Episode 068 - The 2022 Trends You Need To Know

It is projected by the end of 2021, so by the end of this year, 80% of all web traffic, like traffic to websites, will be accounted for by video.

Break the news. Oh, this is Jodi's last episode.

She is leaving the podcast for greener pastures. Yeah, I guess I didn't give her enough spotlight. She was trying to leave. So let's everybody have a moment of silence.

I'm not dying.

Oh, okay. It seems like it. Okay, let's get serious.

Okay, serious.

We know that this is the time of year that everybody does this. They look at like, what's coming up next year? What do I need to focus on? And most people don't ever focus on it, but they go through this whole process, right? So, um, which was interesting is, is looking at some of the trends that are coming out, they were very similar to ones that were last year and the year before, but the reason for it is becoming more, more obvious, at least in the ones that I have on my list, which again, like the Christmas episode I'm not sharing with you until our audience hears it.

Secrets.

Yes, and I'm the overachiever. I have 7 and you have 5. I have 4. 4? Yes, I gave you a bonus one.

Yeah, I should have just lied.

Okay, okay, so what to pay attention to for 2022 in your business. Um, do you want me to go first since I have an abundance of inventory here?

Yes, however, I'm gonna be very sad if you steal one of mine.

Okay. They're in no particular order, again, because that's how I roll. Number 1 on my list is personalization. And the statistic in, in the report that I read on this was that 84% of consumers that said that they prefer being treated like a human, like a person, and that's the number 1 reason for them choosing a business to work with. So if you have methods in place to know the customers that are coming into your store, learn their names, get your staff to start to recognize that kind of stuff, or know what they're interested in, if you're in a digital method, having a history of what they've bought, or even keeping track of notes from your last call so you can follow up. So if they mentioned anything like, a life event that had happened in one of your consults. They were just talking about it when you guys were chatting, you know, make note of that so the next time you call you can check in like, how's that going? And those type of things. It's humanizing people and, um, it's going to be more and more relevant now as, as, you know, we've gone through a pandemic where everybody has been isolated and we're just like hungry for this personal contact. So now bring personalization out in your marketing, uh, and you will have a competitive advantage.

Mm-hmm, and I think in relation to that too, this whole movement towards supporting local and supporting small businesses, well, people are only satisfied with that if you treat them like you are a small business, right? Like there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to personalize some content and have a real genuine connection with people as a small business.

Yeah, absolutely. What's your thing to pay attention to?

My very first one is podcasting.

I don't have that.

No, really?

That's the one you thought?

I totally thought you're gonna have it. So there are a couple statistics I have. So 114 million Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis, which, you know, quick math, that's about 40% of the population ages 12 and older. And on top of that, 80 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly. So it's definitely becoming a very popular form of content just because of the convenience aspect, right? Like you're driving to work, you're working out, you're cleaning your house, any— at any point I know I put on podcasts, right? So it's definitely something that you need to really genuinely consider if it's worth it for you as a business owner and Also pick a topic that isn't necessarily niche but is very relevant to your audience, your target audience, but also entertaining and interesting and—

It should show your personality too.

Show your personality and valuable to people, like they should be getting something from it even if it is just entertainment, right?

Perfect, I love it, I love it. And you know, a lot of the smart TVs and devices have podcast apps built into them so you can listen to them very easily. So it's becoming very, very mainstream, um, right? So how long till we have like full internet in our vehicles and have like podcast apps built into the car? Like, it's, it's going to come. My next thing to, to be, um, aware of or on your radar, uh, has been SEO trends. So search engine optimization, um, it's been around for a long time. People, you know, make your blogs SEO-friendly and all that kind of stuff. As of this morning, we just met with a client who was running, you know, a pretty hefty budget with Google on ads for their e-commerce store on a very borderline category. Like, so they're selling, selling fireworks, which Google says explosives are no, but there's a lot of other competitors that are still running ads. So we got that approved a year ago, and then as of November, Google's like, nope, you're done, and shut it off. So, um, their site didn't have any SEO, um, juice, so to speak, for coming up organically. So very important to look at getting your website SEO-friendly and optimized first. The best analogy around that is You know, let's say building a house. I mean, you can go into a house that looks beautiful and everything, the finishes look good, but are the walls structured properly? Is it gonna stand up when, you know, it gets windy? That type of thing. That's what SEO is in your website and in anything. But more importantly, which was the really interesting thing, were coming up in voice search. So think about like you've got your Alexas and your Google devices and you say, hey, You know, Google, tell me how to do this. And she will say, or he will say if you change the name, here's what I found on the web. And it will give you 3 articles.

Yeah.

