What will content marketing look like in 2024? Content marketing and content creation as a business necessity, across all different industries, has continued to grow in scope over the past few years. The importance of content shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, according to Hubspot, 90% of marketers say they invest in content marketing and plan to continue using it in the same capacity.
With that in mind, we've detailed 8 key content marketing trends that you should know for the coming year. Use these trends to craft your content marketing strategy and stay on the cutting edge of content.
Contents
1. Repurpose, Refresh, Repurpose
2. Real Time Engagement
3. Short Form Video
4. Humanizing the Content Experience
5. AI-driven Content
6. Augmented and Virtual Reality
7. Co-marketing
8. Expanded Social Universe
What’s Not Changing in Content Marketing?
Trends in content marketing are moving fast. The sophistication of AI technology, new and changing social media platforms, and consumer expectations all mean that innovation and creative thinking are huge assets to any content marketer. There’s almost no such thing as too out there when it comes to content marketing ideas — guaranteed if you don’t someone else will.
So with that in mind, keep your skills sharp by staying up on these content marketing trends:
1. Repurpose, Refresh, Repurpose
Any content marketer worth their salt knows the value of repurposing as a part of the content strategy. The skill is creating one piece of content that can serve multiple purposes and goals. For example, a blog post can be created for SEO, but then perhaps be split up into a short-form video series. This means you're not only serving your content marketing strategy, but your social media goals as well.
In 2024, the possibilities for repurposing content are expected to continue. Look for unique, new, cutting edge ways your content can be repackaged and re-shared, such as an interactive guide or as a video.
Also, take a moment to not only repurpose your content, but refresh old pages. This is usually a fairly quick process for big rewards. You could refresh articles that contain outdated information, or update keywords on a post that is no longer serving search intent as accurately as it could be.
2. Real Time Engagement
Today’s consumers crave authenticity and real-time interaction with the companies they follow. Give your brand a personality and engage with your followers by answering questions and sharing UGC.
2024 could also be the year of even more livestreaming. Instagram Lives, Facebook Lives, LinkedIn Lives, TikTok Lives, YouTube Lives and Pinterest Lives are excellent ways to encourage real-time participation with your followers. You can invite special guests, do giveaways, and answer questions.
Learn more about livestreaming for brands!
Another aspect of engagement is in customer service. More than ever consumers have an expectation that they can get their question answered or grievance addressed straight through social — not through traditional channels. Make sure your brand is set up to handle complaints and questions on social media with templates and copy pre-written for common questions, following social customer service best practices.
Scale your engagement efforts so you never miss a mention, with a social engagement solution that allows you to do everything from one place.
3. Short Form Video
It’s no secret that video posts are more engaging than static ones. More and more content marketers are leaning into video content, with a particular emphasis on short form video, which has continued to grow stronger as a trend, rather than seeing any waning interest.
What's great about it is there are so many platforms now offering short-form posting, marketers can really hone their skills. You could utilize Instagram Stories, Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or even Pinterest. Each of these formats offer fun effects, editing tools, stickers, and other options to bring your videos to life. Need some inspiration? Check out 50 simple video content ideas!
Short form is definitely skyrocketing in popularity. But long form isn't going anywhere! If you're interested in producing longer videos, we've got some great YouTube marketing tips to share!
Learn more about creating a social media content calendar.
4. Humanizing the Content Experience
The online space is crowded, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Using content to entice potential customers is getting trickier, simply due to volume which leads to decision fatigue. So it's never been more important to analyze your customer journey, identify drop-off points, and rethink your engagement tactics.
As the world moves more and more into the digital space, humanizing your content and taking a holistic approach are key elements to keep in mind for remaining top-of-mind.
Consider the micro-journeys as well, within each piece of content, not just from one content piece to another. Interactivity is a big piece of this puzzle, and it's definitely seeing a golden age. Not only is it more fun for the reader, it also keeps them engaged with your content for a longer period of time - rather than bouncing off to another site.
Check out our interactive Social Media Holidays Calendar for 2023!
Consider creating interactive guides or reports, with expandable sections or animations to illustrate a point. Another kind of interactive content lives on social media: quizzes and polls are extremely popular and, as a bonus, give you some quick insights into your consumers.
5. AI-driven Content
Keeping up a steady stream of content has been a struggle and pain point for content managers since online content began. It’s a fact that more content means more keywords, means more pages for search engine crawlers to learn what your company is all about, means more search results, means more users clicking into your page.
AI-powered content is a significant marketing trend that will continue in 2024. This technology can improve your site content personalization, from recognizing repeat visitors and offering in-app suggestions or driving specific email campaigns based on user behavior and purchase patterns.
MGC (Machine Generated Content), and other API tools for writing content, is the way of the future for scaling crawlable content on your site. It’s true that MGC is still lagging a bit when it comes to the human voice. But it has grown in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years and is important to keep your eye on. 2024 could be the year where you get ahead of the curve and look into how AI and MGC can augment and scale, not replace, your content creation machine.
6. Augmented and Virtual Reality
One of the fastest growing content marketing trends is AR — augmented reality, and VR — virtual reality, programs that immerse people into artificial worlds, providing new ways of sampling products and purchasing, through the simple use of their phone.
This type of content is bubbling into the mainstream now, and promises to be the next stage of evolution for brand & product marketing. Keep an eye on Pinterest and Snapchat in particular — Snapchat continues to innovate in AR functionality, providing unique ways for its users to share their interests, "try on" products before purchasing, engage with friends, and create content.
Copy and content writers should definitely think about honing their micro-copy skills. AR and VR experiences require a lot of explainers and clear CTAs to encourage users to tap into AR features.
7. Co-marketing
Collaborative marketing could see an uptick in 2024, given social platforms are now offering easier ways to tag other creators or brand accounts. This is a great way to increase engagement and combat declining reach. Given that influencer marketing is still a top marketing channel, collabs on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and more will be huge opportunities for content marketers.
Another form of co-marketing, co-branded reports and guides, are nothing new but there's a reason they remain a popular avenue for attracting new business. And they serve a similar purpose — joining forces with other top brands and companies in your industry is a win-win for everyone, propelling well-researched and inspiring thought leadership content further than something produced solo.
8. Expanded Social Universe
Social media will definitely take center stage in content marketing trends in 2024.
Just like the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has entered its next phase, so too are we entering the next phase of what could be termed the "expanded social media universe". From innovative new features on the old standbys, to the change in ownership at X, to Instagram still trying to make Threads happen, there's plenty to keep content marketers on their toes.
What’s Not Changing in Content Marketing?
There are some fundamentals in content marketing that have stayed pretty constant since it became such an important part of the digital marketing ecosystem.
1. Backlinks are still key
Google is infamous for changing their algorithm rules on a very regular basis, sometimes without an announcement. It’s only once SEOs start noticing anomalous dips or spikes in rankings that the news seems to corroborate the findings. (And of course those frantic emails to your SEO buddies).
Creating backlink-worthy content is a key thing to keep in mind when determining your content marketing goals. Use the above new trends in content marketing to inform what this could look like. Is there an older blog post that could be turned into an interactive infographic for example?
2. Mobile first
Content marketing is partly about getting the most eyes on your content. However, arguably more important is keeping those eyes and encouraging a second action like subscribing to your email list or making a purchase. One way to drastically increase the probability of these actions occurring is to optimize your content for “mobile first”.
Over half of global web traffic is through a mobile device (54.8%) and that number is expected to grow. By ensuring that your content is optimized for mobile viewing you'll have a way easier time capturing today's consumer.
Achieve greatness in content marketing in 2024 by staying ahead of these trends.
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