Content Marketing Trends Emerging in 2019: What You Need to Know

The world of marketing is always changing. New tools are released, strategies are refined, and trends come and go.

But one thing can be said to be true, even as we enter a new year full of innovative ideas, content marketing is here to stay.

Content marketing, or creating and sharing content to spark an interest in your brand, makes establishing an online presence, generating leads, and securing sales possible. It is one of the most strategic methods any small business or nonprofit organization can employ.

That said, just as digital marketing, or a culmination of all your marketing efforts, has evolved over time, the content marketing landscape continues to change too.

In fact, as you enter the New Year, you’ll find that while content marketing is still an essential part of growing your business or supporting your cause, your old strategies may not work as well as they used to.

That’s why today we’re going to share what we see as the emerging content marketing trends for 2019. While you don’t have to implement all of these strategies at once. We recommend you pick a few to focus on and develop a strong content marketing plan and start the year off on the right track.

1. Voice Search

The increasing use of voice search has forced companies and nonprofits to rethink their content marketing strategies this year.

• 1 in 6 people own a smart speaker, and there is no sign of that trend slowing
• 40% of people use voice search on a daily basis
• 20% of all mobile searches are voice searches
• 42% of people with a smart speaker claim their device is “essential” to their everyday lives

Add that to the fact that it is estimated that by 2020, 50% of all Google searches will be voice searches, and you can easily see why developing a content marketing strategy around voice search is going to be important to your success.

Search engines rely more than ever on the information found in websites’ content to answer people’s pressing voice search questions. They are also evolving to understand user intent to help people take action.

Current use examples include people using voice searches to control their home security systems or other household devices, check the weather and traffic reports, make calls, get directions, research products, order food, and even make purchases.

If you’re looking to improve your voice search optimization this year, check out these best practices for your site’s content:

• Write conversationally to cater to those asking questions using a voice assistant
• Use full-sentence questions and answers in your content
• Focus on longtail keywords, post titles, and headings
• Aim to get the Google featured snippet, which is the answer people will receive to their voice queries
• Optimize content for local voice searches if applicable

Lastly, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. People will not just be accessing your website using a dedicated smart speaker like the Amazon Echo.

They’ll be using Siri and other voice search assistants on their mobile devices.

If your website isn’t mobile friendly, even if your site turns up as the number one result, chances are high site visitors will leave if your site is hard to use on a small device like a smartphone.

In the end, people will be talking to their smart devices more and more in the coming years so your content needs to cater to that so you can remain visible in search results and drive traffic to your site.

2. Chatbots

Chatbots have become increasingly popular with online businesses because of their ability to personalize the user experience and boost user engagement.

Plus, these days people are demanding that their questions and concerns be answered immediately.

Unfortunately, the consensus points to people being unhappy with the way their current online experiences play out:

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Citing difficult to navigate websites, hard to find answers, and even unavailability outside of normal business hours, it’s clear people want more out of their visit to your website.

As a result, content marketers are jumping in on this trend of utilizing chatbots, and are figuring out ways they can incorporate this AI-based technology into their overall marketing plan to give consumers and site visitors what they want.

Some of the most important benefits of adding a chatbot to your website include:

• Friendliness, patience, and fast responses are key traits
• They are available 24/7 for people needing help at all hours of the day or night
• Immersed inside apps, website modules, SMS messages, and even email, chatbots eliminate the need for people to download yet another app on their mobile device
• Customer complaints can be resolved quickly, increasing overall customer satisfaction
• Advancing technology continues to make chatbots easier to use, more likable, and more effective at helping site visitors
• They can answer open-ended questions and FAQs, let customers take specific actions based on their answers, and even direct people to human support if necessary
• Chatbots collect real-time data as they interact with site visitors that you can use to improve your business or organization

Grand View Research estimates that the chatbot market will reach a staggering $1.25 billion by 2025, making this one of the strongest content marketing trends yet.

With 1.4 billion people a year already using this type of technology, it’s time you get in on this trend so you too can provide stellar customer support and sales via automation to your site visitors and customers.

3. Video Content

Video content is one of the hottest trends for content marketing in 2019. And part of the reason is that video content can be broken down into many different types, making it a versatile content marketing strategy for site owners of all kinds.

Before we look at why video content is a must-have content marketing strategy, let’s look at some of the different ways you can use video to help promote your brand or nonprofit organization:

• Webcasts. Made up of mostly video and/or slides, a webcast is a pre-recorded presentation broadcast over the internet. It transmits only one way, from speaker to audience. There are no time constraints and can be viewed at any time.
• Webinars. Webinars are live, interactive presentations broadcast over the internet. They transmit both ways, between speaker and audience. Since they are live, there are time-constraints. Many webinars involve things like audience polls, Q&A functionality, whiteboards, and more. These are also great for interviews, product demos, and behind-the-scene looks at how your business or organization works.
• Live Video. Though similar to a webinar, live video content takes on more of a natural and entertaining feel. For instance, you might live stream a conference your business is attending or an event your organization is hosting.
• Podcasts. A podcast is video content that’s strictly audio. People can download and listen to your podcasts from all types of devices, subscribe to your podcast channel, and even access past podcasts.

In addition to the above-mentioned types of video content, it’s also worth noting that interactive video content is on the rise.

