Top 4 Content Marketing Trends

On the Internet, if you want to get your brand into people’s minds, you need to get them to come to you. A company must, therefore, have a website that is easy to use and content that serves whatever the user wants to accomplish. In other words, “content” is no longer just about your product. It is about supplying a diversity of information directly and indirectly related to what you do, so that your website becomes a trusted source and a place that users return to. Following are four major content marketing trends that content marketers should exploit to achieve this goal.

Top content marketing trends that will help boost your business

1. Personalization

Awareness of how people are using the Internet to shop has led to a practically universal acceptance regarding the need for personalization – the Internet marketing watchword for the future.

Over the past few years, we have adopted terms like “Zero Moment of Truth” and conversion funnel to reflect the fact that websites are first used to gather information about buying, and then make the purchase. The mission of the marketer is to package all the right information (and additional interesting stuff) in all the right places on the site.

Personalizing that information by understanding what your users’ interests are, developing attractive content for them, and applying the right technology will create a bond between the website and user that can turn into repeated conversions.

2. Media Diversity

Nowadays, we will see more use of diverse media types, especially on SMB websites.

Even personalized content can get boring if it is just text. That’s why companies should enliven the user experience by varying the types of media they use. Major websites have already started using multiple media formats, and as SMBs realize the benefits of using them, there will be a trickledown effect.

Videos (short and long), pictures, infographics, and even quizzes and calculators make content more appealing, easier to understand, and disrupt monotonous rows of words (although text should still be a mainstay for detailed information).

3. Platform Expansion

You’ve just perfected your website. But now, you need to make a whole new round of changes – to your mobile and social media channels. Everyone uses a mobile, but not necessarily to shop – because the user experience still is not up to par compared to websites. This will change in the future as companies devote more resources to developing content specifically for mobile.

Similarly, we’ll see companies committing to a more expanded presence on social media, which has introduced various tools to assist businesses in optimization, such as Facebook Pages Insights and Audience Insights. Marketers are even developing content for platforms such as Snapchat in order to create brand awareness in younger generations.4. 

4. UGC

Going hand-in-hand with expansion to new platforms is the inclusion of user-generated content (UGC) on websites. As opposed to reading customer reviews on Amazon, we’ll see more feedback appearing directly on company websites, mobile sites, and social media. This is because modern consumers are very aware and critical of manipulation, particularly on the Internet, which is seen essentially as a free medium. Pushing people to buy is a violation of this idea. Instead, UGC is regarded as more trustworthy and insightful. It is also a great way for businesses to improve their services and user experience.  

What content marketing trends do you see happening next year? Let us know by commenting below!