Although it’s true that we really don’t know for sure what to expect, here are three content marketing trends that brands should be aware of.
Some of the changes that altered content marketing trends during the pandemic were bound to happen sooner or later. Remote learning, telemedicine, remote working, internet commerce, and streaming entertainment were already on the rise as a result of technological advancements.
The pandemic simply accelerated those tendencies significantly.
Other changes, on the other hand, caught us off guard just as much as the global pandemic did. People who were concerned about their health and safety saw a significant shift in their priorities. What had seemed vital to them before the pandemic had dropped to the bottom of their priority list.
This transition resulted in a significant shift in purchase preferences. In addition, it fostered a decrease in discretionary spending.
With a plethora of material, brands pounced at the chance to reach a virtually captive audience. Many of the initiatives were spur-of-the-moment responses. These were by marketers hoping to take advantage of unusual situations in order to reach new readers. Therefore, the content was developed on the fly, like so many other things during the pandemic.
Brands are considering content strategies that will work in a changing world now that the worst appears to be behind us. Although the main takeaway has been that we really don’t know what to expect, here are three content marketing trends that brands should be aware of.
1. Flexibility in content marketing will be required.
The ability to pivot was a universal key to survival during the pandemic. Some brands, such as distilleries that make hand sanitizer, went all out. Others, such as restaurants and stores offering curbside pickup, did it in modest ways.
Brands, too, had to reorient their content.
Prior to the pandemic, marketers mostly concentrated on informing customers about the information they wanted to know about their products. Customers had problems, and branded content told them how their products could solve them.
Brands had to start listening to the cacophony of customer complaints. Some of them are as unique as the virus itself. However, they had to do this to survive.
Customers wanted material about them rather than items. In addition, they expected it to empathize with their predicament. Brands had to respond with genuine concern. In addition, they had to provide customers with value that was devoid of any self-serving opportunism.
Businesses had to analyze consumer demands and modify content marketing trends and tactics in response. This, however, took incredible agility at the time, and it will again in 2022.
Brands will need to identify pivot triggers. In addition, they will have to develop processes for making content strategy pivots smoothly in the middle of the process. During the crisis, choppy changes were tolerable. However, they will not be in the future.
Consumers are investing their money only with brands they trust in this climate of apprehension on all fronts. Earning that trust demands sharing timely, easily available, and truthful content. Content marketing tactics will need to be flexible and responsive in a world of constant and unknown change.
2. Winners and losers in content marketing will be determined by analytics.
It’s not only about being innovative when it comes to creating great content. It is about being well-informed.
Readers will increasingly come across content that is based on statistics and analytics. We are publishing more and more content. You don’t want your content to disappear under the pile.
This is one of the content marketing trends. We must not ignore it. Brands can no longer afford to put out content and hope for the best. Furthermore, they can’t expect to fire off content, only to find out what doesn’t work at all.
Guide your brand’s content by data. It should not be guided by the marketing team’s hunch of the week.
Customers nowadays expect content to be about them. Therefore, data is required to create targeted and strategic content that connects with the right readers in the right places. Further, it also necessitates the use of analytics to determine the effectiveness of the information after it has been released.
Additionally, brands must examine critical statistics like engagement, traffic, and conversion rates by channel. Furthermore, they must track changing purchasing reasons and altering priorities. This they must do in order to change their content and keep it relevant over time.
Brands risk misinterpreting their data if analytics do not take a holistic picture of content performance.
A high-quality piece of material, for example, should be allowed a decent length of time to gather traction before being removed after a few days. It’s true that first-day metrics are subject to change. Therefore, brands should avoid the urge to continually revise content after reviewing the most current statistics.
3. Emerging technologies will increase the number of delivery options available.
Consumers have reverted to the essentials. However, this does not imply that they have gone back to the dark ages.
After all, they’re adopting new technologies. Therefore, if they haven’t already, brands will need to do so by 2022. Consumers’ perceptions of what makes content relevant have shifted, as has their access to it.
Many houses added virtual assistant devices when they upgraded their technology recently. Instead of entering searches through search engines, they’re increasingly using voice search. Long-tail keywords are more common in verbal queries because it is how people speak.
Brands must improve their content for long-tail searches or risk oblivion.
Chatbots, for example, aren’t merely a way to free up staff while still offering excellent customer support. In addition, they can also improve the customer’s experience by bringing up relevant evergreen information. Furthermore, a good chatbot is good for more than just the homepage of a website brand’s content across all channels.
Then there are podcasts.
Consumers who feel they are spending too much time in front of a screen are turning to audio instead. Adult podcast listeners in the U.S. have climbed by more than 40% in just three years. It’s a promising platform for companies. However, they’ll need to provide entertaining, relevant, and easy-to-understand content to succeed.
Trends to Keep an Eye On
As new distribution channels arise, optimizing and managing them becomes more difficult. Fortunately, there are a plethora of content tools available to assist. As a result, there is no excuse for brands not to make use of new channels to reach out to their customers and expand their impact.
Will life ever be the same as it was? No one knows, which is precisely the point. What we do know is that by the end of this year, brands will require a flexible content marketing strategy. It will have to incorporate content marketing trends, developing technology, and analytics. However, no matter what the world throws at them, brands that do this will remain reliable, relevant, and trustworthy.
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