Content marketing remains an unshakeable pillar in any successful marketing strategy. However, the digital landscape is constantly evolving, and simply churning out content is no longer enough to grab attention. To truly stand out in 2024, you need to understand the latest trends and tailor your content for maximum impact.
Please Note: What follows is aggregated data from numerous sources including Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Semrush, We Are Social, Emplifi, Dash Hudson and our 40 years of experience in the marketing industry in New Brunswick.
The Reign of the Niche: Catering to Specific Audiences
Gone are the days of generic blog posts that aim to please everyone. Today’s audience craves niche-specific content that speaks directly to their needs and interests. This means conducting thorough research to understand your target audience’s pain points, preferences, and the platforms they frequent. A recent Content Marketing Institute survey found that 88% of B2B marketers believe that personalization is highly important or critical to their content marketing success.
The Rise of Short-Form Video: Snackable Content Reigns Supreme
With attention spans shrinking (according to some research), short-form video content has been taking center stage for years. Platforms like TikTok (we don’t recommend this platform as a long-term solution for your business due to geopolitical reasons), Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts offer fantastic opportunities to engage your audience with quick, informative, or entertaining videos. Multiple studies reveal that 89% of customers want to see more video content from brands in 2024.
If you’ve been reading our updated Marketing Mixtape, you already know some of our social media trends of 2024, and one of them is social selling. This has become an important part of short-form video creation, especially for companies operating in the B2C market.
However, here in New Brunswick, we’ve seen great results for all our clients’ reach when they begin implementing a short-form video strategy. From home repair to government organizations and non-profits going through a round of fundraising, the extra reach your content can achieve through video is astounding. We’ve seen increases in the hundreds of percentage points for companies who have never implemented short-form videos into their content marketing strategies.
Long-Form Content Still Holds Value: But Distribution is Key
Don’t relegate long-form content like five-minute videos, in-depth blog posts, white papers, and eBooks to the dustbin of history. They provide valuable information and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. In 2024, they also provide valuable SEO signals to engines such as Google, helping to increase the reach of your content over time so long as you’re consistent.
The key lies in strategic distribution. Offer short-form teasers on social media platforms that entice viewers to delve deeper into the long-form content on your website.
Use paid advertising to tell the story sequentially and help guide your audiences down the sales funnel from Awareness to Purchase and eventually Loyalty.
Optimizing Content for Different Platforms: Tailoring the Message
Understanding the nuances of each platform is crucial. Tailor your content for the specific audience and format:
- Social Media: Short, engaging videos (ideally under 30 seconds for platforms like TikTok and under 60 for Meta), infographics, and eye-catching visuals with concise captions are ideal. Create strategically and remember SEO principles. If you are looking for a refresher on SEO, check out our other article here.
- Blogs: In-depth articles (aim for 1,000+ words for comprehensive topics), listicles, and how-to guides provide valuable information and establish expertise. Again, these send valuable SEO signals to search engines so long as your write them strategically.
- Email Marketing: Personalized newsletters with curated content and exclusive offers nurture leads and build customer loyalty. With digital privacy becoming increasingly important globally, these can become a valuable data source. It’s your data and you gain access to a lot of other marketing activities once a customer provides you with their email. This is easier to do for B2C businesses who setup a loyalty program. It provides value to your customer and a valuable captive audience for high-converting marketing tactics such as Limited Time Offers.
Creating Content that Resonates: Beyond the Basics
Beyond format and platform, here are some additional tips for creating content that resonates with your audience in 2024 whether they live in Fredericton or beyond:
- Focus on Value: Provide genuine value to your audience. Solve their problems, answer their questions, and entertain them. Don’t just create content for the sake of content creation. We use a paid tool called AnswerThePublic along with a few others and our own research to figure out what content could potentially provide the most value.
- Authenticity is Key: Let your brand’s unique voice shine through. People connect with genuine personalities, so don’t be afraid to inject some humor or personality into your content. If you want to read even more about why authenticity will become even more important in the age of machine learning and generative AI, check out our other article here.
- Data-Driven Approach: Don’t operate in the dark! Analyze your audience’s content preferences using website analytics tools and track what performs best. This data will guide you in creating future content that resonates. We’ve said it multiple times, but with the rise of machine learning, you’re going to need a ton of historical data in the future to help train these systems. Learn more here.
- Mobile-First Design: Ensure your content is optimized for mobile devices. With over 60% of all web traffic coming from smartphones and tablets, a mobile-friendly experience is no longer optional, it’s essential. However, always follow YOUR data. We recently analysed multiple client data sources and found that when it comes to B2B clients here in New Brunswick, Desktop received, on average, 80% of the traffic.
The Importance of Paid Promotion: Don’t Just Publish, Promote!
A final note to consider. THE INTERNET IS A CROWDED SPACE. While creating fantastic content is a critical first step, don’t expect organic reach to be enough. Take for example some of the research showcased in the TrafficSoda article found here (Please Note: we do not endorse all of their findings, we would just like to point out their historical graphs on Facebook Reach).
To ensure your content reaches the right audience, consider paid promotion. Allocate a portion of your marketing budget to promoting your best content on social media platforms and search engines. How much budget? Check out our in-depth article here.
By understanding the latest content trends, tailoring your content for specific platforms, and including promotion, you can ensure your content reigns supreme in the ever-evolving digital kingdom.
Content is still king/queen, but in 2024, it’s a king/queen who needs a strong promotional army to secure its rightful place on the throne. Need help getting started? Looking to refresh your social media content strategy? We’re here to help.
Photo credits: Austin Distel on Unsplash | Ahmed Nasiru on Unsplash | Kit (formerly ConvertKit) on Unsplash