What's Next? Tech/Marketing in 2022

With an improving economy, we’re now finding ourselves with more marketing dollars to spend. Yet we’re still emerging from a covid cocoon, and sometimes it’s hard to imagine a future without Covid. 

The urge to gather is strong, but look for a hybrid model

We’re hosting events again, but they’re likely to be hybrid models, deploying technology for those who cannot or prefer not to venture out. Events may be smaller and more intimate. Have we seen the last of the massive trade shows? 

Supporting a cause should be part of your marketing plan

Consumers, especially millennials, like to support companies with a mission—those who are partnering in some way with nonprofits. This could include doing a promotion and matching the donations, underwriting an event, donating a percentages of a day’s earnings to a cause. There are endless ways to make this work. According to nonprofit coach Mallory Erickson, these types of partnerships can help you reach a wider audience. 

Say goodbye to smartphones 

Who knew that the pandemic hit the smartphone industry especially hard, with global smartphone shipments declining in 2020 as demand and supply hit the skids. Smartphone sales will have to compete with a new line of smart eyewear and wearables that are entering the market. Apple has developed smartglasses and virtual reality headsets, though they’ve not yet been released. There’s a growing industry of wearables and hearables, like the Apple AirPods. 

Remote workforces are here to stay

While Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley and Silicon Forest will still exist, there will be an impact as big tech workers continue working from home as the pandemic winds down. Startups and smaller companies likely will follow suit. The result? A highly skilled tech workforce distributed across the US—no longer relegated to tech centers.

Healthcare is the next battleground for big tech

Tech giants will make further inroads into the healthcare industry, capitalizing on the smart fitness industry. Amazon’s fitness tracking wearable and Google’s acquisition of Fitbit are evidence of this trend. Technology will be forcing the pharmaceutical companies and insurance industry to evolve. This is already happening–major insurers are offering to reimburse us for wearables like the Apple watch.

The “home of things” industry is growing

The rising popularity of smart home devices and home surveillance systems such as Amazon Ring and Google Nest has created a new “home of things,” or HoT, industry. Google, Amazon and Apple will be the players in this space. Who has kids who put back empty cereal boxes and milk cartons? Think about a trash can that can detect the empties and automatically order replacements. 

Antitrust action may fail to keep up with big tech’s moves

The Biden administration will be ramping up antitrust enforcement of big tech. But the rapidly changing landscape may be moving too fast for regulators to keep up. 

This is the perfect time to start working on your marketing plan for the coming year

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and digital marketing specialists. 

SEO: Forget Keywords. Think Topics

 Search engine optimization (SEO) keeps evolving. It’s still about showing up in search, making your website more visible to those who are looking for the solutions that you provide. But the techniques to improve your rankings have changed, and it has to do with those notorious algorithms that are constantly on the move. Search engines have grown more sophisticated; they’re now using updated algorithms and practices to determine the contextual meaning behind keyword-based searches.

Search engines exist to solve your problems . . . 

And they’re getting much better at predicting what you want. The old days of randomly filling up a page with keywords is over—search engines recognize this for what it is—shameless keyword stuffing. Good content is nonnegotiable. In order to rank you, search engines look for title tags, keywords, image tags, internal link structure and inbound links. Also figuring in are navigation structure and site design–these are things we can easily execute ourselves. 

Build your SEO strategy around topics, not keywords

Keywords should feel natural, not forced, but your focus should be on the intent of your audience. Build your SEO strategy around topics, not keywords. If you do that, you’ll be naturally optimizing for keywords. For example, if you’re writing about planning a wedding, you don’t need to list every single wedding detail—champagne, catering, food, cake, flowers, photographer, music and all the other details. Google, in all of its wisdom, knows this. It understands the topic of wedding planning.

It’s not just about your website; building backlinks

Search engines work on your overall web presence, and backlinks are an important component. Any link from someone else’s website to yours (or any other site) is a backlink. Backlinks help Google find new pages on your site faster, and they’re associated with increased credibility and trust. 

How to build backlinks? Look for opportunities to be a guest blogger and include a link back to your website. Links should be from websites and content that are relevant to your focus. A really easy way to build links is to post your blogs to your Google Business Page. You can post a blog excerpt with a Learn More button and link back to your website. Easy. 

Your social channels are an important part of your SEO value 

Social can have a big impact on your organic search. Think about what goes on with our social activity—sharing posts, tweeting and retweeting. It could be through a Facebook friend, Twitter follower, a connection through another social network or something totally unrelated. Sometimes social search will even prioritize content that has been shared by an influencer. 

Our challenge is creating search experience optimization. We want users to not only find our websites but to stay there, drill down through our content and come back later and become a customer.

Does an SEO analysis and upgrade of your website need to be part of your marketing strategy? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and digital marketing specialists.