Six Content Marketing Trends to Help Shape Your Strategy

We are witnessing immense changes in the content marketing landscape. The rise of AI, in particular, has changed how many brands approach their content creation strategy. Furthermore, many brands have changed their content strategy because of an uncertain economy, rising inflation, and financial challenges. 

Staying on top of the changes in content marketing can make a huge difference in your ability to connect with customers and accomplish your marketing goals. Content remains vital in reaching out to potential customers, increasing awareness of your brand, and creating a sense of emotional connection. Here are six content marketing trends that may influence your marketing strategy. 

1. Look for a Resurgence of People-First Content

Increasingly, Google is looking for content that delivers a strong experience for its readers. Ultimately, content—from blog posts to videos—should be designed for readers, not for search engines. 

Do you want to highlight key search terms? Of course! 

Should you make sure that your content encompasses the questions, including long-tail keywords, that readers are searching for? Certainly! 

Ultimately, however, it's vital to generate people-first content: content that is geared toward the specific needs of your readers. 

Prioritize these elements:

• Generate high-quality, in-depth content that genuinely answers the questions your readers wanted answers to when they visited your site. 

• Understand your target audience and their needs, including their specific pain points and how your brand solves them. 

• Create content genuinely related to your specific niche and area of expertise. Don’t create generic, high-volume content that focuses on a list of keywords that may not relate directly to your brand, your messaging, or your business. 

People-first content has been important for a long time. However, in the age of AI, it's easier than ever for many brands to generate high-volume content rather than high-quality content. By reintroducing and championing the human element and focusing on the needs of your audience, you can better answer those needs and position your brand as an expert in the industry.

2. Personalization Is a Virtual Business Necessity

If you're looking for a better way to reach out to your target audience—and keep up with content marketing trends, take a look at how you can better personalize your content to the needs of your readers. 73% of consumers expect personalized content from the brands they trust. Furthermore, 76% of customers get frustrated when they don't get that personalized experience. Personalized content focuses on providing an experience that is genuinely beneficial for all members of your target market, regardless of how they come to your site. It may include:

• Highly localized content, including unique images, language, and video content for members of your target audience in different geographic areas

• Content personalized to the buying needs of a specific audience segment

• Recommendations based on the way users interact with your website and your other content

AI has made it easier than ever to judge customer trends and can help adapt your marketing and content to these changing needs. You can observe consumer behavior, determine how those behaviors impact the products and services consumers are most interested in, and ensure that each customer receives an individualized experience geared toward them, all while increasing the quality of consumers' experience. 

3. Interactive Formats Will Build Stronger Connections

Consumers are looking for a sense of connection with your brand. In fact, emotional connection is responsible for about 43% of a business's value to consumers. Using interactive content can go a long way toward improving that sense of brand connection and providing consumers with a higher overall opinion of your brand.

Interactive content includes:

• Polls

• Quizzes

• Surveys

• Social media content

• Interactive videos

Look for ways to incorporate customer engagement into the content they're consuming. Not only does that mean directly interacting with your customers, including answering their queries or engaging with them on social media, but it also means allowing them to interact more deeply with the content provided on your website. AI technology can also help consumers feel they are connecting more directly with your brand. 

4. Engaging Experiences And Stories Will Matter More

Increasingly, consumers are looking for a higher level of engagement with the brands they follow and trust. That means offering more in-depth experiences. Storytelling has become an essential part of the marketing process. When you integrate storytelling into your experience, consumers are around 22 times more likely to remember the content presented. Furthermore, storytelling creates a sense of emotional connection that means that consumers are more likely to engage with your brand in the future. You may want to focus on:

• Creating a compelling brand narrative

• Adding images and video to your content

• Personalizing and localizing content to increase consumer engagement

As you develop those engaging experiences for your target market, you'll find that you're better able to improve consumer loyalty and showcase what your brand offers. 

5. Use Artificial Intelligence—But Don’t Rely On It

AI has dominated the marketing conversation, and it will remain a popular part of the conversation and a key digital marketing tool. However, many brands will increasingly see the limitations and challenges presented by AI.

AI  undoubtedly provides many benefits. However, brands continue to note that it does not have the capacity to create the same high-quality content you can gain from a human content creator. 

Furthermore, developing and utilizing AI content requires significant human investment. Humans must create the prompts, read through the research, and double-check the content for accuracy before moving forward. In many cases, it can take just as much effort to create high-quality AI pieces as it does to achieve better content from a human content creator. In a market flooded with low-quality artificial intelligence content, many marketers are realizing that, while AI has substantial advantages, it is best used as a tool to enhance and streamline digital marketing rather than replacing the human element altogether. 

Many marketers will be developing standards related to AI content usage and determining how they can best use the AI/human combination to achieve the best possible results as they move forward with their marketing plans. 

6. Routinely Engage in Competitor Analysis

It's always been essential to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, including:

• What type of content they're creating.

• How they're connecting with their audience.

• What they're offering to keep bringing customers in.

You don't want to be left behind, and you certainly don't want to miss out on valuable content marketing opportunities. 

Thanks again to AI, competitor analysis is easier than ever. It can help you keep up with what your competitors are doing and provide you with valuable insights into your market niche. All that data is delivered directly to you, allowing you to make comprehensive brand decisions more easily. 

Competitor analysis includes:

• Evaluating marketing channels

• Keeping up with keywords used by your competitors

• Tracking competitor engagement

• Exploring high-performing pages and content

With those deeper insights into your competitors' content, you can develop content that is better geared toward the members of your target market. Your content agenda will more fully reflect what's happening in your industry. 

Improve Your Content Marketing 

Keeping up with marketing and content marketing trends is essential, especially with the rapid growth of content across a wide range of industries. With the trends of the future arriving more rapidly than ever, your brand needs to adapt to make the most of these opportunities.