Noise. It is everywhere we go. At home, at work, even when we take a walk. Our favorite media channels are filling out our day with ongoing stories. Over the last two years it has become more overwhelming than ever. The pandemic has changed the way companies and individuals source their information, and how marketers get the word out there. Moving most of the activity to the digital arena, marketers and brands are fighting over the very limited attention of their target audience.

Marketers may have the coolest job on earth (non-biased at all 😊). They are the cool gang in the company that get to run the most creative projects. But with the “glory” comes the pressure. The pressure to get the right brand awareness and leads gen initiatives that will serve the bottom line of the business.

To keep up we need to eliminate the chaotic noise around us, focus, and invest our energies on the right initiatives – ones that will appeal to the right people and cross through their daily noise

Here is lesson 2 –

Lesson 2–  

Doing digital right!

Digital marketing is not new to anyone here. We all know its importance and why we need it. What is clearly influencing the new marketing trends in 2022 is the way we do it.

With the booming of video marketing and new social platforms advertising tools, and with increased emphasize on conversational marketing, we need to stretch farther than ever and implement these changes to get it right!  

Doing digital right in 2022 will look like this:

1. New approach to video marketing

Video is one of the best ways to connect emotionally with a consumer. As data shows, it is clear that we must produce more video communication than ever: 25% higher click rate, 1200% more shares, 60,000 times more visual processing than plain text and 41% increase in web traffic. More crucial to understand is that the story and reels video advertisement tools are some of the top video-based content channels today. So, we know we need to give videos their glory as part of our marketing plan. Now what?

• Traditional video advertising is out. Influencer and customer-created videos are in. By leveraging influencers and customer-created videos, you’ll capture your audience’s attention in a much more authentic and meaningful way. Have your top influencers using your product in a short video will increase the chances of your video to pop up in your audience social media feeds. In addition to your influencers, leverage your customers relationships to produce videos by your customers. Video content created by your customers is more authentic than your own brand content.
• Short videos. Social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are favouring accounts that post video content. Making short videos on your social channels is becoming a marketing necessity. Instagram heavily favors reels so make sure you create short video content to get higher exposure. Short videos are easier to make and fit the limited attention span people have with their feeds.      
• Livestreaming. A great way to engage with your customers and be authentic is trough livestreaming. This marketing format is gaining more momentum as livestreaming engagement is up 250% and is the perfect way to get closer to your audience and spread your brand’s values. This is a win-win and easy to implement initiative. With an easy-to-use build in shopping features, you or your influencers can recommend a product and share a direct link for purchase or other CTA during the livestream. You get to showcase your products; your customers feel more personally attached to your brand and the call-to-action is easy and live.

Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Twitter Live and YouTube Live are most famous for this type of marketing. You can host a live Q&A session, announce a new product release, or create a live shopping event.

2. Conversational marketing

As we want to better our engagement methods with our customers and have a more authentic and trustworthy relationship with them, another great way to get closer is with conversational tools. Live chats, chatbots, voice assistants and video chats are all instant communication tools. What we might oversee here is the fact that it is not merely a customer support tool but much more than that.

Live chats are powerful communication channels that connect customer support, sales, and marketing. You can leverage the live communication to get insights and views from your customers on your brand. What other tools can offer you an instant and easy communication channel to get real time feedback about your brand?

Brands can use these emerging platforms to easily meet consumers where they are already spending their time. 85% of consumers spend their time in five popular apps, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. And according to Facebook’s February earnings, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger had 1.5 billion and 1.3 billion monthly active users, respectively. So, communication channels on social media are a perfect way to meet with your customer without having them leave to another platform. There are already on average 5 hours per day on social media, you might as well take advantage of it as it is a more convenient way for them to get in touch with your brand.

Conversational marketing can drive lead generation by reaching new audiences on different channels or by giving people a more convenient way to get in touch with support.

According to Harvard Business Review, messaging apps “provide a continuous thread between customers and brands”. This thread allows for continuous communication which makes conversations more natural and “opportunities to cross-sell, encourage sharing, solicit input, and flow seamlessly between commerce and support” more frequent.

3. Changes in SEO principles

SEO is constantly changing, and you need to stay on top of the latest trends to ensure your content strategies are effective. Most strategies that you are using right now might be not effective anymore and some outdated tactics such as keyword stuffing can even negatively impact SEO. This makes it crucial to keep up with the latest trends and update your SEO strategy. 

Key trends in SEO you must consider:

Artificial Intelligence for SEO

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to change how people interact with content online, AI will also begin to play a key role in SEO strategy. Google’s AI algorithm RankBrain is one of the most important ranking factors for Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) in 2022.

User experience is one of its primary ranking factors. This means that click-through rate and the amount of time users spend on a website will be key factors that RankBrain will use when prioritizing content.

Long-Form Content

To increase your content engagement on your site, you will need to shift to a long-form content strategy. Long-form content of 3,000 words or more has been shown to get more traffic and more shares than short-form content. Writing quality long-form content can then improve your search rankings. However, it is not enough to create long content, it needs to be easily engaged.  

To keep readers engaged, it is important that you break up your content into multiple sub-sections using H2 and H3 subheadings, as this will make it more scannable. The goal is to make your content easy for readers to browse, particularly on mobile devices.

Mobile-friendly

Mobile-friendly has been fundamental for SEO ranking. Moreover, google looks primarily at the mobile version of a website when ranking content and not the desktop first as it used to be. 

Google EAT Principle

We know that Google ranks high quality content. But what does it mean? What does Google define as quality content? To answer this you must refer to the EAT principle set by Google; EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Google uses these factors to determine if a web page provides quality content.

You can start to verify you meet these principles by making sure that the content you write is backed up with statistics and facts, and make sure that you link to reputable sources. Having authoritative links in your content is a great way to fulfill all the criteria within the EAT principle.

Video marketing for improved SEO

It is imperative that you develop an SEO strategy that includes video.  

Creating optimized video content should be a vital part of your SEO strategy. To optimize your video content you can include a user-friendly overview of what your channel is about. Keywords will also play a critical role in optimizing your video content. But don’t overdo it and artificially add keywords to your video description. Instead, use a few useful keywords and hashtags that can help direct your content to its intended audience.

To recap on today’s lesson –

Foster your relationships with customers by using personal, direct channels. Make sure your customers and influencers endorse your product more than your brand itself and stay authentic and meaningful to your audience. Remember, it is all about the people.