Right? There is a technique, I'm not versed in it yet, for optimizing your content for voice search called featured snippets. And it will actually go and look for that. You want to come up in those top 3.

Yeah.

Right? And it says 40% of searches now online are being done by voice. Wow. Right now. So that's going to be huge.

Yeah.

Right. Because it's only giving you those 3. And you want to come up for those. Yeah. Right.

Wow. That's shocking. I didn't know that it was 40%. That's crazy. All right. Do you want to go again?

Since I will, I will. This was not a long one. This one's pretty obvious. Automation. You know, the marketing automation, you know, what we do with Keep, all that kind of stuff. You know, we're getting, we're not getting any less busy. As business owners. So the ability to kind of streamline your operations and automate a lot of the tasks are again equally as important. But there's a lot more automation abilities that are coming out that weren't there a year ago, right? I think this pandemic has been a great thing for technology to fast pace itself into new features and functions. So keep that on your radar if you're doing stuff that you absolutely hate. Like we said in our previous episode a couple months back, you know, it's one of your your debts that you're doing, right, in your productivity, automate that if you can.

Yeah, okay, so my next one is one that I think will forever stand as a trend, which is just the fact that people still trump brands. Nobody follows an Instagram page solely for the brand. It's for either the personality or design or literally anything, information, education, it's not following the brand, they're following the people behind the brand, right? Because that's what makes it up. And you can also consider this in your marketing, not only just trying to showcase yourself as a business owner and also your employees having their faces on your social media pages and in your marketing, but you can also look at influencer marketing. And I know that's kind of been a bit of a buzzword and people might roll their eyes because they're thinking of, you know, like TikTok dancers and holding up cheesy products and people rolling their eyes.

That was one of them. Influencer marketing.

Oh, well, look at that. Yeah, so, you know, whether that be influencer marketing, it can be affiliate marketing, or, you know, even just taking that first step and starting to get some more— like humanize your brand, get some more faces on your social media pages and in your marketing.

And by influencer marketing, it doesn't mean you have to go and like get in front of somebody who has like 8 million followers, right? You know, let's say, you know, it could be somebody in your community who is well known, right? And get, you know, if you make a physical product and it would be a suit for them, give it to them, say, hey, try this out, and if you like it, you know, tell some people they love it, and they'll, if they like you, then they'll start to share. That is a very base level influencer side of it, right? Or, you know, if you are a product or service that's for Parents, you know, there's mommy bloggers out there, huge industry, right, that would love to, you know, talk about a product. You know, some of them will charge for it, but still it's better than you trying to just find these people on your own. So definitely something to look forward to. My next one is, shouldn't be, it's pretty obvious when I say it, and knowing my industry, it's probably pretty obvious I picked this one. Is video, right? Now, the amount of video that is increasing exponentially day over day online— and this statistic was startling to me— that it is projected by the end of 2021, so by the end of this year, 80% of all web traffic, like traffic to websites, will be accounted for by video. What that means is there was a video that played somewhere that's accompanied by a link. So social media, watch a video, it's like, hey, visit the website, YouTube video ads, whatever. There was a video element that drove somebody to a website, right? 80%. That leaves only 20% of people that was just like woke up and said, I'm going to go look for like alligator socks and went online looking for them.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah, no, and I've definitely noticed this because as I'm doing my Christmas shopping, a large chunk of What I've actually purchased has come from either video advertisements like TikTok, um, Instagram, Facebook, or from people suggesting that in a video that's solely for entertainment. And it's mind-blowing to think of how last year I don't think that that was really the case, you know. I think I went and did my own research, and now I'm just kind of falling into things, which honestly has been convenient. It's been a lot less stressful. So I'd say I always select yes, you can track me on every app.

So I think combined Combining that with what you said about people, like wanting people, like if you're still like, I don't want to be on video, you need to put on your big boy, big girl pants this year in 2022.

Pull them up.

And get your butt in front of that camera. Yes. Right?

Right now.

Right now.

Just try it.

That's right.

Just try vlogging. Vlog your Christmas. Always. Christmas is over.

That's right.

Vlog your New Year's.

That's right. For sure.

Now to touch on that too, I also had video as one of the trends. And I just kind of want to touch on the fact that it's all forms of video now, you know, like you have long-form content, you can still post up to an hour on IGTV. TikTok has recently expanded to 3 minutes, which is, you know, huge considering it used to be, you know, like some mostly 15-second videos. And then on top of that, they're— the head of Instagram, so his name is Adam Mosseri, Moseri. I don't know his, his, uh, how to pronounce that.

Adam, if you're listening, please email us and let us know how to pronounce your name.

Yeah, exactly. I kind of said it there with like a little French, little French came out.

That's right.

