To see great results with your content in 2023, you must adapt and evolve with the content marketing trends.
Siege Media is a 115-person, SEO-focused content marketing agency that’s always investigating upcoming trends in content marketing. In this post, we’ll break down content marketing trends that we believe will be significant in the next year that content marketers should be aware of.
1. AI Content Will Not Replace Humans
A trend that emerged this year is the use of AI content creation tools. What s an AI content tool? An AI content tool is software that generates copy based on user input.
AI content tools will not replace human-written content – at least not in 2023 – but it can be useful for small to medium-sized companies who don’t have extra hands to write out all the content they need for their site.
What do we think AI is best used for at this time?
- Blog title brainstorming: Type in your topic and content ideas to get some extra creativity in your writing process.
- Email engagement: If you’re struggling with email campaigns, AI content tools offer in-app suggestions for delivery times and personalized content.
- Content outlines: Hitting a road block? Get your content started on the right foot with AI content generators. Type in your topic and a brief description of your content and voilà – you have some headlines to get started with.
AI content tools are a useful shortcut for productivity on your site, but we don’t see AI replacing humans this year. If you’re in dire need of content writing for your site, businesses can access GBT-3 and ChatGPT for extra help.
Pro Tip: Struggling with email campaigns? Utilize AI content tools that offer in-app suggestions based on customer patterns and consumer behavior to improve email engagement.
2. Goodbye to Link Services Growth
As we’ve stopped mostly with manual link building as an agency, it won’t be a shock to see others follow the same route and focus on building links organically.
Link building services will begin to fade in the next year. John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, recently explained that links will progressively add less weight to the chances of a page appearing on the SERP overall.
There’s evident success in focusing on just passive link building and a plethora of link building strategies to choose from that can naturally attract links to your site. The economics will continue to favor the use of a passive link strategy, such as with calculators, more than spending time completing manual outreach.
Links still matter — but great content will attract links naturally versus sticking with manual outreach. Put your efforts towards creating well-built content and design, and reap the rewards as it matures online.
Pro Tip: Focus on ideating and developing content that will lend itself to audiences who will be interesting in sharing, like news sites.
3. Emphasis on Content Design
As a Google SERP becomes more saturated, there’s less value in regurgitating the same topical content that other brands are creating. Instead, the design within the content adds more value to the post itself, along with your content navigation and hub.
Topical content like “what is” and informational posts are becoming more competitive as the SERP ages. Leveling up the blog design around these types of content will help you stand out from the competition and improve your chances of ranking higher.
However, it’s still important to build out your content library. Build out SEO-savvy content that meets E-A-T requirements with a consumer-friendly design, but make sure you emphasize quality over quantity in the next year.
Pro Tip: Hire a web designer or contact us to help redesign your website layout to improve content navigation and user experience.
4. Support Optimizations vs. Volume
Similar to upgrading your content design, put your time and budget into maintaining and optimizing your existing content.
Optimizing your existing content library can help to maintain and even improve your rankings on the SERP versus creating new content that takes longer to rank and can require more resources.
You can use maintenance tool sets like Clearscope to maintain your rankings on the SERP with easy-to-use iteration tools and optimization technology.
Start with conducting an SEO content audit on your site. This will pinpoint content that needs some slight improvements along with low-performing content that desperately needs some renovation.
A content audit will provide insights on how to improve your overall content marketing strategy. If you’re just starting to grow your brand’s content and have little resources, you’ll see a great pay-off with a DIY content audit.
Pro Tip: If you already have a large content library on your site, start with improving older content before producing more content. Add good blog post elements like compelling headlines and informational visuals.
5. Separation Between Social and Website Content
We’ll see an increased separation between social content and website content. Reach is restricted on social networks, as those networks want to avoid users from leaving their site to jump to your site.
You’ll see more success by sharing the same idea of a post in a fragmented fashion in your social networks without ever linking to the URL.
Essentially, social media platforms want to reward authenticity and community between other users. The more interactivity on the post, whether it’s shares or comments, the better the post will perform.
Distribute the core idea of the blog post on your social network while allowing your post to live on your site. This more performative content strategy drives traffic to your site while also driving links and increasing email signups.
Pro Tip: Continue to build out your social media platforms as you grow your blog content library to stay fresh and relevant.
6. Focus on Human-First Narratives
While we did say AI content tools will continue to grow in popularity this year, there’s still a need for people-first narratives.
As content marketers, your first job is to understand your target audience. From there, you should be able to create informative people-first content that connects with your customer.
Calculator and quizzes are some great examples of how to add interactivity to your post. This quiz from StyleSeat not only provides useful and engaging information to the reader, but is a great segway to their servicing pages.
People-first content is by far more relatable and understandable by target consumers versus content generated by a computer.
Use your brand’s tone and voice throughout your content to connect with your target audience and boost the chances of them sharing your content and/or navigating to your products and services pages.
Pro Tip: Interactivity within your blog posts will keep readers engaged. Try building out quizzes, animations and short videos.
7. The Shorter the Video, the Better
Short form videos are growing in popularity in the content creation space — and for a good reason. They are highly shareable and can sum up a large amount of information in a short amount of time.
Short videos are also known to have a higher retention rate, which will work in your favor when it comes to user engagement.
According to Wyzowl, an animated video production company, 69% of consumers surveyed would prefer to watch a short video to learn more about a product or service.
You can weave short videos throughout your brand’s content strategy — from an informational overview to covering a branded FAQ to customer testimonials.
See this in action in this blog post from Zebra, which includes a two-minute video on full coverage car insurance.
The video compiles the most important information from the blog post in an engaging, aesthetically-pleasing, and digestible way. With this video, Zebra was able to increase its link profile by 38% in just four months.
Pro Tip: While short form videos are becoming more popular, longer in-depth videos are still quite useful for SEO rankings. Check out our Youtube SEO podcast for more details.
Looking On to Bigger and Better Content in 2023
Utilizing these upcoming marketing trends sooner than later will not only improve the overall aesthetic of your content but will prove to do well for the overall user experience.
By staying ahead of the curve, you can increase the chances of seeing success in content rankings and engagement.
Feeling a bit anxious about keeping up with these content marketing trends and ever-changing SEO strategies? Don’t fret — sign up for our content marketing services and we can help take the work off your plate.
