Content Marketing Trends That Will Drive Success (Updated)

Last updated on June 21st, 2023 at 04:59 pm

There are already tons of content marketing trends prediction posts. And you might think this is just another such post.

But let me be clear – this is not merely a prediction post. Instead, you will know five data-driven content marketing trends that will flourish in the coming years.

So if you want to create a solid content marketing strategy, you will find this post handy.

Let’s discuss content marketing trends that will drive success in the coming years without further ado.

1- The Use of Video Content Will Increase

Videos will drive 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021, 73% up from 2016.

Needless to say, this growth will happen year after year, implying that 2022 will see a rise in video content. And more brands will include video content in their content marketing strategies this year.

Cisco predicts live video on mobile will grow 39-fold by 2021.

Why shouldn’t they?

Worldwide, 51% of marketing professionals find videos the kind of content that offers the best return on investment (ROI).

What’s more, blog posts with videos attract three times more inbound links than posts without videos.

Are you ready to incorporate video content into your content marketing plan?

Here are some key steps in mapping video content to the buyer’s journey:

Top of Funnel: Create educational videos to make your audience understand how their problems can be solved. To ensure the success of Top of Funnel videos, you should never promote your product or service in Top of Funnel videos
Middle of Funnel: Explainers videos are ideal for targeting your audience in the Middle of the Funnel. They should explain how your product or service can solve the audience’s problems.
Bottom of Funnel: Your audience is about to make a final decision at this stage. Video content like honest testimonials and step-by-step guides to using your product or service can push your audience to buy.

Remember, the video landscape is noisy. To stand out from the crowd, you should create videos your audience wants to watch. A little research on this matter goes a long way.

2- More Brands Will Use Chatbots

Chatbot marketing is on the rise. Chatbots Magazine has predicted tremendous growth of chatbots.

Leading brands like Starbucks, The Wall Street Journal, MasterCard, Pizza Hut, and many more are already using chatbots to delight their customers.

In the coming years more brands will include chatbots in their content marketing strategies.

How can you get on the chatbot bandwagon?

The best way is to use chatbots to power conversations.

Yes, you have read it – chatbots can offer human-like instant responses that could be visual snippets, plain text, or a combination of both.

Potential benefits of chatbots include cost-effective customer support, faster response time, and more accessible business transactions.

3- More Brands Will Optimize Content For Voice Search

More Google searches are officially coming from mobile than desktop. And 20% of mobile queries are voice searches.

As the number of smartphone users is growing, the number of people using voice search will also grow in coming years. This will change content marketing. And more brands will optimize content for voice search.

People often use voice search to find local content and information.

Here are some tips on how you can optimize content for voice search:

Optimize local listing
Your content should have the most commonly asked questions by your audience
Target long-tail keywords
Use lots of microdata
Think about how people speak and write content accordingly

Brands are still early in the voice search trend. If you adopt it, your brand could have a competitive advantage over slower competitors.

4- Emphasis on User-generated Content Will Surge

According to research, user-generated content is 35% more memorable and 50% more trusted than other media.

My friend, user-generated content is gold. The engagement with your brand and the good things people say about your business is genuine. That’s why user-generated content adds credibility and authenticity to a business.

According to User-Generated Content Report,

It’s one of the best marketing tools to produce and deliver authentic content, and that it generates an increase in engagement – the top KPI for many marketers – it’s safe to say that UGC will be sticking around in the new year.

Yes, my friend, harnessing the power of user-generated content will be one of the top content marketing trends this year.

With the fact that more brands will lay strong emphasis on user-generated content in the coming years, you should not leave behind your competitors.

Here are five proven ways to encourage user-generated content:

Create buzz for your brand
Run online contests or quizzes
Offer users rewards to create content
Ask your audience questions
Conduct online surveys

Though user-generated content is a powerful marketing tool, getting it is not always easy.

You will need to be super creative to make your UGC campaign successful.

