How To Plan Your Marketing for the Final Months of 2022

When it comes to plan your marketing, it is never a set and forget option. As we move into the second half of 2022 and the new financial year here in Australia how are you making the the final months of this year a success? The digital space is constantly changing and ever evolving, so you need to be proactive rather than reactive to hit your business and marketing goals. Reviewing your marketing plan at the same time as your financials, enables you to stay on track and incorporate some of the exciting new changes that each social platform inevitably makes.

At the beginning of 2022, I made a video outlining the top five marketing trends of the year. It included:

• Influencer Marketing
• Short-Form Video Content
• Mobile Optimisation
• Permanent Social Media Posts over Ephemeral Content
• Podcasting

You can watch the full video below, or you can also read the blog for an in-depth explanation.

5 Strategies to Include When You Plan Your Marketing for the Rest of The Year

Now that we are halfway through 2022, here are 5 strategies to help organise your marketing plan for the final 6 months of 2022, and make this a successful business year!

Short Form Video

Instagram Reels and TikTok have completely changed how we consume video content. These platforms display brief, bite-sized video content to customers, which give more than just personal entertainment; they also present marketers with a valuable tool for boosting brand engagement and marketing returns.

If you are already doing short-form videos, keep up the good work! Reels are no longer exclusive to Instagram; they are now available globally on Facebook. With this update, you can reach a broader audience. So, how can you view Reels on Facebook you may ask?

• They are only accessible via the Facebook mobile app
• Facebook shows Reels in the news feed even if you don’t follow the page or account
• You may find them on your profile under Menu > Reels
• Scroll down to continue seeing Reels, as it works on Instagram Reels and TikTok

It is a great opportunity for your content to be discovered, opening up a new way for community building. Increased visibility equals more possible visitors returning to your website or new traffic! Short, engaging videos are essential for attracting clicks, so use your imagination. We advise jumping on the trend sooner rather than later, as many businesses still aren’t optimising this feature and getting into the market before it becomes oversaturated can only boost your views and gain new consumers.

TikTok is available in over 150 countries and has 75 languages to chose from. TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users. 50% of TikTok users are under the age of 34, while roughly 40% are between the ages of 35 and 54. This fast growing App has now surpassed Instagram in terms of popularity among Generation Z users (born between 1997 and 2012).

The options are endless, you have the potential to create funny promotions, a Remix, offering behind-the-scenes content, or appearing on-screen with augmented reality effects. There is no denying that short-form video content increases visibility. If Facebook, Instagram Reels, and TikTok videos aren’t already part of your marketing strategy, they should be.

Video Marketing (or Long Form Video)

Video marketing is the wave of the future. This may appear to be an exaggeration, but there are statistics to back up this statement. According to Facebook, video postings generate an average of six times more interaction than photo or link posts, while Twitter has a 160% rise in video views.

So, how does this affect marketers? Simply put, if you aren’t including videos in your marketing strategy, you are wasting the opportunity to connect with your audience.

Here are some video marketing trends you should try;

Doing Live Videos on your Social Media Channels

This initially developed as a means for startups and larger companies to stay connected with customers. Since then, our outlook on what type of material is “streamable” has completely changed. Brands are increasingly using live videos to communicate with their customers. We see influencers pushing products, as well as musicians staging virtual concerts while it streams live.

Shoppable Videos

Are you preparing to launch a new product? Or perhaps you want to raise awareness for a product or your business? Or increase traffic to your website? Social media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook, are developing shoppable video content, particularly for their advertising platforms. These videos are linked to your product or service, which will be easier for your audience to access.

Video Search Optimisation

A customers’ major source of information is, of course, the internet (both B2B and B2C). It is crucial to optimise your videos so that they appear in search results. Optimising a video for search extends far beyond getting it to the first page of YouTube results. To be sure, you must select your keywords carefully and optimise videos for your primary keyword.

You can also read one of our blogs, where I discuss why you need YouTube SEO.

Become an Educator and Leader – Be the Thought Leader

Make it a point to promote yourself as a thought leader in your content marketing. Thought leadership is more than just industry expertise and experience. The purpose of becoming a thought leader is to bring awareness to your organisation by establishing yourself as an expert, not to develop sales-heavy content.

There are still chances to emphasise your product or service, but you want to be perceived as educated, insightful, innovative, and even as a pioneer. Here are some pointers to help you position yourself better in your content marketing:

Share some fresh new ideas

The most difficult part of developing content, is being unique and captivating. There is a large amount of information and opinions available online, and it is all too easy to become lost in the haystack. Worse, 30% of decision-makers rate thought leadership as average to extremely bad! That is a category you do not want to fall into.

While every matter in your industry has undoubtedly been or is now being discovered, it doesn’t mean you can’t contribute anything new. Every person is unique, and so are you; identify your true point of view and share it. Make it as engaging and unique as you are.

Create content around your target audience’s questions

The first step is to determine the questions your target market and customers are asking, and then create your marketing plan for the answers. Consider the problems your product or service should solve and the challenges that surround those issues. Then you can produce content that addresses them either through blogs, social media posts, or videos.

Value-based marketing / Social Responsibility

When determining which businesses and brands to support, Gen Z customers place considerably more emphasis on social responsibility than previous generations. Due to the pandemic emphasising the wide range of issues we face, such as climate change, unfair labour practices, and inequality, among others, more customers demand that businesses acknowledge their social responsibilities.

The importance that value-based marketing provides to your customers is its heart and soul. To gain their loyalty and trust, you must connect every aspect of your approach with them. Here are some examples of good value marketing:

• Inspiring statements that simply and concisely explain your mission
• Visual storytelling to support your businesses journey
• Emphasise social sharing
• Indications of audience-generated content
• Increase the importance of social relationships and shared stories between your business and your audience
• An interesting call to action that piques the interest of your target market

Focus on Analytics & ROI

Marketing analytics measure the success of your marketing efforts using data. It enables marketers to get insights into their target audience by analysing engagement data. This enhances return on investment and optimises marketing efforts.

Here are some analytics techniques to help you expand your business:

• Determine your marketing goal
• Invest in analytical skills
• Use data to your advantage

Those are FIVE core strategies you can implement as you plan your marketing strategy for the final months of 2022. An effective marketing strategy takes a significant amount of effort. Understanding the changes in the digital space and adapting your content creation, can go a long way for business growth with the never-ending changes to the digital platforms. As always apply these strategies only if they are relevant to the platforms your ideal client is spending time on … if you aren’t sure where they are download our Social Media Infographic here.

Whether you have any questions or simply want to chat, drop a comment below! We offer a full range of done for you realistic, practical marketing solutions for your business that deliver results and hit the spot with your customers. You can check out what we do here.

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If you want to learn how to implement different marketing elements in your own business, I have a series of Online Digital Success courses focusing on different marketing elements. These are self-paced courses, so you don’t miss out on the learning! You can learn all about those here.

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