Now we’re reaching the halfway point of the year, it’s time to review some of 2021’s content marketing trends and look ahead to what may be coming in the latter half of the year.
It’s important to stay on top of content marketing trends, as content marketing is one of the most efficient techniques of cultivating engagement, improving brand presence, and pushing sales, content marketing is a crucial method of growth for the majority of businesses.
Before we go on to discuss the latest content marketing trends, we must ask, why does content marketing evolve so frequently? At the rate that technology and customer demands are improving and changing, it would be extremely disadvantageous to not evolve your marketing strategy alongside them.
Here are some of the biggest and best content marketing trends seen in 2021:
1: Recycling Content
If your business has a large backlog of old content that isn’t receiving the amount of traffic you want it to receive, why not repurpose it? Have an e-book/guide that isn’t having the impact you thought it would? Turn it into a YouTube video, or discuss the content in a podcast. A lot of people, particularly those viewing your content through social media, are far more likely to engage with long-form content in audio or video form over a long text document.
Do you have a blog post filled with statistics? Why not incorporate those facts and figures into an infographic, rather than a big wall of text? There are so many options with this avenue of content marketing!
2: Building Communities
Community marketing has always been discussed in the marketing industry, but it is becoming increasingly popular within the content marketing sphere. Building brand awareness can be made extremely easy through a community of people that all enjoy your businesses content. One great example of this trend is Netflix’s comedy community. Known simply as Netflix is a Joke (or @NetflixIsAJoke), this community is made up of Netflix-owned social media accounts that post jokes, memes, clips from their comedy shows, and much more.
This is definitely a bold strategy. If the agency/business running the accounts treated it as unimportant, or didn’t put the effort into cultivating a community, it could come off as disingenuous and corporate, a fate that many branded social accounts fall prey to.
3: Get Your Content Featured On ‘Google Discover’ Sections
You might be asking, what is Google Discover? Well, if you use Google Chrome on mobile, you’ll see it every time you open a new tab.
Google Discover is a feed arranged by Google on mobile devices to provide content such as videos and articles. Google personalises the content through searches and related stories. Users can further customise what they see in their Discover feed by following certain topics.
Google recommend some of the following actions to optimise your content for Discover: using page titles that support the content (“but in a non-clickbait fashion”); include large, high-quality images (at least 1200 pixels wide); avoid using clickbait in preview content; “avoid strategies that manipulate appeal by catering to morbid curiosity, titillation, or outrage”; and make sure the content is evergreen.
Once you’ve employed some of these tactics, use the Discover performance report to figure out if it’s driving more or less traffic to your website!
4: Video Streaming
After the events of 2020, the streaming of live events such as conferences and symposiums has rocketed in popularity, with many businesses deciding it is a favourable method of showing events, even after lockdown.
These live streamed events are a great way of generating extra income as you can charge for tickets and you do not have to pay for the rental of event locations. It is also a good method to attract influencers and create leads.
Put These Strategies To Use Today!
While you’re preparing your content marketing tactics for the rest of the year, bear these trends in mind. One thing to remember when it comes to emerging marketing trends, is that they can disappear just as quick as they appear, so, when looking to implement marketing trends, always do your research!
