Customer loyalty is the Holy Grail of marketers, and today we will show you the top new content marketing trends that will help you retain your customers. Why content and not other clever marketing strategy? Why not customer loyalty programs? Why not special promotions?
The fact of the matter is that content creation in 2020 remains the marketing strategy with the second highest ROI, right after email marketing (which involves content, as well). According to OptinMonster, each $1 spent generates:
$40 for email marketing
$22.4 for SEO
$19.72 for internet display.
Now, all three categories involve content. And we know exactly what makes your customers engage with your content, remain loyal to your business and continue to generate sales. In this guide, we will not focus only on content writing tips for 2020, but also on the way you should distribute your content for maximum impact.
What Is New in Content Marketing Trends?
The changes from last year in terms of how to write a blog and the type of content that users prefer continue on the same general trend. Consumers want personalized connections with their favorite brands. They want to feel that the content created and shared by brands is tailored to their specific needs and interests.
Most of all, consumers want full transparency from the companies they do business with. According to Conductor:
“Today’s consumer wants transparency, they want a personal connection, they even want input in dealing with their favorite brands.”
Thus, consumers need to trust that these companies are looking out for their customers’ interests. And this trust can be built through content. In the light of this requirement, the top content writing tips in 2020 start with these three cornerstones:
Transparency
Authenticity
Honesty.
These three values must be prevalent in 2020 content more than ever. Plus, as per Entrerpreneur, personalization is paramount. These being said, these are the top formats of content creation in 2020 that drive customer loyalty and high conversion rates.
1. Blog Posts
If you already read our blog writing tips for 2020, you know that it is not something you should rush. But the more you write, the better you will get at it. With a clear intent in mind and knowing your customer persona, you will be able to write an article that meets their interests and expresses your brand voice.
You may ask – why are blog posts the first in your list? Why not white papers? Why not infographics? To answer you, we shall resort to statistics. According to OptinMonster:
77 million comments are written each month by blog readers
43% more indexed pages belong to websites that have a blog attached
59% consumers share blog posts on the social media, even without reading all of them;
57% of marketers acquired new clients through blog posts.
Thus, blog writing in 2020 is one of the leading content marketing strategies. Blog posts are extremely versatile. You can share them on the social media. You can repurpose their content as PowerPoint slides and publish them on Slideshare (now part of LinkedIn). Or you can turn them into a video and post it on YouTube.
2. Original Research
Original research is the most valuable type of 2020 content, but also the most difficult to produce. It goes beyond how to write a blog or how to optimize your content writing in 2020 to win at the SEO game. Original research relies on the talents you managed to attract in your company and their skill at identifying trends, drawing conclusions from constant market research and presenting them in an engaging, well written form.
The effort is not without its specific rewards. As Buzzsumo reports, original research pieces gain more backlinks and social media shares in a shorter time than any other type of content. This is the power of high quality and 100% authentic content creation.
However, it is not the type of content you can produce with a high frequency. And, in striving to gain more traction and more customer loyalty, you should not trivialize this format by applying it to every kind of content, which could very well make a popular blog post.
3. Case Studies
Among new content marketing trends, case studies remain popular both for B2C and for B2B marketing. With regard to B2B, the statistics speak for themselves:
90% of buyers who read case studies focusing on customer success stories were influenced in they decision to make a purchase;
77% of buyers in the awareness phase consider case studies the most influential type of content; 60% of buyers actively search for case studies among other sources of information to evaluate a potential suppliers;
When it comes to customer loyalty, case studies work in two significant ways. One is the strengthening of the positive impression they have. With each new case study, consumers gain more trust in a business and its product.
On another hand, being featured in a case study represents the 15 minutes of fame many people yearn for. For B2B companies, being the subject of a customer success story is a great opportunity to generate backlinks and a positive sentiment concerning their brand.
4. White Papers
White papers are different from original research. They must be data driven, but it does not necessarily have to be original data produced by the company. Certainly, proper quotation is one of the basic rules of content writing tips for 2020 white papers.
The number one advantage of white papers is the fact that they are a long form type of content, where you can deploy your keyword strategy. Apart from the main keywords, you can feature long tail keywords, synonyms and LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords, as well.
From the point of view of customer loyalty, white papers bring logical (as opposed to emotion riven) reasons for them to trust your business. White papers showcase your expertise and professionalism in your industry.
They can also become great sources of quality backlinks, as other publications or thought leaders in your niche will quote and share them. For all these reasons, we recommend any brand to include white papers in their general strategy for content creation in 2020.
