Now that a new year has begun, marketers all around the world are doing research and making plans for the months and years to come. The year 2022 has a lot of potential for digital marketing, with a lot of interesting things on the horizon, from technological improvements to new norms and regulations.

Because there is so much to look forward to, it may be tough to decide what aspect of it should get your focus first. Because of this, we felt it necessary to compile this guide on digital marketing best practices for 2022.

1. Why designing websites and email in a way that is accessible to all users is essential?

Accessibility and the significance of having an inclusive site and email design is another hot subject that has been brought up in the conversation about digital marketing in 2022.

The number of a company’s customers is sure to increase as more of those companies move their content and other offerings onto the internet. The issue here is that an increasing number of people who have vision or hearing impairments are having difficulty acquiring items and services via internet channels. This may then result in litigation filed under the ADA, which may cost brands thousands of dollars (or even more) in fines and other penalties.

It shouldn’t be difficult to ensure that your website and email campaigns are accessible to people with disabilities and comply with ADA standards. You may choose to embed videos, make use of colors that contrast with one another for users who are visually challenged, or give text alternatives or subtitles for users who have difficulty hearing (HOH).

2. The Year of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is something that marketers have been discussing for some time, and it is rapidly becoming something that they yearn for (although it once caused hysteria among content creators).

Why? Because AI has the potential to make routine tasks easier to do. Not only may it assist with the automation of workplace tasks, but it also has the potential to be used in areas such as:

• E-commerce transactions
• Basic communication (i.e. social media chatbots)
• Product recommendations
• Analysis with a view to the future
• Production of content

 3. Upcoming marketing approaches

You, as a professional marketer, are aware that “marketing” is a catch-all phrase that is used to describe the many distinct varieties that are now available. If you want to be successful in digital marketing in 2022, you and your team need to be familiar with a number of up-and-coming marketing approaches.

Marketing based on conversations

Consumers in this day and age want rapid pleasure from the products they buy. They want everything done immediately, whether it is receiving services or having their questions addressed. Because of recent developments in live chat and chatbots, customers now anticipate having immediate access to a representative who can respond to any questions or concerns they have.

Conversational marketing is a strategy that may be used in this context.

Conversational marketing not only creates an immediate connection between you and your customers, but it also paves the way for two-way conversation between you and your client base. This improves the ties you have with your customers and allows you to gather more important data.

The key to success in this kind of marketing is the same as it is in other forms of inbound marketing, which is to provide your customers with important information at the speed at which they want to receive it.

The Freddy Freshbot chatbot is a good illustration of conversational marketing in action. HelloFresh’s helpful chatbot, Freddy, is named after one of the company’s signature delivery owls. Freddy is accessible to users of the Messenger app on Facebook, and he offers the following to customers:

• Assistance to customers
• The answers to some of the most commonly asked questions
• Recipe ideas
• Meal reminders

4. Omnichannel marketing

You are definitely familiar with the term “omnichannel marketing,” but if you haven’t begun putting it into practice yet, you should pay careful attention to this.

In order to be successful in digital marketing in 2022, you will need to step up your omnichannel marketing game; yet, this is not quite as daunting as it may seem. For those of you who aren’t really familiar with the term “omnichannel marketing,” let me fill you in.

Omnichannel marketing is the technique of leveraging numerous marketing channels to give a seamless experience for each of their consumers, regardless of the channel or device they are using. This may be accomplished by employing a combination of digital and traditional marketing channels. The purpose of this is to offer a brand message that is more consistent and successful, as well as a user experience that is more unified, by combining the capabilities of all of your communications channels.

The customer loyalty rewards program offered by Starbucks is an outstanding illustration of an omnichannel marketing strategy in action.

Customers have access to a number of various methods for adding funds to their accounts, despite the fact that the rewards program is largely administered via the mobile app of the company:

• In-store
• The website page
• Their handheld electronic device

Because to this strategy, consumers will always have access to their rewards, and they will be able to check their account from any location, which will result in an amazing user experience.

5. Voice search

Back in 2018, voice search was all the rage, but it hasn’t made much of an appearance in marketing efforts since then. Voice search need to be an integral part of your 2022 digital marketing plan, judging from the looks of things.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise given that more individuals are turning to their cellphones to seek assistance from Google or Siri: When questioned, roughly 70 percent of people stated that they use voice search at least a few times each week, and another 27 percent of people claimed that they use it one to three times per day.

It won’t be difficult for you to include voice search into your plan. Begin with the following pointers:

• Verbiage that seems natural should be used in your material. Get to know your consumers and the language that they often use in their day-to-day interactions.
• Optimize your content for long-tail keywords. These are wonderful examples of frequent terms that customers use while doing research on subjects or items.
• Provide clear responses to popular inquiries.
• Your search engine optimization (SEO) methods should be more localized. This is helpful for inquiries using “near me.”

Wrap Up

It might be tough to make accurate forecasts about what the future holds for digital marketing in 2022. However, you may refresh your plan by looking at our list of the best practices for digital marketing and incorporating those changes.

We also discussed several noteworthy developments that will take place this year, and they are as follows:

• Rules and regulations regarding the privacy and safety of customers that have been brought up to date
• Web design that is inclusive in order to increase accessibility for all users
• The propagation of AI
• Upcoming marketing tactics
• The proliferation of voice-activated search