Content Marketing Top Content Marketing Trends That Should be on Your To-Do List

Top 2023 Content Marketing Trends That Should be on Your To-Do List

Are you looking for some cool new 2023 content marketing trends? Would you like to get tips that can reinforce your marketing strategy for the 21st century? If that is the case, we discuss some latest content marketing trends and tips in this blog. Learn new trends and how to incorporate them into your marketing strategy in this blog post. 

During the last year, content marketers’ main focus has been values, leveraging data-driven practices and putting the audience first. Although the content marketing best practices have been helpful, the 2023 content marketing trends are quite advanced.

Interestingly, the b2b content marketing and benchmark budgets and trends suggest that 66% [1] of content marketers will bump their content marketing budget. Therefore, we can expect to see some great advancements in content marketing during 2023. Moreover, be prepared to be surprised with more penetration of AI as compared to all the previous years.

Without any further ado, let’s take a look at how content marketing is changing the game in 2023. Here are some new trends:

Trend #1: Mapping New Customer Experiences 

The era of addressing customer needs and problems is taking a new direction. With the penetration of experiential marketing tactics, content marketing is changing. New video marketing techniques, advancing voice search and new acts that focus on inclusion of the audience are creating new customer experiences. 

Thus, content marketers can actively leverage the changing customer experience paradigm. Moreover, they can target new customer personas through experience based marketing efforts.

It can include anything. You can try creating a series of follow-up email campaigns to re-engage, retain and re-entertain the customers. Or you can devise a new value-based offering for customers at every point of interaction with the brand.

Suggested Read: Amazing Benefits of AI in Digital Marketing for Online Businesses

Trend #2: Personalized Content Curation

A huge part of experience-based content marketing efforts is personalization. Personalized content creation is hugely important. Especially, when content marketers deal with more sophisticated customers. Such customers prefer to read content that speaks to them on a personal level. 

The golden-rule to identify what type of content personalization is best for your target audience is to start with data. Data describing the preferences, objectives, aspirations and goals of your audience is helpful. It can offer you good insight on how to personalize your content marketing efforts for a particular audience. 

Trend #3: AI Based Content Strategy

It would be unfair to leave AI based content strategy out of the picture while discussing data driven personalization and learning. AI Based content marketing strategy can essentially take out the grunt work of data mining and utilization for honing marketing efforts. Thus, it is one of the most popular content marketing trends. 

The reason is that top search engines are using AI in conjunction with algorithms to detect and rank high-context, relevant data on top of user SERPs. Currently, content marketers are actively using AI for content ideation, content curation and scaling process. Thus, they should expect to get better results. The use of AI will be beneficial for marketers as compared to those who are still pondering over using AI.

Read More on: How Can AI Help With Content Marketing?

Trend #4: Niche-Specific Brand Authority

Building authority can take your content marketing efforts to new heights of success. Content saturation is a real problem in almost every general vertical. With more companies creating similar content, it is getting harder to organically rank content.

So, what is the solution? Brands have started to go more and more niche-specific with their content marketing efforts. In the latest content marketing trends, you shall expect to see intertwining a high-value service or product offer with a particular niche and its needs. 

It means that you should write about how a specific “industry” or “user” can use your offer. You should avoid writing why “anyone” can use your offer.

Trend #5: Content Diversification

Let’s face it, every brand needs more audience. However, your existing net of target audience might not be cutting it. Content diversification is one of the amazing content marketing trends. Thus, it focuses on addressing relevant audiences from various fronts to increase brand reach. 

Brands are focusing on employee activation. It means they are enabling the employees to discuss what interests them. Moreover, these interests are used in conjunction with brand offers. It means that if you have employees who are tech-savvy, let them talk about tech. If your employees show interest in social welfare, let them talk about it. However, the important thing is to present every interest in conjunction with pitching brand offers.

Other means of content diversification include posting visuals like infographics, starting polls, posting videos, starting podcasts, sharing personal experiences, telling brand stories and inviting influencers over to the content platform to attract more audience.

Trend #6: Embracing Interaction

Interactive content encourages two-way connection building between the brand and its audience. Interactive content like quizzes, polls, comment discussions, tests, surveys and calculators are all the hype. Such content allows the readers to immerse themselves deeper into the information that you are about to offer. 

