If you want to compete and grow revenues this year, you must understand how to navigate marketing trends successfully.

Here are 5 of the hottest marketing trends for 2022.

1. Good Customer Experience is Essential

Customer experience is the secret sauce of a successful marketing strategy and a successful brand strategy.

Conversations and Stories

To win in 2022, you have to tell engaging and consistent stories using multiple marketing channels and social networks.

Do this while improving your content to be more conversational and personal. 

What does this mean for you, as a business owner or marketer?

To successfully market in 2022, you must find ways to engage customers and prospects. Among other things:

• Build marketing campaigns based on carefully planned strategies.
• Build an authentic, trustworthy brand.
• Create compelling, high-quality content that tells memorable stories. This is especially critical if you’re marketing to women.
• Don’t be pushy or sales-y.
• Give your audience accurate, actionable information they can use in their daily lives.
• Create educational content that helps your target audience understand your products and services and teaches them something actionable and valuable.

It’s tempting to use automated tools like AI-based content generators to speed up your marketing efforts. But for most businesses, this is a mistake. People can tell the difference between content written by computers and content created by real people. 

People crave and strongly prefer authentic interactions. If your brand fills this need earnestly and honestly, you will grow your business faster.

Create Interactive Content

Interactive content will continue to grow in popularity.

For example, polls and quizzes remain successful hooks in marketing campaigns and essential tools you should consider in your marketing strategy. We’ve been using this strategy at Web Entangled for years, and it’s been effective.

For example, quizzes and polls can be light, fun, shareable, and quick. You’ll entertain customers but also learn valuable information about them.

There are many other valuable ways to create interaction, including reports, guides, infographics, interactive eBooks, and short-form videos (more about those below).

2. Privacy Marketing Builds Trust

Brands like Apple have made privacy marketing a considerable part of their overall marketing strategy and have successfully and compellingly differentiated their products from competitors.

As a result, people have become increasingly aware of privacy. 

Hacks, viruses, and unauthorized, secret data collection on the web and mobile apps have led many people to distrust technology and brands. 

Collectively, consumers and regulators have demanded better privacy policies and practices. They’ve held brands accountable for how they collect and use data. Huge brands like Facebook have been put under the microscope because they have demonstrated a repeated disregard for people’s privacy.

There’s been a strong call for transparency for the past few years, and this call will continue to grow stronger.

Marketing Automation is Becoming More Popular

Successful brands are investing in marketing automation. AI technology and advancements in data science have allowed marketers to analyze purchase behaviors, browsing history, and other information to personalize marketing and advertising campaigns.

So, rather than showing generic and intrusive ads that fatigue people and create disinterest and distrust, you can create more personal, unique marketing and advertising tactics tailored more closely to your customers’ interests.

AI can already analyze and predict your customer’s next move. And while AI isn’t trivial to use in your campaigns, many small-business-focused products can help you build intelligent campaigns that target ads, products, or services right when a prospective customer wants or needs those products or services.

Such a personalized experience can create strong customer loyalty and a genuine benefit for your target audience.

3. Short-form Videos

TikTok has evolved from a Gen Z-skewed platform into a mammoth marketing machine. 

While you shouldn’t ignore TikTok and its many lessons, TikTok is not the only platform for short-form videos.

For the past few years, the world had to get creative from the confines of our homes. We haven’t had access to many advanced tools to generate flashy advertising and marketing campaigns. As a result, a DIY (do-it-yourself) aesthetic has become popular. While production-quality content looks great, it lacks the personable and relatable feeling of DIY content.

And because our brains are conditioned to be more responsive to instant rewards, short-form videos have grown in popularity. The reason for this is simple: the shorter it takes to get a jolt of dopamine, the better.

That’s the secret sauce to TikTok, and it’s the same strategy used by other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram Stories/Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

4. Content is Still King

Content has dominated marketing for years because well-produced content is lasting, engaging, and builds brand awareness.

But, like everything else, content constantly evolves.

People have become meticulous and selective about the content they read and share and the platforms they use.

