Written by our guest expert Novnish Ramesh
Content Marketing Expert | Content Marketing Coach | Content Strategy and Lead Generation for Small Businesses | Copywriter | Business Advisor | Blogger | Keynote Speaker | Podcaster | SEO
How to grow with Digital Marketing in 2022 like a Rockstar
How to grow with Digital Marketing in 2022 like a Rockstar? This is the number one question or objective that small businesses and entrepreneurs have in mind. Everyone has some goal or objective in mind with digital marketing. I’m not talking about the casual user that just goes online to chat, see some images, videos, and just have fun. I am talking about people like us, who are action-oriented, who have objectives and expect results with their time online. Who have small businesses and want to really make a difference online versus the huge competion.
The typical reasons what people’s expectations online are to
grow,
get more followers,
get more engagement,
get more leads
get the reputation going
be that thought leader
get credibility
boost sales and revenue
You may think that achieving these goals online is easy, but it’s a long and challenging journey.
You may have seen countless businesses and people just creating tons of content such as videos, images, and blog articles, putting in hours of work, and posting it on various platforms. You see them ticking all those goals the more they post. You think it is working and all you need to do is create create create and post post post, and that’s all there is to it. Things will come flowing in, start getting engagement, growth, and all such things.
This can be true for a brief moment. You’ll get attention and growth, but it won’t be consistent, and you will find it hard to get a buying audience and even more challenging as time goes by. All you’ll end up doing is spending hours and hours creating those posts all for just some likes and comments and won’t be able to make money.
Creating and posting content is easy as there are tons of ideas and places available for you. However, this is just the starting point. The stuff that you see others doing is only the tip of the iceberg or the result. You do not know the work or the strategy they’ve put in this to make it work.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication.
Digital marketing involves
Search Engine Optimization
Social Media Marketing
Content marketing
Email Marketing
Video Marketing
Audio Marketing
Now that you know the main forms of digital marketing. Let’s get back to the question of growing and engagement.
How do I get business growth, engagement, and a buying audience?
Well, there is no secret, but I can promise you that if you do the right things at the right time in the right place for the right people, it can make a huge difference.
To achieve this, however, you need to:
know the right trends to jump into,
have the right tools and know-how to use them
have the right skills needed
And bring these all together with a crystal clear strategy. This will allow you to spend your time and energy on things that matter while having fun at the same time.
My job today is to share the things that I mentioned to help you on your way to getting success in the digital sphere.
The first of these are the trends that will be popular in digital marketing in 2022 that you should use to build your strategy.
Social Media is the REALITY
KEPIOS SOCIAL MEDIA DATA 2021
At the end of 2021, we had around 4.55 billion social media users around the world. This is about 57.6% of the total global population. This analysis was done by Kepios and Hootsuite published it. There are many others that have been done but the figure range will always be from 4.45 to 4.55 billion social media users.
Social media stats:
Social media users visit or use an average of 6.7 different social media platforms every month,
spend an average of almost 212 hours on social media each day.
Nearly nine out of ten internet users now use social media every month, according to these figures
Social media accounts for about 15 percent of people’s waking hours.
Across all social platforms, the world spends more than 10 billion hours using them every day, which is almost 1.2 million years of human life.
A survey of over 4300 marketers done by Social Media Examiner at the end of 2021 showed that
Among the most popular platforms are Facebook and Instagram. While this is in general, for B2B the first 3 most used social media platforms were Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram, while in B2C it was Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. This trend will continue to exist in 2022.
Even if you create one social media post, there is a lot of research and work that goes into it. People only see the post but never the reality of social media marketing.
The work behind a social media post
You should always be creating content for your audience. What I mean by that is you shouldn’t be putting out content that you like but what they like, want, and need.
Video is the number 1 focus
CMI B2B Content Marketing Investment in 2022
In 2022, almost 70% of marketers will be spending a lot on video content. Video marketing will play a very prominent role in 2022.
Almost 80 percent say that after watching a video they have made an action such as buying or downloading a sofware or application. (Wyzowl).
The pandemic has made brands realize that video is the most important for them, feel 91% of marketers (Wyzowl).
When we talk about the highest form of marekting media created in 2021, then Video was first, blogs second and then infographics for the majority of marketing teams. (Hubspot).
Get active on Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok, it’s still not too late.
Branded Audio Content
Podcasting
The pressure of being on camera, screen fatigue, and the flexibility of consuming audio content, has pushed this forward this year. Podcasts and social media audio will be booming in 2022.
