The good, the bad and the ugly of marketing for businesses in 2022

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Marketing for businesses is all about finding the trend that’s going to make your business shine. But sometimes, like frosted tips and butterfly clips, some trends should never come back (low-rise jeans can stay though).

As we start to enter the second half of 2022, it’s time to look back on the good, the bad and the downright ugly of marketing for businesses in the 2022 financial year.

Marketing for businesses, The Marketing GP

The good of marketing for businesses

Also known as the ‘Rachel’ haircut

The 2022 financial year was a year of resilience and resolutions. A year that showed us things can change drastically, but also not at all (we’re looking at you lockdown).

However, it also saw some trends worth investing in and tools to take marketing for businesses to another level. Here are a few trends we think will stay relevant during the 2023 financial year.

Short-form video

From Tik Tok to Instagram Reels, short-form video has consumed our lives – for the better. Whether it’s a Tik Tok dance, relatable corporate content or behind-the-scenes footage of big business, we’ve all either tried it or watched it.

With our attention spans shorter than ever, short-form video is the ideal content for social media platforms and it’s here to stay. So how can you leverage it for your business? Read HubSpot’s six short-form video trends all marketers should watch for – and implement in 2022/23.

And before you ask, yes, we have Tik Tok. Our team loves keeping up with the latest trends and we’re always up for a boogie.

The power of automation

Just like our attention spans, we live in a fast-paced world and today have little patience when it comes to purchasing and considering a product or service. We also want information at our fingertips.  In other words, we want everything and we want it NOW.

That’s why automation in marketing is a tool that has grown in effectiveness in 2021/2022. Marketing automation is exactly as it sounds – it is a software used by businesses to automate repetitive tasks. Not only does automated marketing make things easier for your customers and clients, it makes things easier for your business.

According to HubSpot, marketing automation can lead to 14.5 per cent increase in sales productivity and a 12.2 per cent reduction in marketing overhead.

Omnichannel marketing

Marketing for businesses has become more challenging with the chatter and growing number of platforms that customers use. Omnichannel marketing is the concept of using your many marketing channels cohesively for the best result from your activities and spend.

It is built around viewing your customer’s journey with your brand and products through their eyes and crafting an experience along the platforms they use. It’s a critical aspect to your nurturing campaign for a persona.

In the 2022 financial year businesses became less about look at us! and more about look at them! Omnichannel marketing is all about creating a seamless customer experience that will bring people back for more.

Our team love omnichannel marketing and could talk about it for hours – here’s a quick synopsis we recently shared on our blog.

Marketing for businesses, The Marketing GP

The bad of marketing for businesses

Also known as the glitter scarves and Team Jacob/Team Edward T-Shirts.

And sometimes there are trends which disappear and affect the course of our lives. Just like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears wearing double denim, ruining the outfits for future generations and scarring some for life.

The death of third-party cookies

2021 saw the death of cookies, much to the disappointment of marketers and Cookie Monsters everywhere.

Cookies were an important part of marketing for businesses as they are used to track website visitors, improve user experience online and collect data so the right ads found the right people.

After Facebook (Meta) changed its privacy rules, Google chose to begin phasing out third-party cookies on websites. For many businesses, this posed a threat – it made it more difficult to target advertising and measure results due to the user’s privacy settings.

The movement towards giving privacy back to the consumer is ironic, after data-based giants like Facebook and Google spent many years obtaining the data in the first place, but reflects a grown society where those restrictions are prioritised for the safety and security of individuals.

And while it is more annoying than bad, it’s certainly not the ugliest trend of 2021…

Marketing for businesses, The Marketing GP

The ugly of marketing for businesses

Also known as the thin eyebrows and velvet tracksuits.

The ugly market trend of 2021/22 hit us like a Lynx Africa body spray on a hot summer’s day.

Using COVID-19 to market businesses

We know it’s not just us who are sick of businesses using the terms ‘the new normal’, and ‘unprecedented’. We get it – things are different now. But things are different for everyone.

COVID-19 is something that’s part of our everyday lives, which means there’s no reason to be using it to market your business.

Let’s leave isolation-based sales, vaccination jokes and COVID conspiracies from businesses in the last financial year.

Marketing for businesses, The Marketing GP

We’re happy to say the 2021/22 financial year was more good than bad and ugly when it comes to marketing trends, largely because we were all forced to reinvent our approach to target a heavily growing digital audience.

The next 12 months are showing some great promise.

But if you found yourself getting burned by some of the unfortunate trends, get in touch with us.

Let the 2023 financial year be the year your business feels like Vanessa Amarosi at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Absolutely everybody will want to work with you.

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Laura Reilly
Laura Reilly
As Marketing & Events Coordinator, no two days are the same! I help our amazing clients to deliver effective social media strategies, refine their stories through creative copy, and create and run events that people will speak about for many years to come!
Laura Reilly
Laura Reilly
As Marketing & Events Coordinator, no two days are the same! I help our amazing clients to deliver effective social media strategies, refine their stories through creative copy, and create and run events that people will speak about for many years to come!
Want to learn more about what we can do for your next project?

If any or all of what we’ve touched on here speaks to your marketing needs, schedule a video chat with our Chief Marketer, Holly Martin. We guarantee The Marketing GP ticks every box as the comprehensive outsourced marketing partner your business needs.

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