Content Marketing in 2020: what to expect

Content marketing is more and more often seen as part of corporate’s marketing budgets. This simple and constantly innovating communication channel is most likely the best and most cost-effective approach for companies who are looking to connect with their audiences in a deeper way.

We’ve gathered some of the trends that will define how content marketing will roll out in 2020.

Audio, visual and written digital content are kings

Although content marketing has seen a wider adoption by companies of new tools and technologies, the most important rule (which actually is four powerful rules in one sentence only) still applies: create compelling content to reach the right audience at the right time.

The 2019 Content Marketing Institute Report refers that audio, visual and written digital content are still the most used channels by B2C companies to communicate with their public. Video should be particularly important for B2C firms, since the predictions point out that, by 2021, 82% of all Internet traffic will be video content.

Likewise, written digital content remains attractive for brands, with 64% of marketers increasing their use of this format (see infographic below). The marketing departments that prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to see a positive return on investment. Additionally, 60% of the consumers feel more engaged with a company after reading content on their blog.

Although audio and visual content are having a never-seen-before engagement by brands, it doesn’t mean that this should be the way to go to engage with your audience. A successful content marketing comes from building a solid strategy to attract the attention of your target group, serve their pain points and help your company achieve its goals. In other words, providing value to your audience should be your main focus, and the means to get there depend specifically on who you are, and what your sector and audience look like.

Communication channels

Social media networks not only provide a great amount of data and analytic tools, but they also reach a larger public. It’s no surprise that 85% of marketers are using these kinds of channels to talk to their community.

But different companies have different needs — it might be a simple waste of time, effort and money for a B2B or a B2G company to share its content on social media channels.

That’s the reason why 77% of companies are putting their efforts on email marketing. Traditional newsletters are a magnificent way of letting your stakeholders know what’s up with your business, and after a frenzy around social media that is being revised also due to changing algorithms, they are back better and more impactful than ever.

On top, new communication channels are on the rise: as an example, Podcasts are fast reshaping the way we consume audio, together with the changing habitudes that Spotify and the likes are bringing to the music industry — …and, as a result, radio content is also just starting to reinvent itself.

More money flowing towards content

Reports point out that 57% of marketers are increasing their content marketing budget from 2018 levels. This will remain in the upcoming months, e.g. with the rise of new enterprise blogs.

The increased investment follows brands’ understanding of how content marketing places the needs of the consumer first. It not only helps potential customers, but also promotes your products / services and boosts your brand awareness without any intrusive advertising.

Marketing is changing, and reputation (beyond awareness) is absolutely critical. You can still devote the majority of your marketing budget to ads, but you’ll probably fail to compete with other companies that are creating meaningful and useful content that engages their customers in an organic way if you are not very solid on content and PR.

This is why we at The Square are so passionate about our world — because we know that with our help our clients can achieve better business results, and because we are restless and fierce in reaching that goal together with them.

Our Square has a lot to offer in 2020. We hope we will continue to deserve having you sticking around us, throughout this new year and beyond.

You might be interested in: “Public Relations trends for 2020”