A new year means new marketing opportunities for your small business. If you want to increase the visibility of your business, attract more customers, or generate additional revenue in 2022, these digital trends can help you achieve your marketing goals.

Create Content for Voice Search

Experts predicted that 55 percent of households will use smart speakers by 2022, providing small businesses with a wealth of brand new marketing opportunities. A word of warning: Voice searches on devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are linguistically different from text-based searches on smartphones. When creating blog content or meta descriptions, consider how people phrase information in voice searches. Focus on conversational keywords, for example, or create pages that specifically answer common questions. Both of these techniques can increase voice search optimization success.

Optimize Web Pages for Mobile

2022 could be the year that mobile internet usage finally overtakes desktop internet usage. Desktop internet users dropped from 54.86 percent to 48.88 percent in 2021, while mobile internet users increased from 37.38 percent to 47.59 percent. That’s why it’s more important than ever to optimize your web pages for mobile devices. There are numerous ways to do this. You can use a responsive WordPress theme, for example, or enable a technology called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to speed up mobile page loading times. Alternatively, create a mobile app for your products or services to attract mobile users and drive sales and business growth in 2022 and beyond.

Expand Your Social Media Presence

Experts believe that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will continue to be the most popular social networks in 2022 . However, new platforms are gaining traction, especially among younger users. So diversify your social media marketing to TikTok, Snapchat, Tumblr, and other networks frequently used by millennials and Gen Z’ers. Even WhatsApp — a popular messaging platform owned by Facebook — can provide lucrative digital marketing opportunities for your small business. Use it to communicate with customers, upsell products and services, and resolve complaints.

Invest in Paid Advertising

Paid ads will remain one of the most profitable digital marketing strategies in 2022. Advertising on Facebook and Google Ads can increase visibility for your business and attract more potential customers to your product pages. Although paid ads, unlike social media marketing, require an outlay

— Facebook ads, for example, will typically cost you between $0.50 and $2.00 per click  — you could generate a significant return on your investment. You will be able to expose your products and services to a potential audience of millions and move leads through your sales and marketing funnels.

Consider Email Marketing Automation Tools This Year

Email marketing automation streamlines many of the tasks associated with email marketing, making it easier to connect with subscribers on your mailing lists. The best tools come with email templates that personalize emails to potential customers so you can increase open and click-through rates. Instead of manually writing emails, automation tools let you focus on other areas of your digital marketing strategy.

Use Data and Analytics

Data analytics tools generate unparalleled intelligence that you can use to make smarter decisions about your marketing activities. You can find out which marketing campaigns provide the most value, for example, or learn which customers are the most likely to purchase products from your online store. By running your data through these tools, you can get a 360-degree overview of your digital marketing and fine-tune your campaigns in 2022.

Use a Data Warehouse

A data warehouse is a central repository for storing all your customer and marketing-related data. Instead of relying on several systems, you can move data to a warehouse such as Snowflake or Amazon Redshift and use it as a single location for all your data activities. From here, you can run that data through business intelligence tools for even deeper data insights about marketing your small business.

Chatbots

Chatbot technology will likely dominate digital marketing in 2022. Chatbots are programs that simulate human conversation over the internet, freeing up resources for your sales, marketing, and customer service staff [6]. You can use one of these programs to upsell or cross-sell products to customers when they contact you via live chat. They require little human intervention, and you can generate additional marketing opportunities without any effort.

Optimizing Your Digital Marketing Strategy 

The latest technologies like voice search and data analytics tools can help you engage with more customers, while email marketing automation and chatbots streamline many of the processes associated with your marketing activities.  The marketing experts at Sprout Media Lab can help you effectively navigate these 2022 marketing trends.

Let us help you transform your small business in the new year. Contact us online or call us directly at (800) 617-6975 for a free consultation today!