Developing a content marketing strategy can be a daunting task, especially if you’re just starting out. It’s important to know your customers and audience well enough to know what will resonate with them, and to weigh trends against your overall marketing goals. You can quickly burn yourself out if you try to do everything all at once, so it’s important to not do something simply because it’s trendy. Instead, think about what’s best for your customers and your own bottom line. Here are the top 10 content marketing trends this year (plus a bonus), and some things things to consider about whether to implement them:
- Incorporating Video. Video continues to be the favorite and most popular kind of content among marketers. It cannot be beaten for increasing the time people spend with content, the amount of traffic it brings to websites, and the boost it gives to organic search. Some marketers forecast a surge in short videos, others in long videos, and others in live videos, making it clear that everyone will eventually want to incorporate some sort of video into their content strategy. Video is especially useful if your customers are younger and you need to hold their attention or if they’re older and you need to teach them something.
- Starting a podcast. Podcasts continue to rise in popularity. They are relatively cheap and fairly easy to start, and they’re a good way to find a truly targeted and loyal audience. They are also a great choice if your customers are commuters. Just remember that there is a time investment in producing episodes as well as in building an audience. Make sure you have something interesting to say; it’s best to be an authority on the topic and/or be highly entertaining. Do some research into what kinds of podcasts your customers are listening to. Listen to the top podcasts and figure out what makes them valuable to this audience. What will you be able to add?
- Embracing a “Quality Over Quantity” Approach. If there’s one trend on this list you should definitely jump on, this is it. For the last couple of years, experts have encouraged us to flood the internet with content, saying things like “you must consistently post three times a day on at least two channels.” It’s still important to be consistent and post content often enough for your customers to know who you are, but this expert advice has led to a lot of low quality content being out there. Low quality content doesn’t help anyone. It’s annoying to customers, and it sabotages your content marketing goals of search engine optimization and audience engagement. The advice now is to say something meaningful and truly connect with your audience even if it means posting once or twice a week instead of all day every day. Post about topics you know well or have researched. Use the data you have about your customers to truly meet their needs.
- Providing high quality long form content. Even as we’re embracing video because attention spans have decreased, we’re also noticing that people are hungry for content with depth. People are actually spending longer times with single pieces of long form content, and it’s becoming common to provide high-quality long form content as a lead magnet or opt-in incentive (a piece of content given in exchange for an email address or other contact information, such as an e-book, webinar, or downloadable tool). It’s never a bad idea to dig deep, especially if you have something important to say and the time to say it well. You might want to consider adding longer/deeper content, even if it’s only monthly.
- Embracing new technologies. This year, people will definitely be using AI to produce content, adding content to the metaverse, and using AR and VR as part of their strategies. The topic is so large that I could write a whole post just about it, and probably will in the next couple of weeks. These technologies are here to stay, whether we like them or not. Whether you use them will depend on a number of factors, most importantly the demographic you serve. If you’re tech-savvy and you’re serving gamers in their mid-twenties, for example, you absolutely need to understand, embrace, and participate. If your customers are organic farmers in their fifties, you can probably skip it (at least for now). If your customers are artists, you will probably want to avoid AI while the legal and ethical issues are sorted out, so as to not offend your customer base.
- Collaborating with other brands. Collaborating with other brands on content is a great idea when it’s mutually beneficial. You find creative ways to boost each other through content, make compelling content together, and gain access to each other’s audiences. Just make sure the collaboration makes sense. You could partner with someone in a similar field who is not a competitor (a mechanic could work with a detailing shop, for example) or someone who is geographically close If you’re a brick and mortar (dinner and a movie, for example). You can find a number of ways to cross-promote and offer discounts if both companies are patronized. It’s a win-win if done well.
- Working with influencers. Influencers can produce and/or promote your content. The idea can be scary if you’re old-school, but it isn’t as confusing or as expensive as you think. Hiring an influencer or a micro-influencer doesn’t make sense if you’re selling a general product to a general audience (unless you can find a truly creative spin). It does make sense when you have a well defined niche and that person has influence in that niche. For example, if you sell gluten free cookies, you might want to hire an influencer who talks about celiac disease. Her audience is much more likely to care about your product than a general audience of ten or even a hundred times as many people. The important thing to remember about influencers is that you have to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Find the content they’re already watching and look for influencers there. It is probably wise to work with an influencer marketing agency.
- Making it interactive. Interactive content like polls, quizzes, and surveys tend to hold attention longer. There’s even more payoff when you can use the results to start a meaningful conversation, customize experiences, and add value to your products or services. My advice is to only use interactive content if you are planning to take that valuable next step. You can do it just for likes or engagement, and that will work, but it will be a missed opportunity to build deeper relationships with people by following up.
- Putting your values front and center. It’s very common for brands to offer their support or criticism about current events and politics. In the future, it will likely be the norm. If your customer base is younger, they expect some degree of transparency about your values. They are more concerned than older generations about financially supporting companies who financially support policies they oppose. They want to give their business to companies that stand for something good. Whether being transparent is the best choice for you depends on your product or service and the customers you’re trying to reach. Ideally, most of your customers would share your values. Still, it is a delicate dance when it comes to offending people. Some people cannot ethically express themselves in this manner (doctors, for example).
- Content marketing internally. Content marketing is usually used to attract, educate, and engage with customers, but a growing number of people are using content for internal communications (a newsletter to staff rather than the public, whiteboard videos in the inbox to supplement trainings, long-form content that teaches the ins and outs of the business, short content that reinforces company culture, etc.). There are so many different kinds of business that there’s no way to make a blanket judgment about the wisdom of this approach. It will entirely depend on your own business and company culture. If you do implement this, make sure the content matches the tone and brand identity you want projected to the outside world.
- (Bonus) Making the content itself the product. Some companies that are producing large amounts of high-quality content have taken a lesson from professional content creators and started charging for the content itself. This may work for you as an income stream, especially if you are a B2B company. There are a number of ways to do this; popular choices include collecting blog posts and additional content for an e-book, transforming how-to posts into worksheets or planners, and creating paid classes or webinars. Paid content can become a lucrative part of your business. As always, this depends on your own business and marketing goals.
Substance and Style 