The pandemic had a significant influence on shaping our habits. The way businesses and customers interact has permanently changed, and digital has become the new standard in everyone’s everyday life. It will most likely be a major driver of change in 2022 as well.
Consumer digital habits will persist even as we start a new year. In this blog, check out seven popular sales and marketing trends to prepare for in 2022.
1. Sales and Marketing Integration
Sales is no longer just about the Sales team. The customer journey has moved into the digital plane, and all departments have a step in the path to conversion. Customer Support provides support to customers, the IT guys keep an eye on the website and other channels of communication, the sales team manages the sales pipeline and customer relationships, and Marketing – well, they do the rest of it!
Your marketing and sales teams can work wonders together. Provide value to your customers and boost your conversion rate by giving them what they want. Who has a better understanding of the needs and desires of the customers than the marketing team? They monitor the market and stay up-to-date with the latest trends, so they know everything about what makes your prospects’ heads tingle. It wouldn’t hurt Sales to consult them before you reach out with an offer to your next prospect.
Here are 5 trends to look out for in 2022.
2. Multi-channel, Personalized Experiences
The year 2021 proved that buying and selling processes are transitioning into the world of digital at the speed of light. A large percentage of the buyer’s journey is now independent due to the ready availability of huge amounts of information to them. As a result, it’s impossible to predict exactly when a buyer will enter the funnel; it can happen at any stage. On top of that, buyers are no longer tied to a single channel.
AI is important because they enable great, personalized experiences at scale. AI and machine learning help sift through those mountains of data to understand where to put your time, money, and energy in a more productive manner, so you can unlock a better buyer experience.
Set up a wide range of different channels to serve buyers so that they can choose whichever they prefer best. You need to ensure consistency of customer experience, regardless of the channel each customer chooses. You should be able to provide the choice of switching different channels without losing any information for a seamless buying experience. To do so, it’s necessary to experiment with many different promotional, distribution, and purchase channels.
3. Video Content, Webinars and Podcasts
Social media content is ever-changing and a trend that started to shine in 2021 and will continue to grow in 2022 is video content. Anything from IGTV and REELs to TikToks and Youtube videos, the way in which content will be consumed in 2022 is evolving.
The popularity of webinars and podcasts as a medium has skyrocketed in 2021. Despite the popular notion that the webinar craze had quieted down by 2022, this trend is projected to continue. A single webinar may produce more than 500 leads, with 73 percent of B2B marketers believing the leads are of good quality.
4. Virtual Events
Following COVID-19, virtual events became the go-to method for keeping in touch with customers and leads. There has been an increase in brands utilizing virtual events over the past few years, and 2022 will be no exception. Businesses are faced with a decision now that consumers are beginning to feel comfortable gathering in person again.
With a virtual event, you can invite participants from anywhere in the world, potentially reaching a much wider audience. Virtual events are always a good method to get the word out about your company to current and future customers. An added benefit of these virtual events is the ability to collect data directly from your audience rather than third parties.
5. Automation
Marketing automation isn’t something new. It has been there for a long time and is growing larger every year. According to Mordor Intelligence, marketing intelligence is a $3.6 billion industry. Utilizing marketing automation in 2022 will reduce costs, improve efficiency and productivity.
An example of incorporating marketing automation into your current marketing strategy is to add a survey to your workflow. This survey will automatically be sent out after triggers like a purchase. This automation is a great way to generate customer feedback to better understand your consumer and any pain points in your product or service, and overall customer experience.
6. Artificial Intelligence
Forecasting and analysis are critical components of the sales process. It is the backbone of sales to some extent. And analysis is will become easier, more precise, and less time-consuming in 2022. One of the most promising applications has been the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to either augment or facilitate customer service interactions.
AI is gradually encroaching into every part of our life, and sales analytics is no different. Sales projections created with the aid of AI-powered software can be more precise, reducing the danger of missing out on market demand. Almost every AI-powered product provides knowledge into which actions are successful.
Some of the sales tasks that can be improved through the use of AI are data collection, client buying trends, dissemination of suggestions to customers, and buying and selling forecasting.
7. Conversational Customer Experience
Businesses will use live chat and chatbots to increase sales in 2022! Conversational customer experience leads to the growing use of AI in sales. A conversational customer experience entails enhanced personalization of communication via a continuous business-to-customer dialogue.
Chatbots are perhaps the most widely recognized application of AI in customer service, but other applications are becoming popular as well. AI bots can now be used as customer service agents in many instances. When integrated into the business, bots can handle basic tasks, engage in troubleshooting, or interact directly with customers to answer frequently asked questions.
52% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases if the company offers support via live chat. Moreover, 79% of companies say that live chat has led to positive results for sales and revenue. Furthermore, 47% of consumers would be open to making a purchase completely from a chatbot.
8. Mobile-First Marketing
In this digital age, more consumers use smartphones and tablets to browse products and services on the web, rather than desktop computers. According to Smart Insights, as of January 2021, there was a recorded 5.22 billion unique mobile users, making up 66.6% of the entire global population. There’s no doubt that social distancing had something to do with that.
In order to cater to this new generation of consumers, businesses must create mobile-friendly content that will rank better in search engines.
How Will GTM Look in 2023?
It’s time to change how we think about go-to-market strategy. 81% of people won’t fill out forms anymore. 65% of sellers spend too much time doing non-revenue generating activities. And 59% of customers will drop you after one bad experience.
The stakes are high, and only getting higher. The new GTM requires an integrated approach between inbound and outbound motions. You can’t rely on just one method of driving sales — you have to blend both, engaging customers and buyers when and how they want.
