Doing business in the wake of Covid-19 has not been a walk in the park for many businesses. Whether startups or even established brands, all have had to take the ‘bitter pill.’ A survey done by Main Street America shows that over 7.5 Million small businesses are at the risk of closing.
Who then has survived? The truth is that most of these businesses are shaken, and if you have one, you know better.
But even with all this, there are still some businesses that have survived and are thriving, registering an upward performance trajectory.
On the other hand, research conducted by Hubspot.com shows that over 70% of marketers are investing in content marketing, and that’s a good number- in fact, that should tell you that businesses have found a new opportunity to present their offerings.
Most of these businesses have resulted in content marketing strategy because they’ve realized prospects are spending more time online, and again, it’s an intelligent way of cost-cutting.
With steep competition in content marketing, how do you push your offerings so that they go viral?
Firstly, we look at the content marketing trends in 2020 and what strategies you can apply to for your content to go viral and more conversions.
Content Trend 1: User-generated content
A recent study shows that user-generated content (USG) is more influential than brand content. In addition to engaging more consumers, you can create more content with minimal resources in a short period by getting ideas and pieces from your community.
With the prevailing Covid-19 conditions, you have to determine what inspires your prospects to share content and how you can engage them to create user-generated content. This should form part of your content marketing process, a sure way of increasing your customer base and get more value from the existing ones.
Content Trend 2: A continued rise in demand for video marketing
Many people are open to discovery; they want to watch the video even if they don’t buy, just to enjoy. Research shows that 80% of most people prefer video to all other content in product presentations.
They believe more what they see than hear, and that’s why video marketing is trending. 80% of the online consumers revealed that they switch between online search and video when looking for products.
That should inform your marketing strategy- you have to make video marketing part of your plan if you want to go viral. Are you intimidated by the prospect of creating videos? You don’t have to DIY style videos is all you need to connect with your audience.
Content Trend 3: Voice search and the smart device
Statistics show that smart speaker adoption grew by over 40% in the year 2019, and that should tell you how great voice can be in marketing. You need to present some compelling and Youtility-oriented voice content to your followers, and this will open new engagements.
The most compelling voice-oriented content is rooted in information and usefulness. Brands will be more focused on catering voice searches through smart devices.
A perfect interplay between voice to chat and chat to voice leads to increased engagement, and that is why many voice apps have gained popularity.
Brands are beginning to adopt voice content, and if you’re going to s, you have to up your game before your competitors.
To make this happen, you have to research how consumers conduct voice searches. Get to understand the nuances in their queries so that you know how to phrase effective headlines with more specific long-tail keywords.
Looking at the voice queries helps you gain more insight into the information and type of content they are searching for. This will guide you in doing voice-SEO of the existing content and inform future content creation.
You have to adopt an omnichannel approach to creating agonistic content that will be able to deliver the content perfectly regardless of the device they’re using.
Content Trend 4: Increased uptake of messaging apps
Messaging apps uptake will continue to go up in 2020, and this includes many aspects of content. The apps are coming with many opportunities for marketers. With over three billion consumers sharing their emotions on messaging apps, you need to consider how much influence your content strategy has.
Content Trend 5: Augmented reality
The uptake of AR by mobile users is expected to rise to over 3.5B worldwide -44%. Augmented reality allows users to see virtual information and items while looking at real things.
Information is overlaid into the real world. AR’s prevalence is only expected to go up from here. Any smart marketer can see the opportunities; you just need to dive into AR and take advantage.
Content Trend 6: No random acts of content
Why should you keep reinventing the wheel? It doesn’t help. You just need to create less content but make every piece as creative as you can. Through such an approach, you will stand out from the competition.
Allow your audience to find your content in their preferred format and channel. Don’t push too much content at once- give it like a dose, piece by piece, over time.
It takes five drip emails to warm up leads and seven impressions for a display to sink. That is why you see the same commercials over and over again. Stop those random acts of content and embrace a rich, nuanced plan and deliver it consistently to your customer.
