What are the Top Content Marketing Trends of 2020?

With just a few days left of December, something else will also change besides the date and the year. The Content Marketing Trends.

Content marketing will evolve and have more importance than ever. Content creation and distribution will change drastically.

No doubt why Seth Godin calls content marketing as “the only marketing left”. Because it’s authentic, economical, useful, and perfectly suited for the internet generation.

However, the channels, tools, and tactics for content marketing will change in 2020 and continue to evolve further.

So what are those content marketing trends to look out for in the coming year? How to design your content marketing strategy to keep pace with these emerging trends?

Let’s know that now!

10 Content Marketing Trends to Focus in 2020

Content Marketing Trend 1: Results-focused content

With billions of brands circulating information around, you need to stand out.

And what’s that?

Find new ways to get faster results for your audience.

For example:

Chris Won Vilpert from Content Mavericks created a filterable list post like this:

The result: A reader doesn’t have to scroll through a massive list of metrics to track his business’ content marketing success. He can easily select his primary goal and see the relevant metrics to track.

This makes content easier to consume and helps the reader get desired result faster.

How you can use this trend?

• Identify the list posts on your blog getting good traffic.
• Turn them into filterable list posts based on the result your reader wants from that post.

Content Marketing Trend 2: Increased focus on videos and live-stream

Videos rank next to the blog posts in content consumption and engagement by today’s audience.

And the reason is only natural.

Videos engage your audience better than blog posts, help consume information better and retain it for long.

As per LiveStream survey, 80% people say they’d rather watch a live video than read a blog post.

How you can use this trend?

Develop videos featuring your products and services in action. You can also convert your blog posts into videos just like Neil Patel. Other options for videos include:

• Webinars
• Q&A sessions
• Product demos
• Behind-the-scenes
• Interview with experts

Whatever be the type of video content you choose, make it interactive for your audience.

Some platforms where you can post your videos are:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Snapchat
• TikTok
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Your own website

Content Marketing Trend 3: Content creation based on user intent

People perform 4 types of web searches broadly:

• Informational: As the term suggests, this user is looking for information. For example: “How to write an engaging content”
• Navigational: These are the specific queries where the user wants to visit a specific site. For example, the user searches Google for Amazon or Flipkart.
• Investigational: These are the searches made by the user with an intention of enquiring about the product before buying. For example: “Best headphones to buy in 2020”.
• Transactional are action-based searches where the user wants to do something like buy a product or book a demo.

Though the users have performed these types of web searches for long, the recent updates to Google algorithms have brought user intent to the centre stage.

Since Google can now detect the search which a user is conducting, it’s now better equipped to return the type of content they’re looking for at the moment.

How you can use this trend?

Create content that caters to each type of search query.

Since this user intent also aligns with the buyer’s journey, creating content for each type of search query will help you transition your user from the informational to the transactional stage with ease.

Content Marketing Trend 4: Conversational marketing

You must be using chatbots on your website to engage with your customers in a more “real” way.

This helps you learn more about your audience, their persona, their specific needs, and their intended goals. Those too, without making them fill out a form or complete a set of tasks. Isn’t that great?

Including this conversational marketing in every aspect of your content creation and distribution will downsize your time to build a positive relationship with your customer.

How you can use this trend?

Invest in the tools that allow you to engage with your customers in real-time—be it human-to-human or via chatbot.

Even if you use a chatbot, make sure:

• To use messages for the chatbot that includes your brand’s voice and provides high-quality information to the users while maintaining a conversational flow throughout the chat.
• To have strong data of content and information to pull from when answering the queries of the user. Since your audience will look for quick-hitting answers, it’s important that your chatbot is able to find such information with ease.

AI will lead the content marketing trend in the upcoming days and years.

Content Marketing Trend 5: Voice search and smart devices

In January 2018, the number of monthly voice searches reached over one billion. It’s estimated that 50% of all web searches will be conducted by voice by next year.

So won’t that make sense to tailor your content for voice search on smart devices?

How you can use this trend?

Brands have just optimized their content for voice search. In such a scenario, if can do it before your competitors, you’ll win the battle. Because it will be your content that will rank high in voice search.

Here’s how to making this happen!

Understand how your customers conduct voice searches. For example, in text, they’ll type “2020 content marketing trends”, but their voice query will be like “What are the top content marketing trends of 2020?” 

