Content marketing is a significant field, valued at $400 billion currently and expected to reach $900 billion by 2028.
On average, businesses allocate about 25-30 percent of their marketing funds to content marketing. It’s crucial to ace your strategy in this area. Staying updated with the latest trends in content marketing is vital to improving your approach, stay competitive, and expand your audience. What’s trending in 2024? Let’s find out.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a way to market your stuff by making and sharing useful blog articles, videos, podcasts, eBooks, and other media. This helps you show you’re good at what you do, makes people know your brand, and reminds them about you when they want to buy what you sell.
Content marketing means building good relationships with the people you want to sell to by giving them helpful, quality content regularly. The aim is to educate them and, eventually, encourage them to buy from you.
It’s not about pushing sales hard. Instead, your content should be so useful that when someone wants to buy something, they immediately think of you and trust you the most.
Unlike one-time ads, content marketing shows that you genuinely care about your customers. That’s super important for this strategy to work. Nowadays, people want to feel important. With so much noise around, keeping people’s attention and trust matters most to marketers.
Why is content marketing so important?
Well, it’s a tried-and-true method that works and gives you an edge over competitors. Here’s what the numbers tell us about content marketing:
- Businesses with blogs get 67% more leads compared to those that don’t.
- 67% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers believe B2B content marketing boosts engagement and leads.
- 88% of people say branded videos help them decide to buy something.
Content marketing helps businesses in lots of ways. When you do it right, it can:
- Boost your online presence: A good content plan can draw in more customers and visitors to your website, especially when people are searching for answers. Providing useful info about topics they care about can help you get noticed online through your website or social media.
- Get you more leads: By using content marketing to bring in traffic, you can get more leads. Educating customers builds trust and makes them more likely to buy from you, helping you build relationships with potential buyers.
- Increase loyalty: Loyalty matters in business because loyal customers keep coming back. Providing helpful content helps customers trust your brand and see you as an expert.
- Build authority: Creating content is great for showing expertise and becoming a leader in your field. Not only does content build trust, it can establish your brand as the go-to expert on a topic.
How Content Marketing Works
Content marketing helps your business draw in potential customers, present your product or service when people are looking to make a purchase decision and finalize sales.
To make the most of it, you need to provide the appropriate content at each step of the sales process—from creating awareness to considering options to making a purchase. If this seems complex, don’t worry: Organizing content in this manner makes things simpler.
Here’s how businesses employ content marketing at every stage of the sales process to connect with customers and make sales.
Awareness phase
In the initial step of the sales journey, your content needs to address the primary concerns of your audience. Discussing their problems, obstacles, and inquiries increases the likelihood of capturing their interest. Content during the awareness phase should offer educational, practical advice. Keep your sales pitches for the consideration and closing stages.
The most effective content for this phase includes articles, blogs, guides, videos, and newsletters.
Examples:
- A diner publishes an article discussing how to organize a menu for a graduation celebration during the spring season.
- A bicycle adventure company produces a brief video titled “Choosing the Right Bike Trip: 3 Easy Tips.”
- An architectural company develops a digital booklet named “Queries to Consider Before Selecting an Architect.
Consideration phase
During the consideration phase, content should blend useful insights and promotional material. It should inform the reader about the features or capabilities to consider and how these features meet their requirements. Naturally, your content should highlight what your business offers.
The most suitable content for this phase comprises case studies, instructional articles, tutorial videos, and handy checklists or worksheets.
Examples
- A phone service provider that operates through the cloud creates a guide called “8 Ways to Enhance Your Phone Customer Service,” outlining the features and functions essential for excellent customer service.
- A gardening company develops real-life stories about “Common Mistakes When Hiring a Gardener,” focusing on cases where errors occurred.
- A food catering business showcases success stories from events, emphasizing the advantages they bring, such as “Managing Food Allergies at Your Event” or “Promoting Sustainability in Catering Practices.
Closing Phase
Content marketing becomes crucial when a potential customer is on the verge of making a purchase. At this point, you can emphasize sales, but it’s essential to keep reinforcing why you’re the superior choice, rather than solely focusing on the greatness of your products or services.
Your main message here should highlight your expertise, knowledge, and the unique advantages of what you offer.
Ideal content for this phase includes case studies, content generated by users, guides for buyers, product demonstrations, and research findings.
Examples:
- A consulting company produces a study demonstrating that businesses utilizing strategic planning, assessments from external sources, and other related services tailored to its offerings achieve greater growth.
- A design studio crafts brief videos exhibiting its portfolio across various sectors to illustrate its diverse capabilities.
- A dental practice invites patients to share their experiences through testimonials, highlighting the effectiveness of its modern equipment and excellent service.
How to get started with Content Marketing
Starting content marketing might seem like a lot, but it’s not as daunting as it appears. A content marketing strategy that works should be easy to handle and maintain. Follow these steps to begin:
Understanding your audience
To produce content that resonates with a specific reader, it’s essential to understand their needs, obstacles, and preferences. If you have detailed descriptions of different groups you cater to, select one or two to focus on. Otherwise, create profiles of your audience members and potential customers before you begin creating content.
Choose the appropriate formats
Selecting the right format depends on which stage of the sales cycle you’re targeting with your content. It’s also crucial to consider which formats will effectively showcase the value you offer. Some may prefer videos, while others may find checklists more helpful.
