2020 is here, and for us, that means a whole new set of digital marketing trends, innovations, and ideas to monitor and implement. With both markets and technology evolving faster than ever before, anticipating and staying on top of the 2020 content marketing trends is a challenge for any business. But that challenge should be met head-on, because meeting those challenges will pay dividends, and will help your business blast off to new heights for the future.
Four 2020 Content Marketing Trends
With that said, here are some of the 2020 content marketing trends to implement and build upon.
Voice Search
When we talk about how quickly technology advances in the modern era, voice search and smart speakers are a prime example. The number of smart speaker owners in the U.S. rose 40% in 2018 to reach 66.4 million, with the Amazon Echo dominating the market share. Google reports that 20% of searches on the Google app are voice searches. Users searching with voice commands will likely become more prevalent throughout 2020, which means businesses should be taking advantage of this quickly growing technology.
Businesses may need to rethink their SEO and content marketing strategies, as the wording and structure between text and voice searches differ. For example, text keywords are more likely to be short phrases, such as “chocolate cake recipe” or “shoe store near me.” Voice searches tend to be longer phrases, such as “how to bake chocolate cake” or “what shoe stores are near me.”
Video
While voice search is still in the early stages of becoming more mainstream, video’s position of a highly effective form of content continues to rise. The popularity of video, both as content and as one of the 2020 content marketing trends, is difficult to overstate. But video’s popularity is well-deserved. Short, entertaining videos that easily explain what your business and/or product does resonates with your audience.
Another area of video that could be a hit is live video. Live videos on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram keep people watching for longer and engaging and interacting more often. A live video offers a completely different experience than a traditional advertisement. Businesses being able to directly engage with their clients while making informative and entertaining content can lead to increased brand awareness and even build trust.
Personalization
Every business owner understands that successful content marketing is about knowing what the audience wants and how said business can help them. One of the top 2020 content marketing trends, personalization is the method of creating content that speaks to the needs and wants of an audience, converting the members into customers. Personalization can be as simple as using a lead’s first name in a marketing email. More complex methods of personalization, such as Amazon knowing what a customer’s search and purchase pattern is, then showing certain ads or highlighting certain products in order to boost conversion.
Consumers engage with a lot of advertisements in their day-to-day lives, and because of that, many consumers know how to block out or ignore ads that have little to do with their personal needs and interests. Using personalization, businesses can better convert their target audience.
Semantic and AI Search Expansion
Relevant, interesting, and high-quality content has long been required for digital marketers, and 2020 should be the year many marketers emphasize the “relevant” aspect.
Gone are the days of filling webpages and blogs with exact-keyword optimization. SEO has evolved to the point where query context and search intent have become more important to improving search results. Google recently introduced BERT, a new search algorithm that is designed to better understand natural language and query context. This ties into voice search, as search engines like Google improve the ability to understand natural language, which is more likely to be used in voice search than text.
Google’s BERT ties into another 2020 marketing trend: artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI), often describes machines that mimic cognitive functions associated with human minds, such as learning or problem solving. AI is being used to help content marketers comb through the vast amounts of data and better understand customer intent. Content creation and distribution to help customers move through the marketing funnel could be a key function of AI in 2020.
Contact VIEWS to Help Your Business Blast Off with Content Marketing
Now that you know more about some of the 2020 content marketing trends, talk with some of our digital marketing experts to help implement these trends for your business. Our digital marketing agency has worked with various businesses, from eCommerce to business-to-business (B2B) firms. Contact us today, and we can help you take your business to the stars.