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Most of us agree that change is the only constant for marketers and adjustment is part of the job.
In 2020, the start of the pandemic has changed the way we work and do business, from rapidly shrinking budgets to virtual events and new hybrid workforces.
Expect the difficulties to continue and maybe even turn into new hurdles in 2022.
CMOs will continue to face higher digital media purchase rates, challenges in recruiting the right talent, and difficulty in attracting increasingly digitally savvy buyers. Higher customer expectations become the new basis.
As targets move in the digital marketing environment, marketing leaders need to hone their skills to improve their team’s effectiveness without causing burnout. Increasing marketing budgets to pre-COVID levels – if not higher – will be critical. Highly personalized, multichannel tactics will be the norm. Events are becoming hybrid, which can mean double costs (and work). Employer branding efforts will increase.
With all this in mind, CMOs need to stand firm in internal budget negotiations and come up with an unbeatable business case. In addition, a close and ongoing relationship with the CFO is required for marketing directors to work most effectively.
All of this touches on just some of the changes that marketers can see in the coming year.
Marketing is tied to different departments within an organization, so I reached out to several other executives to gather their thoughts on the marketing projections for 2022.
Switch to topics, not keywords
With the continuous focus of Google and the improvements in NLP [natural language processing], optimizing for exact keywords is less of a priority. Websites may notice a decline in the rankings for keywords with higher search volume, but notice more overall traffic from related long-tail keywords. So content should be focused on a specific topic, and the goal should be to satisfy the searcher’s intent for the various searches on the topic. These improvements in NLP will also affect the way people formulate their search queries, which can also lead to a decrease in the volume of previously frequently searched terms.
-Ola King, user researcher at Moz
Sales and marketing data can no longer be isolated
Traditionally, marketing and sales departments have been isolated and have not shared metrics, creating a gap in understanding of attribution, sourcing, handover, and lead scoring. Although this structure worked in a non-digital world, the modern customer path is not linear and the metrics must converge to achieve the desired results and customer experience.
-Nirosha Methananda, VP of Marketing for Influ2
Call tracing needs to focus on analyzing the results
Advertising is more expensive today than ever as traditional channels like face-to-face conferences are no longer an option. Therefore, digital advertising spending is increasing. More digital advertising means a greater need for brands to track ad performance. I expect the demand for performance metrics to increase in 2022 as brands become more concerned with the performance of their ads and budgets continue to be paramount.
-Laure Fisher, COO and Co-Founder of CallTrackingMetrics
Communication between marketing and IT has never been more important
Data security has become more important than ever in 2021 due to recent regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which say that companies who inadvertently disclose consumer information will be penalized. Because of this, brands have become cautious with data. As a result, Ad-Tech and Martech have been controlled and in-house for a safer environment. This year [2021], we’ve seen more IT pros take part in marketing calls to make sure teams buy tools that protect consumer data. Marketers are not experts in data protection, so I believe that more IT experts will be involved in purchasing decisions for adtech and martech tools in the future.
-Diaz Nesamoney, Founder and CEO of Jivox
Use event data as a marketing strategy
Brands use event data to inform their marketing strategy and budget. With the significant increase in virtual events, we realized the enormous amount of data available. This sea of new data – and the ability of savvy marketers to locate the most valuable pieces – will determine the great debate about going back to face-to-face events. It’s time to take a step back and understand what data is important and how you can use that data to influence your overall marketing strategy. Ultimately, these data points will help companies decide whether to resume in-person events or stick to virtual or hybrid events.
-Alon Alroy, Co-Founder and CMO of Bizzabo
Additional resources on digital marketing forecasting
The Great Compression and the Future of Post-Pandemic Marketing: Mitch Joel on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
The Future of Marketing Organizations After the Pandemic: Top 5 Predictions
Eight SEO strategies for 2022 [Infographic]
