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What kind of revenue increase would your business experience if 60% of your customers returned?
Seeing as companies have experienced those numbers thanks to content marketing, you very well could, too.
The reality is that content marketing is a necessary practice for businesses in 2019 and beyond. Consumers are smarter and more resourceful than ever.
This means that you need to establish authority, build trust, and attract customers organically. Nonetheless, many companies still aren’t publishing content.
They’re practically missing out on free traffic, leads, and revenue!
If you fall into this category, don’t worry. Today we will be going over 8 content marketing trends that will help transform your content strategy in 2020.
Make sure to try Morphio’s AI marketing software for free as well. It will automatically optimize SEO, content, and other strategies.
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1. Voice search is on the rise
You do keyword research for your content, right? However, did you know that 40% of adults currently use voice search to find results on Google?
This means that you need to begin reshaping how you research and use search terms by targeting natural phrases versus choppy keywords.
Check out Google’s Keyword Planner results to see what we mean. When you type in a keyword to get ideas, it often spits out chunks or phrases versus full sentences and questions.
Marketers have been implementing these types of keywords for over a decade. Things are changing, though.
You need to begin forming search terms you find into questions and statements that someone would actually ask with their voice.
Here are some examples:
- “Best marketing tools” becomes “What are the best marketing tools?”
- “New York coffee shop” becomes “Where’s the nearest coffee shop in New York?”
- “Toronto attractions” becomes “Attractions to try when visiting Toronto”.
Marketers can still implement traditional styles of keywords, but they will be able to attract more organic users to their website by shaping them for the growing amount of voice queries.
Read our guide to the best SEO automation tools on that note, as well.
2. Personalization is key
Users want content that is tailored to their needs and interests. As a matter of fact, 78% of them will trust you more if that’s what you publish.
Why is this? For starters, it shows that you have their best interests in mind by researching and creating content that helps their specific situation. Additionally, hyper-targeting a small segment brings the highest quality users to your website.
Imagine you’re a web design agency, for example. If you start producing content about social media marketing, you’re not attracting the most ideal audience. Sure, they may have an interest in web design, but there are better prospects that can be landing on your blog.
Businesses can align with this consumer behaviour by refining their buyers persona. This is the personification of your ideal customer. Here’s an example of what one looks like:
A buyer persona typically includes information like demographics, questions, pain points, and interests.
Every time you’re researching topics, keywords, and actually creating content, you should reference this resource. Ask yourself if the audience would benefit from it, and if not, move onto the next one.
3. Omnichannel approach
Don’t underestimate the power of simplicity. Companies can expand their reach and traffic by simply adding more channels into their content marketing plan.
It was common for a business to double down on a single channel like their blog, YouTube channel, or podcast, but times have changed.
You’ll notice that large companies are taking over different platforms to maximize their reach and authority. And you should, too.
Taking an omnichannel approach creates the opportunity to repurpose content and squeeze every bit of potential out of it. This is the process of taking a piece of content and turning it into another format.
Marianne Kay, a content strategist expert, summed this up best by stating “Multichannel content gets the information to the customer, but each channel is treated in its own right, and content delivery for each channel is implemented by its own team.”
90% of the work is already done when you begin the process of repurposing, too.
The first step is to determine what format of content you’ve been mainly producing. If it’s blog posts, for example, consider investing in making videos and podcast episodes.
You then need to find the platforms where this type of content thrives, such as YouTube and Soundcloud and begin uploading there.
4. Video marketing is on the rise (still)
51% of marketers agree that video has the highest ROI of all forms of content. This is why more businesses need to start taking advantage of platforms like YouTube moving forward.
Heck, look at someone like Neil Patel. He’s been doubling down on video content because it’s so effective at generating traffic and keeping peoples attention.
You don’t have to be an incredible editor to produce videos, either. Slidecasts are one of the simplest and most effective forms of video. These are simply slideshows that you narrate.
As we just mentioned by taking an omnichannel approach, you should try taking previously published content and turning them into videos for maximum efficiency. Work smarter, not harder.
5. Podcasts are becoming a household content format
70% of Americans know what podcasts are and 51% have listened to one. Some of the greatest digital influencers like Pat Flynn currently grow their brand via a podcast, as well.
It’s quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing trends in content marketing and companies can easily podcast to their content marketing plan.
All you need to begin is a microphone and a topic. That’s it!
The best part is — just like videos — is that you can repurpose existing content into a podcast if your well of ideas is dry.
Make sure that you sprinkle in new advice to make it more enticing for users to check out the podcast episode versus the original piece of content, too.
You will then want to upload it to platforms like:
6. Transparency and documenting
Many businesses only use content marketing as a means to generate sales. However, it’s beginning to be used more for building trust and relationships with readers.
Documenting behind-the-scenes processes and being as transparent as possible through content helps to achieve this.
Look at Gary Vaynerchuk, for example. He literally hired a videographer to follow him around and film what he does during deals, meetings, and more.
And yep, that’s a seven hour-long video of Gary going about his day. That’s documenting.
Taking this approach kills two birds with one stone. You are able to regularly produce meaningful content all while showing customers how you run your business.
This adds a level of personality and depth that many companies don’t have, making you stand out like a sore thumb.
7. Long-form content is in
The SERPs used to be like the wild wild west. Marketers would write 300-500 word articles, blast a ton of low-quality backlinks, and kick their feet up. It’s not like that anymore.
Google’s algorithm is NASA- level complicated. That means it requires much higher quality content to get on the front page.
Studies such as a famous one performed by Backlinko have proven that the average #1 result on Google is 1,890 words long.
This is because long-form content offers more value to readers. And, what does Google ultimately want? To give users the best content so they keep coming back.
That’s why moving forward into 2019 and beyond, you need to focus on spending more time producing longer content.
While studies have mostly been done on written content like articles, you can also apply this trend to videos and podcast episodes by increasing their length.
8) Promoting content
Content shouldn’t be published and left to sit idle. It needs to be promoted through social media, email newsletters, and influencers.
Robbie Richards is an incredible example of promotion done right. He bumped a brand new blog’s traffic that was more vacant than a ghost town up by 272% in 30 days.
How did he do it? By promoting his content to the right audience.
He reached out to influencers in his space who shared a similar readership and asked them to share his content. Many of them gladly did since it was excellent quality, resulting in a massive traffic boost.
You can begin doing the same thing by using a free database like LeadFerret. Use keywords and the filtering system to find companies that are within your niche.
It will list the contact information of individual leads, but you can also go to their website and use the contact form.
Either way, use a template like the following to begin pitching your content:
Hey {First name},
Love the angle you took on your recent article {Blog post title}.
I just published an article on {topic} that I believe your audience would love to learn about if you’d like to check it out at {URL}.
Just followed you on {Social networks} to keep updated, too.
Warm regards,
{Name}
Ensure that you regularly follow up, as well. It’s been proven that it can take up to five touchpoints before reaching a lead.
Doing this will help you establish connections in your industry while gaining backlinks and referral traffic.
Final thoughts on 2019 content marketing trends
Every business needs to perform content marketing in 2019 and beyond. It’s practically not an option anymore.
Who would want to miss out on free organic traffic, authority, and relationships with their customers?
It’s not enough to only do content marketing, though. You also need to keep up to date on trends like the ones we outlined today.
That’s why one of Morphio’s features is data-driven segmenting. It helps agencies like you tailor content to specific attributes of your customers as we discussed earlier.
Start a free trial today and see how Morphio’s platform can help your company’s content marketing today.
