Content marketing remains one of the most useful categories of digital marketing and inbound marketing. It’s helpful to people, it’s valuable to brands and consumers, it’s authentic, it’s versatile and adaptable, and it works well to build an interested audience, foster trust, create relationships, and increase leads and sales.
Of course, like any type of marketing—and like internet and mobile use in general—content marketing is constantly evolving. The way users find and interact with content is always changing, and so the best practices and most effective strategies are too.
So, here are some of the key content marketing trends for 2020 that should inform and guide your digital marketing strategies in the new year.
2020 Content Marketing Trends
- Optimizing content for “near me” searches (e.g., “pizza near me,” hardware store near me,” or “podiatrist near me”) using local SEO methods is incredibly important heading into 2020, as these types of searches are increasing exponentially.
- Optimizing content for voice search by using long-tail keywords written the way people speak their search queries is similarly essential now, as hands-free searching on the go becomes increasingly common.
- Video continues to become ever more popular with consumers, and an ever more effective format for marketing content. There are lots of ways to use video for your brand to capitalize on one of the most crucial content marketing trends for 2020.
- Mid-size and smaller businesses with considerable on-site content libraries are starting to use smart recommendation engines to direct consumers to their next piece of content in a personalized way. This can help usher visitors along their buyer’s journey while keeping them in contact with the brand.
- If you haven’t been proactive about link building as part of your content marketing strategy, 2020 is the year to start making real efforts to get quality backlinks leading to your site from other authoritative websites. Not only is it an organic way to increase your targeted traffic, but it’s also a major component of SEO.
