To wrap up our recent look at some digital marketing trends in 2022, this week we will be looking at automation and the growing importance of influencer marketing. Automation in digital marketing has become a necessity, accomplishing day-to-day tasks that would otherwise overwhelm a person and will instead let them spend more time on strategic thinking. Influencer marketing has been growing alongside the rising importance of social media in today’s society, and due to this rise has now moved from a trend to a common marketing tactic.
Automation
Automation has become a staple in a marketer's toolbox, with over 70% of them currently using it in their strategies, and this increased importance has seen significant growth in the global marketing automation market size, which is expected to reach US$25.1bn by the end of 2023.
It typically involves using software to manage all of your customer interactions and touchpoints in one central location while facilitating multiple multichannel campaigns. The campaigns can include email marketing, social media management, paid ads, landing pages, live chat and more, and using automation can help you to connect the dots between customer demographics, data on recent purchases, content customers have engaged with, any customer service enquiries made, communication preferences, and customer survey responses.
Using the data points can help marketers to draw meaningful insights into their campaign responses and help them to improve the digital customer experience.
The growing importance of influencer marketing
With the rise of social media platforms has come social media influencers, people who are skilled users of the platform they’re on and in the field or topic they talk about. The influencers generally already have an audience that is engaged, interested in their content, and influenced by the information they provide. Influencer marketing involves marketers collaborating with influencers to help expand brand awareness and engage the influencer’s community. Currently, 57% of marketers that are using influencer marketing say it is effective, with 46% planning to increase their investments in 2022, and 11% say it's the top return-on-investment strategy they’ve tested. Influencer marketing is also not just about using people with millions of followers, with nano/micro-influencers (1000-100,000 followers) beginning to play a bigger role in converting leads, connecting with audiences, and boosting brand awareness. These micro-influencers can often deliver more, with less, due to higher levels of engagement by using comments, direct messaging, “ask me anything” stories, and real-life content that higher profile influencers tend to shy away from, thereby creating a close-knit community of individuals with similar interests, based on trust.
Keeping on top of the latest trends in digital marketing can be very difficult. But, to succeed in digital marketing, either as a job or as a brand using it as a channel to communicate with potential customers, it’s necessary to stay on top. Using Digital Marketing Directory, you will be able to find the right agency for your business to take advantage of these new trends entering the market.