But he, in a recent interview, he was saying that people are demanding entertaining video content more than anything. So their priority is that entertainment aspect, which I think is very obvious with Again, TikTok blew up last year. So just making sure that even if you are putting the effort to make video content, make sure that there's also that entertainment aspect, because it's not enough to just, you know, make video content that's relevant to your brand now. It has to also be entertaining and worthwhile.

Yeah, that edutainment.

Edutainment.

Right, this blend of words that are there. Okay, chatbots. Pretty obvious, you know, it's people are wanting that instant answers to questions on websites. They're getting used to it now. So that's, that's gonna be popular. And do you have another one or?

I have one more, yes.

Okay, do you want to go last or do you want me to go last?

Oh, do you have one more too?

I have one more, yes. Okay. Remember, because I was a chief.

You go last. Yeah, you go last.

Okay, you go.

So my last one is is the kind of overwhelm of new Instagram features. They've kind of been going a little crazy this past year with their new feature releases. You know, there's Reels, e-commerce, they've been changing all of the different things in Stories and stuff as well. Like they've been changing the length of Reels and it's just, there's always new updates Instagram, and one of the most recent examples is, you know, one day I said to a client that— and, you know, as far as I knew this was true— that you can't post links to Instagram Stories unless you have 10,000 or more followers. And then she said to me, "No, like they just updated. I just updated it last night and now there's a link sticker." And, you know, I'm like, "All right. Well, I guess I got to check it every single day," you know. So it's just making sure that you're staying up to date with those new features and updates, but also not being overwhelmed by them. So you have to strategically pick what Instagram features are worthwhile to you to reach your audience, because not every demographic is using all these features. You know, it's unlikely that people who are a little bit older are, you know, scrolling through Reels all the time. That's probably not their preferred way of consuming content. So if you are trying to target them, don't get overwhelmed by trying to put content on every single— or content of every single form on Instagram. Just, you know, pick your focus and do it really well, and that you're going to be way better off.

Yeah, and I was listening to a podcast on how to leverage Instagram now, and the biggest thing was, you know, looking at Reels as more of your getting found Right, it's the awareness. People will, you know, they will go through the reels and they'll just keep swiping. And if you have reels out there, then you might be suggested in a video and that's where they're gonna come to understand who you are first. Whereas then your stories are once they're following you, then you can start to go along that way and start to engage with them. And I learned of the, you know, the question sticker that was there and you can get people to actually like tell you answers and you can reply back to them in the replies, right? Or the yes, no, you know, hey, you know, I got this free video, would you like it? And they click yes, you can bring up all the yeses and you can DM them, um, with the link to it after, which was really cool to leverage that. So mine is an Instagram feature as well, and it is shoppable posts. And that's the feature where, you know, if you're in a product type business, you can do a post that is linked to the product and the ability for people to buy that product within the app without leaving Instagram, right? Being able to have it linked to a commerce account so they can buy it, check out there, and continue on, um, is going to be something you're going to see more of happening. So, so yeah, so those are some, you know, just a few things to look forward to next year. Um, and good— like, don't get overwhelmed. Yeah, I was going to say good luck, but That too. Yeah, but there's so much and you just need to be a student of everything and just take it as it comes. And if there's something that disappears, oh well, it's not there anymore, right? And there's something new, right? Try it out. Like, what is this sticker? Click on it, figure out what it does.

Yeah. Yeah, and it's important to be aware, but it doesn't necessarily mean that all of your focus has to be pulled in every single direction. Like, it's okay to sit down and make the decision that right now that I don't really see this as a priority, move on, right? Like maybe it's not something that's going to impact your business. And you know, if you made the wrong decision and later on it is going to impact you, then pick it up there, you know.

So, so this is like we said at the beginning, this is your last episode. You are, you're actually moving on at the time this aired. You've already moved on.

Yes.

Right. So we kind of batch record this and let the secret out of the bag. With it. So what does that mean for this podcast? Well, it'll still stick around. I'm changing the format a little bit where I'm going back to an interview type style show where I'm going to be finding content experts, industry marketing experts, and interviewing them and finding out what they can provide to you. My sole focus to give you the best information possible, and that's what I'm going to do. So continue subscribing and listening to this, but as of the next episode after this, it will be a different type of format, probably a different music. This one, the music we've used that you're hearing right now under us has been used for quite a bit, so I'm going to come up with a catchy new— it is, makes me dance every time I edit.

Every time.

So anything you want to say to anyone who's been listening to you for the last 6 months?

Well, you just guess, just thank you for listening. It's been been a blast. I love— I fell in love with podcasting now, so thank you, Shaun.

I'm sure you'll launch your own very soon.

We'll see.