Are you ready for the best content marketing trends for 2021? As we enter another challenging year, the need for creativity when it comes to marketing content is more important than ever and with that in mind, we’ve put together a handy list to help you along the way…
Social media – use the right platforms for your brand
Using social media platforms is arguably the most important content marketing strategy you can adopt and it is our number one must have when it comes to content marketing trends in 2021.
Just look at the figures
In terms of demographics, you only need look at the amount of users (and continually rising) on the most popular social media platforms:
· Facebook (as the biggest social media platform, Facebook is perfect for building customer loyalty through regular posting and as a way of keeping in touch) – 1.3+ billion users
· You Tube (one of the fastest growing search engine platforms due to ease of use – you don’t have to sign in to view content) – 1 billion users
· Twitter (great for insight into trending topics due to the use of hashtags which organise conversations around words and phrases) – 600 million users
· LinkedIn (ideal for B2B lead generation, recruitment and general networking) – 600 million users
· Instagram (a visual based business that is great for generating leads due to its wide reach) – 200 million users
· Google + (linked to Google search, thus drives more traffic to your website) – 200 million users
· Pinterest (a great visual based platform often linked to strong retail sales) – 70 million users
Identify, Define and Find
When it comes to choosing the right social media platforms for your business, adopting an: identify, define and find strategy is key:
Identify your audience. Think about who your typical customer is; ages, whether they’re male or female and even what their income, education level and outside interests are. Identifying these key factors will help you build a profile so you can use specific marketing techniques that they’ll identify with.
Define your goals – what is it you want to achieve? Do you want to build customer relationships? Are you using social media for customer support or to boost brand recognition? Using the right strategies will not only attract customers to you, it can help with customer satisfaction and provide additional ways of communication (for example, many companies now use social media to address customer service issues, which not only provides customers with a quick and easy way to get their query across, it frees up customer helplines too).
Find the right audience – by looking at the demographics of different platforms you can now move onto finding your audience and looking at which platforms they use the most, as well as how they use their preferred platform. For example, if you want to target a younger audience, Facebook may well have the most users, including your identified audience, but they may use other platforms more. For example, younger users have FB profiles, but they use Instagram more, so your focus could be there.
Think mobile-first
Why mobile first? Because we’re always on our phones! Did you know that the average user touches their phone 2,617 times every day (according to research firm Dscout) with extreme mobile phone users touching up to 5,400 times daily. With this level of interaction going on, it’s easy to understand why adopting a mobile first approach when it comes to content marketing trends for 2021 is so important.
“Consumers spend 15+ hours per week researching on their smartphone and on average visit mobile websites 6 times.”
(Source: Mobile Path to Purchase by Google)
A mobile experience
That means your website needs to offer the right digital experience on a mobile phone as soon as it is opened there. If your website doesn’t load quickly, and it isn’t optimised in the right way in terms of simple, easy on the eye structure and ease of use, users will simply switch off. A design agency can help you with this by creating a fully optimised mobile website that compliments your desktop site, draws people in and keeps them scrolling.
User-generated content
User generated content is all about the content generated by users of your brand and because it comes from the customer, it’s the perfect strategy to adopt… after all, what could be better than great, authentic views from customers that increase credibility as well as bring brand promises into perspective?
User generated content can:
· Promote authenticity
· Create trust
· Build brand desire
· Showcase brand loyalty
· Impact on purchasing decisions
Getting users to generate content
The benefits of user-generated content are easy to see, but how do you get users to generate this content for you? User generated content campaigns are a good place to start, encouraging users to share visuals, views and reviews.
A savvy digital design agency can help you create great campaigns, help you understand what you need to do as part of a successful campaign and look at how to find any additional content out there, as well as helping with targeting the right users and getting the right content in return.
Invest in visual appeal
When it comes to website usability, first impressions matter, that’s why visual appeal is the most important factor when it comes to content marketing. And, because you only have milliseconds to attract attention and create either a positive or negative effect (that will affect subsequent visits) what you create visually matters.
Powerful visual appeal can also build relationships with your users as if your visuals resonate and users can identify with your website, you’re more likely to build a long term relationship with them.
Invoke the senses
Visual appeal is a great way to invoke the senses, and depending on what your aim is, you can touch upon a variety of emotions from delight to even sadness.
Start with the basics
Take the time to think about what you want to achieve from your visual appeal. Start with the basics – font size, page layouts, navigation, links, content, and then add colour and visuals to the mix. A good design agency will guide you through the process, offering design ideas based on what you’re looking for as well as concept testing to test the visual appeal of your website.
Consistent, individual brand voice
Your brand voice is all about the words, language and tone you use. Taking the time to adopt a strong brand voice that is individual to you is important as it portrays a clear sense of purpose as well as a sense of personality. Consistency is important for recognition too.
Voice and tone
Your brand voice, which should remain consistent and unchanging, goes hand in hand with your tone, which is where you apply emotional inflection. This can be light-hearted or more factual (for example) depending on your business / what you want to achieve.
A good example of a powerful and consistent brand voice is Apple. Their confident, simply applied and clean brand voice reflects their position as one of the world’s most valuable companies and whether it’s on their website, a TV ad, social media or a print ad, the brand voice and tone is the same.
A good place to begin is by reviewing your company’s mission statement to re-establish your values and how they connect to your brand. It’s also worthwhile auditing your current content and researching your audience too – who they are and how they see you. At Rawww, we can help create useful polls that can really help when it comes to establishing a brand voice that feels familiar and natural to your target audience.
Keep up with Google – SEO
Is keeping up with Google and SEO still important when it comes to content marketing trends for 2021?
Absolutely.
Applying good SEO is still a fundamental way to drive traffic and leads to your website and the tried and tested ways to do this – including using keywords, ALT tags, regularly updated content, mobile optimisation, and page titles to name a few – still work best.
At Rawww, one of the first things we recommend when it comes to applying strong SEO is a good audit of the best ways to improve your Google ranking and making sure SEO works in the best possible way.
We hope our content marketing trends for 2021 list has offered some inspiration and we have plenty more that we would love to discuss with you, including how to apply friendly, conversational marketing, the best ways to get customer insights and the benefits of using a value-driven approach/brand activism.
A good mix of these trends can really make a difference when it comes to your website traffic and online visibility so take the time to really think about which ones work for you.
For further advice and help on how to choose and adopt the right content marketing trends for you, talk to us today and let us help you create a winning marketing strategy for 2021.
