“Why are you digital marketers so obsessed with jargon all the time?” I was asked this question point-blank by a professor of marketing at a panel discussion hosted by a prominent management institute recently.
“Mea culpa”, I had accepted the accusation promptly, “I do accept, the digital world is a whole lot baffling. Sometimes, needlessly so. But the fact remains it’s a dynamic industry, things keep changing and thus new developments lead to newer and oftentimes, confusing tech gibberish. What to do.”
“Well, then at least make it simpler for the rest of us by singling out what’s more important than the superfluous riff-raff that floats in this digital orbit of yours?” the professor persisted.
“Hmmm…valid point, let me see what I can do”, I had meekly offered in response.
Truth be told, the professor was indeed right about his lament.
In comparison to classical marketing, where fundamental principles have remained virtually unchanged for decades, digital marketing does have this penchant for throwing up newer concepts supported by acronyms and befuddling verbiage every few days. As a result, there’s a surfeit of terms that confuse lay people and the uninitiated all the time e.g., CTR, CPC, ROAS, CPV, MAUs, pixels, cookies, and so on. Admittedly, digital by definition is not analog and thus given to discrete developments periodically. Every day, there’s progression and that leads to newer claptrap. Thus, for anyone in digital marketing, change is an integral part of the job. Yet, undeniably, from time to time, it’s important to sift through the chaff and determine what’s really key for managing the future meaningfully.
Therefore, to partially redeem my pledge to the irate professor – trying to sharp focus on only the most pertinent developments and not get misled by gobbledygook – here’s my take on the eight key priorities that will surely move front and centre for digital marketers in 2022:
Though Google’s plan of phasing out of the cookie has been pushed to 2023, it will be prudent for digital marketers to start planning for first-party, cohort-based and contextual targeting as core to user identity in preparation for a post-cookie landscape. Going forward, players that have built an identity graph using consent-based, cross-channel, first-party data will be well-positioned to deliver alternative targeting and measurement solutions. Advertisers and publishers alike will have to embrace interoperable solutions such as Universal ID. In this context, developments around Google’s FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) will be keenly followed too.
With technology getting superior and targeting becoming difficult, Programmatic will truly become the marketer’s best friend. To reach customers in new and innovative ways and drive more valuable conversions, programmatic advertising will become even more important. And this trend will get accelerated across mobile, video, DOOH, as well as connected TVs. In effect, this will for sure set the stage for an efficient, data-driven way of attracting highly relevant audiences at scale.
CDP (Customer Data Platform) being a single platform for a unified customer record from all the touchpoints associated with a business, its software gathers valuable information from multiple sources (first, second, and third) to create a well-rounded consumer profile. As P3PC (post-third-party cookies) have accelerated the long-term data strategies plan to own the consumer, brands have already started to deploy CDPs to transition from segment audience data approach to individual consumer profiles.
As a matter of fact, now even zero-party data has been gaining more and more momentum. This is data that’s given directly by the consumer via a survey, gamification, or simple consumer/brand interaction online. The integrated CDP data will thereafter be further separated into different categories, including identification, description, denoting behavioural patterns, and opinions – eventually helping marketers craft personas for targeting their products or brands meaningfully.
Brands have forever been facing the challenging task of connecting with their audiences emotionally and viscerally. Now, against this backdrop, and spurred in no small measure by Facebook’s clarion call, the immersive technologies of AR/VR will soon find a permanent spot in digital marketing strategies, initiating customers or their digital avatars to step into the metaverse – a virtual world of magical experiences to build stronger relationships and for conversions. There are tons of apps that already work in the augmented reality space and are available through your smartphone camera. While many of us might recall similar noise around Second Life in earlier years, this time the anticipation around metaverse seems well-founded. Recent reports indicate that the metaverse market will grow to over $1,544 bn in less than ten years – thus more than enough reason to hot focus on this area.
In recent years, advancements in AI have led to more intuitive reporting and automation of general marketing tasks like monitoring site traffic and boosting search engine optimization for organic reach. Soon, more businesses will be seen relying on machine learning tools for content planning and campaign optimization to improve engagements, conversions as well as satisfaction. Language modelling will also become an integral part of marketing strategies, enabling machines to communicate with consumers in a language they understand and hold conversations in. Also, since AI can be used to predict customers’ next move, it means marketers will start targeting them with a product or service they need, right when they need it. This kind of targeting will surely lead to higher conversion rates.
After Snapchat introduced the 24-hour novelty of ephemeral stories, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc have all launched their own versions of the same, capitalising on the FOMO phenomenon. Marketers will keep using the tool effectively with tactics such as polls, live videos, offers, etc. to keep users engaged. Similarly, for shortening the sales funnel and pushing for immediate conversions, social commerce will keep growing in importance. Tools such as Instagram’s Shopping, Reels and IGTV etc. are already picking up momentum in this area and increasingly this trend will only get stronger. Concurrently, with the maturing of the influencers’ movement, the natural next step for platforms will be to help influencers and companies sell to consumers directly.
Simultaneously, in an increasingly privacy-driven world, marketers will find push notifications as a cost-effective way to stay in touch with user segments. Notifications have a 7% open rate vs. 3% of broadcast messages roughly and a higher conversion rate (of 54% vs 15% of broadcast) through segmented push notifications is going to ensure that scales get decisively tilted in their favour.
Zero-click search is becoming common for users now.
Here, as you search Google for any information, apart from the links that show up, there’s often a para of summarised info right at the top. This precise answer, a featured snippet curated by Google search, obviates the need to click on a link altogether. This box of ready answers is Position Zero. Needless to say, to figure in this box brands will now need to creatively update their page titles to indicate exactly what searchers will get when visiting their site.
In parallel, Voice search and Image search will keep assuming greater significance too. With greater use of voice-activated Google Assistants, Siris and Alexas, the need to use descriptive keywords, using the kind of questions people will orally ask, is logically going to increase. Yet, alongside all these new developments, the old-fashioned yet robust tool for SEO and thought leadership will remain the use of longer and more educational content through blog posts and articles.
In this content-hungry world of fast-scrolling audiences, increasingly shorter attention spans would mean that the need for thumb-stopper content always keeps going up. Generic, trite messaging around FAB (Functions/Attributes/Benefits) does not work anymore. Brand marketers will necessarily need to turn storytellers. Using interesting language, vivid imagery and evocative stories will become the norm. Chatbots, Personalized videos, and Virtual selling assistants will be some other forms of gaining currency as part of this phenomenon.
So, all in all, there’s action guaranteed aplenty in the digital marketing playground this year. As is customary, jargon or no jargon, only meaningful elements will shine, the rest will fall by the wayside. Here’s wishing all marketers a solid 2022!
First published on exchange4media.com on Jan. 04, 2022