The world of business is constantly evolving. With several trends such as digital shift, technology revolution, virtual work shifts, and many more, business personnels are on the lookout for upcoming business trends to follow in 2022.
Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic created a huge buzz for businesses and entrepreneurs to keep watch on evolving strategies to propel operations through similar challenges in the future. Although the pandemic has been front and center since early 2020, there are other trends on the horizon for entrepreneurs to watch as well.
Following are a few upcoming business trends to follow in 2022 that will have a huge influence on the way companies function and succeed:
1. Social Media marketing
Today, social media platforms and methods have become a great source for businesses to market products and boost sales. E-commerce integration into social media platforms is another digital marketing trend to follow in the upcoming times. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others are updating their algorithms to help businesses work on their business models and make it possible for buyers as well as sellers to establish secured relationships.
In addition, estimates suggest that social media ad spending will increase by 15% in 2021, growing the total spent on social media ads to $105 billion. That is nearly double the $54.4 billion total social media ad spend in 2017. Trends such as paid placement advertising, multimedia spending to generate better ROI than conventional PRs, digital and audience-focused campaigns will shape the future of businesses in the long run.
2. Tech Augmentation
Currently, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are being predicted to boost new grounds for business adoption. AR and VR are considered the best trends for small businesses to take the lead to stand out from the competition and generate excitement among their audience. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data are enabling businesses to collect and store massive chunks of data.
On the other hand, machine learning is being used to analyze and comprehend the collected data. As a result, the insights businesses gain in this way can be used to better target marketing campaigns or find new efficiencies in internal processes. Whether small businesses want to leverage machine learning and data analytics for marketing purposes or find new efficiencies at work, tech augmentation is more affordable to get started and is one of the blooming upcoming business trends to follow in 2022.
3. Sustainable and Resilient Business Operations
Climate change has become a major concern throughout the world. In view of the increasing awareness of eco-friendliness and environmental protection, consumers are becoming more aware of their choices. This has also resulted in brands and large organizations adopting sustainable approaches to cater to consumers as well as the environment. Moreover, every organization must seek to eliminate or reduce the environmental costs of doing business.
Besides decarbonizing the supply chain, forward-thinking businesses are looking beyond the supply chain to improve sustainability across all business operations. Sustainability is linked to resilience since resilience means being able to adapt and survive for the long term. Any business that ignores sustainability is unlikely to do well in this age of conscious consumption.
4. Authenticity and Purposeful business Strategies
Modern-day consumers are seeking to establish authentic and meaningful connections with brands and organizations. This pursuit of value-driven business relationships has resulted in making authenticity one of the must-follow upcoming business trends. Moreover, authenticity helps foster human connections and brands that seem to care about issues stand out from others—becoming more than just profitable in the long run.
Along with authenticity, purposeful business strategies ensure helping organizations serve a meaningful purpose and not just render profits to stakeholders. Purpose defines the existence of an organization, be it small or large. Importantly, a strong purpose has the promise of transformation or striving for something better—whether it is a better world, a better way to do something, or whatever is important to your organization.
5. Latest and Evolved ways of Funding
Currently, fintech industries are redefining the way businesses managed and leveraged their finances. With that being told, the ways in which companies generated finance is constantly changing and new platforms and mechanisms have emerged to connect investors and donors in a refined manner.
Aspects such as crowdfunding, initial coin offerings (ICOs), tokenization and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are shaping the way companies used to handle their financial aspects. Moreover, the majority of such new methods are driven by the decentralized finance movement, in which financial services like borrowing and trading take place in a peer-to-peer network, via a public decentralized blockchain network.
6. Influencer Marketing
Today, influencer marketing is no more a trend. It has become a huge industry player in the past few years. According to studies and reports, ad spending for influencer marketing could reach $10 billion by 2022 and make it a billion-dollar industry in the near future. The reason for the success of influencer marketing is trust, naturalness, and personalization. Consumers are relying on the opinions of influencers with massive fan-following and trusting their opinion on a brand or product much more than they trust brands themselves. The trend is clear and 58% of people have bought a new product in the last six months due to the recommendation of an influencer.
Influencer marketing will also be affected by artificial intelligence. Every year AI makes it easier to find the right influencers to partner with by identifying those with better engagement, fewer fake followers, and a higher likelihood of generating a positive return on investment (ROI).
The abovementioned upcoming business trends will shape the way companies did their business and push them towards their ultimate business objectives. Organizations hailing from various sectors are grappling with rapid transformation. In addition to that, there are massive global shifts and challenges such as climate change, shifting political and economic power, that will influence the future of business goals. As the world is changing at a fast pace, organizations must learn to adapt and adopt accordingly.
Also Read: Why is marketing plan so important for companies?
