Content Trends That You Can’t Miss in 2021
Of course, we can’t forget that “Content is king” and it will be dominating the future. Without content, it is not possible to keep your customers engaged. Both SEO and Content Marketing are gaining traction.
Being a digital marketer, you already know that it is essential to boost your content marketing efforts for growing your brand. Soon we will enter the future where more helpful, useful, and technically amazing content will be seen aligning with user preferences as well as search needs.
Therefore, it is essential to learn about the latest content trends to stay in the minds of your global audience. There’s a major shift in the content trends today and that is due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s take a look at them.
1. Upgraded Visuals will Rise in the Content
The trend for visually-forward platforms will continue now as well as in the future.
May it be entertainment or communication, people are highly preferring dynamic or interactive imagery.
Visual social media will dominate the next-gen.
Teens are continuously seen using Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok which are the most popular platforms. While adults mostly use YouTube over Facebook.
Therefore, content with visuals will be getting more interesting and engaging to users
For example, you can now create your own augmented reality (AR) filters and lenses for Snapchat.
Apart from that, you might have tried creating your own Instagram filters for Stories.
Rather than using a GIF from your TV show, favorite movie, or character, it is now possible to GIF yourself.
There are endless possibilities.
Today as well as in the future, more marketers will use custom, dynamic, and branded imagery for their content.
2. Video Content will Still Rise along with Story Telling
Video is one of the most impactful trends rising infinitely globally. The Annual Internet Report of Cisco states that video content is expected to equal 82% of all internet traffic. It seems to be a gold mine for marketers.
According to a HubSpot survey, more than 54% of consumers will prefer more content from their brands and this makes it clear that you need to focus on video content in 2021.
But this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the other forms of content and put videos on priority. Using different types of video formats that match your brand, niche, and industry is important. Then those can be optimized for every step in the customer’s journey.
For instance, if customers are finding some information to educate themselves, explainer videos and product guides will help them. If customers are ready to purchase a product, videos containing a comparison of product options that directly link to the product pages will be helpful.
Moreover, ensure that your videos reflect your brand along with its identity and values. This will have a great impact and the video audience will remember you in the online world.
3. Creating the Hype for E-A-T
Just a few years back, Google reminded us about its core updates and things to do about them via its blog published on Webmaster Central.
The blog suggested following an action that many of us are already doing: Understanding the guidelines of the Search Quality Rater and E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
Google had given us the hint by specifically directing us to this resource and pointed out E-A-T. It is important to stay focused on proving expertise, authority, and trust in our content.
This is applicable to websites as entities that represent a specific brand or organization, as well as to individual authors that write content on those websites.
You can prove your E-A-T in the below ways:
- Get links or mentions from other authority websites.
- Offer E-A-T information on your site, especially in the bio and credentials on your About page as well as the author pages.
- To support stats, facts, and data in content, link to the authoritative websites.
- Keep your site and content updated with accurate, relevant, and current information.
- Also, see that your content is exceptional.
If it is user-beneficial, well-crafted, and purposeful supported by E-A-T, it will win.
4. Content Created Will Be More Useful to the Audience
The need for quality and purposeful content will continue to grow.
The below stats explain how marketers are understanding the need for high-quality content:
- As per the Content Marketing Institute’s B2B report, 70% of marketers will highly invest in creating content.
- There has been a rise in investment and use of content creation/workflow technologies by 10% over 12 months.
- 86% of B2Bs outsource for creating content.
Marketers now understand that better content is the only thing to rank in SERPs and engage the readers.
Though not now but if all start creating quality content ranking for key terms will get difficult.
Below will be the actions taken by brands of all sizes:
- Understanding the needs of the target audience from search results in a better way.
- Writing content to cater to audiences’ requirements along with maintaining the consistency of the brand’s voice and style.
- Research that includes current stats and data from highly authoritative sources.
- Exploring topics in a detailed manner.
- Displaying visuals such as infographics, brand imagery, and custom blog images.
No doubt ranking will become harder but brands won’t stop producing better content.
It also means the crap content will get reduced.
5. Content will be Focused on Customer-First
Creating content that is user-friendly or customer-first is a winning strategy in terms of search engines as well as audiences.
As per 88% of successful B2B marketers, they give importance to the audience when creating content rather than promoting content that is sales.
They know that trust with the audience can be built only by offering them information, help, guidance, or entertainment without forcing them to buy.
Moreover, content that is user-friendly and fulfills users’ needs is sure to rank at the top in Google. This trend will continue as it has always worked.
Let me ask you something. How can you define your unique audience needs from your content?
The answer is simple, through research. You ask questions, engage with the community, and discover your audience and after knowing them well, you can create content that speaks to them deeply. This type of content is ultra-targeted content.
In this type of content, the audience is put first, understands the user search intent, serves their purpose, and provides the information required.
Google is prioritizing the such type of content and this will be the focus area for all the marketers.
Conclusion
The content's future was never predicted as so good earlier.
Since marketers now know the importance of quality and purposeful content, they are planning to focus on the same so that it caters to customers’ requirements rather than forcing them to buy. This will help in building trust with the audience.
Apart from this, visual media is evolving too.
If you want to win, you will need to focus on ultra-targeted content, work on a customer-first approach and serve quality content.