The 6 Content Marketing Future Trends You Need To Understand Today

We need to allow the content marketing future trends to guide our content marketing in order to continue to pivot, rank higher, and generate more website traffic.

As we are approaching the end of 2020, things have changed very quickly. But content marketing still remains the lifeblood of digital marketing. 

It has conferred the title of modern-day effective marketing strategy, as it involves curating relevant and useful content. And mainly acknowledges the fact that consumers nowadays ignore all the irrelevant information, especially all the noise on the internet.

As we are living in a wobbling world, How on earth is Content Marketing still effective? – You might think

Well, the answer is adapting and adjusting. There was a time when Artificial Intelligence, data-driven content marketing, was bordering on absolute audaciousness. But today, they are dominating the overall digital marketing. So there’s no denying the fact that one should pay attention to future trends, and should know how and when to implement them and to successfully grow their business.

Being said that, here are 6 prominent Content Marketing Trends you should learn and implement:

1) Results-Focused Content:

Result-driven Content is one of the important trends to learn and implement to get better conversions. 91% of B2Bs and 86% of B2Cs are currently using content marketing. Despite the numbers, SEO score, and rankings no business can survive without any conversions. Businesses that only focus on rankings instead of creating result-driven content have a tough pill to swallow. Result-focused content can be anything depending on the marketing objectives such as sales, leads, new subscribers, downloads, sign-ups, engagements, etc. 

And to get more results, you should deliver solid results to customers. So Creating a content strategy that focuses on buyer’s personas and problems, and solving those problems with simple step-by-step solutions can be effective in achieving your end goal. You should stay updated and relevant as can be. Discuss and connect your team with a project management solution to make sure everybody is aligned with your content strategy plan. 

Put it simply, any strategy which simplifies a user’s process of finding a solution by increasing their engagement will bring more results.

Just put yourself in the shoes of customers, let’s say you are looking for a solution, what would you prefer? A lengthy article without a definite and exact solution or A quick survey upon answering them, you’ll get a precise solution for your problem.

A good example of this, 

Content Mavericks, they use a navigating list (filters) post, where visitors have to choose one option out of many, that is their primary goal, and consume only the information which they are interested in

How to implement:

1. Identify the buyer’s problems and their key traits
2. Create a post relevant to the buyer’s need
3. Breakdown the article into filterable posts on the problems visitors are looking for.

(Example)

And add a call-to-action in the filtered posts, and increase your results.

2) Video-Based Content:

Another important trend to look for is the rise of video-based content. People nowadays hardly read, they rather watch more video content. In the modern-day, even consumers demand more video content from brands. And because of its visual and engaging feature, it gets the user’s traction more than any other type of content. Marketers are now able to leverage video content to convey complicated or even the dullest message to mass audiences. More than 80% of people would prefer to watch a video over reading a blog. 

How to implement it:

Leverage on the audience, either organic ( shares, posts, tweets, etc) or through paid ads, on video-sharing platforms like :

• YouTube
• Instagram 
• Website
• Snapchat
• Tik Tok
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Vimeo, etc 

Depending on the business model and target demographics, choose the right platform. For instance, if you’re a B2B Marketer and your demographic(age) is more than 35 then platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube are a perfect fit. And if you’re targeting younger demographics then you are better-off using platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook. Moreover, most of the professional platforms are commonly used for webinars, Interviews, Q&A sessions, vlogs, etc.

Note that, most of the video content can be repurposed in multiple forms. For instance, Seminars and Q&As can be converted into small portions, and later posted on LinkedIn.

3) User Generated Content (UGC):

One of the rising trends from the past couple of years is User Generated Content (UGC). Data shows that over 85% of consumers have found UGC more relevant and useful than brand content. User-generated content is not only a vital part of the content strategy but also in branding and sales. Because of its unbiased nature, it can be used as social proof to drive more traffic, promote the brand, and generate more leads. Nowadays, people rely very strongly on reviews and ratings. Over 93% of people look for reviews before making the purchase, and 86% of people said their purchase decision was influenced by online reviews. 

So how can you implement this trend?

1. Use Customer’s perspectives/ opinions:

A good example for the above point is implemented by Apple

The above image shows that a user has captured and shared an image of his dog. And this can be served as social proof and shown by Apple.

2. Customer’s Reviews and ratings:

Customer reviews are an invaluable asset. They are one of the unbiased forms of marketing, but yet they are a very underutilized strategy. It’s free content that you’ve earned by providing stellar service or by selling a quality product.

Upon realizing the importance of customer reviews, I immediately started incorporating them on my website, landing pages, emails, Linkedin, and other social media platforms. ( As seen below )

3. Encourage users to share:

When properly incentivized and acknowledged, users can start sharing their own content ( text, image, or video ) on their personal social media accounts indirectly promoting your brand. And thereby, free content is received for the brand when people post on social media.

For example, Coca Cola started a campaign called “Share a Coke Challenge”, where users are encouraged to find a coke with their first name on it and share the picture on their personal social media account.

4) Podcasting:

Podcasts are dominating content marketing in recent years. Statista reports, the audience of podcast listeners has tripled within the last decade, and the number is projected to increase in the coming years. And almost a third of Americans listen to at least one podcast a month, so arguably it’s a great source of entertainment, and most of the time it’s free.

How to implement the trend?

Relevancy and consistency is the key to success:

Without a proper strategy and plan, no business is able to survive in podcasting. Instead of jumping onto an episode when you feel so, start considering your podcast as important as your other content marketing activities. Talking about the topics that are relevant and trending can put you on the right track.

To better understand podcasting, read The Top 19 Podcast Statistics You Need to Know. And if you’re looking to launch your own podcast, check out this video here:

5) Personalized Content:

With increased competition, many niches have been saturated, especially content marketing. So creating personalized and exclusive content is now a gold rush. Personalizing the content has shown that more than 80% of people say that they are more likely to do business with a company that has offered a personalized experience, and 90% of them said they were drawn towards personalization. 

How can you implement it?

1. Use proper tools:

Either it’s video-based content or a simple manuscript, using proper tools will surely augment your presence. Strategies like attaching a personally recorded video or screen sharing video in the cold emails are really effective in building rapport with the prospects. Tools like Dubb are the perfect example of the above point. It helps you to record a personalized message to your prospects, and share the unique link over the email.

2. Quality over quantity:

With the average attention span less than 7 seconds, you need to keep your message short and concise. Exceptions are made if you’d like to break down complex messages into step-by-step solutions. 

6) The Fight for the Snippet:

Google’s new update sniffs out the user’s search intent (Intent over Keywords), filters out the right page that best fits the search, and shows up only the relevant part of the whole blog.

It appears on top of the search results and provides the abridged version of the entire article. It perfectly serves the current attention-deficit society, as people don’t have time to read the entire article. 

Change is constant. What used to be new yesterday has become obsolete today. But those who thrive and succeed are those who quickly adapt to the change and detach any emotions towards the previous way of conducting business. And not all trends will amount to a solid content marketing technique, but general discretion is advised. A general rule for choosing a trend is first by identifying the trend, analyzing the effects on the business, and lastly analyzing the implications of the trend to your business.

I hope these content marketing future trends provide a guiding light to your business.

Photo: Lucrezia Carnelos / Unsplash

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