Podcasts can naturally build awareness and increase recognition, more businesses will follow this trend. You must have noticed the huge hype about the clubhouse and Twitter spaces in 2021. Soon Youtube will have its own podcasting channel.
By incorporating audio, you are giving your audience an extra way to connect with you and giving them a choice. Creating your own podcasts and simply having them can help you boost rankings in the google search.
Create content for the audience
AnswerthePublic
When you create content that people are searching for. Google will understand that you are answering a question or providing a solution to a query.
Always remember when creating content, focus on the type of content, format of content, and the angle of the content. Promote what the people are looking for and what they need instead of what you like.
You have to know the words, questions, queries, and phrases of the customer. You have to ensure that all of these are present when you are creating your content.
Word of Mouth still rules
word of mouth
People are still asking their close friends and family about what products/brands to trust online.
83% of respondents from 60 countries trust recommendations from friends and family, and 66% trust online recommendations (Nielsen).
74% of purchasers (auto, beauty, and smartphone categories) identify word of mouth as the main point of influence for purchasing decisions (Google, TNS, & Ogilvy).
Get on Social media, try to get user-generated content, and use influencer marketing.
Use SEO for Organic
Blogging
SEO is the best way to drive traffic organically to your website when it comes to marketing strategy. This is always done with Blogging because it easily allows you to rank for keywords related to your products and services and for traffic generation.
Long-form content is hugely favored by search engines. Dedicate more time to writing and learning to write engaging content that’s 2000- 3000 words or more.
If you don’t have a blog yet, you need to start a blog if you want traffic.
Storytelling never dies
Storytelling
Storytelling is an age-old tradition that has become a concept. Grandmothers, back in the ages used to tell stories to their grandchildren as a way of spending time with them and to pass on stories. These stories would be cherished and remembered for a very long time by these children even when they are fully grown up.
Storytelling plays such a huge part in connecting and engaging with your audience. You simply cannot grow or connect meaningfully without stories that are authentic.
Ensure you communicate real stories so that people realize and understand that it’s not fake. Involve the people in your stories as much as possible and aim to break stereotypes and common assumptions or myths.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing
So many creators have popped up and grown exponentially in 2022. Influencer marketing has grown tremendously and will continue to grow. By the end of 2022, it is expected that it will grow into a $15 billion industry.
A lot of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and youtube have their incentives for the supply of content by creators.
Even if you are a very small business, collaborating and investing in influencers will bring you ROI. Make partnerships with them and take advantage of this trend.
Talking with your clients and prospects
Talking with your clients
Businesses have started improving their communications with clients using chatbots, live chat and voice assistants, and more. While others have started personally interacting more and more with their audience, finding out about their wants and needs and just talking to them and getting to know how they can help provide services and products or adapt existing ones.
80% of routine queries can be answered instantly with chatbots instead of filling up your customer service rep’s email inbox (giosg).
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
Artificial Intelligence
Marketers have started AI for obtaining intelligence on customers both online and offline, creating personalized experiences, predicting buying and sales patterns and forecasts paid ads and retargeting.
It helps you to market relevantly in the right place and for the right people. You can easily guide them through the funnel by using AI.
Go Live
Livestream
One of the best ways to interact and engage with your audience is through live streaming. They love it. Watch time for live content has gone up by 250% and it’s the best way to show that you are real and connect with your target audience.
Start using more of Facebook live, Instagram live, Twitter live, LinkedIn live and youtube live.
Marketing on all channels
You cannot just rely and focus on one single channel. All the channels available to the consumer have to be focused and connected.
This means social, web, mobile, phone, and store. You have to provide relevant content at each of the buying stages.
The purchase rate of omnichannel campaigns is 287% higher than single-channel campaigns (Omnisend)
The more channels you are in the better as it gives your customers much more convenience and at the same time provides you visibility.
What are some Tools you need to grow online?
There are literally 1000’s of amazing tools out there and it can get crazy real easy on what to use that can best suit your needs.
To make your life easier, I’m going to let you know some of the best tools that others like you are using out there and also some of my favorites.
These range from free to paid but don’t panic, even if it’s a paid version I’ve made sure to give you tools when you have a low budget.
I’m sure you’ll also find some well-known common tools that you’ve used or have come across before as well while at the same time finding some magical niche tools that could surprise you.
Research Tools
Staying ahead of the trends and simply knowing what is causing the hype online these days is essential. Research tools can help you get quite a lot of information and all you have to do is just follow in line with some of the current happenings around the world and create content accordingly.
