Customisable, conversational, and clickable – brands won’t have it any other way with their evolving ‘content marketing strategy’, reach $13 billion by the end of 2020 with over 19 million content creators. Now throw in ‘creative’ into the mix and you have the perfect ‘content marketing’ wish (if not prediction) for 2020 and beyond.
Seth Godin – entrepreneur and business writer – calls content marketing the “only marketing left”. He might as well be right with 42% of B2B marketers accepting that content marketing efforts really pay off! Over 60% of consumer buying decisions are influenced by custom content and nearly all (92.3%) of the domains ranking in the top 100 for all 13 months had at least one backlink to drive traffic and rank better.
Let’s look at some content trends that could be the next thought-starter for your marketing plan.
Trend 1: Live streaming as a content marketing tool
In the marketing space, COVID’s biggest casualty has been communication. Social distancing has made interactions more digital and the good old YouTube or Instagram live features now seem less flippant and more personal and impactful.
Remember Steve Jobs launching the iPhone in 2007 or Felix Baumgartner jumping to earth to ‘sell’ Red Bull? Clearly, live streaming is not a new phenomenon. But it’s expanding exponentially! It is already a $10 billion industry globally, expected to reach $13 billion by the end of 2020 with over 19 million content creators.
Product launches, townhall meets, induction sessions, training modules, sales pitches, and marketing gimmicks – it’s all live for people to click and consume from the comfort of their homes.
Enterprises are investing in platforms and technologies to harness the power of linear or nonlinear (archival) video streaming. And these content formats have become an integral part of the content marketing mix.
Good news – live streams too, are becoming mainstream and more professional with better technology, richer content, and cool interactive concepts to engage and wow viewers!
Trend 2: Content for voice searches
“Siri, call my wife”
“Cortana, show my calendar”
“Alexa, play Katy Perry!”
“What is the nearest *service type* to me?”
“What is *insert query*”
While optimizing content for devices has been a strong UI/UX function, the devices in play were visual – Laptops, Tablets and Smartphones. With the arrival and large global acceptance of Alexa, and Google Home devices, customizing your content for voice enabled searches – such as the ones above – is one of the most efficient ways of ensuring traffic across devices.
40% of all web search is estimated to be made through voice search devices by the end of 2020. ‘Google it’ has a new meaning, thanks to the ever-growing sales of voice-enabled devices, most of them now wearable.
Although text-based searches are not going away soon, voice-searches are rapidly gaining popularity. We are busier than before – more on-the-go than ever. Hence, we see more conversational and searchable content and more FAQs filling up webpages.
There are plenty of ways to crack the voice-search challenge. Having a secure website with SSL certification, using structured data and schema, and improving your website load time are good practices that apply to both visual and audio devices. Specific to voice search devices however, optimizing your copy to make it conversational is key. FAQ pages and blog content can play a huge role for on-page optimization. Another super interesting opportunity is to create original content and advertise on streaming platforms. And of course – you can’t escape great content, can you?
Trend 3: AR-powered visual content
Remember Pokemon Go – the app? There was a time when people were running into the middle of incoming traffic trying to catch Pikachu! Estimates suggest that it has got 600 million downloads and counting till date.
Here’s where the power of AR comes in. The app was AR-enabled and that made it immersive and a lot of fun. But visual content powered by AR is not limited to just entertainment. With wearable and mobile devices supporting AR features, visual content is ready to become more end-user friendly, interactive, and actionable.
Imagine a medical scenario where operations can be performed through AR-enabled infrastructure. Or students in classrooms deep-dive into content that has traditionally been rote-based and boring!
You ask, what about shopping experiences? Choosing the perfect wardrobe for your bedroom without even stepping out of your home. Or military reconnaissance without collateral damage? All of these have become reality today!
For enterprises, AR content is opening up new marketing realities (and opportunities). From retail to automobiles and from gaming to IT solutions – visual content has never been so much fun!
Trend 4: Audio content
What the current pandemic has done to audio content is almost unpredictable. And baffling marketers across the globe. They are calling it the resurgence of the radio (or audio content, if you may!)
Consumers are now more aware of podcasts, radio fiction shows, music shows, audiobooks, and sonic ads, particularly in a world dominated by video content.
But those with their ears to the ground might disagree. They claim audio content, particularly podcasts, have been gaining popularity year-on-year. In fact, the number of podcast lovers have tripled in the last 10 years.
Enterprises have over the years dabbled in in-house radios as a means of communicating and engaging their diverse workforces. But it’s hardly been professional or scalable. And that was a start.
Over the years, enterprises have used well produced audio content through podcasts, audiobooks or radio shows – to increase brand awareness, engagement, internal communications, and also to handle PR debacles. Oh, and it’s also a great thought-leadership tool.
For new businesses, professional audio content is less expensive, easier to produce and shareable. It also helps relieve ‘video fatigue’ and could easily reach non-invested listeners – battling traffic, cooking or working out at the gym!
Trends to traction
Content is becoming platform agnostic. It’s becoming more personal, and more customizable. Tools and technologies are making content creation, distribution, and impact-measurement easier than before. And with COVID-19 refusing to vanish anytime soon, professionally-managed, non-traditional content marketing vehicles might be the best bet on your money in 2020 – for mega corporations, SMEs and tiny start-ups – dreaming the big marketing dream!
Does this spark any inspiration? Want to test out one of these trends for the coming quarters? If you have a brief that you need help executing, like always, The Red Bangle Team is here to help. Fill out our contact form and we’ll get in touch.
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