This shift in consumer behavior requires businesses to evolve and adapt to how they create, share, and promote content.

Video content has dominated over the past few years and will continue to dominate in 2022. You can expect video to become even more essential in your business’ marketing toolkit.

The biggest challenge for business owners and marketers is how to optimize video content to stand out. Fortunately, video production is not as intimidating as it was years ago. What would’ve taken weeks and a multi-person team to produce can now be done by one person in several clicks with tools like Adobe Spark Video and InVideo.

5. Micro-influencer Power

Unlike celebrities, who often have millions of followers, micro-influencers typically have 1,000 to 100,000 followers. However, what the micro-influencer lacks in followers is balanced by strong audience engagement.

In the past few years, engagement rates of micro-influencers have increased by an average of 130%. This success can be attributed to several factors:

• Celebrities are often out of touch with reality. They broadcast from million-dollar mansions and often complain about first-world problems. People are increasingly finding it difficult to relate to these problems.
• Micro-influencers typically are more like their followers. They are more relatable, less intimidating, and easier to understand.
• Micro-influencers are instinctively aware of what to say, when to say it, and how to convey their message.
• Because their followers are smaller, micro-influencers are more involved and engaged with their audience. That provides the genuine connection people crave.
• Micro-influencers are also less expensive. Their pricing is affordable, they are easier to work with, and most can quickly produce content. This helps marketers and small businesses to deliver content to the right target audience on time.

Do your due diligence. Your company’s identity is closely tied to influencers, so pick micro-influencers who will lift your marketing campaigns and not expose you to controversy.

Marketing is rapidly evolving. New trends require new strategies. Business owners and marketers who adapt to these changes will thrive in the remaining half of 2022.

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If your site is not ranking despite your efforts, you may be lagging in monitoring the latest trends. Make sure you comply with the latest changes to see a difference! We have outlined key trends in 2019 and important tactics to remember for each trend:

1. Blockchain SEO is a hit

This is a very important trend in 2019. Blockchain SEO is set to make our internet safer to use as well as transactions. For now, Blockchain can be defined as an indomitable leader in economic transactions that can record all transactions securely. That’s why you will see this technology picking up pace. Moreover, Google is also using Blockchain technology to validate the quality of backlinks.

Google search console is also using Blockchain in various features of search algorithms. As Blockchain popularity picks up, many applications and startups will continue to rise and provide this technology as a service.

2. Content is delivering quick results

You can check this article in 2 years, and the content will still be king. There is nothing like a unique, compelling piece of content. No marketing or money can match the value of great content. The algorithm updates by Google in 2018 defined that the company is focusing on refining search results based on content quality.

The sites that provide exceptional content rank higher than those offering copied or poor content. You need to have a solid content depth to rule in the SERPs.

Although the update is from 2018, we are sure Google has refined its algorithms to focus on content even more. This means that you can’t just post content to keep the website alive, it needs to be good content; otherwise, it is useless.

3. On-page optimization is a secret treasure

On page optimization will be a key ranking factor for the rest of the year. That is because businesses see incredible results when they focus on optimizing within their websites. On page SEO isn’t something you do once and forget about, but many companies fail to update or monitor. So, if you are keeping an eye on it, you have more chances of ranking higher.

Here are some ideas for on-page optimization:

• Answer common queries or create content to answer queries. For example, you can create a blog to answer queries.
• Make internal site search smooth and powerful.
• Shorten the conversation stage
• Hire customer support staff who overlook queries and respond to everyone.
• Ensure navigation is easy.
• Ensure everything is clearly explained, and that forms/landing pages work.

4. Link building is critical for success

Don’t even talk to us if you are not building links! It is still a prerequisite for building a sound SEO strategy. A Link Building Company can help you in this regard, or you can set aside a few hours to learn the new skill.

