Content marketing is constantly changing. You can’t just put it off and forget about it, especially in an age where all marketing is going digital. Content has become an important part of branding, lead generation, and even sales campaigns, both in inbound and paid channels, for one reason above all else: its effectiveness.
With more data available and a better understanding of buyer preferences, you can always fine-tune your approach to content marketing.
For those who want to see what’s current, what’s working, and what’s coming, we share new trends in content marketing that have become increasingly popular lately. Find out why they’re important and how you can apply them to your overall content marketing plan.
Content marketing is constantly changing. You can’t just put it off and forget about it, especially at a time when all marketing is going digital. Content has become the foundation of branding, lead generation, and even sales campaigns, both in inbound and paid channels, primarily because of one thing: its effectiveness.
You can always fine-tune your approach to content marketing with additional data and a deeper understanding of buyer preferences.
For those who want to see what’s current, what’s working, and what’s coming, we share new trends in content marketing that have become increasingly popular lately. Find out why they’re important and how you can apply them to your overall content marketing plan.
This is causing a shift in content because the way we talk doesn’t always match the way we write. You should take the time to adapt your content for natural language searches, which means including questions and answers.
If you want to write in this style, include whole questions in complete sentences. Use long keywords in headings and titles. To take advantage of “near me” searches, optimize natural language pages or posts where you rank for these keywords.
Trend 1: Content should be concise, not TL;DR
The average word count of blog posts has increased while people’s attention spans have been shrinking. Longer content performs well in organic search results, but even if a page ranks on the first page of a search engine, will users stick around to read it? While this content is important, you can’t expect long-form content to be the right size for every buyer, especially those connected to your brand on social media.
Short content works better with millennials, who are the generation with the most buyers. Another Demand Gen study found that millennials prefer videos and infographics over other types of content when making decisions. These formats are colorful, tell a story, and contain movement.
The best way to capitalize on this trend is to use more videos and infographics on social media and channels targeted at millennials. You can reuse some of your blogs, e-books, or white papers as inspiration for new content.
Trend 2 : Diverse content attracts new audiences
If you only publish one type of content, users will get bored. It no longer works that way. Instead, people expect your site to use different types of media, whether it’s infographics, galleries, videos, podcasts, or anything else.
Yes, this means you have to diversify your skills (and possibly your team), but it has several benefits. If you change the way you present content, you don’t have to struggle as much to create new content. Often content that has proven its value in one medium can be taken and put into a new package, updated, and then re-presented in a different media format.
It works so well because most users have a preferred way of consuming media. They may prefer video, audio, or text. This means that they naturally fall into different categories, which means that the vast majority of them are not even aware that they have already encountered the media in question. Even those who do, don’t care because you have new ideas and present information in a new way.
Trend 3 : UGC is still a big success
UGC has become the most important part of e-commerce content marketing. This is an impressive statistic: 85% of people trust content created by other users. That’s a lot, and it’s worth taking advantage of. How do you do it? By empowering your users to create their content to share on your website.
This has a range of benefits.
- As long as it’s overwhelmingly positive, it will impress new entrants.
- It gives your users a sense that they are being listened to and heard.
- It creates a community.
- It gives you content for free!
In other words, it’s a great way to attract your audience deeper into your website by providing them with new content that they are particularly interested in and likely to trust. Plus, once people have started conversations and relationships on the website you maintain, they’ll come back to meet their friends and hear what they have to say.
Harley Davidson has used this strategy to deadly effect and has weathered every storm that has come its way. Why not take a leaf out of their book and apply the same system to your content marketing campaign?
Trend 4 : Influencer Marketing is Evolving
Influencer marketing has been delivering great results for brands. Social proof is so crucial for buyers. They rely on it far more than any other influencer. According to Nielsen, 92% of shoppers trust an individual recommendation more than a brand.
The core of influencer marketing remains the same. The difference is in how brands use it. Brands now seem to be moving from quantity to quality. In the past, the general mindset may have been to get as many recommendations as possible. Now it’s about the quality and credibility of the influencer.
To transform influencer marketing, you need to define the criteria for whether an influencer can work with your brand. Then you need to create a campaign that targets these influencers to get their attention. Follow this up and nurture relationships with those who respond. Track your data as influencers participate in campaigns to make sure your investment is paying off.
Trend 5 : Embrace Live Video
Brands are using video for content marketing. Millions of videos are created every day on almost every topic imaginable. Video isn’t new, but live video is a subcategory that suits some brands.
With live video, there is still the possibility that the next event will be unscripted. Live video makes a lot of sense when your brand is out in the world. Live from your booth. Or show something from the field if it’s related to your brand. Live video offers unique opportunities that are highly engaging.
These are just a few of the content marketing trends that will continue to grow over the rest of the year and into next year. These trends do not represent major changes. However, they are clear ways to improve your content marketing to attract the leads and new business you are seeking. If you are looking for content writing agencies to evolve your content marketing there are many content writing agencies that can help in bringing more engagement to your websites.