What’s in and what’s out in content marketing

We’re halfway through 2024, and for content marketers the drive to stay ahead of the curve is more important than ever. Having your finger on the pulse of emerging trends keeps audiences curious, engaged and willing to invest in your brand. This doesn’t mean you have to implement every single trend going into your content marketing strategy, but it’s essential to embrace trends that align with your brand and audience. Content marketing trends can help you stay ahead of the competition, build brand awareness and enhance brand value and reputation, all of which are crucial to staying fresh and relevant. On the other side of the coin, it’s also equally important to identify strategies that are no longer serving your business’ trajectory and growth. So, read on as Wordsmith covers “what’s in” and “what’s out” in content marketing!  

What’s In: Storytelling

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again, you should never underestimate the power of a good story. The benefits of brand storytelling are tenfold. They help to foster stronger connections and empathy with your target audience; bolster brand recall and recognition; allow brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors and boost credibility and loyalty among existing customers. Some of the world’s best brands effortlessly weave storytelling through all of their communication touchpoints to cultivate emotion and a sense of togetherness – just take a page from some of the leading brands in the cosmetics and personal care industry, such as Dove, Axe, and Old Spice. With compelling storytelling at the forefront of their content marketing campaigns, each brand won their battle for cultural relevance, to attract the attention of engaged audiences ready to purchase.

With the rise of AI-generated content, storytelling has become a big differentiator tool for brands around the world. Akram Atallah, CEO of Identity Digital, explains that successful storytelling lies in, “the meticulous craftsmanship of a skilled storyteller. As you script your own brand narrative, look for the details that elevate a story so it sticks in the minds of consumers. Consistent storytelling across all elements of your branding ensures that your brand’s narrative makes a genuine connection with audiences and fosters trust for lasting customer relationships.” So, for the next half of this year, you and your marketing teams should brainstorm novel ways of presenting your brand’s unique story.

What’s Out: Generic Content

It’s been clear for some time now that generic, one-size-fits-all content has lost its appeal. Customers’ needs are increasingly multi-faceted, so it’s no wonder why they are no longer satisfied with bland, robotic, spam-like messaging. “Just about any targeted audience is diverse enough that their needs will vary, and attempting to mould your marketing strategy to cater to everyone at once dilutes your message and risks alienating those genuinely interested in what you have to offer”, Aimee CEO at Madison Taylor Marketing says. Not only that, customers also demand personalised content tailored for every stage of their customer journey too. And don’t forget when it comes to content marketing, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. Bombarding your audiences with an endless stream of sub-par, generic content will not convert customers. Instead, you should focus your time and energy on building buyer personas and targeting them with less high-quality, personalised content.

What’s In: AI Automation

Research from Forbes suggests that 64% of content marketers say they regularly use AI in their processes, which comes as no surprise. In this rapidly evolving landscape of digital content creation, many brands have chosen to leverage artificial intelligence when it comes to automating their email campaigns, content distribution and even data analysis. When used correctly, AI is a powerful tool that can enhance efficiency and streamline automation processes, which ultimately gives creatives and copywriters more time back to focus on strategic creativity.

One way many brands have used AI to their advantage is with AI social media tools. Delegating these routine tasks frees up your creative team’s time. So when it comes to social media management, scheduling tools with AI capabilities like Hootsuite and SocialPilot are effectively helping to speed up content marketing processes. With the assistance of AI-driven analytics, your marketing team can gain immediate insight into audience engagement and content performance, which can ultimately help inform content marketers to refine their messaging and strategies while also encouraging them to share this content at optimal times for maximum reach.

AI can also be extremely helpful in terms of optimising your content for SEO. Iman Bashir, SEO Specialist and Founder of Craftly.AI, explains, “Now through machine learning, AI can accurately suggest what will perform favourably with your target audience as well as provide powerful insights on what will produce the best future results. Rankings and organic traffic can be improved dramatically by finding underused niche keywords, phrases and backlinks. Taking this approach to SEO can remove the guesswork that’s involved with manual SEO research and sets content writers up with data-driven frameworks.”