Put simply, links are the number one ranking factor for Google. The essence of link building is in linking to good authority websites and helping bots crawl the pages of your site. Here are some great link building techniques, most of which work in an evergreen manner:

• Link to reporters and send out press releases to journalists about your work. They may link to your site on their news websites.
• Create a blog and write about what’s trending. t keeps you in the spotlight as other publications use your link as the source.
• Co-author a publication with someone in exchange for a link.
• Fix broken links ASAP because they hurt your website. Google thinks you don’t pay attention to your site.

5. Mobile optimization can get you there faster

There was a time (many years ago) when SEO specialists created a strategy only for sites designed for desktop users. Mobile was a new concept, and nobody knew what the future would hold. Today, the desktop is the least of an SEO expert’s concerns. This is due to the extensive usage of mobile phones by the internet audience. To be honest, we are completely spoiled by the features of a mobile. You don’t need to log into the desktop or worry about keeping a computer anymore.

This makes mobile optimization the most important thing on your list, since Google and other search engines prefer a mobile responsive site over one just catering to desktop users. Mobile searches are done with a result in mind, and if users are linked to a mobile site in SERPs, they will make a transaction more than half of the time.

6. Rich snippets are great

It is awesome if you target for the number one spotin the SERPs, but it is even better if you pay attention to special SERP features like rich snippets. The answer boxes, the three-pack in local searches, result box, and special three ads, all present a unique opportunity to rank even above that coveted number one rank.

This is also known as position zero. You should practice a strategy to target position zero and gather more traffic for your website through this skill. However, this will only happen if your content is up to the mark and has the strongest answer to a user’s query.

Last word

As technology changes, SEO trends are also changing. However, some evergreen tips stay relevant every year, like link building. Be smart, keep a go-getter attitude and keep monitoring your pages for flaws and broken pages/links. The trends mentioned above are the most important for SEO in 2019. See you at the end of this year to review 2019 and what’s to come next year!

Erica Silva is a blogger who loves to discover and explore the world around her. She writes on everything from marketing to technology. She enjoys sharing her discoveries and experiences with readers and believes her blogs can make the world a better place. Find her on Twitter: @ericadsilva1

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“You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed you have to create traffic.”

— Joel Anderson, former president and CEO of Wal-Mart

There are few factors more influential to the success of an eCommerce site than SEO. Search optimization mistakes can be extremely costly for your business.

As consumers become increasingly comfortable utilizing various eCommerce platforms and a multitude of avenues for shopping continue to emerge, such as Google’s ‘Similar Items,’ the competition grows increasingly fierce.

For your site to thrive in such an environment, SEO should be one of your business’ main marketing initiatives.

Unfortunately for most small business owners, SEO is a living, breathing thing; this means that keeping up with the latest trends, best practices and critical updates can be quite challenging, to say the least.

There is a good chance you might be succumbing to one of today’s most prevalent eCommerce SEO mistakes.

Let’s rundown the list and help you get your site to reach peak SEO performance.

1. Thin Content on Product Pages

Thin content can be a site-killer in the post-Hummingbird world of user intent.

As this relates to eCommerce, there are only a few better ways to deter a sale than to have a visitor land on a product page that contains little to no information about the offering. This is a consumer’s first sign that they are better off shopping somewhere else.

To retain a shopper’s interest and gain sales, it is absolutely necessary (for user experience andSEO purposes) to write out an engaging and accurate description of the product.

This does not mean to copy and paste the manufacturer’s description.

The most important thing you can do is spend some time thinking about the information that a customer would want to know about the item before purchasing it. This is the type of unique copy that you will want to draft to help convert consumers.

While writing product descriptions, bear in mind that if you end up with content that is too similar from page-to-page it will dilute your efforts because Google will have issues assigning authority to one page over the next.

2. Lack of a Content Hub

While we’re on the subject of content optimization, one of the single most overlooked aspects of SEO that eCommerce sites are guilty of is the lack of a blog.

You might be thinking, “I sell pajamas. Why on Earth would I need a blog?”

For SEO, that’s why.

A running content hub is one of the biggest drivers behind SEO success. You may not realize it, but most of the Internet’s biggest retailers (including Zappos) have a blog.

