Digital trends in 2019 that you can use for content marketing
Content marketing depends a lot on contemporary trends and technologies.
From the mid-2000s to 2010 content marketing was mostly about writing blog posts, email marketing and articles on article directories.
Then came social media. Then came social mobile apps.
These days content marketing involves, aside from still writing blog posts, email marketing and articles, publishing images on Instagram, publishing small posts on Facebook, publishing updates on Twitter and publishing through a slew of other content formats.
I normally don’t advocate spending your energies on multiple platforms because the more you focus on a single platform, the better ROI you get.
For example, if your audience prefers blogs, then focus on blogs.
You can use other channels to distribute and highlight your content on your blog, but otherwise, put all your energies into creating stellar blog content.
This Entrepreneur article talks about five digital marketing trends you can use to keep your audience engaged.
Digital marketing is a broader concept, but I look at these tools from the perspective of content marketing.
How do you use these developments manifesting in 2019 for the advantage of your content marketing?
First, these are the digital trends that you will encounter in 2019:
- Artificial intelligence
- Chatbots
- Voice search
- Influencer marketing
- Live video
Artificial intelligence and content marketing
Artificial intelligence is everywhere whether we realize it or not. Here are a few blog posts in which I have covered AI and content writing and content marketing:
What effect is AI going to have on your content marketing?
Is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers?
How does AI help in content writing and content marketing?
When it comes to leveraging artificial intelligence for content marketing, don’t think of AI as some artificial thinking bot that is going to react whimsically about your content.
For example, search engines like Google are using artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of search results.
Of course, it is not in Google’s interest to build an AI system that doesn’t bring up the results needed by its users.
Google has built/trained its AI so that it picks up and ranks only the best possible content it finds.
Chatbots and content marketing
Chatbots allow your customers and clients access helpful, useful information without your direct interference.
You must have experienced Chatbots on many websites.
You must have also noticed that sometimes instead of providing small answers to questions, Chatbots bring up links to their FAQs sections or even detailed articles.
The power of Chatbots lies in their ability to engage users.
True engagement can only happen if you carefully listen to your users: what sort of problems they may have, what sort of language they use, and so on.
Just like it is important to use the right language to improve your search engine rankings, it is very important to use the right language when writing content for your Chatbots.
The content for your Chatbot must be conversational, relevant, succinct, helpful, and to the point.
Voice search and content marketing
A good part of your content marketing goes into improving your search engine rankings for relevant keywords and search terms.
2019 onward, you need to make sure that your content comes up when people use voice search.
You may like to read How to optimize content writing for voice search
According to a Forbes article mentioned in the above link, by 2020, 50% of online searches will be voice searches.
According to Sundar Pichai, by 2016, 20% of mobile queries were already done by voice search.
Voice search is conversational. People search the way they speak.
While creating, writing and publishing content for your content marketing, make sure that your content is conversational, engaging and to the point. Use the language people normally use in voice searches.
Partnering with influencers for content marketing
There are contradictory opinions on exactly how influential influencers are but collaborating with influences can be really beneficial for your business if they have a strong fan following for your niche.
If there is an influencer on Instagram who posts lots of fashion-related photographs and has millions of followers, you may like to collaborate with him or her to promote your products or endorse one of your links.
Before deciding to collaborate with an influencer you may have to spend some time exploring the level of interaction that the influencer has with his or her friends and followers.
Content marketing with live video
Every social media service these days provides you the facility of broadcasting live video.
You can stream live video using Google Hangouts, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Periscope.
The best form of content marketing with live video that I have seen is organizing webinars.
Since everything happens in real time, so does interaction with the viewers. They can immediately ask questions and get answers from an expert.
These are just a few digital trends that may shape up your content marketing in 2019 and beyond. There can be many more.
Frankly, when I’m talking to my clients, I suggest them not to get too bogged down by all the platforms available these days. Just focus on the platforms where their prospective customers and clients spend maximum time.
Have a single place where you publish original content and then re-purpose the content to make a presence on other platforms.