to being in control

During the pandemic, academic and business education institutions switched to online or blended learning, which resulted in a massive quantity of on-demand content. This, combined with the rise of streaming services, Youtube, and podcasts, led to people being used to being in control: use content when they want, and skip ads if they want. 

The huge supply goes along with an increased overwhelm (have you ever stared at Netflix not knowing what to choose?). 

It’s a good idea to guide users with recommendations on what to do next based on their previous behaviour and/or what is trending and viewed by others.

Gamification elements like quizzes and rewards when completing certain stages in education-led content – like Duolingo or LinkedIn Learning – help users keep focused, motivated, and follow a trail. Even better if we incentivize them to share their achievements.

On-demand content usage gives a very wide variety of data to providers about what, how, and when people view, opening the door to more personalised content with higher engagement. 

Kantar predicts that ‘transparency in video on-demand viewership will transform media’s most dynamic market, as more actual video on-demand watching data at a program level are available.’

Video is an even bigger king than before

Video will continue to be the leading content marketing format. It was the most effective marketing format in HubSpot’s 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report. That hasn’t changed this year, according to their poll, where it ranks first among the most effective content techniques, ahead of blogging and even email marketing.

As Tik Tok overtakes Google as the most visited site, and Instagram puts more focus on reel videos, short-form video format is going to stay an increasing trend this year (while long-form content continues to be trending). According to the HubSpot survey, ‘more than 31% of global marketers currently invest in short-form video content, 46% of them consider the strategy effective when it comes to performance and engagement. And, in 2022, 89% of global marketers plan to continue investing in it or increase their investment.’

Last year prediction: Storytelling will be increasingly used in social media

✅ Confirmed: LinkedIn gives priority to story-led content

We analysed 1,000 posts over the past six months, and when ranking them, the ones with the highest number of likes and comments include storytelling (Many of them not even business-related, like being free of drug or alcohol for a while or recovering from a lethal illness.) 

We also tested it over 12 months by publishing a strongly story-led post each month (with business relevance), posting it in the least favourable time. Each time we noticed that LinkedIn distributes it massively: views increased rapidly even when the post was liked only by a few people, and we always got many 2nd and 3rd-grade connections commenting.

While there’s an increasing concern that ‘LinkedIn becomes Facebook’, with all the personal content, it’s a great opportunity to connect with the audience publishing story-led content with business relevance.

Case studies rock

One specific form of storytelling, case studies are still underused, while these are proven to generate leads and increase credibility. This is the story of the client who faces a problem, which is solved by the provider and results in a happy ending, a great outcome for the client. This is the number one demonstration tool over any description when selling solutions in both B2C and B2B marketing.

Case studies can take the form of a video, text, photos, pdf, ebook, and can be advertised in PPC, this way when a potential client is looking for a solution will find a story about somebody who was in their shoes and can see how their problem was solved. 

According to the HubSpot poll, 64% of marketers who used case studies found them to be effective, and 15% claimed they provided the best return on investment of all the content types they used.

Last year prediction: Clubhouse is rocketing

❌ Failed: Clubhouse is dying

You probably remember the Clubhouse hype a year ago. The app was downloaded 9.2 million times in February, huge groups grew out of nothing, even Elon Musk appeared, and it seemed to be fun. 

We had an 8-week experiment with Joyce Ong, called Clubhouse Marketing Mondays, which was really fun. But then the world opened up, and Clubhouse downloads fall by cc 90% (900.000 in June, which, considering the enormous investment in it was not fun to hear.)

The reason for the plunge could have been the fact that social media platforms like Facebook, Spotify, Twitter launched their own audio-based platforms, and Clubhouse was not very inclusive, neither transparent, very frequently changing the rules.

Audio-based content, however, keeps striving in 2022. Over the past decade, podcasts have become one of the most popular forms of (audio) entertainment in the UK. While podcast reach and consumption are as high as ever. According to a report by Statista, as of 2020, there were over 15 million podcast listeners in the United Kingdom (UK). The audience is growing steadily as the popularity of podcasts increases, with forecasts predicting close to 20 million listeners by 2024.

We launched our podcast called ConvertX radio in September 2021, and have great plans for 2022, including an interview series on what business leaders read.

Last year prediction: influencers are becoming an important part of the marketing mix

✅ Confirmed: 34% of global marketing professionals put influencer marketing at the top of their list

Influencer marketing is more settled now than a few years ago, and both influencers and marketers understand its principles. It’s a very easy-to-measure tool with a great ROI. Brands can save time on building and nurturing a committed audience and this is why they are ready to pay its price.

Influencers can grow very fast if they do it well, 16-year-old Ishaan Bhimjiyani grew a follower base of over 150,000 in 6 months on TikTok with his tips on exam revisions and could even build a business around that. 

According to the HubSpot survey, 34% of global marketing professionals who answered said that they invest in influencer marketing in 2022, putting it at the top of the list – above other trends like mobile web design and short-form video marketing.

