It’s that time of the year again where old trends gradually float to the bottom of the barrel and new trends emerge. As the year winds down, it’s time to start looking out for recent content marketing trends so you can use these tactics in your 2022 planning.
The year 2021 featured interesting new trends such as AI-powered copies and a focus on bottom-of-funnel content.
On the other hand, 2022 seems to be holding a lot of promise for content marketers.
With that said, we’ll take a closer look at the specific trends that will dominate the content marketing industry in 2022.
But first, let’s start with the basics.
Why Does Content Marketing Evolve So Fast?
As a content marketer, it can be hard to keep up with the fast-paced evolution of content marketing.
One minute, you’re integrating long video ads and pop-ups into your marketing strategy. The next minute, you’re taking them down and replacing them to match the latest trend.
The truth is that content marketing has to evolve to keep up with new technologies, trends, and consumer demands.
For instance, the increased use of social media apps and new features requires content marketers to adapt their strategies to meet these changes and reach their audience.
Major Content Marketing Trends to Watch in 2022
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to explore some of the significant trends that content marketers should watch for in 2022.
Writing for People Rather Than Search Engines
Although this isn’t necessarily a new trend in content marketing, it’s a hack that most content marketers and SEO writers need to pay closer attention to in 2022.
Previously, it was easy to rank high on Google by mashing several high-ranking keywords into a poorly-written article and passing it off as SEO content. However, Google is now focusing on content that meets and satisfies users’ search intent.
With this shift in ranking requirements, content marketers now have to focus on writing for their audience rather than search engines.
An article stuffed with the proper alt tags, meta titles, and keywords is no good if it doesn’t provide value for its target audience.
If you’re wondering how to create compelling, value-driven content, here are a few tips that can set you on the right track:
- Understand your audience. To craft compelling content, you’ll need to have a thorough understanding of your audience’s persona. Who is your audience? What pain points do they have? What kind of content will address their pain points and satisfy them?
- Focus on intent. Once you understand your audience, the next step would be to focus on their goal. Focus on the search intent of the user you’re writing for and then tailor your article or content to suit those intents.
A Focus on Video Marketing
Over the last few years, video marketing has been a rising trend among content marketers, and from all indications, its popularity won’t wane in 2022.
Up to 61% of marketers see video as an essential part of their marketing strategy, while 30% believe video is even more important than their website.
We’ll let the camera pan to the nay-sayers for a moment. What’s the buzz around video marketing anyway?
It’s simple. Video content accounts for up to 82% of all internet traffic. In fact, mentioning the word “video” in your email subject lines can increase your open rates by up to 19%. These stats show that video marketing will continue to dominate the content marketing scene in 2022 and beyond.
For content marketers itching to hop on this trend, it’s important to note that you don’t have to wait for a production team before you start integrating videos into your marketing strategy. Studies have shown that consumers resonate more with lower-quality videos than ‘overproduced’ ones because they feel more genuine and relatable.
Optimizing Content for Voice Search
With the rise of virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, voice search is fast becoming a popular trend. According to research, up to 55% of consumers use voice search when looking for answers on their smartphones.
Similarly, about 71% of consumers would rather conduct queries by voice rather than typing out their questions.
This shows that by 2022, many content marketers will need to adapt to this new trend by optimizing their content for voice search. If you’re trying to optimize your content for voice search, implement one or both of the following tips:
- Use long-tail keywords. Voice searches are pretty different from typed queries. While the latter tends to be short, voice searches are often longer and more conversational. As such, your content needs to contain long-tail keywords and phrases to ensure that it ranks high on search engines.
- Don’t forget the 5Ws (who, what, where, when, and why). Several studies have shown that voice searches tend to begin with any of the five Ws listed above. Sometimes, it may also start with the word “how.” Thus, when doing keyword research, it’s advisable to go for phrases that start with any of these words as it would be a helpful start toward determining and satisfying search intent.
Consumers Will See Through Virtue Signaling
Previously, most brands could use virtue signaling to win the hearts of consumers and drive conversions.
