Posted by Content marketing is an important part of any digital marketing strategy which is why it is crucial for high conversions. Here are seven trends in content marketing that you should use to make your conversions higher.
#1 User-Generated Content
Marketers and business owners are appreciated User-generated content (or UGC) more and more. The reason why it is so powerful is that it is a form of social proof! It can not only improve your reputation and attract new customers, but it can also reduce your workload and minimize your expenses.
By encouraging your audience to create UGC, you will be establishing a stronger relationship with your followers on social media platforms or readers of your blog. You should show that you genuinely want to hear their opinion about your brand and your products – that you value what they have to say and treat it seriously.
By curating user-generated content, you will also decrease the amount of content you have to create as a brand because you will already have some content that corresponds to your brand. This, in turn, will let you minimize the amount of budget you spend on creating content, be it text, images, videos, or something else.
#2 VR & AR
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies, also known as VR and AR, have become a very common method of engaging the customers, improving user experience, and upgrading your ad campaigns. Both VR and AR are still being developed and haven’t reached their final forms, but they are already very advanced.
One way you can start using VR and AR in your marketing is by allowing your potential customers to view your products remotely before buying them. Basically, they will be able to point their camera at something and see your product as if it is right in front of them. Of course, they won’t be able to touch it, but they can work around it and look at it from different sides.
If you are offering services offline (e.g. spa, barbershop, gym), you can offer virtual tours on your website to show what your place looks like inside. It’s a great way to spark your audience’s interest and make them want to come and use your services.
#3 Educational Content
When it comes to content, there are three standard types of value that it can bring to your audience: educational, entertaining, and informative. Educational content is actually becoming more widespread. This is because most people are looking for answers to their questions. That being said, informative and educational content is quite similar.
The main aim of such content is to provide value to the audience as opposed to entertaining content which usually only strives to entertain the audience in some way (e.g. funny or cute videos you see on Instagram). Whether you choose to create educational or entertaining content will determine your brand identity (though you can mix the two).
There is not enough educational content in all niches, so if the topics you want to cover haven’t been covered before, creating educational content covering them will be very profitable for you and useful for your audience. You will fill your niche and eventually establish yourself as an expert in your particular field.
#4 Helpful Tools
Using helpful tools will not only assist you and make your content creation easier but will also possibly improve the quality of your content. Here are some tools you can try:
- Grammarly: This online tool will check your text for possible grammar, spelling, and punctuation issues proposing you a way to correct them.
- Pick The Writer: For those who are looking for a writer to create their content, Pick The Writer can be an excellent place to start. You can compare different writers and then choose the one that fits your situation best.
- Hemingway Editor: Another great editing tool that will locate passive voice, complicated sentences, adverbs, and other complex linguistic words and phrases in your text that can be removed to make the text more readable.
- Writing Judge: A good place to find a writer, Writing Judge is probably one of the best services for those who need content creators.
- Thesaurus: Sometimes, finding the right synonym or antonym can make a big difference. Thesaurus can help you look those up while also checking the definition of a specific word.
#5 Video Content
Video content is great for various reasons. Videos are amazing for improving your search engine rankings while also being very attractive for audiences. The appeal of videos lies in the fact that they can convey large volumes of information in a much smaller amount of time than you would through articles.
A good starting point would be to determine which platform you would like to create your platform for. You could create your YouTube channel and post there, but there is also a fair chance that publishing directly to your website or blog will be enough. Alternatively, you could focus on creating videos for social media.
Once you have chosen where you will be posting the videos, you will need to decide your format and any other characteristics you that your videos will have. Keep in mind that social media videos, for example, will need to be shorter than the videos that you would normally publish on YouTube.
#6 Voice Search
Did you know that there are very many searches done with the help of voice assistants? This is why many business owners and marketers are trying to adapt their content for voice search. It may seem that regular searches and voice searches work the same way, but they are actually different in some ways.
Just think about it: when someone activates voice search, their query is usually different from the one you would type in because the person using voice search will be saying the query. This is why the end result might be different from regular searches because the accent will be on other keywords than the ones that would be searched for with regular searches.
To optimize your content for voice search, think about all the possible queries and determine the keywords you have to include in your text for it to be relevant for voice searches just as much as it is relevant for regular searches. Try to experiment a bit before settling for particular keywords.
#7 Podcasts
Last but not least, podcasting is becoming more popular than it used to be. Like videos, podcasts and various audio content conveys more information in a shorter amount of time compared to how much text can convey. Besides, podcasts can be listened to and don’t require all the attention of your audience, so many listeners like multi-tasking.
One crucial benefit that podcasts have over videos is that they require less equipment and less effort from your side. Podcasts are often improvised on the spot as they are merely discussions of certain topics, and they also require only microphones and some editing software instead of cameras, microphones, lighting equipment, and so on.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, content marketing trends are truly fundamental for creating an effective digital marketing strategy that will increase your conversions. Use the tips in this article to make your campaign successful in the long run.
This is a guest post by Ava Jones.
Based in Chicago, Ava T. Jones is best known for her contributions to translation and writing. She is currently working as a freelance writer for The Word Point the translation agency. She entered the writing world to explore her passion for contrastive linguistics, adaptation and lexicography. Ava also enjoys skiing, social media management and vegan parties.