5 Key Trends That Will Impact Online Marketing in 2022

The Pandemic has turned the world upside down and has radically changed how we connect and engage in business. WFH and the cancellation of most live events have forced us to live and work online.  

Obviously, that makes online video more important than ever. This goes way beyond spending our days on Zoom and our nights on Netflix. According to MassMedia, this year, “online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic.”

So what does this mean when it comes to video marketing?  I’ve identified five areas of tremendous opportunity:

1. Video First: It wasn’t all that long ago that video was a luxury. Today it’s a necessity. The Pandemic has accelerated the need for video even further. According to Hubspot, video has the best ROI for marketers advertising their business. In other words, if you’re not using video in your marketing, you’re not marketing. Video has become the “go to” and must have resource for marketers in 2022 and beyond.
2. Video Streaming Boom: It may be no surprise that video streaming exploded during the Pandemic, but what you might find surprising is that the big streaming winner wasn’t Netflix or Amazon or Hulu, but YouTube! It’s true. YouTube dominates the OTT (Over The Top) market.  According to CNBC, “YouTube is not only a streaming video juggernaut that continues to report mind-bending growth, it is also turning into a key rival to the paid services that dominate the conversation around the future of television. And it has plenty of room to grow.” The opportunity for marketers is obvious: If you’ve got a YouTube channel, you’ve got the power to reach the world.
3. Personal Videos: Personalization is a hot trend, and personalized video is a great way to capitalize on it. Hubspot reports that personalized videos retain viewers 35% more often than videos that aren’t personalized. And using personal videos with video email boasts open rates of up to 90%. One to one videos are arguably the easiest and quickest to create. You can use simple video tools like Loom, WarmWelcome.com or SendSpark.com.
4. Videos Get Real: Not only are videos getting more personal, they’re also getting more authentic – And that’s good news for most video creators. Video production has always been a challenge for most small business owners, but the trend toward more “real and raw” videos means fancy editing isn’t always necessary. In most cases, your smart phone is your camera, and creativity trumps quality.
5. Short is Sweet: Short form video is exploding in popularity. And the platforms that showcase micro-videos, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Snapchat, are here to stay. While the majority of TikTok’s audience is teens (69% of their audience is 13-24), it’s impossible to ignore their meteoric rise. TikTok users now watch over 1 Billion videos per day, and their popularity shows no signs of abating. Whether your audience is there or not, short-form videos should start to find a way into your video marketing strategy.

Despite the difficulties and uncertainty caused by Covid, marketers who tap into these new trends can gain a significant competitive advantage in 2022.

Lou Bortone is a video marketing expert and strategist. Lou has been a pioneer in the online video space since the launch of YouTube in 2005. Prior to that he was an executive in the television industry. You can learn about Lou’s signature program, the “Video Marketing Masterclass,” at: https://www.loubortone.com/masterclass