Ever since Microsoft Founder Bill Gates said, “Content is king” in 1996, it has become the axiom of digital marketing, and as we’re about to enter 2020 – these words still ring true.
With more brands vying for attention than ever before, standing out in an increasingly crowded market space comes with a unique set of challenges. However, with the continuous rise of new technologies and an even wider net of content distribution channels, brands are finding new and innovative ways to promote their high-quality content with audiences that are only too keen to listen.
As it stands, research from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs found that 86% of B2C businesses use content marketing to reach customers, but only 38% of these brands have a concrete content strategy in place to track, monitor and assess their results. To make the most of your content marketing efforts, Wordsmith brings you the four most prominent content marketing trends for 2020 that you should strongly consider implementing into your content strategy.
1. Keep Your Content Evergreen
You may have heard us mentioning how important it is to combine growth-hacking with your content strategy to effectively break through the mould of bland, cookie-cutter content; but another tactic that should not be overlooked is the power of evergreen content. No matter what your company’s size, evergreen content is a vital component of every brands content strategy.
Chief thinker and Strategist at The Shattuck Group, Randy Shattuck, was quick to comment, “In the services world, it’s very important to talk about what matters to the people you want to attract. Most service firms talk shop instead of providing insights that matter to prospects. It’s important to speak to lasting trends, not the latest news. Our clients have some of the strongest engagement (time-on-page) from content published three to four years ago. That’s very counterintuitive.”
Take American Express, for example. Instead of focusing all their content marketing efforts on seasonal stories, they have created an open forum for small business owners, encouraging customers to #ShopSmall. This content hub and newsletter has attracted millions of professionals looking to expand their businesses. Instead of driving diversions and talking about their own products, Amex has channelled evergreen content that delves into common small business problems such as hiring and growth, building strong B2B trust through transparency and addressing their audience’s needs.
Director of Content Marketing at American Express OPEN Forum, Courtney Colwell, explains,“It all stems from our mission of helping these businesses do more business. With our small business customers, their growth fuels ours. It’s a win-win if we can help them succeed.”
2. The rise of Long Form and Episodic Content
To cut a long story short, long form content is far from dead. In fact, a recent study of over 100 million articles from BuzzSumo revealed that long-form content actually receives more social shares than short-form content. The reason? Readers are increasingly searching for trustworthy sources and gurus in their field before they choose to invest their time and money in brands. Producing long form content, storytelling wizardry and how-to guides” on a continual basis shows that you are an authority on the subject – even Google rewards it.
CEO of PaperStreet Web Design, Peter Boyd, contends, “Every company should be producing “ultimate” guides to their services and products. They should be writing long-form content of 2,000 to 10,000 words on a specific topic to become valuable resources. They will quickly realise that producing these guides will not only rank well and inform their consumers but effectively help them in becoming thought leaders in their area.”
Far from wasting your readers’ time, your long form content should provide thoughtful, quality-led information that benefits search engines and readers alike. Short-form content may be easier to create, but long-form content is well worth the investment.
One type of long-form content that is increasing in popularity is episodic content. This type of content takes the shape of a story, with the plot developing as each episode goes on, enticing the customer to get lost in the narrative and suspense-inducing scenes, which keeps them coming back for more.
A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology assessed how viewers of Alfred Hitchcock films behaved during low and high-suspense scenes. During high-suspense takes, the brain narrows what people see and focuses their full attention on the story, and when a story lacked suspense, audiences would quickly become detached and focus their attention on their surroundings. So, to keep your audiences tuning in and not losing momentum, it’s important to maintain a consistent level of suspense, excitement and intrigue.
In just a few short years, plot driven, serialised brand videos have gone from annoying, product-centric cheesy commercials to compelling and innovative brand storytelling that acts as a pleasant interval between their main show. According to Edison Research and Triton Digital, new generations of millennials are tuning into episodic content at unprecedented levels, with people spending almost 17 hours per week hooked on their favourite podcasts, kindle audiobooks and radio shows. To put this into context – there are 14 million more weekly podcast listeners compared to this time last year, almost twice the population of Hong Kong.