In the case of the aforementioned company, content ranges from sizing guides to company culture, lifestyle tips, and beyond. This not only serves a SEO function for the brand by consistently posting fresh content for Google’s spiders to come back and crawl, but it also gives them a means to internally link to various product pages, inform consumers throughout various stages of the buying cycle, provide a platform to upsell various products, keep previous visitors coming back for more, and serve various other optimization goals.

Be sure to keep your content well organized through proper tagging elements, customized URLs, and other techniques. If you fail to do this, you will have a content hub that is equally unappealing to Google as it is to your visitors.

3. Neglecting Alt Tags

If you follow my column, you know that I’ve talked about the massive failure around image optimization before. The fact is that 78 percent of all SEO problems are image related.

While images are incredibly important to the user experience, image alt tags are equally critical for Google’s spiders to understand what is going on in the image. This description is what will give the crawlers context to gain a deeper understanding of what your page is all about.

4. Product Review Paucity

If you’re in the eCommerce game, I shouldn’t have to tell you how epically important reviews are. If your products don’t have the social proof that 77 percent of all consumers demand before buying, then you are basically begging them to buy somewhere else.

When an abundance of reviews are present, people are more likely to trust their prospective purchase; it’s that simple.

As far as SEO is concerned, search engines treat fresh and dynamic content more favorably. As new reviews are uploaded (the more frequent, the better) the page itself becomes dynamic.

As this aspect continues to improve your SEO score, more relevant traffic will be driven to your site, which can lead to more sales and reviews, which repeats the cycle again.

If you aren’t sure how to sway your buyers to leave an honest assessment, there are a multitude of ways to gain product reviews from customers.

5. Slacking on Security

Over the past several years, the public has watched a slew of major corporations – from Yahoo! to Target to Sony – get hacked and lose their customers’ information. This means that buyers are weary of where they shop and are looking for certain security markers to gain the peace of mind that their data will be protected.

One of the most prominent and sought after security features is SSL encryption. In fact, in 2014, Google announced that it would provide a slight rankings boost to those who employed the technology:

“We’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it’s only a very lightweight signal…. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

You shouldn’t, however, employ this purely for the rankings increase. You should add this encryption to your website for the safety of your brand and customers.

There’s a ton of competition out there in eCommerce-land. Don’t let your brand go unnoticed simply because there are a variety of SEO mistakes on your site. Get your webstore cleaned up with these five tips and your brand will stand a much better chance of gaining the clicks and sales that will help you prosper.

Which of these mistakes are you guilty of? What is your favorite method for gaining product reviews?

Conscious online marketer, web executive, and multi-faceted writer Tina Courtney has been creating and fostering online innovations since 1996. Tina has assisted many clients in maximizing online production and marketing efforts, and is a staff writer for SiteProNews, one of the Web’s foremost webmaster and tech news blogs. She’s produced and marketed innovative content for major players like Disney and JDate, as well as boutique startups galore, with fortes including social media, SEO, influencer marketing, community management, lead generation, and project management. Tina is also a certified Reiki practitioner, herbalist, and accomplished life coach.  Learn more on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

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However, translating your vision for a private knowledge base into reality isn’t always straightforward. Here are 11 quick tips for implementing an effective internal knowledge base.

What is a Private Knowledge Base?

Private knowledge bases are internal repositories deployed by companies to share information and collaborate on projects between internal teams. They provide employees with important, easy-to-find information and, since it’s an internal repository, there is no risk of sharing private or sensitive information with the general public. Employees are encouraged to share content and contribute to the collective knowledge base.

A private knowledge base offers many benefits to the organization and its staff. It organizes and stores content enabling it to be shared and searched. Typical knowledge bases contain how-to articles, troubleshooting information, FAQs, manuals, useful updates and more. A good internal knowledge base streamlines communication across teams, saving time and energy.

1. Focus On Relevancy

All knowledge is local. If you want to drive knowledge base utilization and contribution levels, prioritize relevancy ahead of comprehensiveness. Identify the core topic areas that are the most relevant to your teams and populate that content first. Once you have staff engagement you can gradually build your knowledge base to embrace other topics. Building a knowledge base works best when you create and document frequently encountered issues and concerns.