A recent analysis by FastCompany revealed that when racism protests were at an all-time high, many brands hopped on the activism wagon to virtue signal.
The number of dark skin tones in the beauty sector shot up to 23% from 11%, while light skins witnessed a corresponding decrease.
Sadly, this turned out to be temporary. As the protests dwindled, the stats went back to the status quo.
One brand that starred noticeably in this virtue signaling blockbuster was top fashion giant, Boohoo. They were quick to post a black tile supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, but they were accused of breaching the Modern Slavery Act in less than a week.
In the past, many consumers may have fallen for these blatant acts of false virtue signaling. But not anymore. Recent stats have shown that consumers are beginning to smell the coffee and see through these schemes.
As such, content marketers in 2022 will need to integrate social problems into their strategy and follow up on them till the very end. This way, they won’t come off as being exploitative or virtue signalers.
Micro-Influencers Will Dominate the Scene
Influencer marketing has been predominantly on the scene for the past couple of years. Reports show that its worth is projected to reach $15 billion by 2022.
However, underneath the umbrella of influencer marketing, a new trend is lurking and gradually rising: micro-influencers.
Studies show that macro-influencers (with up to 6 figures in followers) tend to earn only about 1.7% of likes, while micro-influencers earn between 2.4% – 4% of likes. This data shows that micro-influencers are the overlooked gems of marketing.
But not anymore. Since micro-influencers have been proven to have higher rates of buying behavior with their audience, most content marketers and brands will begin to seek them out by 2022. As such, they’ll dominate the influencer marketing scene, thus changing the narrative for the first time in years.
Content Marketing Services Will Become Mobile-Centric
In the past, most search engines and websites were optimized mainly for desktops and personal computers, relegating mobile devices to the background. However, a shift in consumers’ online behavior may have signaled the end of this trend.
By May 2020, up to 52% of online searches were done on smartphones. Thus, Google optimized its search index to prioritize mobiles first. Consequently, web pages optimized for mobile use will now be ranked higher by the algorithm.
But what does this mean for content marketing?
Well, it’s simple. More marketers will be making all their services mobile-centric by 2022 to ensure that their content ranks high on the search engine.
Visual Display Over Textual Display
In 2022, consumers will actively choose content with visual displays over textual content. Although this isn’t necessarily a new trend, it will become even more popular in the coming year.
Are you wondering why this consumer preference is becoming more prevalent?
Studies have shown that humans can process images 60,000 times faster than text. In the same vein, people tend to remember only about 10% of information through sound, while they remember up to 65% of the information they see in a visual.
Thus, in 2022, most content marketers will put extra effort into conveying information through colorful visuals. Expect to see statistics embedded in colorful infographics and animations rather than boring lines of text.
Doubling Down on SEO
Regardless of how time passes, some trends just never go out of style. When it comes to the content marketing world, SEO is that one unbeatable trend.
So far, search engine optimization has been a crucial element of content marketing, and from all indications, it will remain that way in 2022. Most marketers will continue to strive to integrate high-quality SEO into their content to beat the competition.
They’ll harness the power of long-tail keywords, keyphrases, and specific niches to stay top of search engine rankings. They’ll also strike a balance between optimizing and creating engaging, conversational content that their users can relate to.
Ultimately, we can expect to see more engaging SEO content than the cliché lists we currently have out there.
As a content marketer trying to stay on top of the competition in the coming year, investing heavily in keyword research and a fool-proof SEO strategy should be your first point of action.
UX Will Become a Significant Differentiator
User experience is a term usually thrown around the context of apps and web pages. However, it will become a crucial part of content creation in 2022.
To stay on top of the competition as a marketer, you’ll need to give your audience a great experience by catering to their behavior, wants, and needs.
For instance, while some people prefer long-form content, others might opt for short-form content such as infographics or short texts.
The onus will then lie on the marketer to determine their audience’s preferences and craft content to meet the users’ expectations and guarantee them the best experience.
Apart from determining the audience’s preferences, you’ll also need to integrate some best practices to ensure that they get a unique experience. Some of these practices include:
- Creating headers;
- Breaking down content into easily digestible sections for readers;
- Integrating visual elements to enhance readability.