Content Trend 7: Mapping the customer journey
Mapping is a content customization framework that informs the content used at different customer touchpoints and different audience segments. And in those different touchpoints, content is optimized for exceptional performance.
This is the legwork and strategic planning that your company must adopt if you’re keen on results. A study by Altimeter shows that 78% of B2B companies mapped digital customer journeys and this trend will continue even past 2020. That should, therefore, inform your content marketing strategy.
Tips to make your content go viral
Not every form of content will go viral; you may have excellent and very informative content, but the following principles will give your content a chance to go viral.
1) Keep yourself more updated with the trends
If you just assume nothing is happening and continue churning out content, you may find your boat capsizing very soon.
Remember, your competitors are aware of the content marketing trends and are burning the midnight oil to update their marketing strategies.
You have to begin changing your approaches, do more research to see how your peers or more successful companies have done it. Then deliver quality and interactive content.
2) Integrate current events whenever required.
Do you want to leverage existing market attention? Then the current events are perfect platforms to focus on. However, you have to do some proper research and avoid most of which are politically charged and could quickly turn into disastrous campaigns that can downplay your effort.
3) Be quick to deliver if something new arrives in your niche.
There is always a buzz that comes with new things in the market. Everyone is keen to discover how it can help them. That is why you have to be on top of the game and identify new things in the market.
It is a perfect way of bringing traffic to your content, and by the time every other person is doing it; you have already enjoyed your cake.
4) Unique & sharable
Look for something unique in your niche where you can generate a highly relevant topic. An example of adding a voice to an already trending topic is Newsjacking -this can be on social media or any other content channel.
Again, you have to ask; is the content shareable? Will readers be interested in sharing with their friends? Look for something humorous and helpful and provide sharing links. Most importantly, engage with the people that are engaging your content.
5) Make your content visible.
You have to create your content and establish a strategy that will push it to where people are. A perfect way of improving visibility is through SEO. This ensures it ranks on top of search engines, and thus more online visitors can see.
6) Touch on the emotional connection.
A funny campaign will tend to draw a quick response. Look for something that will elicit emotion and more in-depth perspectives that are touching. You can be sure of going viral with such.
7) A storytelling approach to make a connection with audiences
Sharing positive and touching stories in forums like Reddit and Quora is an excellent way of sourcing fans and attention. People want to read stories more than just information.
Ensure also while giving the story, you have a link to your site. It is a perfect way of increasing your site followers and subscription.
8) Combine user-generated content with the content post to show the value of friendship.
Get a few responses from your clients, create content that touches on them, and answer any questions. That way, your audience feels engaged and can trust you to give them solutions.
9) Consistency
Going viral is a ‘one-touch’ affair-nope. You have to create solution-based content consistently and for some time. You need to build a community, which means understanding and identifying your target niche and interacting with them daily.
10) Choosing the right social media platform
Social media is a perfect way of ensuring your content goes viral. Here, people are out to interact, and thus the content must be straightforward, touching emotions and helpful. It must elicit some reactions, and of course, you must be ready to respond appropriately.
Different platforms require a specific type of content, and the approach is different. For instance, the content you create for Facebook may not work on LinkedIn are entirely different platforms, and the purpose and language to use are different.
Conclusion
The content creation strategy you adopt will determine your success. A lot is happening in the year 2020, and many businesses have adopted content marketing as the surest way of keeping afloat even at these unpredictable times.
Everyone wants their content to go viral, and thus the competition is stiff. To create content that will go viral, you have to do some proper research on the subject, be up-to-date with what is trending, and utilize the above tips for effective presentation.
You don’t want to waste time and resources doing content that receives no attention-this can be frustrating. You don’t have to go in it single handedly; get an experienced content specialist to help you get content that will go viral and bring in positive results.
Download Our B2B Marketing Guide!
Download this free ebook to learn how to grow your business online.