2. Frequent Updates and Fresh Content

If you want to get the most productivity out of your private knowledge base, ensure it is regularly updated and populated with fresh content. New insights and information need to be seamlessly incorporated when available. As employees interact with the knowledge base, they can continuously review information, contribute content and add their feedback. This approach ensures that knowledge is updated and maintained continuously, offering consistent value and insights.

3. Content Creation

Your private knowledge base enables your company to reach audiences organization-wide regardless of geography, time zones or office hours based on the content you create and share. For optimal results, integrate blogs and social media posts and include marketing content to drive market awareness and brand consciousness across the organization. Your content can include video, images, multimedia, search engine optimization strategies and other special features.

4. Create a Simple and Streamlined Taxonomy

Your online knowledge base has to be easy to search and understand if you expect internal staff to use it. It is important to incorporate a streamlined navigation model to enable internal collaboration and facilitate knowledge capture, sharing and update information easily. Smart taxonomies and easy-to-use navigation encourage your internal teams to review, access and update your corporate knowledge at any time.

5. Continuous Improvement

For a knowledge base to be embraced, it requires continuous improvement and ongoing enhancement. As you grow and manage your company knowledge base, employees can search for answers in a targeted and efficient manner. The effectiveness of your knowledge base is dependent on your company’s ability to create, edit and review content on a regular basis to build in ongoing improvements.

6. Beacon of Best Practice

Creating a zone within an internal knowledge base where experienced team members or subject matter experts can outline their best practices, important information and operations guides, means the company’s intellectual property is never lost and is being actively leveraged. In addition to acting as a valuable memory backup, an internal knowledge base helps to keep procedures and information consistent across the company.

7. Mobile Connectivity

Mobile technology has become a primary means of accessing the Internet. Mobile devices save both money and time and enable geographically dispersed or embedded staff requires access to an organization’s knowledge management system while they’re on-the-go, or working remotely.

8. Collaboration and Decision-making

Look to incorporate wiki-style functionality within your private knowledge base to facilitate staff collaboration on projects, especially if they are spread across different departments or in different offices across the country, or even the globe. This limits duplication of effort and allows for ideas to be brainstormed, facilitating communication and discussion.

9. Social Media in eLearning

Adding a social dimension to your knowledge base helps procure a virtual network of subject matter experts. Rather than being entirely instructor-led, participants can build their own storehouse of subject matter expertise, debating the finer points amongst themselves. Participants contribute answers and on-topic discussions. Incorporating social interaction into your knowledge base allows for more immediate feedback and that feedback motivates engagement.

10. Gamification of Learning

Social networking isn’t the only hot trend in knowledge base design these days. By applying game mechanics, organizations can increase consumption. The goal is to use your time productively so that you walk away better able to do something than you were before you took the training.

Collaboration and learning are time-sensitive. Online training needs to build skills quickly. Games need to be engaging, build skills and increase retention. Community and gaming features have been shown to increase knowledge consumption.

11. Manage Metrics

Measuring success when starting a knowledge management initiative is an important step toward improving team performance. Some simple metrics to consider include:

• Number of articles created and updated by the team.
• Number of articles contributed by external team members.
• Number of articles utilized by the team.
• Number of incidents with article links.

By tracking the right metrics hand-in-hand with your knowledge base you’re building a winning combination that’s smart, effective and constantly learning. That’s a winning combination.

In Conclusion

When you build a knowledge base, it’s important to keep these things in mind to ensure consistent acceptance of the knowledge base, consistent employee training, and consistent collaboration among your employees. Stay organized and empower your staff to add information, review content regularly and update information so it is easy to navigate and understand.

Jason Grills is a writer and a technical support executive currently associated with ProProfs Knowledgebase Software. He enjoys writing about emerging software products, new designs and trends in content marketing. He lives in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, Jason enjoys pampering his pet dogs, shopping, and doing all things creative.

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