The pandemic had a widespread effect on industries worldwide. Consequently, thought leaders in the world of content marketing had to adapt their content marketing strategies to the new circumstances.
Now more than ever, consumers want highly personalized support, asking more and more from businesses.
Content marketing plays a huge role in this process, allowing customers to get closer to where they want to be and helping them get all the services they need on their customer journey.
To navigate their businesses, companies must consider content marketing as the critical tool of their success and optimize the current content processes to improve their customer experience and get ahead of the curve.
In this article, we bring you the top content marketing trends that shaped 2022.
Optimize for reader experience
To cater to your customers’ needs and give them the best support so that they would not start exploring your competitors, it is critical you optimize your content for reader experience.
By personalizing it and working on its overall quality, you will be able to get closer to your consumers and make them feel that you are someone they can trust.
You want to be their friend and persuade them that you will be by their side, providing them with all the information they need and the top-notch services they deserve as your loyal customers.
One of the ways to do this is through people-centric brand storytelling. By creating a well-crafted narrative, you will be able to connect to your consumers on a personal level, making sure they want to stick with you and encouraging them to take action.
After the pandemic, people seem to distrust other people more than ever, mostly due to the proliferation of fake news and disingenuous marketing practices that mostly revolved around COVID-related subjects. To reassure your readers and help them regain their trust in what they read on the web, make sure you create content that is authentic and honest, and that resonates with your customers.
The best way to do this is by making an effort to understand your customers’ pain points, desires and needs.
So, instead of just making noise, you can create content that adds value and really helps your customers at every step of their customer journey.
One of the examples of great content is Dove’s campaign Courage Is Beautiful. This campaign accurately reflects the pandemic’s burden and stands out from the rest of the polished but dull campaigns we see on social media.
Create targeted short-form video content
Every marketer knows that video is probably one of the best content formats they can leverage to capture the readers’ interest and attention. Creating short form videos and placing them on your website will increase the engagement and the traffic on your site. Videos should definitely be a part of your website design checklist as visual content along with text is a must-have for a better user experience.
In 2022, it is imperative to use video content in blogs and websites to get to the point as quickly as possible, as people’s attention span is becoming shorter and shorter. They want the relevant information, and they want it now.
Short-form videos allow marketers to pass the information in an easy-to-understand way since consumers need to make decisions in less time.
The good news is that content marketers now have much easier access to a number of relevant tools to create stellar videos that would provide end-consumer with just the right information they are looking for. Such tools also allow the use of ads on mobile devices for content promotion and have progress which you can calculate with the help of the cost per install formula.
Use visual content to tell a story
With the advanced development of technologies like voice search and smart speakers, visual content is becoming a more attractive form of content.
Research shows that people prefer visual content over plain text as it provides them with the essential information they need in a more comprehensible way.
Also, based on the recent studies conducted by Wibbitz, visual content can make a more noticeable impact on every businesses out there and influence website traffic, social media engagement, sales and lead generation.
So, instead of focusing on creating numerous articles in the same format, you should focus on designing visual content that would support the basic elements of brand storytelling.
You should also try to enrich your content with data visualizations, infographics, affiliate marketing videos and images. Additionally, you can create a poster to visualize complex ideas. Create content that is optimized for visual search on platforms like Pinterest and Google.
If you need professional help to improve your visual content, reach out to some of the top content marketing agencies to achieve your goals.
Leverage AI-based automation
We’ve all seen huge advancements in AI and its ground-breaking impact on industries worldwide.
Marketing is one of the areas that thrive because of AI developments. More and more businesses are using AI-powered technology to assist their marketing efforts.
For instance, AI is the main tech driver of voice search and smart assistants and chatbots.
At its core, AI-based automation allows businesses to clear out grunt work and focus on their marketing strategies, improving the overall customer experience in the process.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the human aspect is still highly important, which means that AI should serve as a tool that can help businesses enhance their marketing efforts and not completely replace humans.
Another big value AI can bring to businesses is allowing them to learn more about their audience and customers. It enables them to personalize their marketing messages and customer experience on a larger scale.
There are already tools on the market like Oracle Infinity IQ and Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation. These tools collect patterns in customer behavior and help leverage the power of data to reach the right people with the right messaging, at the right time.
Remember: Gen-Z had a huge impact on marketing
Gen-Z has definitely been making an impact on industries worldwide, shaping the choices businesses make to scale up and cater to their customers’ needs.
Even though the marketing industry has been obsessed with Millennials for the past two decades, and they represent a large segment of the audience, Gen-Z has grown in the digital age; they are tech-savvy and have a fresher perspective than Millennials. They are also more diverse than any other generation before them.
While a diverse audience can bring a variety of challenges, it can also bring a number of invaluable insights that would open up a world of new opportunities for marketers to reach the decision-makers of the future.
Takeaways
Now is the perfect time for you to use these insights and start planning your winning marketing strategy for 2023.
However, keep in mind that the marketing trends come and go, so do your best to understand the real needs of your audience and use customer-focused content to communicate with them consistently and clearly.
Taking the right steps will help you get ahead of the curve and provide your customers with an outstanding experience.