When it comes to captivating episodic storytelling content, no one does it quite like the Humans of New York (HONY). Introducing Humans of New York: The Series in 2016, the brand features 30-minute bursts of incredibly engaging long-form content focusing on a diverse cast of New Yorkers’ most intimate stories, defiantly and beautifully interwoven around a common theme that changes each week. But what’s most gripping about this series is the sheer simplicity of it. The stories are real, the people are authentic, and most importantly – no one is trying to sell you anything.
3. The Hypnotic Spell of Influencer Marketing
There’s something going on with influencer marketing. Danielle Wiley, Founder and SEO of the Sway Group, highlights a new way that brands should be collaborating with influencers, “We’re seeing a real shift of brands turning towards influencer and influencer-like content and away from static highly-produced photo and video shoots. Partly this is because large studio shoots are not cost- or time-effective given the sheer volume of content needed these days, but more importantly because their consumers want to see unbridled, un-edited content.”
It’s no surprise that the secret sauce to any successful influencer campaign is authenticity. Fans of influencers want to feel that there is a genuine connection between the influencer and the brand. As we move into 2020, branded influencer content will need to showcase more than ever before a strong brand affinity and work with influencers who genuinely love their products and believe in the services they provide.
Aside from boosting your credibility by associating your brand with a respected and well-loved influencer that aligns with your niche audiences, influencer content also helps to increase traffic to your blog and website; helps you generate more leads, and ultimately acquires new customers for your business. However, to achieve this, your influencer marketing must provide true end-user value to avoid coming across as simply another digital form of celebrity endorsement.
Boxed Water, sustainable water company, used their innovative influencer marketing campaign as a positive driver for social change. Partnering with the National Forest Foundation (NFF), Boxed water collaborated with a number of high-profile influencers including American actor Aidan Alexander and dancer Julianne Hough with the aim of planting one million trees by 2020 through their #ReTree project.
With each #ReTree hashtag posted, Boxed Water has committed to plant two trees in areas affected by wildfires and deforestation. The campaign saw the company plant more than 790,000 trees. Since then, Boxed Water estimates they’ve planted 1.4 billion trees, rebranding their original initiative’s hashtag to “#betterplanet”.
Appealing to millennials allowed Box Water to achieve record-level engagement as this particular audience prioritises sustainable brands above others, and is more likely to use their social connections to promote social change. Daryn Kuipers, CEO of Boxed Water, agrees, stating, "Through #ReTree, Boxed Water's consumers make a direct and positive impact on the planet. Collaboratively, this becomes a powerful way for a social community to make a statement that sustainability is important."
Even comedian Ellen Degeneres partnered with Box Water, selling her “Be Kind By Ellen” subscription box in an effort to promote the brand and what it stands for, focusing on products that encourage social good and wellbeing.
4. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Personalised Content
In a recent study, 80% of customers said they are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that offers more personalised experiences. Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI) Marketing. With an ever-growing AI presence in business, Content Monsta Co-Founder, A. Lee Judge, believes, “The trend of hyper-personalised content that speaks directly to the consumer’s needs through marketing channels of their choosing is becoming essential for brands looking to stand out in a crowded market place. Most companies are entering the next level of maturity in regards to content personalisation, going beyond simply presenting content at the right time, to creating content that’s specifically catered to each individual’s unique set of preferences, and being able to adapt when these preferences change through time.”
For example, Chinese start-up ByteDance’s product, Toutiao is swiftly changing the game when it comes to combining news, social media and search engine technology. Often referred to as “Buzzfeed with Brains”, Toutiao doesn’t generate news feed content based on who their audience is following or what photos they’ve liked; it uses AI learning to display a continuous stream of free-flowing content that the platform believes the user wants to see. In other words, it gets to know each user over time, and selects a list of recommended content based on what it believes you like or don’t like – taking content personalisation to a whole new, relationship-like level.
Ultimately, it all comes down to aweing your audiences with compelling, spell-binding content that keeps them coming back for more. But it’s no longer enough for brands to simply demand attention, they have to keep that interest fiercely burning by utilising the best content marketing tools at their disposal. Need a hand to get started? Your friendly neighbourhood copywriters would be happy to help!