The end of the year always provides such a good time to reflect on trends and the direction we’re going! After a year with so many transitions across industries, privacy laws, and marketing channels, our focuses for next year have also shifted! One area to focus on in 2022 is content marketing.

If these last few years have taught us anything, it’s that content-based marketing really is one of the most important pieces of marketing. Your approach to content informs many aspects of business, not just marketing. Content covers all the ways you communicate. It’s tied to branding and mission and purpose and your focus. The type of content you produce helps you make decisions about marketing channels and our audience.

Content Trends 2022

With the rise of content marketing, ecommerce, and digital advertising, everyone acknowledges that social media, blogs, email marketing, etc. are all effective ways to sell people. The problem is that the very nature of content marketing erases the lines between education, entertainment, and sales. We have become so inundated with ads that our brains have been conditioned to go on the defensive when we feel like we are being sold.

An often-quoted marketing research study from 2007 found that the average American saw 5,000 advertisements a day. 5,000 ads a day pre-digital billboards, pre-Farmville, pre-Instagram, and pre-iPhone. Current estimates put the average number ads seen every day closer to 10,000. The 2007 study warned that number of ads cluttering our life would push for innovation in advertising that would in turn, create more clutter.

What can we do to cut through the clutter in 2022? Content marketing is an effective way because if done well, isn’t actually an ad and will actually reach the consumer.

Here’s three trends/focuses to incorporate into your 2022 content marketing.

Storytelling

This ties into the old writing rule: show don’t tell. Telling a customer how great you are won’t make them believe you. Showing them will prove it to them. But weaving a story around your product, brand, and successes will build an emotional connection between you and your customers.

Education

This goes hand in hand with storytelling and the inundation of advertising we all deal with. We have an excessive number of options to choose from. As well as our personal connection with brands, we use things like Social Proof to help us decide what products to buy. Brands can use this to their advantage by educating customers about their product instead of selling their product. The focus on pure information takes the pressure off the consumer to purchase. In turn, an educated customer is more likely to purchase.

Personalization

Even with increased privacy and data laws, there is more access to information about customers than ever. We often talk about personalized advertising in connection with retargeting and audience segmentation. It’s easy with personalization to focus on how specific and personalized you can get your advertising. ‘If someone clicks this and this and lives in these areas then we know all of this about them and can serve an ad for this specific product.’ That type of thinking is very valuable and helps you communicate effectively with your customers.

But personalized advertising doesn’t need to be that minute; it can be as simple as thinking about what channel you are using. Are you making blog content? What type of person reads blogs? You could build out a detailed buyer persona based on analytics and write with them in mind. That is very personalized! Or you could use common sense to tell you that most people who read blogs are probably interested in educating themselves, which also gives you a lot of information to personalize. The personalization can just be the focus of the channel. ‘These consumers are here to be educated, so we are going to educate them.’

Spotlighted Marketing Channel: CTV

Many marketers are using CTV (connected TV) or OTT (over-the-top) channels to target consumers using streaming services and connected TV devices such as Hulu and Roku. Advertisers are embracing these platforms as more and more ad space becomes available. Spending for CTV advertising grew from $6.94 billion in 2019 to $8.88 billion in 2020, a 28% increase.

Advertiser spent an estimated $8.88 billion on CTV in 2020

Read more about the future of CTV here!

What things are you excited to focus on in 2022?

Content creation is an integral part of marketing or running a business in general now. However, a lot of companies struggle with creating content that generates engagement. Part of the value of content creation is that engagement and the conversation between brand and consumer. What can you do to create engaging content for your brand?

Here’s 7 things we have found to be essential in making quality content!

Know Your Audience

The content you create for one audience can be very different from another. Understanding the WHO is helpful first step.

It can also be helpful if you think of your audience as a single composite person. Instead of trying to talk to all of them, you are instead making content for one person. A lot of companies do this by making a buyer persona. That way you can think, “Would my buyer persona like this?” vs. “Would all my followers enjoy this content?”

