2021 was a year of disruptions and innovations, with businesses adapting and establishing digital marketing functions to boost their sales. However, digital marketing in 2022 will come with its own share of challenges that will define and revamp the demand generation strategies of b2b businesses.
Battling the turbulent 2021, businesses are now looking to stabilize their sales enablement functions and create a consistent sales strategy. Businesses aggressively pursued their digital expansion plans last year, focusing primarily on in-house technology infrastructure. Acquiring net new customers after a year-long slump was a fundamental objective of all marketing strategies. As a result, digital marketing became a staple of all modern enterprises looking to increase revenue and drive customer engagement.However, digital marketing in 2022 will feel like a totally new function with a revised set of strategies and goals. There will be an increasing tendency to outsource digital demand generation processes to a digital marketing agency rather than building an in-house team. From a lack of third-party cookies to increased emphasis on social media advertising, marketers will have to stay on top of all trends and challenges within the digital marketing landscape. Knowing the biggest challenges will help marketers prepare better for a successful campaign future. Let’s look at the biggest challenges for digital marketers in 2022.
Snapshot
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Closure of physical marketplaces and stay-at-home decrees made digital marketing a staple business function to increase revenue
Closure of physical marketplaces and stay-at-home decrees made digital marketing a staple business function to increase revenue
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However, digital marketing in 2021 will feel like a refreshed function with a revised set of goals and tactics
However, digital marketing in 2021 will feel like a refreshed function with a revised set of goals and tactics
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From stringent data protection laws to lack of third-party cookies and constructing an omnichannel marketing strategy, businesses will be burdened with unique challenges
From stringent data protection laws to lack of third-party cookies and constructing an omnichannel marketing strategy, businesses will be burdened with unique challenges
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Overcoming these new challenges and adopting best practices will help marketers create an ROI-driven demand generation strategy
Overcoming these new challenges and adopting best practices will help marketers create an ROI-driven demand generation strategy
Getting customer information
Targeting the right customers will become even more important in 2022, as SEO and paid advertising get increasingly competitive. Marketers cannot afford to waste their resources on content, keywords, or channels that are too broad or poorly targeted. Marketers must begin by creating buyer personas to be able to target the right audience. It helps marketers visualize and understand their customers in a much better way. With the change in Google’s guidelines to storing user data, it will become very difficult for marketers to understand user behavior and predict their preferences.
Generating qualified leads
Leads are the crucial component that fuels the sales funnel of every enterprise. In 2022, the market will become more competitive as companies increase their investments in customer outreach activities to drive and nurture qualified leads. Paid advertising such as Facebook ads and Google ads will rise in cost. Savvy marketers will leverage cost-effective and organic online lead generation strategies like video marketing, problem-solving on-page content, networking on LinkedIn, and creating interactive channels such as webinars and conferences.
As online lead generation gets more competitive, it will be extremely crucial for marketers to provide that extra value to customers before they can expect a sale. While it sounds all bells and whistles, online lead generation will require an intelligent blend of a digital marketing agency and the best database providers.
Changing opt-in rules, privacy, and data sharing
Marketers are entering a cookie-less world. It means that online networks are growing more strict with their norms around opt-ins, data sharing, privacy, and third-party cookies. Around 80% of marketers report that getting rid of cookies will have a mild to major impact on their advertising strategy. The biggest roadblock for marketers here will be maintaining the accuracy of retargeting ad campaigns.
Advancing ahead, businesses will have to transition quickly to a cookie-less world. They must prioritize first-party intent data by providing valuable resources to prospects in exchange for key information. It will also be crucial that marketers leverage new tools like Google Tag Manager or conversion measurement application programming interfaces.
Creating engaging and branded content
Content marketing processes will continue to evolve with changing customer behavior. However, it will remain crucial for businesses to maximize customer engagement, build thought leadership, and drive more qualified leads into the sales funnel. Customers and prospects are perennially hungry for fresh and engaging content that addresses their pain points and directs them towards a solution. Marketers will have to stay apprised of the prevailing customer dynamics and leverage a data-oriented approach to design and publish content for higher engagement. Also, with increasing competition in the market, brands will face difficulty in creating branded or influencer marketing content.
There will be increased use of short-form video content and live-streaming content on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Furthermore, users will embrace interactive content that allows them to express their opinions. Digital marketers will have to map their content marketing across each stage of the customer’s buying journey for better ROI value.
Adhering to privacy and data protection guidelines
Moving forward in 2022 and beyond, data protection and privacy laws like GDPR and other national laws will become more stringent to protect consumers’ interests. Also, Google has announced that it will do away with its third-party cookie setting by 2022. In the light of such changes, marketers must ensure that they are adhering to local and national cyber laws covering their target markets.
Business websites must be transparent about their cookies, data sharing, and privacy policies. On top of complying with GDPR guidelines, marketers must also improve the deliverability of their b2b email marketing to ensure that their b2b contacts receive emails in their inbox rather than the spam folder.
Setting up an omnichannel marketing strategy
Customers are increasingly active on multiple online channels and devices for their day-to-day activity due to the impending threat of new covid variants like Omicron. It’s no longer enough for businesses to focus all their efforts on single-channel marketing. They must expand the scope of their digital demand generation to make it easy for their audience and customers to connect with them seamlessly on different channels.
One of the major challenges for marketers would be to get a holistic view of the ROI of their digital demand generation strategies. Small and medium enterprises with limited resources can enlist the services of a digital marketing agency to streamline their paid and organic campaigns and boost their ROI..
Wrapping up
2021 saw businesses aggressively pursuing digital marketing strategies to amplify their demand generation ROI. The digital marketing industry underwent widespread disruptions, which will continue well into the future. For example, online commerce and virtual events will expand in 2022, with new variants of covid concern lurking round the corner. Businesses and marketers will face several unique challenges and some roadblocks in their existing tactics going forward. They will have to be cautious about changing search engine algorithms, customer behavior, and emerging digital marketing trends to build their brand and solidify their digital demand generation efforts.
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