‘While 57% of marketing professionals that currently leverage influencer marketing say it’s effective, 46% of them plan to increase their investments in 2022. Additionally, 11% say it’s the top ROI-generating trend they’ve tested.’ – says the report.

Last year prediction: Email marketing will live forever

✅ Confirmed: Email marketing will live forever

Email marketing is 40x more effective in terms of return than social media. Paid ads have a much higher return combined with email marketing (when you advertise the lead magnet and give a signup option for a discount coupon in eCommerce.)

Even LinkedIn rolled out their ‘Newsletter’ feature, which is not technically a newsletter, only an article your audience is notified about. It’s still a good idea to use it, but remember to build your own audience and email marketing.

We have been sending our Marketing Love Letters almost every week in 2021 with a very minimal number of unsubscribers (1-2 per email), and over 60% opening rates. This is our second most profitable source of new business after networking.

Last year prediction: hybrid events will repace online only or offline only events

❓Mixed: Marketers invest less in online or hybrid events

It really depends on where you stand. Obviously, hybrid event platforms say it’s blooming, but frankly, after the initial buzz, I haven’t seen any memorable solutions for a hybrid event in practice.

What I experienced was a huge hunger for in-person events, people were happy to go back to these.

When it’s purely about education, it can work, but even my students at London Markeitng Club and Northumbria University reported that in-person learning is so much more effective.

The HubSpot survey seems to reinforce the above: in 2021, 51% of marketers planned to invest in virtual events. However, 17% of these marketers expect to cut back on their spending in 2022.

In spite of the ongoing uncertainty around in-person events due to the ever-changing Covid restrictions, the importance of perfectly niched events will increase. A niche could be the industry, like Hexagon (mainly lawyers), or LPNE (language professionals), area (like Westminster Business Council), or core values like Business Leaders’ Family, or London Marketing Club (sharing knowledge, helping first.)

With London Marketing Club we have a plan to bring together highly recognised people at unique venues to make memorable introductions. 

Especially that ABM (account-based marketing) is becoming more of the focus of B2B companies, tailoring marketing materials on each prospect rather than mass-promoting them.

‘In 2022, 33% of marketers who haven’t used it before aim to do so for the first time.’ – says the HubSpot survey reports, which makes it a good idea for marketing agencies to offer as a service.

Last year prediction: 2021 might be the last full year of third-party cookies

❌ Failed: the death of cookies was postponed to mid-2023 at the earliest.

It seems like companies are too comfortable to act before it’s necessary. It is crucial, however, as ‘the search for high-quality data will be the fastest-growing challenge for marketers in 2022, resulting in a renewed sense of value and urgency. 

Those who have bold data plans will be ahead of the game. To make the most of and experiment with their own ‘first-party’ data, brands will focus on direct customer relationships.’ – says the Kantar report.

This will require expertise beyond marketing, and successful companies have to hire or consult a Chief Data Officer or data expert.

Companies will also spend more on brand awareness and customer relationships apart from performance marketing.

Always on the menu: AR and VR

AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are constant members of the past years’ trend reports. Some companies have implemented these successfully, with Zellebrate among them. The app, developed by Adamapp, displays relevant options based on the product a user wants and the best possible options available in the market to address that requirement without the biases of paid rankings. 

I’m still waiting for the big breakthrough though: ‘in 2021, only 35% of marketers planned to use augmented reality or virtual reality in their campaigns. In 2022, 9 percent of marketers who didn’t use AR or VR before will do so for the first time in 2022.’ – according to the HubSpot survey.

Metaverse could be the key to that breakthrough. It is a digitized version of the physical world that revolves around the idea of being virtually presented in a digital representation. Metaverse has recently been adopted by the gaming industry and has brought revolutionary changes when it comes to marketing through the metaverse as the younger generation is more familiar and thus, comfortable with the concept they have experienced in virtual life. 

Author: Timea Kadar, marketing strategist, research done by Faisal Hafiz.

References:

Kantar, n.d. About Kantar.

Raj, R., 2021. The Media Trends and Predictions 2022 by Kantar.

TheBrandBerries, 2021. Kantar’s Media Trends And Predictions 2022.

Yahoo Finance, 2022. Kantar’s five media trends & predictions that will shape 2022: content will be king.

Bump, P., 2021. The Marketing Trends of 2022 [The Ultimate Guide].

MarketScreener, 2021. HubSpot : The Marketing Trends of 2022.

Iskiev, M., 2021. The HubSpot Blog’s 2022 Marketing Industry Trends Report: Data from 1,000+ Global Marketer.

Mintel News, 2021. [PODCAST] SEASON FINALE: A FESTIVE LOOK BACK AND LOOK AHEAD. [

Mintel Blog, 2022. About Mintel. Available at: <https://www.mintel.com/about-mintel> [Accessed 10 January 2022].

Mintel Reports, 2021. Mintel Premium.

Mintel, 2022. 2022 Global Consumer Trends.

