For decades, content marketing has been ever-present in our daily lives. From ads in the local newspaper and infomercials to persuasive blog posts and affiliate marketing, people are constantly being fed information with the intent of persuading them in one way or another.

Content marketing in its digital form has changed substantially since the 1990s, but many of its core tenets still remain. With that being said, being aware of the latest trends and developments can help you better formulate a content strategy and appeal to greater numbers of people.

Where is the content marketing game headed this year? Let’s take a look at what some brands are unveiling as part of their new and revolutionized strategies.

Longer Content

For years, a clear trend in content creation and marketing has been present: people and search engines alike are demanding more detailed information. As such, brands must continue to respond by creating fleshed-out content that thoroughly explains concepts, persuades readers and convinces audiences to engage how brands desire.

The most successful forms of standard content range from 1200 to 1800 words in length: essentially what can be read in 5 to 7 minutes. By pinging your website with this long-form content, you’ll be able to keep interested readers on your website for longer periods and make a better case regardless of topic, argument or pitch.

Data Visualization

In many respects, content marketing revolves around making a series of points and persuading readers that your statements are accurate. This can be difficult to do when addressing very subjective or abstract concepts, but many topics have concrete data-points that can be considered.

As such, brands are increasingly turning to data visualization as one way to drive home various points and create more persuasive content. Besides offering an opportunity to verify the accuracy of your own statements, data visualizations cans help break up the flow of content and make it more manageable and digestible for audiences.

There are many ways to visualize data, including quotes, charts, maps, infographics and animated GIFs. As long as the data is visual and verifies your statements, including this as part of your broader content marketing efforts can be quite effective.

Refined SEO Techniques

A variety of changes in how content marketers are approaching SEO has emerged in 2020.

As one example, instead of pinging your website with a variety of simple keywords, focusing instead of long-tail keywords that can drive more traffic from smaller niches is key. Likewise, aiming to improve overall content quality – whether that content be new or existing – is taking priority over finding any keywords or phrases at all to insert into content.

Given that SEO is no long just about ranking directly in SERPs, many content marketers are seeking ways to rank in other areas as well, such as local pack and featured snippets).

Being prepared for this year’s content marketing climate is crucial. While there may not be tremendous or revolutionary changes on the horizon when compared to 2019, there are shifts in how marketers handle, create and distribute content. By embracing these changes and gradually incorporating them into your existing efforts, your brand won’t be left in the dust by the competition.