5- The Use of Influencers Will Increase

People have become marketing averse. 40% of US internet users utilize an ad blocker, making it difficult for content marketers to promote content.

Many businesses have started incorporating influencing marketing into their content marketing campaigns to amplify content reach and promote their brands.

Influencer marketing has seen rapid growth in recent years. Reason?

Andrew Hutchison noted, in The State of Influencer Marketing,

As social networks continue to evolve their algorithms, and users increasingly rely on more accessible, immediate word-of-mouth recommendations, a growing number of businesses are turning to influencer marketing to maximize the reach of their messaging.

The time when 93% of people buy or try things that close friends recommend, brands will undoubtedly benefit from influencer marketing.

So, in the coming years, marketers will amplify content strategies with influencer marketing.

6- Content Customization Will Soar

Facebook, Twitter, and Google are available in multiple languages. Amazon and Netflix are known to place customization at the center of their products – those programmatically generated ‘Recommendations For You.

Why?

In today’s time, customization is the key to success. And this will be one of the critical Content marketing trends now and in the coming years.

So start focusing on content customisation to succeed.

However, it will not be easy to do so. Demand Metric finds that 59% of marketers don’t have the technology, and 54% don’t have the necessary resources, such as language translators, so they don’t personalize content.

If you want your content marketing strategies to bring in dollars, you should overcome these challenges.

When creating the draft of this post, I talked to my fellow Indian content marketers about content marketing trends that will drive success in coming years. They all voiced almost the same.

Awarded the ‘Most Influential Content Marketing Professional’ by the WMC, Amit Kapoor is a Global Top 200 Content Strategist and India’s Top 100 Content & Brand Custodian. An STC IAC Speaker & an ET columnist, he has 17+ years of in-depth experience in content writing & marketing for a globally diverse audience, and his articles have been published in IIT Mumbai (TechFest), Inc500, Hakin9 Magazine, & Industrial Automation magazine. You can reach him here.

Content Marketing in the recent past has been a massive factor in helping organizations understand and engage better with the audience. While 2020 will see the acceleration of some already existing trends (such as the creation of focused, better quality, & more personalized, bite-sized content for smartphone users and more Videos), some newer trends (such as the use of AI-based techniques to analyze both Audience & Metrics used to measure ROI) will start to shape up the field of content marketing. Internal content marketing is set to evolve as content studios, and more organizations will consume original content for brand-building rather than spending on advertising.

Matthew is a 27-year-old content marketer and entrepreneur who teaches people how to start a career as a freelance writer. He started his writing career five years back and is currently a contributor to Entrepreneur India, YourStory, and The Hindu Business Line (on Campus). Check his course on Learn how to become a Freelance Content Writer here.

He said,

I see micro-influencers being used extensively by big and small brands as they have a niche group of followers. This will also be the year when founders of companies will concentrate on their brand. I had a few founders who wanted help with PR for their brand. This trend will only increase with the rise of LinkedIn, where entrepreneurs have a credible place to promote their brands. Brace yourself for bite-sized videos and nuggets of wisdom passed on extensively on professional platforms. Videos will remain the most popular type of content, and you will get to see more long-form articles.

Conclusion

Content marketing is a highly effective tool to build brand awareness and boost sales. But your marketing strategy should evolve with time. Create a content marketing strategy following these steps, and you will get a great ROI

Additional Resources:

This post is really useful I must say. So, what trend is your most favorite? Have you already started executing all the trends in your content marketing strategy this year? My favorite one is certainly the video content. The future of video content is very bright. Virtually, there are no boundaries on where, how and when people interact with content. Video content is quickly emerging and I too believe that it is becoming one of the best marketing mediums out there. After all, it’s accessible to everybody and if implemented appropriately it has the best ROI.

Sandeep Rathore says:

January 31, 2018 at 9:44 pm

Thanks Kamalika De for insightful comment. I agree that video content, if used smartly, can offer a handsome ROI.