What's out: Overreliance on AI for creativity

John Hall, Sales Keynote Speaker and Adviser for Relevance, stresses that content creators should, “avoid producing mediocre, cookie-cutter content void of purpose. AI can’t have its own opinions, so content produced solely using AI will be 'Average Intelligence,' just an amalgamation of everything already published online.” Some experts go as far as to say that overusing AI for content production, may lead to a loss of creativity, critical thinking skills, and even basic human intuition. The solution to this problem is to use AI solely to create more efficient content workflows, reducing the time that teams need to spend on manual, repetitive tasks allowing for more time for creativity and solving complex marketing issues. All content marketers must see AI as a useful alley for marketing automation, not for creativity and content creation.

What’s in: UGC and partnerships with Micro-Influencers

A trend that has been steadily on the rise for the past ten years is user-generated content (UGC). This is where customers create images, videos and written testimonials that brands can then use to their advantage. Studies from Stackla reported, “On average, 60% of consumers say content from a friend or family member influences their purchase decisions”, so it stands to reason that UGC has the power to drive conversions and increase purchase intention in a truly authentic way. Research has shown time and time again that we tend to trust real stories and customer reviews much more than branded, overly polished content. So, if you’re not doing so already, you should actively encourage your audiences and customers to share their experiences with your brand. By using UGC to your advantage, you’re demonstrating authenticity that celebrity endorsements and flashy advertising shoots simply can’t match.

What’s great is that there are many ways to start gathering UGC – through a branded hashtag or a timely social media competition. If you’re asking audiences to share content with you, you’ll get a better reaction if it’s incentivised, and this doesn’t have to be monetary – it can be a simple acknowledgement of their contribution. For example, “use this hashtag for a chance to be featured on our stories”. You can also individually reach out to customers and ask them to create a video for you about their experiences, in exchange for discounts or branded merchandise.

Another emerging avenue of UGC brands are getting on board with is getting in touch with micro-influencers for sponsored content, as they ultimately have a larger reach than your average consumer. They may have fewer followers than macro-influencers and celebrities, but the engagement and conversion rate of micro-influencers followers are typically higher because the users trust the individual.

According to research from Social Bakers, micro-influencers “boast up to a 60% increased engagement rate compared to macro-influencers.” Micro-influencers also have over a 20% higher conversion rate that can help brands boost their e-commerce sales. Kelly Ehlers, President of Evoke Agency recommends brands to develop “cutting-edge influencer programs where micro influencers weave the brand’s marketing objectives into their accounts in a customised and authentic way.” If done well these influencers can develop content for every step of your customer's journey, from unboxing videos and tutorials to testimonials and gifting, which can help audiences and customers see how your products or services work in the real world.

What's out: Overly polished content and self-promotion

Smart content creators know that customers are becoming increasingly disenchanted with traditional advertising tactics and promotional gimmicks, demanding a deeper level of authenticity over polished content. Research from the 2023 Sprout Social Index Survey discovered that the most memorable brands made a lasting impact by simply being responsive to consumers (51%), prioritising original content over following trending topics (38%) and engaging directly with customers versus publishing a lot of branded content (37%). You’ll notice that some of the world’s biggest brands are slowly edging away from the perfectly curated, generic social feeds and replacing them with real-life moments from customers, and unedited photo dumps of customers using their brand. It’s clear that customers in 2024 are more inclined to engage with authentic content, and crave unfiltered brand narratives and real stories they can relate to.

Self-promotion is out. Your content marketing strategy can’t focus solely on product features and benefits alone – weave customer stories into your marketing channels, encourage two-way conversations and think of creative ways to garner UGC. In today’s society, customers want to engage with brands that stand for something beyond profit. Don’t know where to start? Here are a couple of examples of how brands are successfully using UGC.

By tapping into current content marketing trends of “what’s in” and “what’s out”, you can not only stay one step ahead of the competition but also ensure that you create content which truly resonates with the customers you have today, not the customers you had five years ago. However, it’s important to remember that you should only follow trends that actually align with your brand values and meet the needs of your audience. If you snowball into following every single trend without considering brand relevance and audience alignment, your content strategy could become disjointed and lead to a dip in engagement and sales. So, do your research, be selective, and consider infusing your content strategy with some of these trends above and see what difference it makes to your content marketing performance.