5. Quizzes and Polls
Quizzes and polls are hugely popular among B2C customers and encourage loyalty. They are the most personalized type of content, because the final result is always based on the customer’s input.
Here are some effective examples of using quizzes and polls as part of your strategy for content creation in 2020:
Help users find the product they need based on answers to questions
Help users customize a basic product according to their preferences
Poll your customers to select one of several must-have features of a new product
Measure your customers’ sentiment towards your brand.
With proper distribution by email and on your social media accounts, your quizzes and polls have the chance of going viral and generating a lot of traffic to your website.
As for your existing customers, the fact that you are asking for their input or offering them guidance in finding a product will only determine them to stay loyal to your brand.
6. Infographics
Infographics will never go out of fashion. No matter what new content marketing trends will come and go, these visual formats will remain popular for consumers. The main reason behind their popularity is the fact that they help people understand abstract information.
The human brain is wired to process visual data faster and retain it for a longer term compared to written data. Thus, a long list of percentages, turned into a pie chart or an infographic, will have a stronger appeal and generate deeper understanding.
Now, looking at infographics from the point of view of engagements and customer loyalty, surveys show that:
Infographics are the most shared type of content;
84% of marketers who use infographics find them extremely effective;
Users spend more time on a web page where information is presented in a graphic form, according to eye tracking experiments.
Another great benefit of infographics is the ability to enforce your brand image. From the color scheme to the typeface and the visual elements included in the infographic, your content writing in 2020 becomes complemented by a focus on corporate identity.
7. Questions and Answers
Questions and answers (Q&A) are yet another form of content writing in 2020 that is highly personalized. It is also extremely useful for busy periods, when you do not have time to search for interesting topics for articles.
Thus, instead of worrying about how to write a blog, you can browse the comments on your social media posts and blog posts, as well as emails and private messages you received on the social media.
Select 5-7 interesting questions from your followers and clients and answer them. This type of content works in your favor in several ways:
You prove that you are there to help your clients
You demonstrate that you are knowledgeable on specific topics
You show your clients that you are listening to them.
In this way, your 2020 content strategy will never have to suffer, even during the busy sales seasons when everyone in your company is busy with confirming and shipping orders.
Content Distribution Strategies
As we promised, we will deal with one more crucial aspect of new content marketing trends. This aspect refers to the way you bring content to the attention of your loyal customers. Content creation in 2020 must be closely connected with a sound strategy for content distribution.
From the point of view of the control you have over these channels of distribution, there are:
Owned channels: such as your blog, email newsletters
Paid channels: banner ads, social media ads, Google AdWords ads;
Earned channels: backlinks, social mentions of your brand and shared blog posts on the social media.
Any successful digital marketing strategy must involve all of these channels. However, you should always strive to drive your followers and loyal customers to your owned channels. This is one of the content writing tips for 2020 you should take into account: crafting engaging content with CTAs that determine your readers to subscribe to your newsletters and follow your own blog.
For example, you can boost a post on Facebook, containing a link to a blog post. You should choose this post carefully, keeping in mind our blog writing tips for 2020. At the end, you should add a call to action that encourages the reader to subscribe to your newsletter. Thus, they will always be notified of the latest blog posts your brand published.
Why Drive Loyal Customers to Owned Distribution Channels?
Any channel you control is a channel where you can:
Use your best practices in formatting and illustrating content
Promote your brand voice without restriction
Be 100% certain that the content you publish remains there for as long as you want.
On the social media, the 2020 content trends focus on disappearing content – such as Instagram and Facebook Stories which disappear after being watched. Also, these platforms continually change their ranking criteria, leading to a constant decrease in organic reach. Moreover, due to past scandals related to privacy and fair use, Facebook has become very proactive in enforcing its terms and conditions.
This means that even genuine and legitimate content may be interpreted as breaching the rules.
Thus, your content will be deleted and your own company page may be disabled, as well.
Conclusion
New content marketing trends in 2020 focus on creating close, personal connections with your loyal customers. Your content should reflect your brand image, create and sustain dialogue and be highly personalized for each customer persona.
At the same time, your content writing in 2020 should take into account the changes in the Google algorithm, which ranks user intent as the most important factor. At the same time, social media platforms are in a transformation process, which places importance on meaningful interactions.
Thus, in the long run, new content marketing trends will dictate brands to be honest, original and authentic in their marketing efforts, striving to meet the customers’ needs and demands. Conversational marketing has stopped being a buzzword – it has become a reality to which brands must adapt if they want to keep their customers loyal.