For example, this UNIVERSE WITHIN documentary uses interactive video content that, based on your clicks, guides you through the content shining light on important societal issues.

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Want to take things up a notch when it comes to your website’s infographics?

Try animating those too.

Though infographics are widely popular and a great way to share seemingly mundane statistics with users in a more meaningful and exciting way, everyone is using them. In fact, it has been suggested that basic infographics are used so often they may not be enough anymore.

That’s why people like Jacob O’Neal are taking things one step further when it comes to content marketing and helping people create animated infographics like the one seen below.

Knowing which type of video content your audience wants most is a crucial part of your content marketing strategy. It will take time, experimentation, and lots of data collection to narrow down what exactly your site visitors want.

That said, video content is a worthwhile strategy if you want to push ahead of the competition.

If you’re still on the fence about whether to incorporate video into your overall marketing strategies, check these facts out:

• Video is a powerful way for you to communicate your brand, explain your cause, and build long-lasting relationships with your target audience
• 85% of people polled want to see more video content from their favorite brands
• People expect to see video content on every website they visit – including yours
• A study by Cisco states that by 2020, 80% of all internet traffic will be video
• Video provides instant gratification and appeals to people’s visual nature
• People want to see humor, educational information, and stories related to social causes in your content
• Video content shows up in search results, so if done right, video can boost your SEO efforts and drive more traffic your way
• 52% of people credit video content for the confidence needed to finalize a purchase

As more people begin to use video on a daily basis, it becomes more apparent that you need to add video content to your content marketing plan. And, since it’s the beginning of a new year, now is great time to start!

4. Other Trends to Look For

We think that going into 2019, voice search, chatbots, and video content will be the hottest trends that produce the most positive results.

But content marketing is made up of so many moving parts, and there are always going to be other trends that might interest you or work better for your small business or nonprofit.

So, let’s take a quick look at some of the other trends expected to hit big this year so you can add them to your content marketing plan.

Long-Form Content

A recent analysis by BuzzSumo found that in over 100 million articles, longer content received more social shares than short-form content.

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In order for your content to be considered long-from, it must exceed 2,000 words.

And, the only way for it to make sense to spend time creating and publishing such long blog posts is to make sure it has lots of added value for your readers.

Remember, many people scan content. If your long content is not engaging enough, people will abandon your webpage without reading it all and your hard work will become a waste.

Transparency

It’s hard to gain the trust and loyalty of new site visitors that don’t understand your company’s mission or your organization’s values. But the truth is, consumers need to trust you before they’re willing to invest in you.

In other words, before someone supports your cause, buys your products, or attends your events, they need to know and trust what your business is all about.

Be transparent about what you have to offer, what your organization stands for, and how you stand out from the competition.

If you run a small online business, use trustmarks on your site, introduce yourself and your team, and always be honest about things like core values, business goals, history, performance, and operations.

On the other hand, if you are part of a nonprofit, make it clear what you plan to do with donations received, show each supporter what’s in it for them, and take advantage of things like video content to open your doors to people and show them what really goes on behind-the-scenes.

Influencer Marketing

If exposing your brand to a larger audience is a marketing goal of yours this year, we recommend looking into influencer marketing. Using influencers to spread the word about your company or cause is an effective way to attract more people to your website so you can convince them to convert.

And if you need help finding out whether an influencer you want to work with is worth it or not, you can always use a tool such as Phlanx to help.

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Simply input the name of the influencer you want to work with to see how big their following is and how engaged their audience is. Both of these things help indicate whether your chosen influencer will be able to convince their own audience to become a part of yours.

Micro-Moments

There’s no denying that the attention span of people is smaller than ever. And, with every website owner on the internet vying for people’s attention, it should come as no surprise that people are easily distracted or willing to abandon a site and go elsewhere when they can’t find what they want immediately.

Because of this, Google has coined the term “Micro-Moments” to name this type of consumer behavior where people want instant answers to everything.

Here are the 4 main micro-moments that people use to make instant decisions about things like where they want to eat, what to buy, who to support, etc.:

• I want to know
• I want to go
• I want to do
• I want to buy

If you can craft your content’s headlines in a clear and concise way to address any one of these micro-moments the minute people arrive on your website, you’ll have a higher chance of engaging them and encouraging them to stay.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it! Some of the best content marketing trends expected to make their way into 2019.

Don’t miss out on opportunities by sticking with traditional ways of promoting your content. Instead, infuse your content marketing plan with some strategies you’ve never used before and see how your target audience reacts.

Content marketing is not just about creating content and hoping people will read it. It’s not about hoping you’ll land in the right search results and high-quality leads will click on your website. It’s also not about hoping that if you stick to what has worked in the past you’ll continue to grow.

No, content marketing is about trying something new, like the emerging content marketing trends and using them to your advantage to get ahead.

If you want to drive more traffic, capture more leads, raise more money, or generate more revenue this year, try some of these content marketing strategies and see how they work for you.

And if you need help with redesigning your website to match these content marketing strategies, get in touch with us today.

We can help with website redesigns, custom site development, and even marketing strategies such as SEO optimization, web analytics, and PPC advertising to complement your newly discovered content marketing methods.

Other articles you may enjoy:

• Top 6+ Productivity Extensions for Nonprofits & Small Businesses
• 5 Infographic Resources for your nonprofit or small business
• Embracing Social Media for Growth

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