Competitor spying
Competition is tough and spying on your competitor, benchmarking them, stalking them on their actions and strategies is crucial for standing out and delivering something unique that they are not. It is also great for doing something better at which they are already doing.
Analytics
Publishing content requires you to monitor the results so that you can know what mistakes you are doing. It can help you get better results by taking corrective actions. They’re also great to showcase the performance to your team or boss.
Native Social Media Analytics
Video editing
Recording videos and creating them is easy but editing the videos according to each platform and channel with regards to size and quality can be nerve-wracking. The tools below can help you compress videos, reduce the size, add elements and help you get your final videos to upload to your youtube or any other channel.
Transcription
When it comes to any type of video or audio content, it’s important that you turn that audio into text so that you can use it for captions or subtitles. It’s also useful when you want to learn about something and then write it. Especially now with SEO, it is very important to have the right words and phrases to communicate.
Podcasting
Podcasting has become one of the normal ways of spreading audio information and distributing audio content. It’s also one of the best ways to entertain, humor, and educate people on a given topic or subject. People hate sitting in front of videos and podcasting gives them another choice of letting them listen to something while they are doing something else.
Email Marketing
This form of marketing has existed for centuries. Everyone uses it to make customers on your email list aware of new products, discounts, and other services. It is simply one of the best ways to nurture your clients and prospects and to lead them down your funnel.
Project Management
So many things to do, so many tasks going on, and people to collaborate with. It is important to have a tool whereby you have a system in which you can work easily with a team, get more done in less time while having something easy to use.
Content Management
So much content is created literally every day and organizations create around 7 pieces of content for 3 to 7 different platforms each day. Getting the content organized and storing it is vital. You need to have a database or an asset system.
Content Creation
Creating content is the bread and butter for your business. Content Marketing is all about creating the right content for the right people based on their needs and requirement. There are so many different formats and types that are correct for each step of the buying process and for each kind of platform.
Writing and Grammar
Copywriting is the best way to create persuasive content for marketing and sales. It is crucial for generating conversions and sales. Whatever content you create has text or copy in it. Without this, you cannot connect with your clients or prospects. Emotionally powerful words and phrases that you find and see daily require copywriting.
Content transfer
Transferring small pieces of content or bulk content has to be easy and fast. You need to be able to share that content with your client or team without hassle.
Social Media Management
Creating daily posts, scheduling in advance, getting that editorial calendar set, getting the feedback and approval from your team, monitoring, and getting the analytics of your posts are all needed these days for social media management.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is needed to make your site better for search engines. You want to be taking the right steps to help your website or piece of content that you create rank on Google. This involves a lot of things such as keywords, optimization, Search engine results pages, on-page, and off-page SEO.
What skills do you need for digital marketing?
Hard and Soft Skills
Digital marketing involves a lot of things but in order to master, grow or find the success you need certain skills.
There are hard skills and soft skills.
Education can teach you hard skills, but soft skills can only be acquired through personal development and human interaction.
Hard Skills
Content creation
Copywriting
Design and Editing
Branding
Consumer and Competitive research
Content Strategy
Data Analytics
Search engine optmization
Social Media Basics
Advertising
Now even if you know all of them are even some of them, you definitely cannot succeed if you do not have the soft skills.
You need people skills because even though you may think you can do everything and it’s a one-man show. It’s not by far a 1 man show at all which is why many people and businesses fail to have this mindset. You need a team either internally or externally with the use of freelancers or agencies.
Soft skills
Empathy
Creativity
Communication
Persuasiveness
Curiosity
Organization
Confidence
Motivation
Humility
Adaptability
Conclusion – My closing words
Any type of marketing can be easy and difficult. It’s really you who decides according to what you know and can do. The rule of thumb is always to Research, Plan, and then Act. This means never rushing blindly into anything without arming yourself with at least the basics. You always need a strategy even if it’s for doing simple things. Becoming good at something and getting the results requires talking to people, asking them for advice, and trusting them to help you. Be a great communicator first. Playing the digital game is no different than living your daily life.
If you read carefully this article and digest all the learnings, understand what you should be doing and try out some of the tools mentioned, then for sure, you can be successful in digital marketing.
Folllow our guest expert Novnish Ramesh on LinkedIn and check out his blog HERE
Content Marketing Expert | Content Marketing Coach | Content Strategy and Lead Generation for Small Businesses | Copywriter | Business Advisor | Blogger | Keynote Speaker | Podcaster | SEO