10 Content Marketing Trends that will blow your mind!

Video makes people ravenous. 

The popularity of video was on the rise before COVID-19. The pandemic, however,  has accelerated what an already ravenous appetite for video content was. Cisco estimates that by 2022, 82% of all created content will be video. Personalised video content, especially a well-timed explainer video or testimonial, effectively overcome barriers to sales and secure that conversion.

To be effective, the subject matter for video content needs to be valuable, relevant, original and credible. But, the pandemic has also taught us that it’s now more important to be authentic rather than lavish. This is excellent news for your budget and ROI and also means you can produce more content to equip your sales team with the tools they need most. In addition, video content offers an excellent opportunity to engage with home-bound audiences who need helpful content to solve their problems. This is why video is now the primary form of media used within any content strategy. 

Livestream video - doubles engagement

The pandemic has resulted in people turning away from lavish, heavily staged and edited content that doesn’t feel authentic. This is one of the factors behind the increasing popularity of live video streams. Livestreaming creates a sense of immediacy, leading to a greater understanding of emotional connection and engagement as the events are happening in real-time.

In addition, the rise of Virtual Events and Webinars helps people interact directly with the hosts by posting questions, so it’s no surprise that live videos are driving double the engagement compared to pre-recorded video. Hosting Q&A sessions, Webinars, Product Demos or interviews are some of the most effective tactics for using Livestream video content. 

Gamified Content is a huge hit. 

Gamified interactive visual content is highly prevalent in social media stories, but you don’t have to limit yourself. Using this form of visual content is to challenge your target audience to interact with you directly.

By asking people to rank their favourite pair of sneakers, take part in an online quiz, etc., you invite your target audience to share their opinion and engage with you in fun and emotionally connected way. 

Voice-activated content 

In 2021 we’ve seen an upsurge in demand for articles optimised for voice search. 65% of 25-49-year-olds regularly speak to voice-enabled devices, such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, at least once a day. Furthermore, mobile users are nearly three times likely to use voice search over keyword search. As AI becomes further entrenched in our lives, optimising content for voice search is now a must-have for your content marketing strategy. Voice-activated articles still need to be informative and engaging, and the design of writing has to be a lot easier by targeting long phrases and questions.

The average Google voice search result is written at ninth-grade level (14-15-year-olds), so your content needs to be a clear and concise as possible so that your audience will find it helpful as well as demonstrate your expertise and credibility. FAQ content is one of the most effective methods to leverage the benefits of voice search. 

Podcasts are in vogue.

Podcasts have exploded in popularity, and the pandemic has resulted in people turning to listen to podcasts daily. Leveraging podcasts can help you increase your reach exponentially. Educational podcasts that offer listeners detailed information on products and services have immense potential to enhance the effectiveness of your content marketing tactics. Podcasts are highly effective at positioning your business as a source of industry authority. Podcasts also feel like a conversation between the host and the listener. Listeners feel like they’re being talked to and walked through the content in a more natural, human way.

Furthermore, they can also create a greater emotional connection with your target audience with a more human touch, especially for real-life stories about how your business was built, a behind the scenes discussion with the people making your products etc. 

Original research will become hugely popular.

Original research and studies will become hugely popular in 2022 and is an excellent way for you to stand out in a sea of content. Content marketing has become a little saturated with “thought leaders” and “influencers”. Therefore, original research and studies help you stand out from the crowd by providing deep insights into topics your target audience cares about.

The goal of any research study is always to discover more about a problem, use crowds’ wisdom to understand it better, or come up with a solution. Effective research starts with arousing some sort of curiosity to confirm or deny a particular hypothesis or to uncover what the market thinks about a specific issue. Then, issuing surveys and studies to your audience or experts can help you gain their insights into a problem. 

Topical Authority will replace keyword research.

Google will be placing far more emphasis on depth of expertise than other SEO-related factors, such as link building. In 2022, expertise, not backlinking authority, will become ever more essential to compete in the SEO battlefield. As Google gets more innovative on semantics, link relevancy will decrease over time. If you cover topics with the most depth, you’ll own the future traffic flow for those related search queries.

Google is expected to reward depth of expertise and is going in this direction with Expertise-Authorativeness-Trustworthiness (“E-A-T”) for websites that fall into topic verticals. Practical tactics to consider include long-form content by building your content out around pillar pages, collaborating with subject matter experts, and conveying your expertise through well-presented research. 

Featured Experts will outperform Influencers.

Commentary from featured experts will lend credibility to your content and help you stand out in a way that influencers can only dream of. While Google doesn’t yet use subject matter content as a ranking factor, consumers do! A recent study by Nielsen revealed that 85% of consumers regularly look for expert content before buying, and 67% of buyers said that unbiased expert endorsements make them more likely to consider making a purchase.

In addition, expert content will help you build trust and increase the customer lifetime value by sharing stories, asking for reviews, etc. 

Get on Discover 

Formerly known as Google Feed, and transformed into Google Discover, combining news, evergreen content, and visuals and photos. Google uses AI and Machine Learning to fill the feed based on the user’s search history and surface content most likely to engage them.

To be eligible to appear on Discover, your content needs to meet Google’s guidelines, which include: posting outstanding and engaging content that’s unique and timely, with exact authorship, high-quality imaging and descriptive titles that avoid clickbait. 

Account-Based Marketing takes centre stage. 

Account-Based Marketing (“ABM”) is one of the most highly effective marketing strategies to leverage great content. This involves targeting a specific list of prospects with high quality, bespoke content. 70% of marketers have reported using ABM strategies, with content ranging from blogs, guides, listicles and white papers.

By adopting an ABM approach, you can speak directly with your target prospects and help solve their problems straight away. Using an ABM approach on LinkedIn enables you to target the highest value, best-fit ideal customer profiles to drive top-quality website traffic. It also means that your sales team get to talk to warm leads who have already engaged with product-related information.