The quality of your content is crucial as your audience will judge it accordingly. Determine whether you need to utilize internal or external resources to create your content. Regardless of the creator, it’s wise to enlist a professional proofreader to review everything before it’s published.
Decide how to distribute
Consider whether you’ll share content on your website, send it via email, or distribute it in print for an event. Begin by identifying where your audience is likely to be and select formats that align with those platforms. For instance, sending an article via email makes sense, while a checklist or worksheet could be suitable for social media. A buyer’s guide could serve as a helpful follow-up after a sales pitch.
Choose a manageable schedule
After identifying your target audience and the most suitable formats for each stage of the sales process, devise a short-term plan spanning 3 to 6 months. It’s tempting to create an overly ambitious content marketing strategy, but your plan should be realistic based on your budget and available resources. Keep tabs on the time it takes to produce each piece of content, incorporating that into your schedule accordingly.
Follow best practices
Effective content is written clearly without using technical terms that only you and your colleagues understand. It should provide practical how-to guidance in detail. Short, pertinent, and actionable content is the most effective.
Content Marketing Trends For the Year 2024!
In the realm of content marketing, one thing remains constant: the ever-changing trends. For marketers and businesses, falling behind these trends can be costly. But don’t worry! We’ve got you covered. To ensure you stay relevant in the digital landscape, we’ve sorted through the chatter to present you with some content marketing trends that will influence the industry in 2024 and beyond.
1. AI and automation are set to revolutionize content marketing further in the coming years.
If you’ve been following the latest trends in content promotion for 2022 and 2023, you’ve likely noticed the rise of AI-driven tools for creating content. With the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, the landscape of AI in content marketing took a significant leap forward. Many businesses recognize the advantages of embracing AI technology. According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub in 2023, about 61.4% of marketers are already integrating AI into their content marketing strategies, with 54.5% acknowledging its substantial impact on their marketing endeavors.
2. AI's role in conversational marketing is set to become significant.
Another trend in content marketing gaining traction is blending conversational marketing with artificial intelligence (AI). The way people interact with businesses is changing drastically in 2024. Today’s customers, driven by the desire for immediate satisfaction, expect fast responses and quick solutions. AI chatbots are assisting businesses in meeting these demands. These smart tools engage with customers through dynamic conversations, providing speedy answers to queries and aiding in decision-making. The outcome is a smooth, personalized customer journey that enhances satisfaction and boosts conversions.
Lyro AI by Tidio exemplifies such a tool. This conversational AI chatbot assists customer service representatives by engaging with customers in a personalized manner. It extracts relevant information from your company’s knowledge base to swiftly address customer inquiries. When it encounters queries it can’t answer, Lyro seamlessly transfers the conversation to a human representative.
3. The need for podcasts is expected to increase in the future
In the realm of content marketing, podcasts remain a popular medium for reaching audiences. Podcast listenership is expected to reach 504.9 million by 2024. Incorporating podcasts into your strategy offers a unique way to connect, build relationships, drive sales, and establish authority.
Looking ahead to 2024, key trends include live podcasts for real-time interaction, ‘edutainment’ content, and the rise of AI transcription technology. This technology, like that provided by Podcastle, enables podcasters to generate scripts, refine audio, and automate tasks.
Marketers can also repurpose podcasts into blogs or social media posts for greater impact. Narrato’s AI content repurposing tool simplifies this process. Just input your podcast URL or file, choose the format and tone, and your content is ready.
4. Guides and eBooks
Guides and eBooks serve as excellent tools to showcase your product offerings and establish authority in your industry. They provide potential customers with insights into your expertise and help them understand your offerings before making a purchase.
Intercom, a leading customer support platform, excels at offering free guides and eBooks across various aspects of online customer service. These resources are comprehensive and expertly crafted, seamlessly integrating product information with valuable insights. By offering such detailed resources, Intercom demonstrates its commitment to improving online customer service and earns the trust of its audience.
5. Video Content Marketing
Using videos for content marketing is highly effective. Research by Wyzowl shows that 73% of consumers prefer learning about a brand’s product or service through videos. Video content not only increases conversions and improves ROI but also helps in building relationships with your audience. You can share your video content on social media platforms, landing pages, or even on a partner’s website.
6. Paid Ad Content Marketing
Using paid ads for content marketing is a smart strategy. They help you reach a wide audience and place your brand where it matters most. Paid ads work well with inbound marketing. You can display paid ads on various platforms like social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content sections.
Conclusion
In summary, content marketing is crucial in today’s digital world, enabling businesses to engage, educate, and convert their audience effectively. As we enter 2024, trends emphasize innovation, personalization, and adapting to consumer preferences.
AI and automation redefine content creation, enhancing efficiency and relevance, while conversational AI enhances interactive customer experiences. Podcasts emerge as powerful mediums for storytelling and community engagement, alongside the enduring appeal of guides and eBooks.
Video content remains central, offering immersive experiences and complemented by strategic paid ad campaigns to amplify brand reach and impact. Throughout, delivering value, authenticity, and relevance is key, to empowering businesses to connect meaningfully, inspire action, and foster sustainable growth in the digital era.