Moreover, embracing interactive content is helpful in increasing the frequency of user-generated content on your website. For most ecommerce content marketers, UGC (User-Generated Content) comes as a boon. It is due to the fact that more than half of website visitors trust the word-of-mouth from other users than the brand itself. 

Live videos, Q/A Sessions, and any other form of dynamic interactions with the audience is recommended. It allows you to get closer to your visitors so you can turn them into repeat customers.

Trend #7: Automated Content Generation

While there is no replacement for manual content generation, there is no denying the usefulness of automated content generation. Moreover, it can aid in bringing more value to your content marketing efforts. 

Using AI for content generation is a great way to scale your content marketing efforts. Additionally, it helps you get solid words in favor of your brand on your media platforms. 

AI Content generators enable you to target high-context, question-type LSI keywords. Thus, AI is helpful in ranking your content higher for voice search results.

Trend #8: Micro-Influencer Partnerships: 

Rather than solely relying on high-profile influencers, brands may increasingly collaborate with micro-influencers who have smaller but highly engaged and niche audiences. This allows for more authentic and relatable content promotion.

Trend #9: Sustainability and Ethical Messaging: 

With growing environmental concerns and social consciousness, brands are expected to prioritize sustainability and ethical practices. Content marketing may incorporate messages and narratives that emphasize a brand’s commitment to sustainability and responsibility.

Trend #10: Content Gamification: 

Gamifying content experiences can increase user engagement and drive participation. Brands may leverage gamification elements like quizzes, challenges, or interactive games to make content consumption more enjoyable and rewarding.

Trend #11: Short-form video:

Short-form video content continues to gain popularity and offers opportunities for brands to engage with audiences effectively. Some emerging trends include:

• Vertical and ephemeral videos: 

With the rise of platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Snapchat, brands are leveraging vertical and short-form videos to capture attention and deliver quick, engaging messages.

• Bite-sized educational content: 

Brands are using short-form videos to provide quick tips, tutorials, and educational content that can be consumed in a matter of seconds. This format is ideal for delivering information in a concise and visually appealing manner.

• User-generated short videos: 

Brands are encouraging users to create and share their short videos related to products or brand experiences. This fosters user engagement, authenticity, and amplifies brand reach through viral user-generated content.

Empathy and human-focused content:

Empathy-driven and human-focused content has become increasingly important for brands to connect with their audience on a deeper level. Some emerging trends in this area include:

• Storytelling and narratives:

Brands are sharing authentic and relatable stories to evoke emotions and create meaningful connections with their audience. These stories focus on human experiences, challenges, and triumphs to foster empathy and understanding.

• Diversity and inclusivity: 

Brands are embracing diversity and inclusivity in their content, reflecting a wide range of perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds. This inclusive approach helps brands resonate with a diverse audience and promotes empathy and understanding.

• Social impact and purpose-driven content: 

Brands are aligning with social causes and showcasing their commitment to making a positive impact. By highlighting social issues and addressing them through content, brands can create empathy and inspire action among their audience.

Strategic SEO:

Search engine optimization (SEO) remains crucial for content marketing success. Some emerging trends in strategic SEO include:

• User-focused optimization: 

Brands are prioritizing user experience and optimizing their content to align with user intent. This involves understanding search intent and creating content that directly addresses user needs, resulting in higher rankings and increased engagement.

• Voice search optimization: 

As voice-activated devices become more prevalent, optimizing content for voice search is gaining importance. Brands are adapting their content to match the conversational nature of voice queries and incorporating long-tail keywords that mimic natural language.

• Featured snippets and structured data: 

Brands are optimizing content to appear in featured snippets, which are concise, information-rich excerpts displayed at the top of search results. Structured data markup is also used to provide search engines with more context about the content, improving its visibility.

Podcasts:

Podcasts have gained significant popularity and present new avenues for content marketing. Some emerging trends in podcasting include:

• Branded podcasts: 

Brands are creating their own podcasts as a way to build brand awareness, establish thought leadership, and engage with their audience in an intimate and conversational format.

• Niche and specialized podcasts: 

Rather than targeting broad audiences, brands are creating podcasts that cater to specific niche interests and industries. This allows for targeted content delivery and engagement with a highly interested audience.

