Wouldn’t it be really cool if we could sneak a preview of all the important trends, technologies, and developments that will impact our strategic and creative decisions over the next 12 months?
It is hard enough for content marketers to keep up with what’s happening now, let alone keep our eyes fixed on the horizon.
So here are 13 predictions from experts on everything that has to do with content marketing.
Content writing to change to match voice search
Here’s what Daniella Bell, Founder and CEO, from Scribly.io has to say about Content Marketing in 2020.
“At Scribly, we’re predicting that content marketing in 2020 will be characterised by conversational copywriting, particularly given the meteoric rise of voice search. 20% of all searches online are already made using voice search, and that figure only set to grow as home assistants like Alexa and Cortana bed in. In fact, if the growth of home assistants goes as expected, by 2021 there will be almost as many of them as there are people on this planet. To give that stat some context: it took around 30 years for mobile phones to outnumber human beings.”
Nick Galov, co-founder of Review42.com also says
“The most significant change in content marketing I can predict for 2020 and the years to come, is the change in which content will be produced – based on voice search.
Research has shown that a large percent of Google searches is done by voice search, and with more and more people relying on virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, the numbers will be higher.
Instead of typing in the short phrases – keywords such as “Content marketing 2020 predictions”, the searches will look more like “What are the predictions for the content marketing in 2020”.
These changes in the structure of search phrases will, undoubtedly, change the way people create their content. There will be more and more video and infographic content produced, containing the exact phrases that people would voice search.”
Create more reactive content
Charlie Worrall, Digital Marketing Executive, from Imaginaire Digital says,
“We try to hold a monthly meeting in which we go over the content marketing strategies that we’ve tried in the previous month. We look at the ones that worked really well and had a great yield and the strategies that didn’t work and how to improve them for future usage if they can be salvaged. This time, we’ve started to look at the things that have worked in 2019, when they worked and the environmental effects that made them work. An example of an environmental impact could be anything from Brexit to the weather to a new car being announced.
I think that we’ll see a lot of reactive content pieces that revolve around the big news stories. These are the kinds of content that get a lot of attention and so they are more likely to build links to a website and see an increase in traffic too. These types of content are going to grab the attention of the public and journalists alike which could lead to building a great backlink profile as time goes on. You might be looking at links form a big news outlet that wants to use your infographic or interactive piece to showcase in their website.”
Make Content available directly on the Google search results page
Joseph Colarusso, Senior SEO Manager, CORE Search Marketing says,
“Content marketing turned digital years ago, as customers flocked to Google and then interacted with brands on their websites. In 2020, customers won’t even have to go to websites; they’ll consume content directly on the Google search results pages. We call this a zero-click search. These zero-click searches change the way companies have to publish content to reach their audience. As a content marketer, you cannot be sure that somebody will click-through to your website and read your blog post or view your infographic. Instead, you must make that content available right on the front pages of Google. The best thing to do is to publish content on Google My Business. Also, add specially structured data to your content to get those rich results in Google searches.”
Prioritize Expertise, Authority and Trust
Nick LeRoy, Director of SEO, ICF Next, Author of the #SEOForLunch newsletter says
“I believe the biggest shift in content marketing will be not so much in the content output itself but further establishing the relationship between the author, their skillset/authority and the topic they are writing about. Google is continuing to prioritize Expertise, Authority and Trust (E-A-T) in their evaluation of the content. By reading Google’s quality evaluator guidelines you will see how they are prioritizing these signals in manual reviews which are known to influence their ranking algorithms.”
Andrew Clark, Marketing Strategist, Duckpin also says,
“Looking ahead to 2020, I believe we will continue to see brands wake up to what their target audiences really want: content that delivers value to them and builds an authentic relationship between company and consumer. In light of Google’s search algorithm updates in 2019, website owners must ensure their content is quality in the eyes of consumers in order for it to be ranking well. Otherwise, they risk being left behind online, which will impact their offline activities, too.
This is a daunting task, especially for novice content marketers, but there are ways to keep up with such trends. For example, brands can invest more time into understanding what their customers need help with and how to position themselves as an authority on such topics. Additionally, I would like to see companies experiment with traditional means of marketing, such as in-person events and getting involved with their local communities on a recurring basis versus simply donating money. In an era of digital oversaturation, good content marketing is not trying to game the system; it is about cultivating meaningful relationships between people, telling a compelling story, and being transparent (human) with people you want business from.”
Three MAIN trends that will rule Content Marketing in 2020
Andrew Ehlert, Digital marketing specialist at TheeDigital says,
- Voice Search Will Be Huge! Marketers have been talking about voice search for a few years, and the rumour was 2019 would be the year it takes off, but that hasn’t exactly been the case. With over 66 million Americans with a smart speaker such as Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa Dot the trend is growing at an incredible rate. There have been estimates from websites such as campaignlive.co.uk that predict roughly 50% of all searches will be done with a voice search. We believe this could totally change the content marketing landscape in 2020.
