The term "content marketing" refers to strategising, developing, and distributing content for a specific demographic. It can increase exposure to your brand, sway consumers to take action, and boost sales.
Content marketing can take many forms, including social media and blogs, with trends evolving annually to accommodate new technologies and consumer behaviours. Some of these shifts are subtle, while others represent wholly novel strategies for attracting the attention of specific groups.
As a result of the pandemic, businesses have had to adjust their marketing strategies or risk failing to meet customer demand, necessitating a rapid shift toward digital tactics to engage with an increasingly socially distant and existentially nervous audience.
Different industries, product lines, and organisational aims call for distinctive content marketing approaches; however, Zeemo's content marketing team have identified the following trends we believe marketers should consider adopting this year.
Create More Empathetic Content
The combination of recent global events has prompted businesses to rethink their marketing strategies and focus more intently on the needs of their customers.
Personal empathy necessitates adopting a new point of view, and empathetic marketing goes even further in this direction.
To develop an empathetic content strategy that resonates with a target audience, marketers must first put themselves in their customers' shoes and try to understand the world as it appears to them.
Empathetic marketing calls on you to engage with your audience on a human level, not just as a pool of potential buyers. When formulating your plan, you might want to consider the following questions: Which demographic do the majority of our clients belong to? In what ways are they struggling, or what are their problems?
If you want to know why they do something, ask them what motivates them. With this information, you can create content that speaks directly to their emotions and solves their problems while fostering trust, a positive customer experience (CX), and genuine connections.
Use a Hyper-Personalised Approach to Communication
The goal of email marketing is to generate leads and increase engagement, both of which can be achieved through the use of personalised messages and data.
As this form of customisation becomes the norm for customers, companies are looking for more sophisticated methods to showcase their familiarity with each buyer's specific path to purchase.
"Hyper-personalization" goes beyond just addressing a customer by name; it takes into account their unique tastes and interests. It's a marketing method based on collecting and analysing data and using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to tailor each customer interaction.
Marketers can create buyer personas to better target their messages, products, and communications.
Examples of hyper-personalisation in action are Netflix's ability to recommend films and TV shows based on what you've already watched and Spotify's annual analysis of your most-listened-to genres, artists, and songs – which they share with users and from which they create personalised playlists.
Add Some Infographics to Your Marketing
Despite the continued success of blogging at reaching specific demographics, posts should offer more than just text.
An even higher degree of customer engagement can be attained by integrating different content types across marketing channels.
Visual content that is both interesting and well-designed can help customers interact with your brand in more ways and speed up the buying process for potential customers.
Infographics are one form that seems to be gaining popularity.
For those unfamiliar with the term "infographics", are visual representations of information designed to facilitate understanding of the data they present. It is a common practice for content marketers to use them to convey vital, attention-grabbing information quickly.
Customers who don't have time to read a full text-rich blog can be introduced to useful content through graphical representations of valuable data and information. This is especially effective for audiences that learn visually.
Host Virtual and Hybrid Events
Webinars are online presentations, seminars, lectures, or workshops that use video conferencing technology to reach a broad audience.
Once considered obsolete, webinars and virtual events have experienced explosive growth over the past three years. As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, webinars have morphed into a hybrid event model, allowing attendees to participate either in-person or remotely.
Digital event attendance is a great way for customers to keep in touch with their favourite brands and gain value from giveaways and speeches by industry experts even after they've left the event in person.
Hybrid events allow customers to select the option that best suits their needs letting businesses cater to the widest possible audience.
Champion Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is increasingly at the forefront of content marketers' minds, as consumers place greater importance on brands that reflect their values and speak openly and compassionately about topics such as social justice, environmental protection and employee treatment.
However, if you want to use a passionate cause as a selling point in your content marketing, keep in mind that your company as a whole needs to genuinely be an outspoken advocate for and functioning example of social responsibility in action; otherwise, you can lose credibility and be accused of "cause-washing" for profit.
The Spotlight Shines on Short-Form Video
The amount of weekly online videos watched by individuals has nearly doubled since 2018, with consumers averaging around 18 hours per week.
Due to this shift in consumer habits, short-form video has emerged as the dominant media type employed by content strategists for the third year running.
Compared to other media forms, customers seem to universally respond positively to video. When used effectively, video can foster a more personal connection with customers.
With people's attention spans getting shorter and everyone having less spare time, it pays to get right to the point.Short-form videos have the highest engagement rates because consumers can absorb and act on information presented before their attention fades.
Final Thoughts
Keeping an eye on updated, new, and increasingly distinctive content marketing trends gaining traction can make a big difference in your ability to reach current and potential customers.
In these uncertain times, adopting greater empathy, personalisation, and social responsibility in your content marketing will help to forge greater customer loyalty.
You can also reach your socially distanced customers and show respect for their time by offering virtual events and including quality infographics and concise, engaging short-form videos into your marketing mix.
Call our expert team today for help developing a winning content marketing strategy.
