Content marketing focuses on attracting potential customers in a natural way by generating content that is relevant to them and thus attracting their attention. This entire process of planning, creating, and sharing content helps the company build brand awareness, convince customers to take action, and thereby generate revenue. There are several ways to distribute that content. The first that come to mind are surely social networks and blogs, but in a time of constant change, new trends emerge every year that replace the way companies reach their audiences and buyer personas.
If you are a marketing specialist or manager, being up to date and knowing what your competitors are focusing on is essential so that you can create a strategy that stands out from the crowd. If you keep reading, you will discover what the trends are in content marketing, but also the news that arrives.
Main trends and statistics in content marketing
HubSpot’s latest Marketing Trends of 2022 report highlights the following data from a survey of marketing experts, professionals, and companies.
- 47% of shoppers view three to five pieces of content before deciding to engage with a brand.
- 82% of marketers are actively using content marketing, up 10% from last year.
- Video is the most used form of content marketing, surpassing blogs and infographics. More than 31% of professionals invest in video and audiovisual content. By 2022, 89% of marketers are expected to continue or increase their investment in video marketing strategies.
- The primary goals for marketers to run their campaigns are brand awareness, increased sales, and increased engagement.
- SEO to generate search traffic to the web. According to data from Hubspot, SEO was the sixth most used technique by marketing professionals and companies. 84% of them will continue to invest in organic positioning tactics in 2022.
- The top three organic content distribution channels for B2B marketers are social media channels, email, and website.
All these figures lead us to establish an essential list of content marketing trends to follow in 2022:
1. Video is the preferred format
As a result of changing professional consumer behavior due to the health crisis and increased use of remote work, video is now central to any content marketing strategy, taking center stage for the second year in a row.
How you use the videos will depend on the strategy of your brand and what is the specific objective you are looking for. Some companies will opt for shorter videos on TikTok to increase brand awareness, others will opt for longer explainer videos to promote their products, for example.
2. Infographics and multimedia content with good results
In addition to video, it is an increasingly popular strategy to incorporate graphic or multimedia content whenever possible.
We have become accustomed to social platforms full of photos and videos and this means that our ability to pay attention to long or complex texts is greatly reduced. This forces marketers to invent new ways to incorporate the text and thus increase the understanding of their content. How? The use of infographics in social networks allows you to highlight useful information, thus being able to process data more easily and in an attractive way. According to the HubSpot report, of the professionals who use infographics in their content strategy, 56% say that it is their most effective content.
3. The most specialized strategic SEO tactics
Marketers have spent years investing more and more in SEO to attract users to the website. However, in this last year, the trend has less to do with SEO optimization in general and is more focused on finding the long-tail and niche keywords and creating content based on those words, thus making that content relevant. more attractive and more consumed.
Companies are looking for ways to create in-depth content that is unique, valuable, and different from what competitors offer.
4. The growth of the podcast
One content marketing trend to watch out for in 2022 is the rise of podcasts.
The figures indicate that podcasts are increasingly popular with the public, why? Above all, because with so much variety, there is always one for every taste or need, it is easy to find content that suits your specialty or business area.
In addition, a podcast is like a conversation, the listener feels that he is part of that dialogue and attends to the content in a more natural way. This is why it is more open to listening to content-related ads and why it offers companies a greater ability to generate profits.
And not only that, the podcast is a great way to help your business become a thought leader and source of authority in your industry.
5. Personalization of web content is essential
Marketers need to focus their efforts on showing their prospects content that is relevant to them at the right time. This implies studying the tastes and needs of your audience to offer them what they want. This way, in addition, you will generate loyalty to your brand, which will give you more conversions and therefore, more income.
And how is this done? Study the behavior of users on your website: where they stay the longest or what products they look at the most. Guide them to those pages the next time they visit you.
6. Content reuse helps your marketing strategy
Reusing content means using existing content and presenting it in a new format. Now that you’ve invested time and resources into creating valuable, high-quality content that you know your audience enjoys, take advantage of it and expand your reach.
You can repurpose content in a variety of ways: create a slideshow from a high-performing blog post, share screenshots of product page reviews or testimonials on social media, or create text transcripts of episodes. podcast, for example.
Virtual events are still profitable
A webinar is a video presentation, webinar, or conference delivered to an audience digitally. In 2021, 51% of marketers invested in virtual events due to the health situation caused by COVID-19.
Attending digital events allowed consumers to continue to engage with their businesses and continue to derive value from industry leaders. Trends and data from webinar platforms indicate that webinars are here to stay. 80% of professionals who have invested in this type of virtual event will continue to bet on its use in 2022.
Stay up to date in your industry
It is always important to stay up to date on what is happening in the industry in general and in your sector in particular. Staying on top of what’s new is the best way to go, but sometimes it’s hard to have time for everything. Finding an agency that knows how to look for these trends for you and adapt them to your specific case is a guarantee of success.