Make a Plan

There is nothing more overwhelming than trying to maintain consistent content posting across multiple channels without a plan. It can feel like juggling snakes. 🐍 Making a plan can be as simple as figuring out what types of content you want to post and when it would be best to time to post it. The more specific your plan is the more you time you take out of the equation.

Part of making a plan is planning out your message and/or your angle. Now that you know who your audience is, think about what type of content would work best for them. Knowing what you want to talk about can make it easier to figure out what types of content would be best. Would your audience benefit from long form blog articles or would a TikTok series be more helpful? Both of those types of content take a lot of effort, so planning it out ahead of time is valuable!

Find Shared Passions

The sheer amount of product, companies, and information available is staggering. It is not enough anymore to have a good product available anymore, your brand ideals and personality need to match with the personality of your consumers. 56% of Gen Z consumers say that having shared passions and perspectives is a major factor when it comes to their engagement with a brand. However, most consumers are fantastic at sniffing out inauthenticity. Your brand personality and ideals need to actually be what you say they are. Actions speak louder than words!

What are the advantages of having a well-defined brand personality and ideals? Giving your company a personality makes things like content creation a lot easier. Knowing who you are also can help you make decisions about the direction you want to go in the future.

And 49% of young consumers say they will evangelize a brand they feel represents their values, likes, and personality.

Don’t be afraid of incorporating causes you care about into your brands personality! 72% of consumers want the brands they care about to be positive contributors to society. We’ve seen in recent years that many brands (especially smaller companies) connect their core brand to a charity or cause they care about. Younger consumers are 69% more likely to buy from a brand that contributes to a cause.

Keep It Simple

Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. No matter who your audience is, needlessly complicated language or content structure isn’t appreciated. Simple and honest is always good. Remember, why you are making the content. Is it to promote you or your brand? Then tone of the content should match your voice. People can see right through any inauthenticity if you are trying to make something that isn’t you.

It’s easier to connect with a brand online if you feel like you are talking to a real person. Does the content you are making sound personal?

Remember the Big Picture

Why do you want to make this content? Keep the big picture of your content in mind as well as each individual piece. Are you trying to promote a specific product or service? Don’t be afraid to include a call to action in your content! A call to action is how to accomplish the goal of your content. It’s the follow through.

A good call to action is simple and concise. It uses strong verbiage. Give your audience a good reason to take the desired action. Don’t be afraid to get creative!

Take a Step Back

When it comes to content, it’s often valuable to take a step back and from your project and let it rest for a bit. The longer you work on a piece of content the easier it is to be become blind to mistakes, errors, and typos. You may be surprised by the power of fresh eyes!

An old copy writer trick is to proofread backwards. Instead of starting at the beginning of your content: start at the end. Because your brain is following a different path through the information, it sees things in a different way. Starting at the end allows you to look at it sentence by sentence instead of word by word or thought by thought. Knowing your content is edited well will help you feel more confident in posting it.

Another aspect of taking a step back from your content is revisiting old content. Repurposing or adapting finished content is an excellent way to stay inspired and make more content. There are always new things that can be added. Adding information keeps your messages up to date. Up-to-date content is more accurate and provides for value to your followers. Another reason to recycle content is that it gives more people an opportunity to see it. And even if someone has been following you for a long time there’s a good chance that they didn’t see the content the first time around.

Keep Consuming Content

This is my favorite part. 😜 One of the best ways to keep your own content sharp is to consume other content. It can inspire you, help you stay up to date with current trends, and keep your skill sharp. Most ideas don’t start in our heads, the spark is external. All of the creative juices it takes to create content can easily be burnt out if you don’t feed it with creative thing that you care about. Change your scenery, have conversations, read books or articles, watch a movie or show. Diversity of other creative inputs will refill your own creativity!

What type of Content have you found to be the most engaging with your audience?