01 Jan What Google Learned From 2021 That Should Be Applied in 2022

As 2021 comes to a close, it is only natural to reflect on this very unique past year. To say that 2021 was a bounce-back year from the pandemic is an overstatement. For some businesses, this year was a rebuilding year, but to others, it required a new plan. Whatever your year consisted of, we were all eager to return to normalcy.   

Statistically Speaking  

In 2021, after the pandemic-related shutdowns initiated during 2020, people were eager to reunite in person. Google saw a 400% year-over-year spike in searches for in-person social engagements (i.e., restaurants, dating app usages, etc.) (via thinkwithgoogle.com. Whether people were looking to take someone on a nice date, wedding dress shopping, or outdoor events, people searched to be a part of social engagements.   

2021 saw radical improvement in the entertainment business. After professional sports and movies having the worst year in recent memory in 2020, 2021 saw significant progress. Sports stadium seating searches saw a 600% year-over-year increase, and movie ticket searches increased 500% year-over-year.    

2021 also carried over the virtual revolution that started in 2020. The rise of Zoom is here to stay. As of the writing of this article, Zoom has 2.1 billion unique active users. Zoom is not the only virtual software company banking on this shift to a new virtual society. Online shopping and on-demand streaming services carried us through the pandemic and continued to climb through 2021. The biggest takeaway was that all these services were overwhelmingly used on smartphones. (statista.com)  

From a marketing standpoint, all these trends are significant and distinct. So that leaves a question, what does all of this mean for 2022?  

In-Person Events  

We have learned from 2021 that people are desperate for in-person connections. For 2022, we need to provide a way to fulfill that need. Businesses can create events that serve their employees, clients, or even strategic partners’ social engagement needs. This can be achieved by organizing networking events and social events at your business or a restaurant. This will create positive brand awareness for your business and establish you as a resource for more than just the services or products you offer.  

Mobile devices rule  

Our job as marketers is to adapt and adjust our client’s marketing strategy to their target audience’s new behaviors. When creating content, we need to think about mobile first and desktop second. Often images for websites and social media posts are made using Photoshop, Canva, or other software on a computer. If you have text on an image and you are looking at it on a computer when you share it, and the user is looking at it on their smartphone, can they still read it the same way you intended? This is so commonly overlooked.   

Refresh your website content, images, and navigation  

When was the last time you looked at your entire company website on your phone? Put yourself in your new potential lead’s shoes. Is your site intuitive to navigate? Right on the first page, is it easy to understand what you do and how to contact you? Are all the images and text easy to read? Do you have to zoom in to read it? Getting a refreshed perspective and making these updates will help increase the conversion of visitors to your website, and it will help your website’s SEO ranking.   

Not all marketing companies are experts in digital marketing  

In 2021, based on demand, we have seen a lot of new digital marketing “experts” enter the market. We have even seen a significant amount of traditional marketing companies pivot from traditional marketing offerings like radio, television, and billboard media to digital marketing services. Both groups represent themselves as experts and write advice blog articles on digital marketing strategizes but don’t actually have the background or experience they are writing about. They are doing research online and regurgitating the information in their blog as fact. Beware of these “resources”! They are easy to spot because they use big industry words that the regular consumer doesn’t understand. Still, they cannot simplify the meaning to an explanation for a typical person to understand. This is such a pitfall for our industry that I often feel like I must apologize on behalf of my industry.   

Here at Life in Motion, we are excited about the new year, and we are so grateful for all that we have learned over the last several years. We want to wish everyone a healthy, prosperous, Happy New Year in 2022!! Please contact us if you would like any marketing consulting, web development, or SEO services. We are always eager to take on new clients!