14 Content Marketing Trends in 2019 to Define Your Strategy
You’re probably staring at the existing content on your website and wondering how you can update it. While there are some tools that you can use to see what needs to be updated, you can also check out this list of the top content marketing trends.
Not only is the content on your website important, but you need to know how to market it appropriately. These two things go hand in hand, as one steers the direction of the other. Before you start marketing that content or updating the content on your website to match, check out these trends.
You might be able to utilize some of them and show just how up to date your business really is.
1) Brand Collaborations
Brand collaborations have been utilized for years. Look at how many Target has put together. They choose an important, well-known fashion brand and then invite them to collaborate on a lower-priced line of clothing that they can sell in their stores. This really kicked off the trend, which shows no signs of fading anytime soon.
Some of the more recent brand collaborations have taken place on social media, particularly with the social media “takeover” of one brand by another or by an influencer. This really highlights how easy some of these brands are to work with and makes it obvious that everyone involved has some fun. And who doesn’t want to buy things from a “fun” brand?
2) Emphasize Authenticity
Authenticity is a word that gets kicked around a lot, particularly when people are discussing bloggers or social media influencers. This is due to the fact that so many people on these platforms aren’t authentic. They don’t show their true selves.
Instead, they show a curated version of themselves, showcasing how “perfect” they are, even if they really aren’t. As a result, their feeds are knocked by their followers are being inauthentic. What can content marketers do about this?
Well, their number one option is to be as authentic as possible, even if this means showing a dirty floor, a face with less makeup on it, or clothing that isn’t perfect. When content marketers are choosing influencers to work with, pick ones with this authenticity. Your followers will thank you.
3) Use Influencers Wisely
Speaking of influencers and influencer marketing, you need to choose the best ones to do business with.
It’s not just about the sheer numbers that they produce, such as their follower counts and their overall engagement. Yes, these do matter, but not as much as the quality of their content. Do they consistently produce good, well thought out, high-quality content? Or do they seem to rush through the process and toss up posts that are somewhat “okay?”
On top of this, brands also need to look into the backgrounds of these influencers. If they have problematic views, social media posts that are racists or sexist, or even have done questionable things in their pasts, then they might not be the best people to work with.
You don’t want to turn away your customers, who will no doubt find out these things and then raise a ruckus – to the point of boycotting your brand – because of who you choose to represent your brand.
4) Focus on More Than One Field
When it comes to developing content, you need to focus on more than one field.
By this, we mean that you need to look beyond one single department in your company. The social media people might not have much to do with the photographers or the copywriters, but if you get them all in the same room, they’ll probably be able to develop an interesting collaboration.
This is the best way of updating your content and developing new content marketing strategies. The more that you encourage these types of collaborations, the better everything will be.
5) Take Advantage of Artificial Intelligence
If you go onto any website and start using the live chat option, what are the odds that you’re chatting with a computer instead of a live person? You certainly won’t be able to tell, and neither will anyone else. This is just one way that artificial intelligence is changing the face of content marketing.
Another is through the use of an algorithm that is designed to show people content based on what they previously looked at or clicked on. In a way, it personalizes the content that they get to see, making it much likely that they’ll click on whatever pops up.
6) Capitalize on Up and Coming Trends
Yes, we’ve placed trends themselves on a list of the top content marketing trends for 2019. Why? Because it’s important that you show people that your brand is up to date. It’s cool, hip, fresh, or whatever terms the kids are using these days. You don’t need to be this way, but your brand certainly does if you want those new clients and customers.
7) Branch Out to Multimedia
Using more than one type of media in your content is yet another content marketing trend. You need to develop methods of appealing to more than one type of person.
A marketing tactic that includes the use of text, video, music, and even photographs will help attract many different groups of people because it truly has something for everyone. Plus, thanks to collaborative efforts between departments, it should be easy to develop these types of plans.
8) Making Content Personal
Algorithms and artificial intelligence go a long way towards helping you create content that’s intensely personal for your customers. You need to determine what they want, based on their demographics, ages, income levels, and so on, and then personalize it for them.
Using computer-based technology is the easiest way to do this. You just create the content and then let your system determine who gets to see what. It’s that simple!
9) Long Form Content Matters
Long form content consists of detailed articles that can take quite a bit of time to read. Think of them as being New Yorker articles, only designed for and published on the internet. The popularity of these articles is directly related to their depth, as people want to read things with a little more substance in order to counteract all of the quick, short content placed on the internet. While you might use this type of content sparingly, it does serve a purpose.
10) Pick a Niche
What’s your niche? By this we mean, what type of content do you specialize in? What topics? What do you have to offer?
One of the latest trends moves away from the need to appeal to everyone in order to focus on a very select topic.
11) Long Tail Keywords Are Still Important
Long tail keywords are strings of words that go together, like phrases. They became popular several years ago, thanks to the development of technology like Siri and Cortana. People started searching for these phrases, instead of single keywords, and if marketers wanted their website to be found, then they needed to include these long tail ones in their content. This trend hasn’t gone away.
12) Shorter Content Is Key
We already mentioned just how important long-form content is. The same is true of shorter content. There are fans who will enjoy both sides of the coin, so to speak.
Some people want long-form content that takes some time to read, while others look forward to bite-sized pieces of content that don’t take up a lot of their intention. And then there are the people who like both. It really comes down to determining which of these trends that your readers, fans, customers, and so on want, and then finding ways to provide it for them.
13) Take Advantage of Video Platforms
Thanks to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube stories, there are plenty of video platforms available these days.
Video is one of the rising stars of the content marketing world. Everyone likes a good video, especially when those videos are essentially snippets of time that are easy to watch.
Sure, YouTube is still one of your best bets when it comes to video platforms, as it receives hundreds of thousands of hits per day, but it’s great for longer videos, not so much shorter ones. If you want to take advantage of this trend, then create some short videos, share them on your other social media platforms, and boost your lead generation campaigns.
14) Allow for Transparency
It could be said that transparency and authenticity go hand in hand, but they really don’t. By transparency, we mean openness.
For example, if you run a clothing brand, then show some behind the scenes footage of how your clothing is designed. What’s involved in making the clothing, production-wise?
The more you show the behind the scenes footage of how things get done in your company, the more trustworthy you’ll seem, and the more transparent everything will be. People like to do business with companies that they can trust, and this is just another way of proving your trustworthiness.
Author Bio:
Sameer Panjwani is the Founder & CEO of Mondovo.com, an online marketing toolset that helps digital marketers track rankings, monitor site stats, and research competitors. A man of many talents, Sameer is currently on a mission to help 1 million businesses grow organically through his products and services.