Ways Digital Marketing will Change Businesses in 2022

Saphyte Team

3 min read

Updated: November 16th, 2022

Digital marketing has become an opportunity for many entrepreneurs and businesses to gain a competitive edge in the market. 2022 will be no different, as technological advancements and changing social media trends, and ever-increasing customer demands. As reality looms over, businesses have no other option but to evolve their services to keep up with the times. 

2022: Keeping up with the Customers

The year 2022 will be the dawn of the new age of digital marketing. There will be no actual numbers on how the year will look for businesses. But, Deloitte experts believe that global digital marketing will revolve around customer-centricity. The year 2022 entails marketers keeping up with the customers. 

So, in what ways will digital marketing change businesses in 2022? As the marketing game shifts into customer mode, Saphyte has identified some trends that might happen throughout 2022. We hope you have your papers and pens with you to jot down some of the most interesting digital marketing trends to help your business build dynamic customer experiences. 

Businesses Developing Human-first Data Experience

It’s time to bid goodbye, for real, to generic customer data deployment. Also, there’s a fine line between being helpful and creepy stalker-ish in treating customer data. In fact, 53% of consumers find active device listening super creepy. 

So marketers will be exploring how to use customer information and which strategies can build or erode trust. Businesses must cultivate transparency, value, and data security – apart from the promises they have to keep. Although using consumer data transparently and consistently keeping up with the customers’ needs in mind can lead to better decisions and more valuable brand relationships overall—absent the stalker-ish factor. 

Building customer trust is hard. Navigating through the consumer privacy landscape is also an increasingly complex endeavor. 2022 will change the way businesses treat customer data, and eventually, how they’ll treat the customer. 

However, developing a human-first digital experience for your business will give your business a better marketing edge. So, how will businesses achieve this?

Start with the relationship. Don’t lead tracking methods before the consumer trusts you. 

Empower customers. Giving them options puts customers in the driver’s seat to tailor their own data experiences. 

Involve privacy and security terms and teams on day one. 

Don’t let them read long terms and conditions. Nobody finds that fun. Just put it in bullet form, plain and simple language. 

Businesses Shifting to Authentically Inclusive Marketing

Customers are now more than self-aware. Modern customers are also socially aware, and they shop more with businesses that commit to addressing social inequalities. For businesses to win future customers, they have to be diverse, equal, and inclusive. 

Deloitte data says that high-growth brands (annual revenue growth of 10% or more) have more frequently established key performance metrics for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) objectives than lower-growth competitors. As a result, 57% of consumers are more loyal to brands that commit to addressing social inequities in their actions. 

Shifting to authentically inclusive marketing can also bring growth to your business and increase consumer loyalty. So how can businesses achieve this? 

Ensure teams and suppliers match your market.

Bring diverse voices back to the organization.

Make your commitments measurable. 

Businesses Taking Personalization to a Hybrid Level

The world shifted from physical to digital at the snap of a finger. Surprisingly, a lot of businesses excelled in delivering excellent customer experiences. Brands seemed to be more adept at providing services even in a digital space. However, the next challenge is integrating both physical and digital experiences – a hybrid, you might say. 

The challenge is not in the implementation but in exceeding people’s expectations. Customers will expect no less from hybrid experiences, and the omni-communication channels add to the complexity of this challenge. So how can your business cope up? 

When in doubt, always go back to your customer data. By putting the human at the forefront, involving other individuals, and innovating constantly, brands can make hybrid experiences more agile and flexible. 

Enable choices through greater personalization. Meeting your customer’s expectations in their preferred channel of communication helps businesses personalize their experience. Most importantly, tailoring channels to customers also allows your brand to offer more inclusive experiences. When your customers have empowered choices, you also gain customer loyalty—a total win-win for you and your business. 

Let the “human” take the lead. While systems and infrastructures play a vital role in delivering hybrid experiences, interaction still starts with humans. Tailoring experiences to meet consumer needs and empowering them with choices – brands are on the right track in elevating digital marketing experience. 

Businesses will Supercharge Customer Service with AI

Artificial intelligence is no longer the future. It is now the present. For brands, helping customers make purchase decisions is a top priority. However, it’s not a simple theory. 

A surge in digital channels and hybrid digital and physical journeys along with heightened customer expectations have complicated brands` desire to create and deliver a dynamic experience that equips customers with the correct information and incentives—when they need it most. Experts from Deloitte believe that for businesses to achieve an actual end-to-end customer experience, companies must optimize artificial intelligence within the customer experience to achieve harmony 

between human tasks and machine capabilities.

So, how can your business keep up with this? There’s no actual recipe for tapping into the power of artificial intelligence, but here are some starter steps.

Design a dynamic customer experience.

Let humans and machines meet halfway. 

Understand the experience strategy.

Always have a clear picture of your customers. 

Design with human-centered factors at the forefront.

Employ a customer data platform, like CRM software.

Conclusion

Digital marketing will change the way businesses function over the next decade. For business leaders, marketers, and sales leaders, this is an exciting opportunity to take in. If your business is still trying to adjust and keep up, don’t worry, you still have time to re-adjust your goals for next year and make things possible for your business. 

Digital marketing may have changed the way businesses run their operations, but it’ll never change brands’ perceptions and vision. So, what are you changing this 2022?