6 Sizzling Hot Content Marketing Predictions and Trends for 2021

This year may have been a mess, but it’ll be 2021 before you know it!

And when it comes to content marketing, there are plenty of predictions and trends to keep an eye on. Here are some of the hottest updates that’ll charm the socks off your readers and customers in 2021!

1. Talking to your customers is a must for content marketing in 2021

To be fair, talking to your customers was always a great idea.

This pandemic showed brands and businesses that they have to be more empathetic. Your business priorities changed, and so did your customers’ priorities.

It’s a good idea to revisit your customer personas and evaluate whether they still have the same pain points, goals, and needs. If their needs have changed, your content marketing strategy needs to change, too.

2. Lead nurturing content is rising on up!

CMI’s report brought another thing to light: 73% of top performers don’t just create content for the-top-of-the-funnel prospects.

They also create lead and audience nurturing content, consistently providing value – even after leads have turned into customers.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on in 2021. Retention is the new growth, especially when you consider the fact that word-of-mouth marketing is cheaper, better, and more successful at driving new business than any other marketing method.

Brands that can create an emotional connection with their customers get 3x more word-of-mouth referrals than brands that don’t.

How to write lead nurturing content

Typically, lead nurturing content means turning cold leads into leads warm enough to purchase your products. However, you should take this holistically and pay attention to warming up your paying customers, too.

Personalization is key.

80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that personalize experiences.

Start by dividing your customers into audience segments based on:

• • Demographic, psychographic, and other standard data types
  • Their behavior, purchasing patterns, and purchase history
  • Their funnel stage

Optimize your content for featured snippets by:

• • • Answering questions (Within your content, structure the question as the heading, and then provide an answer directly below)
    • Keep your main answers to 50 words at most
    • Improve your backlink profile and site speed

You can also pay attention to the People Also Ask sections and compete for them.

How to use Schema markup

How to optimize for the Local Pack

If you own a brick and mortar business, you’ll want to optimize for the Local Pack in the SERPs:

• Create your Google My Business profile
• Fill out your profile, list your services, add all the details
• Build local citations and get links from local directories
• Get reviews
• Share posts to your GMB profile

Pay attention to how the Local Pack is changing because of the pandemic. In the image above, you can see that Google is now showing whether coffee shops and restaurants offer delivery, takeaway, and so on.

SERPs are dynamic, so make sure you check out what they look like for your target keywords regularly. It’s the best way to spot new trends and stay competitive in a shifting landscape.

4. Interactivity is a major 2021 content marketing trend

Using interactive content to add a little spice to your content marketing strategy has never been easier.

Your leads and customers can easily calculate costs, savings, and other figures while consuming your content with interactive calculators.

There are plenty of ways to make your standard content even more interesting. Not to mention that interactive content sends all the right signals to Google, and if your content is particularly valuable, it might even be spread like wildfire on social media.

5. Create authentic content

And the entire internet is laughing at brands that are trying to pander to Gen Z and Millennials in a “How do you do, fellow kids?” manner.

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?

It’s all about authenticity, in an actually authentic way that aligns with your business.

But here’s the problem: when businesses want to be authentic, they mainly do it through cringy campaigns.

They forget about putting people front and center.

Since authenticity is a big deal in 2020 (and it will be an even bigger deal in 2021), you can avoid messy campaigns and showcase your authenticity by including your team in your content strategy:

• • Interview your team members when talking about your company’s vision, goals, and mission
  • Let team members come up with anecdotes and personal experiences for content pieces
  • Implement employee advocacy

I mean, just look at our content marketing blog.

You’ll see diverse perspectives from various Content Fly team members and writers.

Everyone’s got a story to tell, and when they do, it resonates with your audience.

This doesn’t mean that you have to put even more on your team members’ plates.

6. Hotline Bling, or: the rise of direct messaging

What does it mean?

It means interacting with customers through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and other popular chat clients.

Now, this can’t be your main content marketing strategy.

It’s a great way to engage warm leads, but you still need the “meat” of your strategy – valuable content. But it’s an awesome way to leverage your content to create an amazing customer experience.

One simple way to use messaging for your content is to actively keep track of how leads and customers behave, store that information in your CRM tool, and then sync your website chat bot with your CRM data.

This way, you can personalize on-site experiences.

Let’s say your website sells all kinds of clothing, but a few visitors often look specifically for boots. Wouldn’t it be better to offer them a special discount on boots than to offer a discount on shirts?

Similarly, you could be running a SaaS and offering an email marketing tool. What happens if your leads range from SMB owners, to enterprises?

With this messaging strategy, aided by AI and tech, you can give everyone a personalized experience based on their interests.

For example, SMB leads could get case studies featuring other small business owners. Enterprises, on the other hand, could get case studies conducted with other companies like theirs.

How to start chatting with your customers

• • • Chatfuel for Facebook Messenger
    • ChatBot for website messaging
    • AgentBot for WhatsApp

All you have to do is figure out your strategy. Let your chat bots funnel your leads towards the perfect solution!