Halston’s Content Marketing Trends of 2022

As a content creator, you will know how important it is to produce content to boost your audience engagement, increase lead generation and stimulate brand awareness. In the ever-changing landscape of content marketing, it can be hard to keep up with what your consumers want.  

Content marketing has endless benefits, holding the power to create a strong customer connection. Companies are waking up and using different marketing techniques, with 43% of marketers seeing content marketing budgets increase over 2021 and expecting another huge rise of 66% in 2022.  

Here are 5 content marketing trends of 2022 to incorporate into your strategies and keep ahead of the marketing curve.

1. Trustworthy Content

In a world of constant change, customers are seeking trustworthy and honest content. To build and maintain a strong relationship, brands must leverage their content to empathise with their consumers through authentic and personal pieces. If customers don’t trust your brand, they won’t purchase your products or services.  

E-A-T surfaced in 2018 and is becoming one of the important marketing guidelines in 2022. Not to be confused with eating, it is actually part of Google’s algorithm and embedded within Google’s Search Quality Elevator Guidelines. Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (E-A-T), evaluates if the content is high-quality and should be ranked higher on SERP. This comes with a challenge to SEO, as it can’t be measured, due to not holding a quantifiable metric. 

Our tips: 

• Familiarity creates trust – write high-quality pieces regularly. 
• Use and create credible, relevant, and insightful content and sources. 
• Engage directly with your customers by carrying the conversation onto social media.

2. Deeper Insight

With all the tools out there today, there’s no excuse to not know or find out what consumers want and pinpoint targeting accuracy. Content today should be driven by thoughtful and data-driven strategies. Analyse what and why your consumers are searching and optimise your content to reflect this.  

Our tips: 

• Use your team, tools, and processes to analyse data and incorporate these throughout your annual strategies. 
• Perform keyword and competitive research to create insightful content that your consumers want to see.

3. SERPs and Google Guidelines (A SEO Dream) 

Trying to convince Google your content is the best is not an easy ride.  Start by analysing where you want your brand to be seen by following Google’s latest guidelines and algorithm updates and reflecting this throughout your content.  

Our tips: 

• Write great content that’s optimised for SEO, including high-quality images. 
• Link building with internal and external links within your content– it’s the year to leverage your links. 
• Review and refresh your old content for new rankings. 

4. Proliferation of Content  

Broaden your content media and don’t just produce written content. Offering a visual story, using voice, visuals and video will engage your audience and tap into segmented targets, making information easier to consume. People like creative and stimulative content and one way to achieve this is by using YouTube. Google owns and loves YouTube, and SERP prioritises blogs that contain videos. It’s a no brainer with YouTube being the 2nd largest search engine, with 2+ billion monthly active users.  

Use interactive content to understand what your audience likes to see and as a powerful medium to collect valuable data, by using polls and quizzes on various platforms. Interaction doesn’t just increase engagement but will also bring leads, sales, and revenue. 

Our tips: 

• Learn all about YouTube. 
• Turn your top-performing blogs into a video or visuals. 
• Invest in your content through tools and talent.

5. Hybrid Events 

 Whilst there was a quick adaption to online interactions, the world is getting back to normal, and consumers are expecting a balance of virtual and live events. Live events such as conferences and workshops will surface again in 2022, as well as the continued innovative ways to host events online, with live-streaming and webinars. Virtual events have their advantages, with reductions in costs, the removal of geographical limitations and advanced analytics. A recent survey found that attendance levels of online events were on average 29% higher than at a live event. 

Our tips: 

• Create a hybrid marketing strategy that balances virtual and live events to meet demands of different consumers. 
• You may decrease your budgets for virtual events this year, but don’t abandon them altogether. 

Success in 2022 

Keep your eye on the trends of 2022 as you plan your content marketing strategy for the year, creating engaging and immersive content. Varied content that incorporates the emerging trends will deliver an exceptional experience to consumers, drive more sales, and achieve marketing objectives. 

If you need help to kickstart your 2022 marketing, get in touch!