A recent survey in Hubspot indicated that 82% of marketers have used content marketing in 2021, a significant increase from 70% in 2020. Great that we are all practicing what we preach but in another section of the survey the suggestion is that only 40% of UK businesses are actually using content marketing to promote their business, so there is a way to go!
Content Marketing is all about the creation, planning, and sharing of useful information with your target audience. The objectives are to generate brand awareness, persuade customers to take action, and increase revenue.
Given the multitude of content marketing activities available here is a quick tour around the latest trends and techniques that businesses are currently using to reach their audience.
Let’s start with some key marketing observations …
- 47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.
- Marketers’ primary goals for running marketing campaigns are brand awareness, increasing sales, and increasing engagement.
- Video is the most commonly used form of content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics.
- Google’s search algorithms are trying to transcend text to images, voice/podcasts, and videos.
- The top technologies used by B2B organizations to supplement content marketing are analytics tools, social media publishing, and email marketing software.
- The top three organic content distribution channels for B2B marketers are social media channels, email, and websites.
1. Video is now in pole position!
Media uploads increased by 80% from 2019 to 2020, as unsurprisingly, consumers spent more of their time at home. The estimate is that consumers watched 12.2 billion minutes of video in 2020.
If the few human inhabitants of the Upper Palaeolithic era had been able to start to watch online content, they would have concluded their quest of watching the same amount of content by June 2021 as modern-day humans consumed in 2020!
As a result of this changing consumer behaviour, video is now the primary form of media used within any content strategy, taking centre stage for the second year in a row.
With video consumption now the bedrock of a consumer’s journey, businesses are now using looking beyond the old-fashioned “branding and service offering” and using both short format (Tic Toc) and long format videos to highlight goods and services pushing the creative boundaries of video content marketing.
2. Bite-Size visuals, enhance text-rich originals…use multimedia.
In addition to video, it is an increasingly popular strategy to incorporate multimedia into content whenever possible. It is always good to break up text and increase content comprehension and inserting multimedia — such as video clips and interactive slides — into text-heavy content will become a more popular way of engaging audiences and allowing readers to process material more.
3.The day of the Podcast has surpassed the day of the Triffids!
Here are some key statistics highlighting the rise of the podcast in 2021:
- In October 2020, there were 34 million podcast episodes and over 1.5 million active shows.
- Big-name companies like Apple and Spotify are increasing their investments in podcasts and audio platforms.
- The podcast market is expected to reach more than 2 billion by 2023, meaning that marketers are preparing to devote significant time and money to the channel.
Podcast popularity revolves around the fact that there is something for everyone. With 72,000 new episodes per day, the likelihood of finding an episode that appeals to people’s interests is incredibly high. They are also often seen as a conversation between the hosts and the listener. Rather than being talked at, listeners feel they are being talked to and walked through the content in a more natural, human manner.
4. Content personalization.
A focus for marketers in 2021 is sharing content with consumers that is contextually relevant to their interests and shown to them at the right time. This means that you study your audience’s likes, needs, and desires and share content that you know will speak to them. In turn, this will build your brand loyalty, drive conversions, and generate revenue.
5. Quality content overrides quantity.
This trend arises because, as consumers spent more and more time online, they see everything. If you post three Instagram stories per day and your competitors only posted one, what does it matter if your content did not provide your audience with any sort of value?
If your content marketing strategy focuses on your social media channels, you should worry less about posting multiple times per day but instead about ensuring that the content you do share provides genuine value to your customers.
6.Hosting virtual events and webinars.
A webinar is a video presentation, seminar, lecture, or workshop delivered to an audience digitally and has seen a major renaissance during Covid-19 times.
Attending events digitally allows consumers to continue to interact with their favourite businesses and continue to derive value from presenters and industry leaders. As safety restrictions are lifted, webinars and virtual events are still here to stay — the global webinar market is expected to reach US$800 million by 2023, up 253 million from 2015.
The new ‘work from home’ model makes this possible because of the convenience of attending an event from wherever a consumer is located. Plus, the bonus of being able to access content on-demand if these webinars are recorded and shared.
7. Repurposing existing high-value content.
COVID-19 has also pushed marketers towards providing valuable content over everything, the net result being the proliferation of content repurposing.
Repurposing content is re-using your existing content and presenting it in a new format or through new media. As the content will already be of high value and has previously resonated you’re your audience a fresh reappraisal can expand its reach.
One of the most popular formats is creating text transcripts of your podcast episodes, as these can be used as SEO-optimized blog posts, and audio clips can be used as subsequent social media posts.
Clearly, the content industry is burgeoning and developing along with a multitude of diverse and inter-related channels in a rapid yet controlled way.
If content creation ideas are holding your business back, then please contact Business Medics and we would be happy to take you on a deep dive to help you develop content and unearth your businesses’ hidden treasures.
Contact us on 07904 185112 or drop an email to info@businessmedics.co.uk
