Content marketing trends are constantly evolving. SEO development, algorithm updates, and shifting market expectations – they all force you to adapt incessantly. As such, you can’t stick with the same old strategies. With the new year around the corner, you need to take stock and get ready for the content trends for 2020.
Even if you just reviewed your content strategy in 2019, you still need to launch a new upgrade cycle. Even small tweaks can greatly improve your outcomes. As such, a relatively limited investment in improving your content strategy can earn enormous dividends. With the right steps, a reinvigorated content strategy can pump up your SEO results and improve your user engagement
Shaping Your Content Strategies: Finding an Audience in 2020 Depend on Data
It’s an old story: data runs the world. Increased reliance on hard statistics has long provided a basis for the content-production process. This trend is primed to continue as we move into the 2020s. The reliance on data will only accelerate over the next decade. As a result, you need to double-down on your data-analysis program. You have to collect as much information about your audience as you can. Learn from your best content in 2019 (and, maybe even more importantly, learn from the 2019 content that didn’t work). This will allow you to set the agenda in 2020.
Narrower Targeting
There are many ways to use data. Sometimes, you can leverage the added information to build the largest possible audience. However, that’s not always the optimal way to maximize conversion rates and draw in the most revenue. Rather, narrowcasting your message is sometimes the better strategy.
By focusing your message on a well-defined audience, you are able to fine-tune your appeal. After all, there is a lot of Internet out there. Tailoring your offerings for a select group helps you avoid getting drowned in the vast sea of content available. Meanwhile, you can speak directly to your potential customers. There is a warning to keep in mind. The narrowcasting impulse can go too far. You need to avoid getting too closed off, constricting your ability to find a wider audience. But locating the happy medium between too general and too precise is possible, allowing you to boost conversion without cutting off growth.
Every Medium, All the Time
While 2020 might see the audience focus get narrower, an opposite trend will take place in the way content is distributed. In that area, the outlook will broaden. Content will be made available across multiple platforms, all at once. Video, text, audio, infographics – every possible way to reach an audience will get leveraged.
The continued multi-purposing of content in 2020 will extend a trend that has been developing for a long time. The advantages are obvious. Besides expanding your potential audience, the strategy allows you to repurpose information. By leveraging your current output on multiple platforms, you get more bang for your content buck.
Finding Partners
Once you have your content produced, you want it to get seen. Part of this comes from maximizing SEO and mining your data to better connect with your intended audience. However, there are other steps you can take as well. By finding appropriate strategic partners, you can broaden your reach without a massive investment in time or resources. Sometimes building the widest possible audience involves reaching people outside your immediate specialty. It allows you to find people who might not have discovered your content otherwise. Strategic content partnerships make this possible. By building alliances, you open the door to new markets and new niches.
New Frontiers: Content Strategies and Technology in the 2020s
Watch Out for Technology Upgrades
The story of the last few decades has been the tale of technological advancement. First, newspapers went online. Then, as internet speeds improved and computing technology became more powerful, the content morphed into video and audio presentations. Watch for further evolution in the 2020s. You’ll need to make your content flexible for optimal viewing on different platforms. It should appear in user-friendly versions on PCs, tablets, and mobile phones. Beyond that, you will have to keep an eye on the horizon for experimental opportunities. For example, VR presentations are already making strides.
New Ways to Connect with Audiences
The purpose of content is to deliver your message. To get that done, you have to engage with your intended audience, finding them in their most receptive mood. This process involves packaging your content in a user-friendly way. In other words, you need to stay current with user tastes. In the 2020s, this will involve embracing more interactive content. What once might have worked as a simple blog post will require a more elaborate approach in 2020. Pretty soon, video will seem old-fashioned. You will have to move toward structures like apps, games, and quizzes.
Leveraging AI
Modern technology doesn’t just improve your ability target your audience. It also makes the act of producing content easier. That’s where Artificial Intelligence comes into play. This emerging tech allows you to expand and personalize the kind of content you create. You can use AI to create engaging content quickly and inexpensively. Meanwhile, the programs allow you to individuate your output. Using AI-driven technology, like chatbots, can help you connect with new potential clients. There are limitations in the field at this point, but it still gives you another avenue to consider as you plan your content strategies for 2020.