Seven content marketing trends to watch in 2021

The emergence of communities 

Adversity can bring people together. With the world reeling under the economic impact of COVID-19, people will increasingly collaborate to alleviate their problems. Unlike a ‘page’ or a ‘group, a community guarantees more interaction and a broader perspective. It is the people that drive communication as opposed to the few people driving it. 

Communities provide companies scope to collate content centred on an issue or topic. It also increases participation and offers the opportunity to push your brand as a solution rather than a business transaction. Communities will bring together people with the requisite knowledge. You can tap into their social media data/links and circle to help you expand your reach.

Increase in virtual interactions

Much like communities, virtual interaction also lends more human touch to your marketing experience. The two main virtual interactions that will dominate 2021 are live videos and webinars. Live videos will invariably attract more traffic to your page or website if streamed on the right platform and at the right time. Data on consumer social media habits also strongly suggest that people prefer watching a video to reading lengthy articles. 

More people are also opting for webinars as it helps you streamline your audience. The other options that could become more popular in 2021 are AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, master classes, and fireside chats.

SEO will continue to hold sway

Search Engine continues to maintain its stronghold in garnering traffic to your website in terms of relevance in content marketing. Keyword, customer search habits, and other similar data is a must if you want to sell your products or services online.

There are various types of SEOs used in content marketing. To name a few- product pages, blogs, online articles, videos, infographics, and slideshows. There is however a word of caution here. You need to provide beyond the SEO as it could result in “thin content” and subsequent penalization from Google.

You can get your website higher in the search results page and increase your online organic traffic with the help of the best SEO agency in Manchester.

A revamp in the content experience

A customer may visit your page or website, read a few lines and skip out of it even if you have the right information. This is because you lack the presentation. Content does not comprise words. It is the art of storytelling by using various tools at your disposal. These tools can be in the form of a well-designed page, embedding appropriate videos, animation, charts, graphs, pointers, etc. 

Apart from the style and presentation, it would help if you considered regularly updating your website to keep abreast with the latest trends and evolving consumer habits.

Bottom-of-funnel content

While offering solutions is an essential aspect of content marketing, it should translate into sales. Companies will focus on the core essentials, with businesses trying to get back on their feet post the COVID lockdown. This could lead to a more conservative approach. Contents will now be curated to answer core questions and focus more on leading customers to buy their products and services.

Artificial intelligence 

When it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in content marketing, there are already two tools: Contentyze and API GPT-3. Contentyze, for example, can be used to draft an article, rewrite, summarise any text entered in spreadsheets into plain texts. API-GPT-3 language model predicts the next word as it has been programmed with various parameters.

Repurposing your content

Repurposing content is like cosmetic surgery on content you already have. It mainly comprises the two aspects of changing the content’s format or the target audience for the content.  Repurposing your content is essential to make your old content look relevant; it saves time, generates interest in your website, and is also good for SEO.

Conclusion

While these seven trends will dominate 2021, content marketing’s dynamic and evolving nature would also mean that there will be more trends that will emerge along the way. You should keep an open mind and be flexible to changes if you want to remain in the game.