5 Content Marketing Trends Small Businesses Must Implement For Significant Growth in 2020

Your company must be taking advantage of social media marketing in this Information Age, if not, then you’re still living in the Stone Age. Social media marketing has become the catalyst for many of the new strategies moving forward. Most of the trends I’m going to mention complement social media marketing. 

In 2020, however, it’s all about increasing customer interaction and participation through amalgamated content marketing strategies. Your audience needs to feel more appreciated. Don’t dump your customers as soon as you’ve made your sale. They need to feel connected to the brand and that they’re part of a community. Trust in the brand goes a long way, and transparency is an intrinsic part of any successful company.

Matching your content with every stage of the buyer’s journey is key to becoming a trustworthy and profitable company. The following trends will add value to your brand. They’ll also ensure you achieve your marketing objectives with fluidity and grace.

Authenticity

A growing number of Millennials and the emerging Generation Z demand genuine and original information first before they can commit to any brand. I believe that honesty paves the way for customer loyalty. According to one survey, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as recommendations from close people. It’s about being relatable because customers can express themselves when they engage. It shows you’re genuine and care about them by responding on a personal level.

Gone are the days when companies shoved products or services in customers’ faces to coax them into buying. That’s seen as aggressive and will lead to distrust. It’s indubitable that social media has made consumers look at other consumers to inform their buying decisions. That’s why user-generated content (UGC) is at the forefront of all that is authentic in content marketing.

UGC

According to the Pew Research Centre, 54% of adult internet users create and post original videos and photos online. The most popular is photos and videos. People emulate their family members, friends and work colleagues. UGC marketing is one of the best ways to showcase your brand’s authenticity. It’s about people showcasing your brand, sharing experiences and having fun. 

Never use people’s content if there’s no consent. Remember it’s about authenticity and most people are also tech-savvy, so don’t try to exploit anyone.

Relevance

You must stay relevant but keep to your niche and maintain your overall message or philosophy across all channels. That brings about consistency, which in turn shows brand authenticity. It’s okay not to appeal to everyone in your niche. It allows you to fine-tune your audience volume. Providing authentic and personalised content helps you prune out the laggards and establish loyal customers.

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is about furnishing an integrated experience for the customer across all platforms, channels and devices. The objective is to provide a seamless customer experience online or offline. This holistic approach enables the customer to access the services of your company smoothly. It also enhances communication and authenticity because the content across the channels is cohesive. You can achieve this by aligning your company information, aims and design across each channel and device.

By aligning all your departments from sales to marketing to customer support with the buyer’s journey, you have a better understanding of your customers. I like to compare omnichannel marketing with a well-oiled machine that is firing on all cylinders with the utmost precision and coherence. Small businesses will benefit from this marketing trend because according to Magestore, 73% of consumers shop across all channels.

Customers will appreciate the elegance of the experience and would likely become repeat customers. Virgin Media are an example of efficient omnichannel marketing. It’s only wise for small businesses to emulate that success.

Long-Form Content

As I mentioned earlier regarding authenticity, customers search for complete information and guidance. Gone are the days of half-stepping, it’s all or nothing. Always put your customer relationship first so that you can feed them with first-class content. Long-form content is the way to go if you want to get higher rankings in the search engines in 2020. It’s not true that people have short attention spans. People will pay attention to thoughtful, informative and engaging content.

The rise in people untrusting brands has led to this new trend. You cannot fool the consumers because they’re willing to dig deeper into your brand. A BuzzSumo research revealed that long-form content gets more social shares compared to short-form content. Have a look at the graph below taken from OkDork.com.

The more someone’s interested in your brand or niche, the more they’re going to learn about it. Why not give them adequate high-quality information. These are the customers who tend to become brand evangelists and loyalists. They’ll stop at nothing to spread the word about your brand.

Providing long-form content means you’re showing authority in your niche and you’re also getting approval from your readers. It’s a win-win situation and worth the time and investment.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an opportunity for start-ups looking for rapid growth through social media marketing. The power of the D-list celebrity will still be going strong in 2020. I predict that more companies would want to work or collaborate with these influencers.

A study by the ODM group mentioned that social networks influence  74% of consumers when making purchase decisions. Your company can make an impact if you choose to collaborate with influencers on social media platforms. I hope you’re beginning to notice how these trends connect.

People trust what other ordinary people have to say about a brand more than corporations. I, for one, tend to skip adverts on the internet but would take time to watch videos made by other people. I’ve made most online purchases after seeing a video of someone talking about a product or service. That’s as real as it can get. Most of these influencers have multitudes of followers across a plethora of social media platforms. By working with one influencer, you’re consequently advertising to all their followers with least effort and a smaller budget. Of course, this depends on the influencer’s fee.

If you’re not on it already, 2020 is the time to jump on the bandwagon of influencer marketing. You can appreciate that this is also another aspect of UGC marketing, but it’s more lucrative and far-reaching. There’s a growing number of influencers, and you can find someone to work in tandem with your brand. Small businesses can directly compete with larger firms and take their fair share of the market.

Chatbots

We’re living in the age of immense technological advancement, and it’s absurd for companies not to partake in the use of these latest tools. Given the pace and growth of these advances in technology, it means operating costs are going to fall soon. That will enable small businesses to implement chatbots in their marketing strategies cheaply.

Chatbots can answer FAQs about your company’s services quickly and also use them for transactional processes such as delivery details and payments. Chatbots are available 24/7 to customers and can keep data for later use. As well as being on your company website, you can also add chatbots on the instant messaging apps.

With regards to omnichannel marketing, you can see how incorporating chatbots can make this a better experience for the customer. It allows for that smoothness and integration to flow without effort and can be cost-effective in the long run. Chatbots offer a standard level of customer service. They’re always polite and patient.

The chatbot industry is forecasted to be around USD 1.25 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research. Positive changes in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will probably improve the qualities of chatbots. You must make it a priority to utilise chatbots in 2020.

To Conclude

You must consider the marketing trends you can do as a start-up. You can certainly attempt to scale down the ones you think are too big to implement. Everyone has a fair shot in this ever-growing industry. Big and small companies can directly engage with consumers personally and on a deeper level.

Make sure you have the right team that’s willing to collaborate in every department. There are lots of brilliant writers, videographers, designers and digital marketing experts out there. Everyone you outsource must be tech-savvy. Now is the time to take advantage of the knowledge, technology and expertise at your disposal today.