Each brand has a story. Every product and service has its own history. It is what makes them unique. It is also what makes the audiences love them. But how can a business tell the history and story of their brands, products, and services? The best way is through content marketing. Around 87% of businesses today use content marketing to power the campaigns and promotions of their brands, products, and services. There are many ways how brands can apply content marketing. Below are the top 5 content marketing trends in 2021.

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

According to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, content marketing is a strategy of creating and distributing valuable content to attract target customers and drive sales. Instead of pitching products and services, content marketing helps the target audience realize that a product or service can be the best solution to his or her pain point or problem. There are several techniques to use content marketing. These are through:

  • Articles 
  • Customer ratings and reviews
  • eBooks
  • Emails
  • Infographics
  • Newsletters
  • Social media stories
  • Videos

Content marketing has proven to be an effective strategy as it is what the customer wants. Modern consumers don’t want intrusive ads, irrelevant messages, and spam emails. What they want is great content to entertain and educate them. Compared to outbound marketing, they are 62% cheaper but generate 3x more leads. 

Top 5 Content Marketing Trends in 2021

Here are the top 5 biggest content marketing trends that brands need to know in 2021.

AI-Driven Content

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over almost all elements of marketing. This 2021, AI content tools are a rising trend. AI-driven content such as AI content writing apps, easy video creation tools, graphic templates, and social media posting makes it effortless and quicker for brands to fill up their content calendar. These huge leaps in AI marketing help marketers accomplish more ads and campaigns.

Some popular AI content writing apps are Articoolo, Quill, WordAI, and Wordsmith. Some latest easy video creation tools are Blender, DaVinci Resolve, Lightworks, Openshot, and Shortcut. While the best graphic design apps are Adobe, Affinity Designer, CorelDraw, Inkscape, and Sketch. It is also a must for brands to be online 24/7. Customers demand a quick response to their queries. It is also convenient for them to shop anytime and anywhere they want. Social media posting apps can boost the reach of content through automated posts based on the best times to reach large audiences. AgoraPulse, Buffer, CoSchedule, Falcon, and Loomly are the most-used social media posting apps today. 

Content Communities

Building content communities is also one of the biggest rising content marketing trends in 2021. This is because communities can expand the reach of content as mentioned by a social media agency Hong Kong. Out of 2.80 billion monthly active users on Facebook, 1.8 billion are members of Facebook Groups. Out of 722 million LinkedIn members, there are 55 million LinkedIn pages. Building social media communities around content sharing helps brands expand their reach even with a small number of resources. Facebook Groups have proven to make or break brands through viral content. LinkedIn Pages showed greater conversion hosting a large number of company decision-makers. The sense of community belonging also results in brand loyalty. With this content marketing trend, brands can make their followers feel like a part of their family and turn them into advocates.

Content Repurposing

Content repurposing is a practice of recycling published content to expand its reach. This can initially be done by resharing the links of content on other content websites or social media channels. Another way to repurpose content is to take all its informational elements and rewrite it for publication on other blog sites. Content repurposing makes it easier for content to scale by allowing them to reach different audiences. Enhanced articles, images, and videos can serve as a basis for engaging social media posts.  The key to this content marketing trend is for brands to find the right evergreen posts. 

Live Videos and Webinars

Live videos and webinars are booming as a content marketing strategy in 2021. A video marketing agency Hong Kong noted that such a trend was accelerated because of the social distancing restrictions in 2020. Live videos and webinars always showed a positive ROI for video marketing. A live broadcast is a video transmitted online in real-time. They are much more personal in connecting with the audience. They don’t need sophisticated equipment, and they can also address the viewers’ concerns at the right moment. Webinars are educational presentations wherein participants can participate in live discussions. Such a trend is a two-way interaction among brands and their target audiences. Demos, explainer videos, unboxing are some of the most popular forms of webinar videos in social media today. Here, influencers can serve as brand ambassadors to further educate their target audiences.

Voice Search

There are 3.5 billion people who access the Internet using mobile devices today. A large percentage of these mobile users prefer voice search over typing keywords on search boxes. This is why voice search is an important content marketing trend today. Brands should focus not only on written keywords but also on commonly spoken searches among online consumers. They can do this by optimizing the conversational nature of their content. Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) are a gold mine to voice search content. Here, content creators can list down the common questions asked by the target audience about a brand, product, or service. Explainer videos with the right meet descriptions and tags can also boost content marketing through voice search. YouTube now allows auto-captions using simple words commonly used by searchers.

Reference: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/11/23/content-marketing-trends