Content marketing is arguably the most effective long-term digital marketing strategy. But the best practices are always evolving, and you have to keep up to continue benefiting. So, let’s take a quick look at some of the prevailing content marketing trends for 2022.
And, we’ll just add that even as trends come and go, one thing always remains constant: Content should provide genuine value to its audience. It should be high quality, accurate, and deliver something specific that the audience was looking for. If your content does that, you’re already well ahead of the curve. Doing so in ways that also capitalize on current trends is a great recipe for success.
So, get acquainted with these content marketing trends for 2022 and keep them in mind as you create new content for your brand.
2022 Content Marketing Trends
- Renewed focus on audience intent – The intentions of people who arrive at your content is an important thing to consider. It’s crucial that you understand—and cater to—exactly what people want who engage with content that has your particular title. What specifically were they looking for when they entered the search query that brought them to your page? This is how you provide the most value, and it requires thinking about which stage of the buyer’s journey the audience is in. There’s renewed focus on this aspect heading into 2022, as it’s becoming something Google’s algorithm is increasingly comprehending and prioritizing in search result rankings.
- Aiming for alternative ways to appear at the top of search results – These days, there are a number of ways to make it to the top of Google’s search results besides having the first-place link. For example, there are featured snippets, image results, video carousels, top stories, and people also ask. Study up on the best practices for getting your content to appear in these slots in 2022, such as properly using alt text and schema markup.
- Starting podcasts – Demand for podcasts has been increasing significantly every year for a number of years now. In 2022, it appears to be at a tipping point; it’s starting to go mainstream for brands to create their own educational podcasts as a powerful way to increase their authority and awareness.
- Optimizing for voice search – Voice search is rapidly on the rise on mobile devices, and it’s especially important to how Gen Z searches for content. This means using long-tail keywords of at least four to five words, because people voice search just like they talk. They tend to speak in complete questions and sentences, and content optimized to match will often appear highest in the search results.
- Creating multimedia content pieces – The intense competition for audience attention and retention on the web has always been fierce. One of the notable content marketing trends for 2022 is increasing use of multimedia content pieces that are designed to be more engaging. For example, think of a written blog post that also has video and audio clips and maybe even some augmented reality (AR) elements seamlessly incorporated. This isn’t something new, but there’s currently a big push to make content more dynamic using this strategy.
