Content marketing has been around since the early 1900s and has evolved with technology over the past century. The future of content marketing is ever-changing, but two things are certain – content marketing will continue to be prevalent, and it will continue to evolve as technology advances. So, how do we predict what content marketing will look like in 2022? Let's take a look at the predictions from various industry experts about where content marketing will go next...
1) Define your Niche
As more and more marketers jump on board to produce content, competition has become increasingly fierce. If you want to be successful, you'll need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. If a critical content marketing strategy is engagement—rather than promotion—then it stands to reason that a large part of that is finding your niche. If you truly know what makes your audience tick and understand what they respond best to (and which topics will drive them away), you're well on your way to carving out a reputation for yourself as an authority.
2) Research your audience
You'll never figure out your ideal audience if you don't know exactly who they are. When writing content, you need to conduct market research and create buyer personas. To be a successful content marketer, you must clearly understand your target audience, what makes them tick, and how you can reach them to increase traffic and convert visitors into leads. If your audience doesn't exist yet or hasn't been defined, then it's up to you to create a persona for them. To learn more about creating effective buyer personas that align with your marketing strategy, check out our complete guide: How To Create An Effective Buyer Persona For Content Marketing.
3) Keyword Research
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – to drive profitable customer action. Content Marketing is planning, creating, delivering, and optimising valuable content with strategic intent. A lot has changed since 2005 when Joe Pulizzi said that Content Is King. In 2018, Google grew into an ever-expanding SEO behemoth that learns from everything you do online. The implication is that good content alone no longer stands out unless you know how to find and use it properly to your advantage – because only then can you expect to see actual returns on your investment.
4) Topic Exploration
The Writing is on The Wall: Over 100 million Americans already have an active social media account, but online trends move at a blistering pace. As much as we might try to predict where content marketing is headed, it's all about staying ahead of shifts in consumer behaviour. In 10 years, social will be baked into every corner of your brand's marketing efforts, but it won't be as narrowly defined as it is today. Digital platforms will evolve far beyond their current capabilities—and social media will change along with them. So while you might start by posting articles and videos on Facebook and Instagram now, there may be other platforms lurking on the horizon that will emerge over time.
5) Blog Posting/ Guest Posting
The terms blog and guest post may seem passé, but they're still going strong. It's difficult to predict if these time-tested tactics will have staying power in another 10 years, but it wouldn't be surprising if they did. One thing that seems unlikely to change is how content marketing approaches stand out from other methods like PPC advertising. With so many outlets for content and their audience's loyalty to their favourite sites on social media, content marketing offers a chance to build authentic relationships with readers through sharing valuable information that helps your audience members get results.
6) Ads Placing
Google has done some amazing things with their AdSense platform, which they continue to build on each year. Instead of creating content to get links, which we did back in 2008, it is time to change tactics. We should be trying to create shareable content and then figuring out how to use that great content in an advertising strategy that brings us traffic without hurting our brand. Google does an excellent job of targeting relevant ads based on what users have been searching for. Suppose someone searches for baby products (which are generally unrelated to pet clothing). In that case, you can target ads for baby clothes and supplies toward those who have been researching baby products or using other baby-related terms.
7) Quora/ Linkedin
Quora and Linkedin are great platforms for content marketers to reach new audiences. In 2022, both platforms will become much more advanced and powerful. As a result, many new opportunities will be created for content marketers to get their message out there. Hence, today's content marketers must embrace these changes by learning how to use them efficiently.
8) Video/Visual Content
More and more companies are embracing visual content over text. Video marketing is no longer just a lovely addition to your strategy; it's now a core part of how you reach your audience. In just five years, it's grown to be one of the top social media trends on Twitter and other platforms, with highly engaged and receptive audiences to video content. It's easier than ever before for brands to create beautiful videos that display their products and services in new ways, so don't think video will go away anytime soon—it's a trend that will only grow in importance as time goes on.
9 ) Audio Content
Whether you're pitching an audio podcast or a full-on radio station, don't overlook audio content. It's relatively easy to record a show, and companies like Podomatic make it easier to distribute it. If you can get into a radio station—and these days, many are independently owned and interested in new content—this is an even better way to reach people. However, don't just do what everyone else is doing. Be different! There is a big difference between doing something well and doing it differently, says Kiran Reddy of Solid Revenue Media Group. Find your niche! If you have something unique to say – say it with audio podcasts!
10) Social Media Platform
Content marketing is a great way to acquire new customers and reach new audiences. In particular, there are many social media platforms that marketers can use to their advantage. However, specific social media platforms will gain prominence over others as time goes on. Snapchat, for example, is currently surging due to its ability to deliver video content in a more personal fashion than other major platforms like Facebook and Twitter. As such, likely, content marketers of the future will increasingly focus on producing videos through Snapchat or similar tools and utilising them alongside other techniques on networks like Facebook and Twitter. Savvy brands will realise that one size doesn't fit all—they'll leverage as many platforms as possible while understanding which ones are most appropriate for specific needs or campaigns.
11) Backlinks
Having backlinks pointing to your site indicates that other sites trust you as a source of information, and they're giving you their official stamp of approval. Backlinks are given more importance in Google's search engine ranking algorithm, constantly being tweaked and updated. Backlinks show that another site has linked to your content and what those sites are about. Google looks at all of these signals together when ranking pages on its SERPs—the search engine results pages—and using backlinks helps send positive signs that a page deserves to rank well.
12) Email Marketing
While many people still read content via their email inbox, most major email providers are now removing advertising from customers' inboxes. We're seeing more and more advertising dollars being poured into social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Don't despair! Businesses still have opportunities to reach customers through email marketing, but you may have to think outside of the box to develop new ways to make it work.
13) Upsell
Since digital content, both written and video-based, has proved to be effective for marketing your company's products or services to prospects and growing your brand, it's also proven a great way to help close more sales. More than ever before. Today, over 70% of business executives rate informative/educational content as their favourite type of marketing content today. And it makes sense. Videos are more accessible than ever to create, and they almost always provide information people want to know more about—meaning they watch them all the way through! Plus, once you have your first video up on YouTube (or Vimeo), it becomes that much easier to create follow-up videos down the road.
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