In the webinar, Milestone President Benu Aggarwal and VP of Marketing Erik Newton shared their thoughts on the fastest-moving digital trends going into the new year. Key topics in this recap: - The rise of digital commerce, entity & semantic search, engagement connectivity, and digital desire - The better-me trend and growth in search queries - Biggest search trends for 2022, MUM, and Google Lens image search, image shopping - Stitching omnichannel experiences and addressing the digital desire - Agility and opportunity in your martech stack and your CMS - Key elements of 2022 omnichannel marketing plan – images, video, technical SEO, AI, voice, messaging, intent/entity-driven content, and more - Community and doing the right thing and driving growth

1. MilestoneInternet.com | +1 408-200-2211
Be everywhere your
customers are
Digital Marketing
Trends 2022
January 27, 2022

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Your Speakers
Erik Newton
VP of Marketing
Milestone Inc
Benu Aggarwal
President
Milestone Inc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eriknewton/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benua/

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Milestone Platform and Managed Services
Discovery and Engagement Software
Local Listings • Reviews • Insights • Analytics
Experience Software
CMS • Schemas • FAQ Manager
Design • Websites • Content Services • SEO • Paid • Analytics
Omnichannel Content Platform
Digital Marketing Services
Driving acquisition by enhancing digital experience and content visibility

4. Agenda
1. Review of Last Year
2. Consumer Trends
3. Search Trends
4. Digital Experience = Digital Desire
5. Digital Discovery = Unified Omnichannel CX Experience
6. 2022 Digital Strategy Framework
7. Connecting with Your Communities
Areas of Focus Today

5. Entity & Semantic
Search
Engagement
Connectivity
Digital Desire
Digital
Commerce
Trends
2021
2022
Schema
Attributes
Local is EAT Digital Experience
Conversational
Search
to to to to

6. Consumer Trends

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Most Customer Time Is Spent on Discovery
Customers browse and
search to get to the exact
products they want
Source: Bloomreach

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Environment
35%
Online learning
Skin care
600%
Globally “donation
center near me “
Better
“Me”
Best all-inclusive
resorts
30%
American
volunteering is critical
Student loans
200%
Consumer Trends = Revaluating Priorities
80%
70%
100%
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/2021-search-insights

9. Search
Trends
2021
2022
Entity & Semantic
Search
Schema
Attributes
to

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Evolution of Search = Relevancy > Experience > Desire
Keyword
Driven
2008 2022
KEYWORDS CONVERSATIONS &
COMMERCE
No duplicate
content
No spammy
content or links
Relevant &
precise results
Understand Intent
Longtail (FAQ, Passage)
Local
Mobile
SERP
Quality
Local
Results
Thin Content
Smith
(Entire Document)
MUM
Page
Experience
BERT

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Relevant and Topical = Experience + Desire
Popularity
SEARCH ENGINE
PRIORITIES
SEARCH RESULTS
MARKETING NEEDS
• Blue text links
• Spammy content
• Blue text links
• Quality content
ALGORITHMS
• Links and
keywords
• Combating spam
• Universal results
• Semantic search
• Structured content
• 1,200 SERP Features
• In-search content
• Mobile & Voice
• Entities + intent
• Core Web Vitals
• Mobile only indexing
• Keyword density
• Link building
• Original quality
content
• Earning links
• Topical coverage
• Schemas
• Schemas + content
• Share of visibility
• Conversational content
• CWV compliance
2008
Quality
2012
Intent
2016
Experience
+
Desire
2022

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AI Helping in Digital Transformation
Experience = relevant and topical
MUM: Uses NLP to understand world’s
knowledge and semantic interpretation
Across variety of search results –
Text, Audio, Video, Images
How can AI be used?

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Digital Desire - How Can AI Be Used? Making Search More Useful
• Understanding intent
• Leverage deep learning
• Broader and refine
• Generating relevant results
• Multilingual
(Multitask Unified Model)
MUM
• Topical and relevant
• How to, Recipes
• Related search
• Visual Search
• Video Search
• Audio Search

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https://blog.google/products/search/how-ai-making-information-more-useful/
See It, Snap It, Buy It: How Visual Search
Makes Shopping Smarter
Vision API
• Accuracy
• Quality
• Relevancy
• Entities
• Attributes

15. Local
2021
2022 Engagement
Connectivity
Local Success Is E-A-T
Expertise-Authority-Trust
to

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Accuracy, Enhanced Data, & Engagement
Data
Accuracy
Enhanced
Information
Engagement
AUTHORITY
Build authority through engagement signals and build the foundation for
engagement through accurate and enhanced data.
60%
of smartphone users have contacted a
business directly from Google search
results.*
84%
of “near me” searches happen on a mobile
device, such as a smartphone.**
28%
of searches for something nearby result
in a purchase. ***
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/smartphone-user-search-behavior-statistics/
**https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/local-search-to-store-visit-statistics/
***https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/location-search-conversion-statistics/
Good Better Best
Think With Google

