Content marketing is now an integral part of almost every company. It’s not just the big companies that care a lot about providing their customers with good content but also small and medium-sized companies that are attaching more and more importance to this area of marketing. And rightly so: Many trends are already emerging for 2023 that will play a major role. We introduce you to the 8 most relevant content marketing trends for 2023.
The developments in content marketing trends show that the Internet is becoming more and more personal. If content and advertising are designed too much for a broad mass, and the user is no longer personally picked up, he will notice this very well. The understanding of such flat content is getting better and better among the users. As an entrepreneur, you must be aware of this and take appropriate countermeasures.
To continue to be successful with your marketing, authenticity and the trust associated with it are extremely important for content marketing trends. The best way to earn trust is to have evidence of the work done. Testimonials or influencers are good ways of building customer trust. It is important, however, that these are real testimonials and real reviews. If this is not the case and the customers find out, you will achieve the opposite: your customers will turn away from you.
It can also help if you appear as the managing director. People prefer to trust people and not just any product. After all, trust is something interpersonal, something emotional. Of course, being the brand’s founder requires you to stand behind it – otherwise, you will achieve the opposite again.
But if you don’t stand behind the brand, you can just let it be. Well-known examples such as Apple, Tesla and Microsoft show that it can work to build a personal brand. After all, you also know Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.
User-generated content refers to the content that users produce themselves. They then spread this via various social networks, meaning that other people react to and interact with this content. If you, as a company, make user content available, more content can be created with less use of resources in less time. It sounds great, but you also need the right strategy. Finally, users must also be motivated to create and share their own content on other platforms.
Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have done this very well. Every day, countless people post their everyday experiences and stories on Instagram and put together their content on Pinterest.
As an entrepreneur, you can produce this type of content, for example, in competitions. Here you can give your customers a task; for example, take a specific photo and post it on Instagram. The motivation for the customer: He can win one of your products.
Influencer marketing in itself is nothing new. For years it has been a very good way to bring your products to customers through the presence and promotion of well-known social media personalities. However, studies have shown that large influencers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers lose credibility.
Of course, Instagram and YouTube remain interesting and relevant platforms for content marketing. However, this year’s content marketing trends do not include the big influencers but the micro-influencers. These have significantly fewer followers, around 1,000 to 10,000. However, they have the advantage of appearing much more authentic and credible. This is mainly because they have built up their reach with the help of family, acquaintances and friends – with whom they have a close relationship of trust.
By working with micro-influencers, you as an entrepreneur can benefit from this trust, as these recommendations are often worth much more than those from large influencers.
Video content has also been around for years and is very popular. However, what can be found particularly among the content marketing trends are the short videos on various social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram with stories or reels. These convey a particularly authentic impression that isn’t easy to achieve with texts. This makes companies appear more approachable, promotes trust and binds customers to the company in the long term.
Podcasts have one major advantage over other formats: they can be listened to about any situation. The consumer does not have to take a lot of time for this but can listen to it on the side. Many people have already recognized this advantage and use podcasts almost every day. According to statistics from Statista.com, four out of ten Germans listened to podcasts at least rarely in 2021. That corresponds to 38 percent.
Regarding the listener numbers from 2016, only 14 percent of Germans listened to podcasts. So the trend is increasing. This offers a potential that every entrepreneur should use for themselves. At the same time, the hype surrounding the audio format also leads to excess. It quickly happens that smaller podcasts need help generating a large reach or a short-term increase in sales.
Nevertheless, these can ensure a successful completion of a customer journey, as they generate trust and credibility with the user. However, it is important that the host and the target group match since the success of a podcast depends heavily on the people and not just on the content. As a content marketer, you should therefore know that the trend towards podcasts as a content channel and advertising platform will continue.
Content marketing will not just be limited to text in the future. Voice assistants, such as those from Amazon and Google, are becoming increasingly popular and are increasingly found in many people’s daily lives. Communication is only via the spoken language, which makes everyday things easier for many people. But voice apps are also becoming increasingly popular.
These often use text-to-speech technologies, which can convert text into voices that sound deceptively real. With the help of language assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant, companies can bring their brand name into contact with the user. However, companies should identify the user’s search intentions to provide the customer with the appropriate content. In addition, fewer but relevant keywords should be specified, and the content must also meet customer needs.
Social commerce means customers can purchase products from companies directly via common social media platforms. Some online shops offer “Shoppable Posts” to shorten the customer journey. For many users, this feature makes the shopping experience easier. Because they can skip clicking through an online shop for a long time and get directly to the product they are interested in.
In addition, the number of spontaneous purchases grows because the users see a product on a social media platform and go directly to the website with one click. Of course, the content must be addressed here, too. Because only if a product is presented appealingly and interestingly can users click on the product in the shop.
In content marketing, it is becoming increasingly more work to stand out from the crowd. It is all the more important to focus on a niche and retain all customers. Because it is easier to be successful in a niche than to fight with the big brands for a huge customer base, it is therefore essential for the content marketing trends that you build a community that is loyal to you and trusts you.
For example, this can be done via Facebook groups where thousands of people exchange ideas and advice on their interests. People also constantly exchange ideas in forums and other social media platforms and want their questions answered. This is where you can start as a company and exchange ideas with people. Because interaction is the most important thing
This year’s content marketing trends give a good idea of what we can expect to see in the coming years. Artificial intelligence is constantly being developed, voice apps are being used increasingly, and micro-influencers seem to be gaining more relevance than the big influencers with millions of subscribers.
It is, therefore, important to continue to monitor these content marketing trends over the next few years and to slowly adapt to them if you want to continue playing at the top. If you pay attention to all these trends and manage to put some of them into practice, you have a good chance of convincing with your content marketing.
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