- Interactive Content Is Fun & Addictive – Interactive posts such as Buzzfeed quizzes have been around for years now but in 2019 we have seen a growing trend of consumers seeking out interactive content. Consumers are looking for online quizzes, polls, shoppable social media posts, 360-degree video, AR/VR content, and any other interactive content that will keep them entertained. Just reading text isn’t enough anymore and we believe in 2020 it will be vital to make sure your content is interactive and entertaining for your visitors.
- Influencers And A Personal Touch – Readers and visitors have grown incredibly savvy. They understand when they are reading content that isn’t authentic. They want to read content or engage with content that displays the personality of the creator. They want the creator to make silly jokes or making references to pop culture. This also includes influencers as this puts a personality and character to a piece of content. We believe that content that shows off its personality and partners with influencers will give the content a heightened sense of authenticity to the consumer. We believe this is something that must be included in order to compete in 2020.
Other predictions:
Juliana Weiss-Roessler, Co-founder of WR Digital Marketing
“The battle for “no-click” searchers will increase as more content marketers aim at being featured in Google’s snippets. These snippets often appear before the first results on the page, and users can quickly see the answer to their query without leaving Google search results.
In 2020, more content marketers will be thinking beyond simply how to land a snippet to how to gain value from being featured there. After all, many of these searchers will just read the information on Google but never end up on your website. So content marketers will have to get creative to ensure their brand is noticed even if those click-throughs aren’t happening.”
Lorrie Thomas Ross, The Marketing Therapist and CEO, Web Marketing Therapy, Inc
“When content serves vs. sells, it sticks. Content in 2020 will be geared to help an audience understand what they need to know – educating to empower them.
I use the term markeding® to inspire a content marketing standard that puts trust, creative mindshare, and two-way dialogue at the centre, breaking down old marketing paradigms so new marketing efforts yield breakthrough results.
Marketing means executing your content marketing strategy in an educational way. Every piece of content and every exchange in a markeding® strategy helps the other person understand your value and how you can change their lives.
When content marketing (video, blog, images, website copy, even ads) are educational, this approach yields and successful and sustainable results.”
Christine Perkett, CEO, Mindfull Marketing + PR
“We’ll continue to see an influx of “man on the street” videos. Currently popular amongst individuals to promote themselves as influencers, brands will begin to adopt these “direct to you/this is personal” type video approach to make people feel more intimately associated with the brand.
In addition, we’ll see content marketing that showcases brands DOING rather than TALKING. Corporate Social Responsibility is a big trend but consumers are now wanting to see it in action and content marketing can showcase the brands that are putting action behind their strategies.
More meaning, less fluff. Whereas before – in the “discovery era” of social media and content marketing – brands strove to get as much out there as possible as fast as possible. It’s still important to be fast, but the quality is counting more than quantity these days. Meaningful, focused and relevant content matters more than ever in order to break through the noise and the minds full of promotional content being thrown at them every hour, every minute, every second. Standing out is about quality and relevance.”
Stacy Caprio, Founder, Growth Marketing
“I predict there will be a huge content marketing shift toward video content in 2020. Right now, search engines are still having trouble reading video audio and converting it into text, making it hard for them to determine what types of video content is appropriate for search results, but as they get better at parsing video audio I predict video will become much more prominent in all search results. This will encourage marketers and brands to make more video content, and video will become just as ubiquitous in the content marketing scene as blog posts currently are.”
Alexandra Zamolo, Head of Content Marketing, Beekeeper
“Content marketing is one of the most inexpensive ways to get your name out there, build links and attract new customers. However, a good strategy must be in place to be successful, especially with the ever-growing number of blog posts that are being shared – 5.8 million every day.
So, in 2020, it’s important that your content has to stand out. No matter how great your email marketing campaign is, it won’t retain the interest of the reader if the content isn’t informative and of high quality. Include important links early on, and break up the post with vibrant images and bullet points.”
Khris Steven, Owner and content editor at Khrisdigital
“There would be massive growth in the use of live videos.
Live contents on popular social networks will dominate.
Talk of platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. As more people focus more on consuming video content around the globe, these platforms would continue to favour them better. It builds more connections and fosters a 2-way interaction between the creator and consumers.
According to statistics: viewing hours of live videos rose 65% from 2017 to 2018.
Also, live streaming for Super Bowl was up-to 19% in 2019. These numbers at least, show that live content is on the massive increase.
Brands, small business owners and marketers will turn to take full advantage of Tik Tok in 2020.
This is the fastest growing social media network at the moment. It was also the 3 most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2019.
Tik Tok’s growth in the US alone over the past 3 years has been shocking.
It went from 2.6 million users in 2017 to 7.5 million users in 2018. Then in March 2019, the total number of users was about 14.3 million.”