9 Predictions for Where Marketing Technology is Going in 2022

What is one prediction for where marketing technology is headed in 2022?

Here are nine predictions for where marketing technology is going in 2022:

• Embrace AI Writing Assistants

• Expect an Increase in User-Generated Content

• Anticipate More Digital Storytelling

• Experience Growth in Content Marketing & Mobile Optimization

• Increase Budget for Multiple Digital Platforms

• Adopt Programmatic Advertising and Video Marketing

• Segment Audiences More Easily

• Target Niche Audiences with Micro-influencers

• Provide Ways for Customer Shared Stories

Embrace AI Writing Assistants

Content marketplaces that connect businesses with freelance writers will be disrupted by conversational AI writing assistants. The technology behind these AI writing assistants are just too good. 

Whether the AI writing assistant was trained on an in-house model or Google's open-sourced BERT — a foundation to pre-train a model for natural language processing — the technology behind these tools is really impressive. 

The result will be lower prices for content, a shift in responsibilities towards "editing" for content creators, and increased efficiencies for marketing freelancers.

Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

Expect an Increase in User-Generated Content 

Marketing Technology is headed towards a UGC, user-generated content world. The power of social media has been used to enhance relationships between companies and their target audiences. 

Customers want to feel valued and that the brands they care about are hearing what they publically have to say. From reposted stories, direct message replies, interacting on branded hashtags, and comments on posts turned into graphics we can repost, there are multiple ways to promote relationships with the community in marketing.

Jacob Dayan, Community Tax

Anticipate More Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is the future of marketing and for cultivating a cohesive brand image. Storytelling is not limited to the first person and is neither linear nor direct. It’s an interactive approach that combines the brand, social and multimedia, and the consumer to push your narrative effectively and authentically.

No longer will a brand remain authoritative utilizing one platform or medium alone. The driving force behind a product or service will consist of testimonial feedback, influencer promotion, advertorial, and SEO campaigns, and video and visual engagement to spearhead a brand to the top of the funnel. 

With the ability to produce content becoming ever so cheaper, smaller startups will be able to create content on a low budget and scale accordingly to successfully achieve solid ROAs.

Nick Shackelford, Structured Agency

See Growth in Content Marketing and Mobile Optimization

Since the birth of smartphones, mobile websites and mobile accessibility has slowly become more and more of a prime focus for marketing companies and online businesses. Even to this day, the number of people browsing the internet via a smartphone or tablet is increasing, and the number of companies that are becoming more mobile-friendly is rising. 

In 2022, businesses that aren't optimizing their websites' design to automatically adjust to smaller screens or companies that aren't using accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) will be left behind. 

At the same time, customers are consuming more content than ever, especially on their mobile devices on platforms such as YouTube, Tik Tok, or Twitter. We have already seen the push to video content marketing, but businesses will need to tweak this to find success in 2022. 

Companies will need to make short, to-the-point videos that align with the rest of the content that buyers are watching nowadays.

Himanshu Agarwal, WorkBoard

Increase Budgets for Multiple Digital Platforms

With increased focus on privacy and more difficulty in precisely attributing sales, budgets will become more evenly distributed across digital platforms and influencer marketing. It’s more difficult to succeed on just one platform when promoting a product or service on social channels. 

Even if Instagram ads are working, it may be beneficial to consider extra creative content for TikTok as well. This will help brands to get visibility much faster than they would on one platform.

Hayley Albright, Xena Workwear

Adopt Programmatic Advertising and Video Marketing

I see a few trends in marketing technology in the coming year:

• Programmatic advertising uses AI to completely automate the advertising process. It’s extremely effective and increasing in popularity. 
• Videos have been proven to be more engaging than pictures. 360-degree videos are very high in demand, and people enjoy experiencing them.
• 58% of people have product recommendations recommended by influencers and trust them as a source.
• Stories combine the best short-form and video marketing, thus making them extremely effective and engaging. 

Nathan Hughes, Diggity Marketing

Segment Audiences More Easily

Marketing technology is gaining momentum and will become even more intelligent in 2022 and beyond. Upgraded technology will make it easier to segment our audiences, making our marketing efforts more precise and automated. 

Sophie Bowman, Convert Your Followers

Target Niche Audiences With Micro-influencers

Micro-influencer marketing will continue to grow in the next upcoming years. Influencer marketing has shown to be an incredibly successful form of marketing; with any big influencer having millions of followers, this allows getting exposure easier than ever. 

However, micro-influencers have a much more niche smaller audience that makes it easier to come across as authentic to their followers. This makes it easier for companies to utilize them for targeting specific audiences. Micro-influencer marketing is proving that personal, intimate relationships between a smaller number of followers can be a huge advantage.

Patrick Ward, Rootstrap

Provide Ways for Customers to Share Stories

One of the main ways that we predict that video storytelling will shift is in the way that brands will amplify the voice of their customers. Stats show that 90% of people are much more likely to trust a recommended brand (even from strangers). 

It goes without saying that it’s much easier to trust someone who isn’t trying to sell you something. That means brands have a tremendous amount to be gained by enabling their own customers to promote their products and services.

Bernadette Butler, StoryTap

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