Wondering what will shape content marketing in the upcoming year? Here are the 8 biggest content marketing trends that will dominate 2021.
Content marketing is a type of marketing that aims to attract a target audience through relevant and valuable content. It is an often used strategy and it is proved to be more efficient than traditional marketing — attracting future customers by first providing some sort of value to them.
Traditional marketing such as printed media, telemarketing, billboards, and TV ads, is great. But it is a general approach. There is no interaction with the consumer and no specific value provided.
Especially for brands whose audience is the younger generation, content marketing becomes highly important because it can be customisable, interactive, and enables a future relationship. Young audiences will not buy an approach that is generic and that does not speak to them on the channels they use the most.
Content marketing trends you should keep in mind in 2021
Here are the 8 biggest content marketing trends that will dominate 2021:
- Social media is still king — but not without a strong community
- Audio keeps on the rise: Podcasts and Clubhouse
- Video content — more interaction and webinars
- User-generated content — a remaining powerful tool
- Bottom-of-the-funnel and a lean marketing focus
- Visual approach prioritisation
- Marketing channels mix and break of boundaries
- Brand voice crafting
1. Social media is still king — but not without a strong community
Sharing your content on social media means you are reaching people who already confirmed they are interested in hearing from you. These platforms allow you not only to communicate with your most relevant audience at zero cost, they also provide you a space where your content can be shared by others and reach new relevant individuals.
Besides the highly interesting reach possibilities, social media allows you to interact directly with your customers and show behind the scenes — which helps you to craft strong brand-customer relationships.
In fact, people love the sense of community belonging it comes from these interactions. It makes them feel valued and, especially during isolation times, this trend is expected to continue picking up pace in 2021.
2. Audio keeps on the rise: Podcasts and Clubhouse
Audio, namely in the form of podcasts, has been one of the most fascinating content marketing strategies. It has been increasing its popularity in the recent decade and will keep on the rise in 2021.
As a marketeer, you will not only want to be present on the pre-recorded audio scene, in the form of quality podcasts created with powerful recording software but also on live audio platforms, such as the newly hyped Clubhouse. A new platform that lets people have conversations in real time and where anyone can ask questions or be a moderator. It’s a great app to discuss ideas, trends, business insights — and everything with a technology as basic as your iPhone.
The big advantage of audio is that it can be heard while performing almost any task at different times of the day: people can listen during sports, while cooking, housekeeping, or on commute. They can get information, entertainment, or relevant content in a fast way and while on the go.
For businesses, a strong audio presence can help you attracting the right people and craft a community, while establishing your brand as an expert in your industry. Discussing the news and trends in a certain niche is relevant and will keep you in people’s mind as a source of relevant content. Plus, it helps building a more defined brand voice and personality.
? Or follow Philipp on Clubhouse.
3. Video content — more interaction and webinars
YouTube is, after Google, the most visited website worldwide and TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform at the moment. On Instagram, the Stories feature is the most used and IGTV as well as the recent Reels have also been widely adopted.
Why? Video is easy to consume and it allows you to show your human side or communicate your message in an easy and considerably fast manner. If well thought-through and executed, video content is also more likely to go viral.
When considering livestreams, this type of media can be great for real-time interaction and relationship building with customers.
In 2021, we expect to keep seeing this trend on the rise. With most of the events still canceled and isolation still being highly advised, video and webinar content have come to replace the gap — and are going to be here to stay.
In fact, you can expect more creative and more interactive approaches to the concepts. Smaller webinars that give room for more interactivity, exclusive masterclasses, digital premium events with experts, or massive online conferences, are some of the possibilities.
4. Make the most out of user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is not a new trend but it is here to remain. The advantages of using content created by customers are numerous. It not only gives businesses a break from producing their own content, it also allows to show products and services in a more authentic way and reward brand fans through featuring them on the company’s channels.
At Cherrydeck, we post purely UGC on our Instagram page and have seen a constant and exponential growth coming from this strategy. We feel it has helped us to reward our members and build stronger relationships with them.
5. Focus on the bottom-of-the-funnel
Covid-19 will keep constraining brands in regards to marketing and what is possible to do. Part of it because budgets are limited, but on the other side because many feel it’s safer to go with conservative marketing approaches.
It is foreseeable that businesses will try to stay as lean as possible in the next quarters. This means marketing professionals will place more focus on the core buyer personas instead of exploring new potential audiences.
6. Prioritise a visual approach
The content experience is increasingly important and a good experience is only achieved when the visual approach is a priority too. In 2021, content needs not only to be relevant but also visually appealing.
Nowadays, there are several user-friendly editing programs that make it possible to beautify any kind of data and make it appealing and easy to digest.
At the end of the day, users to stay on your page, love what they read about you, easily find what they’re looking for, and enter your sales funnel.
7. Mix marketing channels and break boundaries
With the need to create marketing content in a lean way and with few resources in mind — it is presumable that a bigger focus is going to be placed on the repurpose of content across channels.
Examples can be the already often seen tweet screenshots shared on Instagram. Or the Instagram Reels that have been used to repost content that would otherwise only have place on Tiktok. Both, types of content that have proved to be highly shareable and many times used for humour purposes or brand expression.
This kind of recycling can be done with almost everything.
When considering text-based content, it is possible to take short pieces of a longer article and include them in a visually appealing post on social media. Or to make use of a podcast episode or webinar session to write an insightful blog post. The options are endless.
8. Craft an individual brand voice
People have been increasingly using voice search and there is still a lot of optimisation that can be done on the brand’s side. As of January 2018, the number of monthly voice searches reached over one billion.
To leverage this trend, brands should read their content out loud and make sure to use a simple and understandable language. Consider how people speak and how we would formulate questions, and then simply use these sentences throughout text and titles.
These were the 8 biggest content marketing trends that will dominate 2021. If you need help creating great visual content for your channels, at Cherrydeck we offer you a pool of creatives tailored to your marketing needs. Have a look at our offering here or get in touch with a team representative. ?
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