Content Repurposing
In 2015, Buffer announced their “No New Content” challenge. This challenge involved halting all their content creation efforts and focusing on repurposing about three pieces of content every week for an entire month.
Their organic search traffic grew by over 4% during this experiment, and their repurposed SlideShare presentations generated more than 100,000 views. This scenario and many other recent ones are proof that content marketing can be impactful.
With this in mind, it makes sense that 2022 will bring an even bigger focus on repurposing content across various channels.
By next year, brands and content teams will figure out how to effectively repurpose content into different forms and for various channels or platforms. This could involve repurposing popular blog posts into Slide Decks or turning short videos into podcast episodes.
As a content marketer, it’s essential to watch out for this trend and hop on it. By integrating this trend into your marketing strategy, you can achieve so much more and maximize your efforts in 2022.
This way, you can expand your reach, diversify your content, and reach new audience members.
Featured Experts
Content performance is a big deal in the marketing sector. As such, marketers and creators must utilize hacks that could benefit their content’s performance.
In recent times, it has been proven that commentary from experts can lend credibility to your content and, consequently, help you stand out.
According to a Nielsen report, 85% of consumers regularly seek expert content and opinions before making a purchase decision. Thus, including comments from experts on a subject matter or featuring them in content can significantly benefit your content’s performance.
Most marketers seem to have figured this hack out. As such, expect 2022 to be the year of featured experts. To get the most out of this trend, you should try as much as possible to build trust with expert content. Once you’ve done this, you can then begin to share your brand’s stories.
AI Integration
In recent times, many brands have begun to integrate chatbots into their marketing strategy. From beauty brands like Sephora to ride-hailing apps like Lyft and even language learning apps (think of Duolingo).
Chatbots and other AI tools enhance the overall user experience and help customers seamlessly get from Point A to Point B. In 2022, more brands will leverage AI tools (especially chatbots) to provide a better experience for their audience.
However, it will be foolhardy to expect that this AI dependency will be limited to the use of chatbots in brand-customer interaction alone. It will also extend to the use of artificial intelligence to generate content.
Some brands have already taken this initiative and are currently topping the competition. For instance, The Washington Post uses its Artificial Intelligence technology, Heliograph, to publish reports and alerts.
More brands and content teams will take this initiative and use AI to publish solid content for their audience next year.
Increased Podcast Consumption
Today, more and more consumers are embracing the use of educational podcasts. Stats show that nearly six in ten of all US consumers above the age of 12 listen to podcasts. This explains why US podcast advertising revenues are skyrocketing and are expected to surpass $2 billion in 2023.
Based on this, it’s apparent that podcasts have massive potential as a content marketing tool. Thus, in 2022, more content marketers will utilize podcasts to highlight their products and services to niche audiences. It will also be a great way of providing a personalized experience to users who prefer audio content.
Content Will Become More Interactive
Consumers are constantly on the lookout for engaging content beyond boring lists and guides. Thus, it’s necessary to create content that will pique their interest and catch their attention.
In 2022, brands and content marketers will utilize interactive tools such as memes, GIFs, and multimedia content to drive engagement. They’ll also rely heavily on interactive content like quizzes and infographics to convey their message to consumers.
Thus, if you’re a content marketer prepping your content calendar for 2022, consider integrating these elements into your strategy.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it. These are some of the most prominent content marketing trends that will dominate the scene in 2022 and beyond. Consumers are always on the lookout for fresh content, and as such, outdated content marketing strategies will no longer cut it. You’ll need to keep up pace with the latest content marketing strategies to satisfy your audience.
A word of advice, though: don’t just chase content marketing trends blindly. Just like trends in every other sector, they may die off after a few years. Instead, research and use these trends as a guide to creating value-driven content.
About the Author
Carla Braun is a content creator at cheap essay service with over six years of experience up her sleeves. Over the years, Carla has specialized in creating SEO web content and helpful guides and essays for the average consumer. When she’s not writing or creating content, Carla likes to binge on her favorite classic movies and series.
