The coronavirus has turned everything upside down, and marketers almost feel like they are browsing blind. The trends and forecasts that set the plan before the crisis and illuminated the direction in which one should have ceased to be valid. Things have changed completely, and the COVID-19 crisis has meant that an instruction book has to be created as problems were encountered.
One of the areas in which all that was known is no longer fully valid is content marketing. Although content continues to be a valuable source of connection with consumers and one of the crucial points to generate value connections, marketers cannot continue to do things as they were doing until now. That is no longer valid, and they must adjust their content marketing strategy to the context in which they find themselves.
This means understanding what types of content consumers expect in the time of the coronavirus, but also assuming that the way of accessing information and reading content is completely different from how it was before. And for this, taking a look at the media strategy and how they operate is very important. It can serve as a navigation chart.
The latest Chartbeat study has surveyed the global audience for online media and charted how readers are behaving, using those findings as a guide to determine what will happen in the future. Of course, they have found that mobile traffic – especially in some markets such as Asian and African – is very important. More and more people are reaching content via mobile devices. These are not the only conclusions.
The three key points of the study
In general, and at a global level, the study has determined the existence of three major trends that mark how the information will be consumed. They are those that are already being seen and those that will continue to mark the agenda during the second half of the year.
The first of them is that, in general, engagement is on the rise. His analysis has seen it both in the news about the coronavirus and in the topics that have nothing to do with it. Median engagement time and referral data are growing globally, although the media still have a lot to do.
As stated in the conclusions, they should take better care of their work when managing recirculation. Getting visitors to go to other pages within the same medium. It is key to the loyalty of audiences.
And this last point is very important in light of the second great trend: loyalty to the medium is going down. Internet users are reading in a varied way and do not follow specific media. Pages should strive to create an environment that “ensures they will stay, read deeply, and keep coming back.”
Europe is, yes, the region in which loyalty to the media is greatest. Northern Europe tops the loyalty ranking. 48% of the media page views are recurring visitor pages. It is followed by Central and Eastern Europe (40%), Asia Pacific (39%) and Southern Europe (39%).
Finally, the other great trend is linked to the great theme of the year, the coronavirus. Everything is very confusing here. As they point out in the Chartbeat findings, the pandemic has boosted traffic and engagement data. All-time highs have been reached. However, it is still very difficult to determine if the data obtained is significant in the long term or something marked simply by the context.
3 Key Content Marketing Trends
Content marketing evolves fast and in very different directions; almost always, guided by the evolution of the technology that sustains it. Therefore, it isn’t easy to choose between the different trends, but we have selected that we think is important to know.
Voice search
The 60% of smartphone users have done a voice search at the least once in the last 12 months. And it is expected that, by 2022, the acquisition of products by users, using voice systems, will increase to 40 billion dollars.
This is a market niche to exploit. However, there are few efforts in the marketing world to optimize content for voice searches. So, whoever wants to be ahead of the game should start optimizing all their content for voice.
And it is that the strategy will be different since the habits of users are different when they write than when they use the voice assistant.
For example, let’s talk about keywords. People usually write concise texts, but, when speaking with their voice assistant, they tend to communicate in a more natural way and with more complex sentences. If you want to search for – let’s say, “leather jackets online”. You will have a bunch of options prompted in result. If you specifically search, “leather jackets online USA”, you will be directed to a wide array of companies selling leather jackets online, such as Skinoutfits.
We tried searching “superhero leather jackets online”, and we found Skinoutfits with their extensive catalog of premium leather jackets, in an instant.
The rise of podcast
The insights on podcasts are staggering, and the trend is rising, so you should not miss this format. And they not only have great potential in terms of the number of users that can be reached, but also in the quality of the content.
It is an exciting format that allows us to be creative, innovative, add voices, interact with listeners. In short, it is an excellent window to reach our audience with highly personalized, attractive and evocative messages, which at the same time allow us to receive fairly direct feedback from our followers.
Personalization is no longer a simple option
At the 63% of consumers will not bother to receive personalized advertising and 80% prefer to purchase a product or service from a company that offers them designed to suit the consumer.
In short, digital tools have provided a very wide range of options to deliver a highly personalized product, message or service to the user, and this is a trend that is only getting worse.
But, in a way, this personalization has also become an imposition of customers or potential customers. The user is no longer willing to receive less, so content personalization is no longer an option to choose to become a fundamental strategy.
As we warned you at the beginning, these are just some of the most exciting trends in content marketing, but the options to innovate and stay ahead are endless, and it pays to keep up to date to create the best strategies.
