January 15th, 2021
Although many areas in business came to a halt in 2020, one area that has grown is content marketing. By being on top of the major trends foreseen this 2021, you will be better prepared to leverage efficient strategies and grow your business.
As the name implies, the goal of an interactive content is to allow users to dive in, interact, enjoy the process, and gain insight without feeling targeted. It requires discipline and a secondary focus on conversion rate optimization. Keep in mind that with this type of content, it is not about you or your brand, nor is it about direct lead generation. It is about providing VALUE to your audience. It doesn’t use pop-up solicitations, aggressive CTAs, or underhanded sales pitches. If you are developing interactive content, it is best to gauge success by total shares or average session time instead of click-through rate.
Some interactive content strategies you can explore: Featuring your audience, conducting polls and surveys, and utilizing videos and infographics. Not sure who your audience is? Invest efforts in creating quizzes and polls that can interest your target audience. This can help you get to know where your audience comes from and what they are looking for.
Research shows that voice search utilization is expected to reach 5 billion by the year 2021 and increase to 6.4 in the year 2022. And we all know the reason why---using voice search is quicker, easier, and more fun than traditional search methods. Voice assistants provide users with the answers they want almost instantly, making it effortless to select a search result option or scroll through pages to find the information they are looking for. As a marketer part of your strategy should be providing search engines with the answers directly, and then linking it to your brand or products.
Optimizing for voice search means optimizing for rich results. While featured snippets aim to answer questions or informational queries right in the search results (removing the need to click into a website), voice search takes it a step further by speaking the featured snippet result to the user. To stay up to date in voice search marketing, keep in mind to develop a mobile-friendly website. And while at it, incorporate features that are particularly useful for voice search capabilities, like Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) which are designed specifically to improve the load time of mobile website pages. AMP pages can load almost instantly, and they do this by restricting HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which quickens the rendering time for the mobile page. AMP pages are also automatically cached by Google.
With live videos, you can cease the moment and connect with your audience right at the spot. The cameras go live, and the audiences can ask questions to the brand experts. In a way, the audience feels a part of the show. Whether it is about product launches, live product demonstrations, tutorials or discussions relevant to your brand, live videos (when executed well) don't project as a push advertising experience where the salesperson persuades the customer to buy products. The audience is seamlessly made a part of the interactive session. By the end of the live video, you can consume your audience’s mind totally and they don't even know it.
4. Values-centric Campaigns
Now more than ever, brands need to be sensitive and listen to what matters to their audience. Being mindful of the common struggles that people face during the present time will help you develop content that is thoughtful and provides practical value to customers. Focus on values like integrity and transparency, and community-building efforts for your campaigns. If this is done well, it will remind your existing and potential customers in a refined and understated way of why they should interact with your brand and why they should buy your products and services.
Personalization in 2021 goes beyond merely addressing the customer by their name in emails or when you are talking to them via chat. We have two words for you: artificial intelligence. This technology will make data analysis more efficient and effective, allowing you to achieve hyper-personalization which, for example, entails coming up with the perfect email template for the individual, and craft content and copy that fits their exact needs. Consider integrating artificial intelligence by using AI-driven software to take content personalization to the next level.
Which trend are you planning to use for your content marketing strategies this year? We want to hear from you. Let us know!