The business world has changed. No longer can companies rely solely on traditional forms of marketing and advertising to generate a good ROI. Instead, they need a way to bring themselves to the forefront of their customer’s minds and do so more often than their competitors.
One of the best ways to generate this kind of awareness is effective content marketing. By creating optimized marketing content for each stage of the buyer’s journey, businesses make an impression on their audience, increase engagement, and ultimately generate more sales.
However, as our audience’s preferences and behaviors continue to change, our approach must stay relevant and thrive in the digital era.
Today we’re going to talk about some of the key trends that we’ll see on the content marketing front in the year 2022.
1. A Higher Focus on Visual Content
You’ve probably heard a million times before that content is king in digital marketing. And with content marketing so pervasive, you need a way to make yours stand out from your competitors.
According to a report by Content Marketing Institute, most B2B marketers have incorporated visual content in their business marketing strategies. They also report that businesses with a solid visual presence have 44% higher conversion rates than those without one.
Even though consumers are inundated with thousands of messages every day, data shows they remember only 2% – 5% of what they read or hear about your brand online. For example, users spend about 100 million hours each day watching videos on Facebook alone.
These growing numbers show that consumers are craving authentic content. And if you want your content marketing efforts to be practical in 2022, you need something visual and relevant on every page of your website.
2. Adapting Brand Storytelling
A few years ago, brands created content and tried to promote it. Today, storytelling has taken on a new role in marketing strategies as more and more businesses recognize that people make decisions based on emotions. According to Headstream, storytelling ads retain attention better than regular text ads.
Here are a few ways you can adapt brand storytelling:
- Feature Customers: It’s easy to focus on sales when crafting your content. But if you’re going to tell a story, why not make it real? Sharing customer success stories will illustrate how using your products or services made a difference in their lives.
- Incorporate Emotional Benefits: The days of generic taglines are long gone. Your brand message needs to say something unique and different from all its competitors. An emotional benefit tells buyers that your product makes their life easier or happier.
- Identify Genuine Needs: When you start looking for emotional triggers and genuine needs in consumers’ buying journeys, you’ll immediately notice trends. For example, social media interactions release dopamine into our brains when we get likes or comments. Dopamine then rewards us with feelings of love, joy, excitement, and anticipation.
So starting next year, everything we create must come from an authentic passion for our brand and our mission if we want to stand apart from copycats.
3. Companies Become Niche-Specific
It is not enough anymore to be a generalist for your company. Today, people don’t want solutions that fit every need; they want a custom solution.
As competition increases, niche companies will become more and more successful because they can design their products specifically for an audience that needs what they provide.
It will be harder for broad-based companies with one-size-fits-all solutions to compete against smaller niche companies. As a result, people tend to gravitate towards specificity when consuming content and purchasing goods and services.
For example, an advertising agency might now focus on social media marketing for small businesses. A local law firm might only work with clients in certain states. A graphic design company might do web design for only software startups.
The idea is that companies will keep their expertise sharper, provide better service, and price more competitively because they don’t have enormous overhead costs from having active accounts that don’t yield enough revenue.
4. Rise of Chatbots and AI assistants
With more and more brands employing technology in their strategies, social media sites and content management systems introduce tools that can help businesses grow.
So, by now, you’ve heard of chatbots. Their ability to learn and respond is becoming a powerful tool for businesses. Today’s marketers can create automated customer interactions through Facebook Messenger or interact with customers in real-time through Twitter.
For example, when a person tweets at Wendy’s (@Wendys), they receive a tweet back about contacting Wendy’s customer service department. It is made possible through bots embedded within each site.
Chatbots may be one-way brands continue reaching new customers in an age when social media has fragmented audiences.
But what about AI assistants? They use data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like machine learning and deep learning to understand human communication patterns.
As more devices are connected to networks thanks to cloud computing and 5G networks, we could see everything from high-tech fridges ordering groceries as soon as the food is low. Alternatively, a digital shopping attendant helps you throughout your shopping trip.
By 2022 retailers will offer personalized customer service and hyper-personalized shopping experiences.
5. Live Streaming Becomes the Norm
Personal brands and niche experts will leverage live streaming for extensive reach and impact. One way to do that is by hosting Q&A or ask me anything sessions where a community of people can get real-time answers about a topic.
Think about it, how often does your favorite brand respond on Twitter or Facebook? Instead of hitting up a customer service account, you could look up a live streamer who focuses on your interests and ask them directly.
As video becomes more accessible through new technologies like voice-activated virtual assistants, think of all possibilities that live streaming opens up when connecting brands with customers.
For example, why not turn your iPhone camera into an Amazon Alexa camera? You’ll be able to add visual product details or videos right as someone says Alexa, allowing potential buyers to see what they want right there in front of them.
Therefore, it’s interesting to watch how our online culture will change in the next few years. So if you’re looking to start building your brand, consider adding live streaming while it’s still fresh.
Conclusion
As you can see, content marketing will become increasingly crucial for businesses to gain leads and customers. Several content marketing trends will change our ways of doing business from 2022 and the next coming years.
These changes will allow businesses to increase their brand awareness by embracing AI technology, creating more engaging ads, and publishing blogs and videos and so many more.
The business world is constantly changing with technology. So a company must keep up with these exciting next-generation content marketing trends, or they will lose out on potential customers.
