B2C marketing is constantly evolving. Today, marketers have to stay one step ahead of the competition or lose their relevance. While many of the strategies trending now will continue playing a key role in the years to come, there are emerging ones which have the potential to reshape the B2C marketing space. Here then are some of the top 3 B2C marketing trends which are already the rage in 2021 and destined to gain more traction in 2022 and beyond.1. Short-form video content will scale to newer and greater heights
The short-form video marketing space first came into prominence in 2020, and has continued to grow stronger and stronger as we speak. In the earlier part of 2020, TikTok quickly established its dominance as the go-to platform for short-form video marketing content. However, there have now emerged a number of other contenders that now compete for a bigger slice of the short-video content pie.
Some of the most notable of which include YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Of course, this has proven to be very auspicious news for B2C marketers. More so when it was shown that this marketing strategy delivered the 2nd highest ROI for this segment of marketers in 2021.
Now more than ever, the large majority of B2C brands have come to recognize the efficacy of short-form video content and plan to invest in it the most to the detriment of other solutions. Also, one-third of those marketers who overlooked this strategy in 2021, now plan to integrate it into their overall marketing efforts.
You might perhaps be wondering why short-form video content, and more importantly, why now? Well, this kind of B2C marketing content has rapidly evolved into one of the most integral components of social media.
According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, social media platforms account for the biggest opportunities for both B2C and B2B marketing investments. The above-mentioned poll also indicated that an increasing number of B2C brands have set 3 major goals for their marketing efforts next year. These are boosting their brand awareness, advertising their products/services, and improving their revenue generation. This accounts for 49%, 44%, and 43% of their marketing budget respectively. Best of all, when you leverage the power of social media, you will be able to attain 2 of these marketing objectives in a convenient and hassle-free manner. Nowadays, social media sites deliver a variety of intuitive in-app shopping experiences along with highly-advanced ad formats. In turn, this enables businesses to achieve more and more of their marketing objectives. You don’t want to miss riding on this B2C marketing trend in the coming year.
2. Influencer marketing is bound to continue to be one of the most effective leads and revenue generation drivers
Generally speaking, influencer marketing has, over the years, been one of the most lucrative B2C marketing strategies ever. If the data from HubSpot’s survey is to be believed, no less than 61% of B2C brands have made clear-cut plans to leverage its power in 2022. Indeed, according to the companies polled, influencer marketing currently ranks as the 3rd most popular B2C marketing trend, only second to inbound marketing and short-form video content.
This is for the most part, attributable to this form of marketing delivering the best returns to marketers in 2021. The only variation that might take place in the coming year and the years to come is the exact sort of influencers B2C marketers will have a preference for. Traditionally, B2C businesses tend to focus on the most popular influencers. On the other hand, there is reason to suggest that micro-influencers (with under 100,000 followers) might be more effective as some experts think. All in all, you can definitely be sure influencer marketing is here to stay.
3. Audio content marketing will be on the rise
Granted, at the moment, video happens to be the leading strategy in the context of content marketing. Yet, in the recent past, audio content has rapidly made great in-roads in the B2C marketing world. As the statistics gathered by HubSpot attest, 19.1% of marketers already leverage podcasts together with other audio content in their marketing campaigns. In that number, 37.4% claim audio has proved to be one of the most effective strategies they’ve employed.
While this is a relatively low rate of adoption, more and more B2C brands plan to incorporate it into their marketing efforts in 2022. In fact, 43% of them will augment their investment in audio content. While 38.4% of them plan to maintain their current investment in audio. Interestingly enough, these given figures are nearly similar to those of B2B brands. This certainly implies more and more companies, across all sectors, are beginning to acknowledge the power of audio.