Ending the year is exciting, but it also can be an anxious time, especially for business owners. It’s time to review the highs and the lows of the year and to acknowledge the progress made. It is also a great time to brainstorm and learn what changes are needed to ensure even better results in the year to come. As the year comes to an end, it is important that you understand what worked, what did not, and learn of any new trends that could help you when you are planning your 2022 marketing strategy. This will ensure that you will know how to lessen the chances of falling and increase the chances of success instead.

Aside from the year coming to an end, it is also the time when we embrace the marketing to a new generation – Gen Z. Does this mean we have to change the entire structure of our existing strategies? Not entirely. As we have spent the past few years tweaking our campaigns to appeal more to millennials, we will be doing the same for Gen Z. We have worked on familiarizing and incorporating digital marketing in the past decade for millennials, and while we are not moving far from those channels, we are definitely shifting our focus to something more specific as this year has been predicted to be the year of social media and influencer marketing.

If you are not entirely sure about how to plan your 2022 marketing strategy yet, let us help you with this shortlist of tips for a more successful approach this year.

1. Never forget your goals

As we enter the new year and begin marketing to a new generation, new tactics and new processes are guaranteed, but that does not mean all our goals should be changed too. Along with a fresh start at the beginning of the year, we are allowed the chance to make changes and implement new policies that should be intended for the success of the business.

Just as any marketing strategy begins, we need to make sure our goals are still in place before we even begin brainstorming about the changes to our 2022 marketing strategies. Defining your goals and building your campaigns and strategies around them will determine what you will be implementing. This will be the perfect time to revisit your goals and make sure that they are still SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

2. Check your branding

Every year, trends change pretty quickly and as a business that wants to create an impact and stay relevant, we need to make sure that we are keeping up.

The beginning of a new year is also a great time to revisit your branding and check whether it is still relevant to current trends, or if it needs to be updated. Branding plays a very important role in your marketing strategy because this becomes the face of your business, and it has to be consistent across all channels. You will want your target market to easily identify your brand, and going back to the basics will help you make sure that you still have that impact on your audience.

Check with marketing consultants and graphic designers to make sure your branding is still on point, and if not, what changes need to be made.

3. Work on your channels

Identify which channels are working best for your brand and which are appearing to become a waste of resources. You will want to trim down your budget for those that do not work well and shift your focus towards those that are generating good results.

Since 2022 is the year we begin catering to the new generation, it has been a prediction that 2022 is the year where social media and influencer marketing will be most relevant.

Social media marketing uses the major social media platforms to distribute content and engage with consumers. This has been one of the most popular and effective channels in marketing over the past few years, as it has allowed brands to do more than just distribute and communicate – it has also been a key tool to establishing a brand’s credibility and increasing brand awareness. Influencer marketing on the other hand, while still a part of social media, is defined as the use of social media celebrities, commonly known as influencers – people who have been established as experts in their niche, to endorse and recommend a brand to potential customers.

With Gen Z being the “Social Media Generation”, these two have been predicted to be the most used and most successful marketing platforms of 2022. If you have not been utilizing these channels yet, this is the best time to start working on incorporating them to your marketing strategy. If you have already been using them, use this time to revamp and develop a plan that will be more focused on them, over the others.

4. Create a schedule and commit

In digital marketing, consistency is one of the keys to staying relevant. Regardless of how brilliant your products and services are, your brand will easily be forgotten if you are not consistently seen by your target market.

Over the years, there have been many methods of keeping your brand consistent among the channels you distribute your marketing material to. Now that we are more focused on digital marketing, scheduling your content is both the easiest and the most crucial task you must-have for your 2022 marketing strategy.

Make a calendar and map out a timeline of what you want to do and when you want it done to make sure that you are not falling in and out of your campaigns and strategies. Do research on the best and worst times to publish content and invest in the content you will be distributing. Having a schedule before the year begins will help in the implementation of the whole strategy, as it prepares you more for the other tasks you need to complete for your plan’s success.

5. Mobile first

In the past decade, smartphones have been developed with more advanced features and have become so much easier to use, that most individuals prefer them over actual computers. Most smartphone users now use these devices for everything – from communicating to purchasing and paying their bills. Because of these, brands and businesses are beginning to adopt a mobile-first strategy, where they focus on making their content smartphone-friendly.

With most individuals preferring to use mobile phones than going online, brands are focusing on digital marketing, as a part of their 2022 marketing strategy and ensuring their content is more mobile compatible.

Incorporating a mobile-first strategy in your plans will not be as difficult to achieve nowadays, since almost all social media platforms have options for businesses that make it easier for us to make our content smartphone-friendly for our consumers.

Instagram, for example, has moved from being just a photo-sharing platform to an online shopping platform – giving us shopping tags, which allow users to tag brands and businesses in their photos, allowing other users to easily find the brand’s profile or shop. They have also added a “swipe up” feature for the recently famous Instagram stories to help viewers visit pages outside of Instagram.

Make sure to add this step when planning your 2022 marketing strategy, as many users tend to leave and find other options when they find that the business they are checking out does not have mobile-compatible websites or if they do not have pages on social media platforms that have mobile apps. Remember, the more people you reach, the more potential customers you will have…. and this new market Gen Z, is certainly a key market segment to start engaging with.

If you need assistance to create your 2022’s marketing strategy then get in touch with MRS V today.