Statista Research Department, 3 May 2021

P as Placement of Marketing Mix: how your clients access your product

Placement is often underrated in the Marketing Mix, and still, it’s a very important one. It describes the process of how your clients access your products and services. Finding out the right placements, and experimenting with new ones can help you reach out to new audiences, and maximise profits.

We’ll cover the below placement structures:

  • Manufacturer  (product or service)
  • Distributor 
  • Aggregator
  • Franchise
  • Bricks and mortar
  • Bricks and clicks
  • Nickel and dime
  • MLM
  • Consultant, trainer
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Membership
  • Affiliate

Listen to the episode below:

The Product Staircase

Has it ever happened to you that you had a nice consultation with a client and they didn’t sign up for your services or product?

There could be several reasons for that. But one of the reasons could be that they were not ready to buy the service/product yet.

This is where the Product Staircase could come into the picture.

Listen about what the Product Staircase is by clicking on the recording below.

Sales funnel vs Customer Path

People hate to be through into a funnel and pushed through it. But what is the customer path?

Casual phase -> Connected phase -> Commitment -> Convinced

Listen to this episode and you will find out how to take your customer by the hand and walk alongside them on the path.

A snapshot of your marketing – SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis (an acronym of Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) )has been in use since 1952! And it still works. Such a great tool to give us a snapshot about your business, your marketing.

It’s always part of the strategies planning and reviews, and I also love using it when I have to decide whether or not to go ahead with an idea (if there are more threats and weaknesses I don’t bother, except…but this is another episode.)

SWOT analysis is more complex than a simple table, but for the purposes of this episode, I’ll keep it simple, as always.

Listen to the episode by clicking on the below recording:

So today let’s talk about SWOT. This is really an old tool and it’s not by chance that it’s still in use. SWOT is really the actual name and the individual letters stand for 

– strength – internal strength you have in the organization around you – the people. 

– Weaknesses, again internal weaknesses in the organization. Lack of resources.

– Opportunities which are external. So what is the environment that could give you hope for nice opportunities? 

– And threats – again external. 

It’s quite simple to do, just sit down with the team or yourself and fill it in. To give you a few ideas on how to do it and then it’s an easy decision whether to go ahead with an idea or not. Because obviously when you have a lot of strengths and just a few weaknesses and there are a lot of opportunities, not so many threats, then it’s a good idea 

And sometimes you just find out that there are so many weaknesses. It’s so complicated there are no resources. Then it’s not a good idea to go ahead. Just be honest.

Anyway, just seeing it in this grid helps you a lot and it also helps you to be honest. I’m just using it when I know I’m planning an event.

Just a few ideas for how you could fill it in yourself and for your business. 

Internal strength could be: Your experience in your profession, that your product is validated already. So when you plan something and you build it on something which is already validated. You have skills in your team. You’re already very good at something that you can develop further with the new idea. When you already have good client testimony as press coverage. It could be a really good strength. And you already have some communication assets running and you don’t have to set it up. Then you have a team to help you when you have resources to help you. When your brand is already well known or there’s somebody in the team, somebody would join you or support you. These are all strengths: Resource, reputation profile, communication assets, skills. 

Obviously, these are just some general things. I don’t know your service or product but you might have some specific strengths that I cannot cover here, right?

Weaknesses on the other hand are all the opposite to this. Just a few ideas: When there’s a misconception about that product or service. So people just generally say that: “Wow it’s boring, it’s something I don’t need.”

When it’s not a basic need. 

When there is a limited budget for marketing or limited resources. When there are limits to the product: You cannot do it online. Or you can only do it online 

So these are just some examples for you of how to think of weaknesses. You’re in love with your business and your product and your idea but you have to be honest. Like: Okay how can I take it offline? Or it’s not possible online. Or it’s online but we’re very much dependent on technology and our target group is elderly people and they won’t know how to do it.

Okay so let’s be honest with weaknesses really. 

Then external opportunities like: There are new market niches that we’ve discovered and we could step into it and we have all the tools to do that. Or we could expand into other areas and other regions, even globally because now we switched to online or it’s something that doesn’t have to be translated or we can reach all the English-speaking countries.

On the other hand, threats could be the opposite. Again: When it’s too local we won’t be able to reach anybody. Obviously, uncertainty is a threat and sometimes we have to say that this is too much of a threat because what we plan is really very much about people meeting or conferences. It’s a big threat that for some months or years it won’t be possible. Then a threat is competitors. When I say that something that I’m doing is a great idea but very easy to copy then it’s a threat. Then others will copy it very easily and then I have to go back and say okay how do I change it.

Another threat could be a change in regulations or Brexit whatever is coming up. Obviously, there are no guarantees – never. That’s the beauty of it really.

But once you fill it in you will see where you have strengths, weaknesses, etc.

It’s not long hours of exercise. Just sit down and be honest with yourself. 

So if you use this tool and the 3P diagram you will get much closer to deciding whether or not that idea is something to go ahead with.