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Engagement Must-Haves
Monitor and manage reviews, establish a direct connection with customers, and answer their questions
• Monitor & respond to
customer asked questions
• Post branded FAQ content
• Easily publish to GMB, Website
& Voice Assistant
• Increase brand awareness,
search traffic & lead volume
Q&A (GMB & Website) Google Posts
• Directly engage with your local
customers.
• Improve your customer
experience with timely
information.
• Promote your sales, specials,
events, news, and offers.
• Track ratings & reviews across
top channels
• Respond to reviews to build
customer trust
• Enable review notifications
• Templatize review responses
for efficient management
Brand Messaging
Reviews
• Real-time customer messaging,
straight from Google
• Integrate Chatbot to Automate
message response
• Enhance Chatbot functionality
with FAQ content
AUTHORITY
RELEVANCE

18. Local
2021
2022 Digital
Commerce
Conversational
Search
to
Digital Desire - Stitching Your
Customer Journey
Conversational
Search to
Commerce
(FAQ, Chat, Messaging, PWA, SMS )

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Digital Desire = Stitching Omnichannel Customer Experience
• Digital Desire = Stitching Omnichannel Customer Experience

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Digital Desire = Omnichannel Experience Based on Your Persona

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…and Digital Desire

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Future-Proof Your Digital Assets
Visibility & Relevancy
Scalability
Conversion Optimized
Responsiveness
CSS
Framework
UIkit
Animations
Scaling
Components & Pages
CMS &
Mobile-First
Framework
Core Web Vitals
Page Experience
AMP
Features

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1 2 3 4 5
USER EXPERIENCE LAYOUT & CONTENT NAVIGATION CONVERSION FEATURES
Digital Desire = UI/UX Scorecard
• Core Web Vitals
(CLS)
• Mobile-First User
experience
• Font consistency and legibility
• Color
• H1 and Headlines
• Images
• Videos
• Homepage Layout
• Inside page layout
• Friendly Navigation
• All pages are accessible
• Primary CTA Accessibility
• CTA on inside pages
• Conversion Flows
• Active Features
• Upgrades &
Opportunities

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Digital Desire = Stitching Omnichannel Customer Experience
In-house Experience
PWA , SMS
Chat, Messaging
Awareness
FAQs
Act
Convert
Advocate

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• Brands must question everything they knew and understand the shifts
• New challenge - delivering brand experience at distance
2022 Digital Experience + Digital Desire

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Interaction & Integration
1. Integration across all channels
2. Centralize data - single source of truth
3. Focus both on Mechanics and Emotion
– first-time and repeat user journey
4. Seamless interactions - user roles,
notifications to build amazing
experience
Microservices, Cloud, API-
First, First-Party Data

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Agility and the Case for Multi-CMSes
Forrester included Milestone in this report on multi-CMS strategy
Read more here:
https://www.forrester.com/blogs/why-a-multi-cms-approach-may-be-right-for-your-brand

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Interaction & Integration – Microservices, Cloud, API-First
Centralized Data Platform
Website Site
Local Channels Schema
FAQ & Voice
Reporting
AMP & Mobile

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MULTIPLE API INTEGRATIONS
Integrations Help Stitch Dots Across All Channels & Touch Points
Relevancy Presence
Schema
Personalization
A/B testing
Heatmaps
Convenience &
Confidence
Engagement Insights Performance Ecommerce
Revenue Recovery
Maps
Ice Portal
SMS
PWA
ADA
Manta Meta
Call Tracking
Natural language AI
+
Core Web Vitals
+ + + + +

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Digital Strategy
• Repeatable
• Planned
• Prioritized Actions and Activities
• Aligned with Goals and Outcomes
• Across Organization

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Strategy & Execution
1. Market trends
2. Competition
3. Our internal and external customer input
4. Gaps – skills, technology, process, external factors
5. Create strategic plan
6. Prioritization /execution rigor
7. Cross-functional alignment
8. Communicate consistently
9. Webinars, newsletters, trainings
10. Measure – objectives and key results
Strategy Execution
Goals
Refine Action
Results
Business
Model

33. Community, Influencer, Partnerships
Critical Growth Drivers

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35. Entity & Semantic
Search
Engagement
Connectivity
Digital Desire
Digital
Commerce
Key Takeaways
2021
2022
Schema
Attributes
Local is EAT Digital Experience
Conversational
Search
to to to to

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Upcoming Events: BrightonSEO, Nick Barber of Forrester
https://www.brightonseo.com/conference-talk/entity-search-2-0/
Thursday, March 24
10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern
Speaker
Forrester's Nick Barber and
Milestone's Anil Aggarwal
will present the latest in CMS
and site experience
Watch email and social for your invite

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Entity Search Is Your Competitive Advantage – On Demand from SMX Next
https://marketinglandevents.com/smx/next/agenda/

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Updated Research from Milestone on the Hottest Topics
https://www.milestoneinternet.com/resources/research-reports

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Questions?
If you want to discuss any of these trends, contact
your CSM or sales@milestoneineternet.com

40. +1 408-200-2211
MilestoneInternet.com
Silicon Valley | Bangalore | Ahmedabad
Thank You