The journey to finding that secret recipe for making people realize that they need your product seems never ending. And in many ways, this will always be the case for creating demand.
While the goal for demand gen has always remained the same, the ways to achieve it, have shifted concurrently with consumer and technological trends.
So, what does effective demand generation marketing look like in 2022?
Let’s find out.
Martech is cookieless
According to Gartner, Marketing Technology (also known as MarTech) is already making up 26.2% of the average marketing budgets.
So, what’s changing?
As more tasks can be automated, the dependence on MarTech for helping generate demand will continue to grow.
The new privacy changes are also changing MarTech. Third-party cookies have been one of the more common ways to track website engagement since the rise of digital marketing. Google, however, has now decided to follow the lead of Safari and Firefox who removed third-party cookie tracking from their features, and do the same by 2022.
Therefore, demand gen software that takes control of the first-party data and also shields from future privacy changes is going to become more necessary than ever before.
Influencer marketing is going micro
Influencer marketing has kept growing ever since its emergence back in 2005 and established itself as an effective strategy for demand generation.
But just like with all marketing, the influencer landscape is constantly changing. Marketers have changed their focus from celebrities towards micro influencers – businesses and individuals with 1,000 to 10,000 followers considered experts in their niche.
Why is that?
Because micro influencers are considered more trustworthy and authentic. Their followers share a more specific set of characteristics, can generate more meaningful engagement than celebrities, and cost less to target.
In fact, according to research, influencers with 1,000 followers generate 85% higher engagement than those with 100,000.
In 2022 you can expect to see much more long-term paid partnerships between companies and micro influencers.
Demand gen is nearshored
Demand gen is a top priority to many businesses, and is typically their biggest pain point.
In fact, 61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge.
As a result, many under-resourced marketing teams are choosing to outsource their demand generation efforts.
Why?
Agencies specialized in demand generation are often more flexible to market change and aware of the newest trends. Additionally, outsourcing can bring in a fresh outside perspective and lower the costs.
And because of these lower costs, nearshoring and offshoring are becoming increasingly popular.
Offshoring is beneficial due to a wide variety of options, especially in Asia. On the other hand, due to the long distance and big time difference this might make the coordination and relationship with the agency more difficult.
Nearshoring means outsourcing to a nearby country. This helps you to travel at a lower cost and keeps the communication easier as you’re still in a similar time zone and cultural region.
Earned Media is on the rise
Earned media is becoming an essential part of demand generation marketing.
As most marketers have preferred more easily measured demand gen strategies such as SEO and email marketing – many are now realizing that earned media is not as hard to measure as previously thought. Likewise, earned media brings better results than previously expected.
In fact, A study found that 25-40% of all traffic and lead generation comes from earned media, making it more effective than paid ads or owned media strategy.
The reason earned media works so well is because it goes right at the heart of demand generation. Rather than focusing on selling your solution, it creates awareness of the need.
Earned media is also one of the most trusted, credible forms of content, and will gain more importance in 2022 as companies learn how to measure ROI of PR more effectively.
Wrapping Up
Successful demand gen in 2022 is all about adapting to the changing consumer environment.
In these uncertain times the consumers are craving for trust and authenticity. This is clearly reflected in the changes in influencer marketing and rise of earned media. As well as this, the increased need for more transparency is changing the MarTech landscape to protect consumers’ privacy better.
As many companies have been forced to let staff go and tighten the budgets, there’s an increased number of under-resourced marketing teams who will turn more towards nearshoring.
Prepare for these changes early, and you’ll master the art of generating demand in 2022.