See the difference? This will enable you to craft more effective headlines and focus on more specific long-tail keywords within your content.

Also, you’ll gain more insight into the information and content they’re looking for, which will drive your future content-creation strategy.  

Content Marketing Trend 6: Personalised content will get more eyes

That’s ‘Being Human’. We all love products, and services customised to our needs and interests.

Similarly, today’s consumer expects the brands to provide them highly personalized experiences with their content as well.They don’t want to receive the same information others are getting.

How you can use this trend?

Remember these three words…

Dynamic. Content. Delivery.

With many dynamic content tools, you can automate the creation and delivery of highly relevant content to your individual customers 

Content Marketing Trend 7: Boost in podcasts

As Statista reports, the number of podcast listeners has nearly tripled in the last decade — and this number is projected to continue growing.

As Forbes notes, podcast listeners are highly likely to complete the episodes of their favourite shows — and have an increased chance of engaging further with the brand in question.

How you can use this trend?

Investigate about the demand for audio content in your industry. If it’s high, you need to make it happen by creating podcast content from time to time.

However, don’t create a podcast for the sake of it. Give it the same place in your content marketing efforts as in other activities. Many brands have not climbed the bandwagon of podcasts yet. So you really have a favourable opportunity there.

Content Marketing Trend 8: Topic-focused content

Google doesn’t see the quality of a single page now. Rather, it considers the relevance of that page within the entire site. It now views the holistic value of a web page from the perspective of the individual user.

For example, let’s say there are two “ultimate guides” explaining the rules of blogging. Though each guide is similar in quality, one is on the site dedicated to all things blogging, while the other is on a parenting blog.

Both may rank for the term “rules of blogging,” the former will definitely outrank the latter. This is so because the other content on the first website will provide more value to the user compared to the value provided by the actual page in question.

How can you use this trend? 

By creating content on a wide breadth of topics that fall under a single umbrella. Start with more basic, general topics related to your niche and advance with more complex terms. These basic topics will form your pillar content.

The content you’ll create on complex topics is where you’ll get more specific and provide in-depth information about pillar posts — interlinking to your various pieces of content throughout.

Content Marketing Trend 9: Battle for the featured snippet

Considering the search intent, Google often presents further information on the topic within its snippets besides the traditional list of search results.

Snippets provide a brief rundown of the key points within a piece of content.

How you can use this trend?

More and more users now search for a long-tail keyword because they know Google will probably present them with a snippet that will give them the info they need without having to click over to a full website.

So here’s your kicker!

Make your content more solution-focused that answers your audience’s burning questions. Be straightforward, concise, and to-the-point while answering these questions in your content.

Content Marketing Trend 10: Data-driven content creation

Content marketing isn’t something to be approached haphazardly. You must aim to provide specific value to a specific audience with your content marketing strategy.

However, the question is:

How will you determine what value to provide to your audience?

The ONLY answer is data.

That means content creation, strategies, and distribution must be based on hard evidence of what will work.

How you can use this trend?

Adopt a data-driven mindset throughout your marketing team and your organisation. Don’t just use any data to drive your content-creation initiatives, but focus on the data that drives your bottom line.

Differentiate between the metrics that matter and vanity metrics.

Identify the KPIs that matter to your business and design your content campaigns based on these notes. It’s a long time you stop creating the content you think your audience wants—and base your content-creation decisions on concrete data.

Final Words on Content Marketing Trends 2020

Here’s the summary of the content marketing trends you should focus on for your brand in the coming year:

• Create content that helps your customer achieve faster results
• Develop video content as a webinar, Q&A sessions, product demos, etc. to engage your audience
• Create content that caters to all the 4 types of search queries: informational, navigational, investigational, and transactional.
• Use tools that allow you to engage with your customers in real-time.
• Optimise your content for voice search.
• Make your content relevant to individual customers.
• Invest in podcasts for your brand.
• Create the content on an array of topics ranging from basic information to more in-depth content.
• Answer the burning questions and provide solutions to the customer’s problems through your content.
• Base your content creation and content marketing strategy on concrete data rather than assumptions.

Read: Bonus Content Marketing Trends in 2020

Now, over to you! Which content marketing trend/trends will you follow in 2020?