This month we’ve been taking a closer look at content creation marketing and how it can improve your SEO and ROI. However, with social media and the marketing industry constantly evolving, what are our top content marketing trends? And, how can your brand be ahead of these trends to create effective content that engages your audience?

1. Use of More Long-form Content Marketing

We’ve always been told to keep our blog posts short and snappy to maintain our audience’s attention. However, the growing trend, backed by research, is that longer form articles generate more traction and receive more engagement. We’ve noticed that Google’s algorithms promote longer content. This is because Google sees longer content as a more valuable resource and an authority on a subject.

Create longer thought pieces that will improve your SEO, but also keep your reader engaged and on your page

2. Experimenting with Different Formats

Until recently blogging was considered the only real form of content creation. However, nowadays there are so many more different formats to experiment with.

Podcasts are on the rise already and with people listening to an average of five podcasts a week, this is an area that your brand can be noticed in. Experiment with different formats to see which suits your different audiences.

3.User-Generated Content

User Generated Content (UGC) is going to be incredibly important in the world of content creation. Brands have content already available to them from happy customers, so use this. Credit your customers, of course, but by sharing their content they will reward your brand with loyalty and positive reinforcement.

4. A Move to More Advertising in Marketing Campaigns

Advertising and content marketing are mostly classed as very different forms of a marketing strategy. However, the use of paid adverts within new content creation will be a massive trend this year. Gone are the days of relying on organic growth. Paid campaigns will soon back creative content. This will be tricky to achieve without being over sales-y, however, if mastered could further the reach of good quality content, brand awareness and ROI.

5. Voice Optimised Content

With the rise of devices like Google Home and Alexa, more and more content will be voice automated so it can be more easily found with these types of devices. More and more content have question phrased titles as search devices are more likely to send users to these conversationally framed pages.

Content is an incredibly important part of your marketing strategy, and so we’re excited to see what trends arise surrounding this topic.