6 content trends marketers need to watch right now

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In the last six months, content marketing has undergone a huge change. The introduction of mainstream Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tools, a tightening economy, and shifting social media algorithms are causing ripples in marketing strategies as we head toward Q3.

New tools and slimmer budgets can’t change one thing: content marketing is still a critical piece of any marketing strategy. According to HubSpot’s research web traffic  is the second most important metric when companies measure the ROI of their content marketing strategy. In fact, marketers say that when budgets are slashed, web content and blogs are some of the channels they’re most likely to keep.

As a web writer and freelance blogger, I love to see it, but that doesn’t mean the content landscape isn’t shifting. Video and influencer marketing are huge channels for marketers, and rapidly-improving tools like ChatGPT have joined the party.

Things are changing for marketers, and fast.

So what are the big content marketing trends you should be focusing on right now?

The 6 top content trends right now

  1. Personalization

Customers expect a lot from businesses these days; 60 percent of customer service professionals say customer expectations have risen thanks to the pandemic. They expect personalized care and that includes marketing content.

Customers expect content tailored to their specific interests, needs, and preferences. To achieve this, marketers will need to use data-driven insights, insights, and engagement with customers on social media to create content that speaks directly to their target audience.

  1. Visual content

Customers want more than copy. (Just ask my YouTube-addicted child.) To grab and keep the attention of consumers, marketers need to go beyond the written word, incorporating more visual elements such as videos, infographics, and images in their writing to make their content more engaging. Articles with at least 3 images and at least one video do very well, according to research by Semrush — sad news for writers like me who don’t want to brush their hair and appear in a video.

  1. Voice search optimization

With the rise of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, voice search is becoming an increasingly popular way for users to find information. Content managers need to optimize their content for voice search by incorporating long-tail keywords and conversational language. This will help their content to rank higher in voice search results.

  1. People-first content

Humans love stories. We love writing them, we love hearing them, and if your latest content is totally SEO-driven, you may be turning off your customers.

We all want to rank on Google, but Google itself tells us to create “content for people, not search engines.” In other words, SEO is all well and good, but if you want people to come back after your SEO has brought them to your site, you need to tell a compelling story. How? Interviews, personal experiences, case studies, and stories about your brand’s history are all ways to use storytelling. And of course, you can get in touch with me to discuss other ways to craft a narrative in your marketing.

  1. Interactive content

We love interaction and immersive experiences, and so do your customers! Incorporate more interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and surveys to increase engagement and encourage user participation. These elements also give you valuable information about your audience.

  1. Artificial Intelligence

AI is rapidly transforming the content writing industry right now. Some marketing managers are ignoring it or forbidding its use. Some are relying too heavily on it, churning out a lot of mediocre content. There is a sweet spot, however. AI tools like ChatGPT can help marketers by automating some of the tasks they might not love (research, outlining, writing 10 headline suggestions for a blog post) and freeing them up to do the real creative work they love.

By partnering with AI, you can create content more quickly, and have more time for content strategy, interviews, and the sort of creative work only humans can provide.

Content is still king

Content writing is an ever-evolving field, but one thing hasn’t changed: your company needs it. Producing regular, compelling content that resonates with your customers is still the key to getting eyes on your site, and driving business growth.

Want to make your content sing? Get in touch with me today.

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Three Quick Ways E-Learning Companies Can Keep Content Rolling Out — Even During Back-to-School Chaos

It’s the start of a new school year, and it’s all hands on deck for e-learning companies.

As an edtech leader, you spend the last half of August and the first half of September tending to your existing clients. You help them roll out new content. You train personnel on your tech. And you are constantly, constantly troubleshooting.

But back-to-school chaos doesn’t mean your blog can go dark.

We’ve all been guilty of it. In August and July, people go on vacation. Things are let go. Blogs can be neglected. Then the hustle of the school year sets in and it’s October before you know it.

You need to keep that content rolling out. Not only does a dead blog look uninviting to visitors (also, not having fresh content is not going to bring any new visitors) but the more you update your site, the more frequently your site will be visited and indexed by search engines.

“But I’m slammed this time of year,” you say. “I don’t have time to blog.”

Okay, fair enough. Here are three quick ways you can update your site while dealing with back to school insanity.

1.) Re-use your old content. Do you have an evergreen post? Something that was published on your blog as a Back to School piece last year or the year before, that may still be relevant? Time to make it work for you all over again.
Pull up that content and change anything that may be dated about it. If it refers to old events or offers or personnel who have moved on, delete that. Make sure the cultural references are up-to-date. (Does it reference Tiddleswift? Delete. “Uptown Funk” as the song of the summer? Plug in “Despacito.”) Add in new offers or events. Now comes the magic part.  Change the date of your post and update it. Et voila, new blog post.

2) Do a video. No time to type a post? Make a quick video. Not a slick video, just a quick one of you delivering the message you might otherwise type into a blog post. As a professional writer, I get it — blog posts take time. You have to do research, look up links, find art, make sure your words make sense. If you’re an e-learning founder, you might not have time for that right now. So decide what to talk about (answer common questions from your clients, for example, or talk about the work you’re doing to prep for the school year). You might even Facebook Live to take questions from your audience in real-time and then post the link to your blog. (Some of my colleagues are big Facebook Live-rs. Here’s more from content strategist Erin Ollila about how Facebook Live has worked wonders for her businesses.)

3) Create a round-up. Round-ups are the best. Do you regularly read about the e-learning industry? Do you spend a lot of time listening to edtech podcasts? Write a round up of the most interesting articles or pods you’ve consumed recently. What about tools you use or integrate with that your audience might find useful or interesting (LMSes, quick video creation tools, or Open educational resources, for example.) Do you have an active social media presence? Did you have a funny or informational exchange with someone recently? Tweet a story time? If it makes sense to do so, Storify that thread and present it in a blog post.

Done. You have now updated your blog and are free to return to the chaos of early September.

Let’s make sure this never happens again, okay?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? To make sure that next year, during back to school (or during graduation season, or midterms) you don’t let your blog lag, take the time to put together a content strategy. Plan what’s going to be on your site ahead of time. Write those posts ahead of time. Work from a schedule so you don’t have to worry about content when you’re crunched for time.

Need help? I’m a freelance content writer who specializes in e-learning. I can help take content off your plate so you can concentrate on your tech. Get in touch today. We’ll do a free 15 minute call to see if we work well together.

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