There’s never been a more interesting, rapidly-evolving time to be a marketer. We have the privilege to work across many content verticals. We also have a unique view into marketing in industries ranging from tech, gardening, self-improvement and more. While every business’ approach should be unique, it can be helpful to stay in tune with what’s new and fresh in marketing. Let’s dive into three content marketing trends we expect in 2023.
1. Video will be a foundational website component.
Video has been increasing drastically in popularity over the last few years. Last year, a whopping 82% of internet traffic was estimated to come from video.
Video has become more meaningful in many regards. Aside from the psychological reasons videos work (humans are attracted to movement versus static), there are undeniable SEO benefits.
For instance, video is more engaging and more likely to keep visitors on your website. It also helps your website get indexed and is shown to be more “useful” than other content.
Videos also carry an element of “shareability” that other content lacks. For instance, if you create a video on the best brick-laying techniques, your video could become an asset to add to any relevant web page – such as those on building a retaining wall.
When your content is relevant and share-worthy, it continues to build your audience and credibility, and in some cases, can directly increase traffic to your site. In fact, some tools like Flickify, Vimeo, Primis, Humix (which is a tool created by my company) and more can give you the ability to allow others to use your video content on their sites, and even provide a cut of advertising revenue on them.
In most cases, video is a necessary component of successful websites. People are drawn to visual elements and movement. Video simplifies understanding and increases engagement.
2. Engaging users with data becomes more prevalent.
As we’ve covered, users are drawn to visuals. This also can include data visualization – such as charts, information on trends, etc. There is a huge potential for creating greater engagement, both with current and potential visitors, by including more visually engaging data on points of interest to your visitors.
Spotify has taken this data-to-user-engagement to a whole new level with Spotify Wrapped, its marketing campaign to provide users with data on their activity. Spotify uses “zero party data.” This is essentially first-party data that Spotify has obtained voluntarily from customers. It uses this information to give visitors interesting, engaging and “sticky” tidbits related to their interests and behavior, such as users’ top-listened to songs for 2022, concert recommendations, and an assessment of their “listening persona.”
Businesses across industries are trying to replicate aspects of Spotify Wrapped for their own users. It also works for prospective visitors. You can use data in your content niche to provide interesting information to drive traffic to your site. Take Gas Buddy, for example, which helps users find cheap gas prices across the US and Canada. Because they have information about gas prices, they’re able to do a lot with it, including creating interesting, interactive charts like “gas price maps.”
All of this is much more likely to bring users to their page. Even if a visitor doesn’t read the blog or try to find cheap gas, there’s still valuable information they can take away from the website in the form of data, and they will likely be intrigued to check out more pages, which means more time spent on site.
There are so many creative ways that you can present the data available to your organization to tell interesting, data-driven stories to your audiences. Unique presentations of fun, interesting facts may intrigue people to visit and even stay longer on your website.
3. Content websites will treat visitors as e-commerce businesses treat them.
Recently, I wanted to buy a graphic tee, but navigated away from the page while filling out purchase information. A few minutes later, I got an email from the website that prompted me to return and finish my purchase. What if content websites used the same strategies as e-commerce sites do?
Imagine browsing an article that interests you, but then you navigate away. Now, imagine that website had some minimal user information about you and could email you the next day, reminding you to finish that piece of content. Or, you could receive a notification when there’s an update to it, or other more relevant content.
We’re seeing some larger publications already doing this – think about The New York Times or Reuters. Users receive custom notifications in their emails or on apps based on the content they have already viewed, increasing readership and engagement. In fact, 82% of users think more positively about a website if it delivers them customized content.
Currently, most publishers don’t segment visitors based on types of content they interact with on their sites, but doing so could add a whole new level of personalization to publishing that has never been done before. Imagine being able to “favorite” your top articles, add specific pieces of content to collections that interest you, and more, when you visit a site.
Where should you start?
Following are some things you can do now to be sure that you’re equipped to take care of these 2023 content marketing trends:
- Brush up on video skills, or look to an expert, and get a video creation plan in place if you don’t have one already.
- Take stock of how you are gathering data and what you’re doing with it – is there some untapped potential? Can you create resources with it or deliver interesting content from it for your users?
- Finally, don’t do a “one size fits all” approach for visitors. How can you segment your audience? Provide better service and address their needs for content? Do you have enough content to reach a variety of users?
Tyler Bishop is a digital publishing influencer and chief marketing officer of Ezoic, the artificial intelligence technology for websites to monetize content with display ads through streamlining implementation, optimization and testing. He is an award-winning marketer who has worked for Microsoft and was featured on the cover of The St. Louis Business Journal for his unique approaches to digital marketing.
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