As the curtain falls on the year 2019, it is quite interesting for you as a marketer to take note of the trends in content marketing which will gain more traction in 2020.
According to a market research forecast compiled by Technavio, the global content marketing industry is projected to enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 16%. Content marketing industry to be worth $412 billion by 2021.
Let’s look at the top trends for content marketing in 2020.
Content Personalization
The act of tailoring different types of content to individual consumers, based on their personal data available is content personalization.
About 62% of marketers currently use the most common form of content personalization i.e. segmentation, to provide better experiences for their audiences. The reality is that customers no longer accept one-size-fits-some content experiences even if segmented.
Presently personalization has evolved into what we call “individualization” and this trend is going to gain momentum in 2020. Individualization means sending relevant content based on the actual individual, not a segment or group he or she falls into.
Brands are adopting highly innovative marketing platforms to send individualized content to customers. moLotus is a powerful example of such a disruptive marketing platform. moLotus personalization feature consists of tailoring your brand’s message exclusively on customer name and with relevant customer data. You can personalize your message to the extent of sending birthday messages and individual offers.
Visual Content & Storytelling
Visual storytelling has grown in popularity in the past few years and this trend is going to continue in 2020. It can be broadly defined as storytelling that involves the use of graphics, images, and videos. Its purpose is to engage viewers in an effort to: drive emotions, interactions, and motivate the audience to action.
“Stories in text bore, stories told visually engage — and sell”. In 2020 marketers will show the benefits of their products, and not tell about them to their potential customers. The storytelling would be more contextual.
Brands have already started sharing their brand stories in the form of interactive mobile videos to their customers via moLotus — a personalized and interactive mobile video messaging platform. By matching the needs, wants, and desires of their audience with their brand story they will be registering new highs in customer engagement in 2020.
moLotus platform supports a variety of rich media formats including greeting, brochure, slideshow and showcase other than video format. This equips marketers with unique branding opportunities. They can add product pictures, voice-over and music thus creating attractive storyboards.
User-Generated Content
85% of consumers find UGC more influential than brand content 85%. (Source: Nielsen)
User-generated content not only engages consumers but also allows you to create more content with less resources and time. UGC in social media channels like Facebook and Instagram stands out.
For 2020, you need to determine what inspires your audience to share content and how you can engage customers to create user-generated content.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
In August 2019, Google published a blog on Webmaster Central specifically recommending an action a lot of marketers have already been doing: focusing on providing expertise, authority, and trust in content. That applies to both websites representing a specific brand or organization, and individual authors.
As a content marketer, you can prove your E-A-T by :
earning links or mentions from other authority websites.
providing E-A-T information on your site, including a bio and credentials on your about page and author pages.
linking out to authoritative sources for supporting stats.
updating your site and content regularly.
In 2020 content backed by E-A-T is going to be the winner.
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Voice
Voice content strategy is no longer optional. Smart speaker adoption grew 38.9% in 2019. (Source: U.S. Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2019)
By 2020, 50% of search queries will be voice searches. (Source: Brafton)
The number of podcast listeners has nearly tripled in the last decade — and this number is projected to continue growing. (Source: Statista)
If you want your content to be discoverable in 2020, you must consider how your brand feels with no visual support. That might be in the form of a podcast, creating audio versions of your blogs, or simply focussing your SEO for voice assistants.
Conversational Marketing
For engaging with audiences in 2020 conversational content will be critical.
You can engage with your customers in a more “real” way even when doing so via artificial means, such as a chatbot.
Invest in the tools that will allow you to converse with your customers in real-time — be it human-to-human or via chatbot. Interactive mobile video messaging platform like moLotus can come handy for you in a big way. You can initiate a conversation with your customer easily.
Summing Up
In 2020 brands should no longer use content marketing as a marketing experiment but use it as a clear-cut strategy. Innovative marketers to extend the boundaries of content creation by adding ultra-targeted and customer-centric content.