As technology continues to evolve, so do marketing trends. New content marketing campaigns have swept the marketing industry and have only become more prominent each year. While the top content marketing trends may change from year to year, one thing that has been proven is that it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Check out some of the top content marketing trends brands can expect in 2022.
What Content Marketing Trends Are Most Relevant This Year?
1. Repurposing Relevant Content
Many brands are sitting on a wealth of usable content types, from product and service pages to a white paper, e-books, podcasts, email newsletters, and more. As the expectation of higher quality content at higher volumes continues to increase, many brands are likely to repurpose their existing content. This involves improving each piece and refreshing links. Repurposing can be a cost-effective method of marketing efforts since it takes less time.
Additionally, planning for new pieces of content that can be used across a wide variety of channels can help brands stretch their budgets even further. For example, one piece of high-quality content can be repurposed and reused across numerous channels. Its initial purpose may be a blog post, but it can then be broken into individual videos for social media or scripted for podcasts.
2. AI Content
As content marketing efforts continue to be a crucial part of any marketing strategy, brands are always looking for ways to streamline and optimize the content creation process. Artificial-intelligence-generated content with machine learning is likely to find its way into many marketing departments since it reduces the time it takes to plan and create pieces.
Brands can use AI to generate and interpret data, plan topics, and predict the type of content that will perform the best. AI content marketing was once considered the future of marketing. However, as technology continues to evolve, it’s no longer the future, with many brands already implementing it into their strategies.
3. Video Content
Video marketing has taken over the internet over the last few years. Video-based social media apps are becoming more popular, with 70% of marketers believing that visual content shows a positive ROI. Sharing content with audiences in video form can be used in a variety of methods, including answering questions about products or services and demonstrating brand expertise to earn customer trust.
Content channels also allow for real-time engagement, with many brands using ephemeral videos to form more meaningful connections with potential customers.
4. Humanized Content
A few years ago, examples of content marketing shifted from writing specifically for bots to prioritizing the human experience. Humanized content is even more important in 2022 as brands try to find their voices and stand out from competitors. Humanizing content includes storytelling, which creates a personalized narrative to communicate and connect with potential customers. Conducting careful audience research, understanding data, fine-tuning buyer personas, and planning content with intention and purpose are all important techniques in humanizing valuable content.
Social media has also led to the personalization of brands. Loyal customers have come to expect brands to act, post, think, and create a piece of content like human beings. They expect brands to share value and earn their trust and loyalty. Brands that are able to connect with customers on a human, empathetic level through content are likely to notice the most success.
5. Larger Content Strategy & Marketing Budgets
As content becomes an even more important technique in gaining profitable customer action, more marketing departments are likely to increase their budgets in this specific area. This also means setting clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) and reevaluating the content strategy frequently will also become a priority.
As content marketing becomes a larger part of brands’ marketing strategies and budgets, the collection and interpretation of data will become more crucial. A/B testing, click-through rates, and conversions will be a routine part of evaluating content success.
6. A Wider Social Universe
Most brands have adopted some type of social media marketing by now. Social media and its use of it in marketing will continue to be important. However, the social media platforms used will continue to expand, helping brands narrow in on specific niches and target customers. Social media channels such as Reddit, TikTok, Clubhouse, and Ask.fm will become even more relevant to some brands.
Brands and content marketers that are able to adapt quickly as new channels are released will also find a competitive edge in some industries. A shift toward interactive content will also occur. Interactive pieces improve customer engagement, leading to people spending more time interacting with a brand. The marketing world is likely to see an increase in personalized reports, interactive infographics, or shoppable links within blogs or videos.
Trends that Carry Over
While these are the most common marketing trends of 2022, brands can also expect certain trends to carry over. Pieces deemed authoritative and trustworthy are still important. A content marketing strategy that’s mobile-friendly and ranks well on search engines will continue to help brands reach a wider customer base through organic traffic. Types of content written for users but optimized for search bots may help brands achieve high SEO rankings.
Creating a detailed content marketing plan maintains its importance in 2022. Consistent content that offers value and improves user experience will earn the highest search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. As with any marketing strategy, identifying the best trends to use will depend on a brand’s unique goals.