• Interactive and immersive experiences: 

Brands are exploring interactive elements within podcasts, such as live Q&A sessions, listener participation, and immersive audio experiences. These elements enhance engagement and create a more interactive podcasting experience.

AI Driven Content Marketing Trends for 2023

AI has transformed content marketing in 2023. Here is how:

Conversational Content: 

Artificial Intelligence has the ability to engage in human-like conversations and opens up opportunities for brands to create conversational content. This can involve chatbot interactions, interactive Q&A sessions, and dialogue-driven content formats that provide personalized and engaging experiences for users.

Real-Time Customer Support: 

ChatGPT and similar AI content generation tools can power chatbots and virtual assistants, enabling brands to provide instant and round-the-clock customer support. These AI-powered assistants can answer frequently asked questions, resolve common issues, and guide users through various processes.

Language Localization: 

AI Writer tools have multilingual capabilities and facilitate language localization efforts for brands targeting global markets. It can assist in translating and adapting content to different languages, cultures, and regions, ensuring effective communication and engagement with diverse audiences.

Interactive Content Experiences: 

AI Writers enhance interactive content experiences by allowing users to have dynamic and engaging conversations with AI-powered chatbots or virtual characters. This can be applied to interactive storytelling, immersive games, and interactive educational experiences.

Content Automation and Efficiency: 

ChatGPT and similar tools automate certain content creation tasks, such as generating social media posts, email responses, or short-form content. This automation frees up time for content creators to focus on more strategic and creative aspects of their work.

AI-Powered Content Insights: 

AI content generators analyze large volumes of text-based data, including customer feedback, social media conversations, and online reviews. This analysis can provide valuable insights into customer sentiment, emerging trends, and content performance, allowing brands to make data-driven decisions.

AI in Ecommerce:

AI technologies are transforming the ecommerce industry and content marketing within it. Some emerging trends include:

Personalized product recommendations: 

AI algorithms analyze user data to provide personalized product recommendations based on browsing history, purchase behavior, and preferences. This helps ecommerce brands deliver tailored content experiences and improve conversion rates.

Visual search and augmented reality (AR): 

AI-powered visual search allows users to find products by uploading images or taking pictures. AR technology enables virtual try-on experiences, allowing users to visualize products before purchasing, enhancing the content marketing experience.

Chatbots for customer support: 

AI-powered chatbots are being used by ecommerce brands to provide real-time customer support, answer queries, and assist with purchasing decisions. This improves customer engagement and enhances the overall shopping experience.

These trends highlight the evolving landscape of content marketing and the role that AI, technology, and user-centric approaches play in shaping successful strategies.

AI’s role in high-quality researched content:

AI technologies can assist in producing high-quality researched content. Some emerging trends in this area include:

AI-powered research assistants: 

AI can help researchers by gathering and analyzing vast amounts of data, identifying relevant sources, and extracting key insights. This speeds up the research process and ensures the accuracy and credibility of the content.

Fact-checking and accuracy: 

AI-powered tools can be used to fact-check and verify information, ensuring that the content is accurate and reliable. This helps in creating trustworthy and high-quality researched content.

AI-generated outlines and summaries: 

AI can generate outlines and summaries of research materials, making it easier for writers to organize and structure their content. These AI-generated outlines act as a foundation for creating comprehensive and well-researched articles.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Popular is Content Marketing?

As much as 82% of brands and companies use content marketing and the numbers are expected to grow in coming years. So, if you are pondering over the question “Does content marketing still work?”, we suggest you stop. We suggest that you start incorporating content marketing in all your marketing efforts.

What is The Biggest Trend in Online Marketing Today?

AI Chatbots, personalized content marketing, voice searches and User-Generated content continue to be the biggest online marketing trends today.

Conclusion

In conclusion, emerging content marketing trends for 2023 include short-form video, empathy-driven content, strategic SEO, AI’s role in high-quality researched content, podcasts, and AI in ecommerce. These trends emphasize the importance of engaging visuals, human connection, user-centric optimization, AI assistance, immersive audio experiences, and personalized experiences in content marketing strategies. By embracing these trends, brands can stay relevant, connect with their audience, and drive impactful results in the evolving content marketing landscape.

Reference:
[1] B2B Content Marketing  – Content Marketing Institute