Content marketing continues to be an essential strategy for businesses in 2023. With the rise of new platforms, formats, and consumer expectations, content marketers must stay on top of the latest trends to create meaningful connections with their target audiences.
In this article, we’ll explore the top 15 content marketing trends predicted to impact this year. Understanding these developments can help your brand craft relevant, high-quality content that stands out.
More Focus on Content Marketing Trends
One major trend for 2023 is a greater emphasis on strategic content marketing trends overall. Previously, many brands focused more narrowly on individual tactics like blogging or social media. In the future, leading marketers will take a bird’s-eye view of their content efforts.
This means developing an integrated content strategy that encompasses all formats and platforms. It also requires setting clear content marketing goals beyond vanity metrics like views or shares. The focus will be on metrics such as lead generation, sales, and ROI.
Rethinking the Content Funnel
The traditional sales funnel model of moving leads seamlessly from awareness to consideration, conversion, and loyalty is being flipped upside down. Today’s consumer journey is much less linear.
Brands need to meet their audiences wherever they are in their decision-making cycles. This means developing tailored content for each phase. It also requires thinking beyond the funnel and crafting content that attracts and retains customers.
Short-Form & Snackable Content
We live in an age of shrinking attention spans, where many people consume content on mobile devices. Short-form, snackable content allows brands to provide value without overburdening busy audiences.
Whether it’s brief articles, summaries, micro-videos, or visual content, brevity will be key for content marketers in 2023. These small bites of content are perfect for sharing on social media or messaging platforms. They allow brands to be part of ongoing conversations.
Video & Interactive Content
Speaking of snackable content, short videos continue to thrive across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. In 2023, brands should focus on upping their video storytelling game. Budgets are shifting to support high-quality video content production.
Along with video, interactive content like polls, surveys, quizzes, and assessments allow two-way engagement. They provide valuable insights while capturing user attention. Creative interactive content will help brands stand out from text-heavy competition.
Audio & Podcasting
Podcasting continues to grow, with over 100 million people in the U.S. listening to podcasts monthly. For brands, podcasting provides a useful long-form content format that can attract and engage audiences.
In 2023, more brands will tap into audio content strategies by sponsoring existing podcasts or creating branded shows aligned with their positioning. Audio content is a trend worth exploring as consumers multi-task and rely on voice tech.
Influencers & Content Partnerships
Influencer marketing shows no signs of slowing. However, there will be a shift towards a more authentic, layered approach focused on partnerships vs. sponsorships.
Brands will collaborate with creators that truly align with the company’s values and positioning. Multi-layered campaigns featuring employee advocates, brand ambassadors, and niche influencers will help drive authenticity. The goal is to build trust and community through creative collaborations.
Personalization
Today’s consumers expect hyper-personalized experiences. Content should be tailored to users based on their interests, behavior, and preferences.
Strategies like personalized subject lines, targeted content offers, and custom product recommendations help brands provide relevant, valuable content to the right people. Technologies like AI make personalization at scale achievable for content marketers.
Purpose-Driven Content
Consumers increasingly support brands that align with their values and take stands on important social issues. This allows content marketers to tap into purpose-driven content that spotlights corporate social responsibility efforts and overall brand purpose.
From sustainability to DEI, brands should focus on content that connects with consumer passions. Thoughtful, purpose-driven content helps forge meaningful connections beyond profits.
Localization
While many brands focus on targeting consumers nationally, there’s a significant opportunity to connect locally. Localization allows brands to customize content with locally relevant messaging, images, references, and more.
Tapping into local communities helps build trust and affinity even for national brands. Localization efforts may include unique content for different regions, languages, or specific communities that align with the brand.
More Interactive & Shoppable Content
Digital content continues to blend the line between media and commerce. Shoppable content in formats like shoppable posts, videos, live shopping events, and more seamlessly bridges the gap from inspiration to transaction.
In 2023, brands should explore shoppable opportunities across all their content. Turning content into a quick path to purchase provides value to audiences and unlocks revenue potential.
Ephemeral Content
Ephemerality exploded thanks to disappearing content features across platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The temporary nature of ephemeral content makes it irresistible.
Brands can tap into FOMO (fear of missing out) by using ephemeral content to create excitement, exclusivity, or urgency. Limited edition AR filters, short-lived Stories, and expiring sales offers are all ways for brands to experiment with temporary content hooks.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content like social posts, reviews, and visual content consumers create provides authentic peer validation. This helps drive brand credibility and conversion.
Brands should actively encourage and curate UGC by running engaging contests and campaigns, embedding UGC in their content, and showing their products in context through user content. Tapping into user communities pays dividends.
Educational Content & Thought Leadership
Consumers increasingly look to brands as trusted experts and thought leaders. Developing quality educational content positions brands as authoritative sources.
From blog posts and guides to webinars and online courses, informative content demonstrates expertise. Instead of a selling mindset, a learning mindset helps attract and retain audiences.
Conversational Content & Tone
Marketing speak, buzzwords, and hard sells are out. A genuine conversational tone is in. Brands can forge connections through content that speaks and conversationally.
Along with an engaging tone, conversational formats like Reddit AMAs, Clubhouse panels, Twitter Spaces, and podcast interviews allow brands to connect with audiences. The goal is to sound human and be helpful vs. promotional.
SEO & Optimization
SEO is crucial for discovery because content is produced across many channels and formats. Optimizing content for search can help more people find and engage with even the best content.
This means going beyond keywords to focus on full-funnel optimization and reader experience. From compelling titles to meta descriptions and page speed, every aspect affects how content surfaces and converts.
Agile Processes & Adaptability
The content landscape moves quickly. Brands must be agile and adaptable in content planning, production, and distribution to stay ahead. They need to respond rapidly to cultural moments and consumer needs.
Streamlined approval workflows, flexible, creative processes, and real-time analytics help with agility. Brands should continually test and learn, doubling down on what works and swiftly changing course when needed.
Smart Distribution & Promotion
Creating engaging content is only half the battle. Brands must also use data to promote it in the right channels at the right times to the right audiences. Algorithms favor recency and relevance.
Brands should leverage owned, earned, and paid distribution and focus on timely, targeted promotion across platforms. Testing promotion strategies will reveal the best avenues for reaching consumers with content.
Refined Measurement & Optimization
Measuring content performance goes well beyond vanity metrics like views and shares. Sophisticated attribution models are needed to connect content efforts to real business impact across the funnel.
By continually optimizing based on in-depth analytics, brands can fine-tune content for maximum ROI. Focusing on the most critical metrics will align content marketing with business goals.
Internal Collaboration & Advocacy
Content today is cross-channel and cross-department. Breaking down internal silos is key for effective content marketing. The best strategies involve teams collaborating across departments on unified initiatives.
Training internal teams on content best practices and nurturing employee brand advocacy also amplifies reach. When everyone is aligned around content as a strategic asset, it makes an exponentially bigger impact.
The Bottom Line
In the digital age, effective content marketing requires a multi-dimensional, integrated strategy. It’s about going beyond isolated, one-off content to coordinate initiatives across teams. By staying agile, personalizing content, optimizing distribution, and measuring what matters, brands can craft standout content that delivers results.
Focusing on value, relevance, and meaningful connections with consumers will be the key ingredients for content marketing success in 2023. What trends are you most excited to experiment with? The possibilities are endless for innovative brands willing to take their content approach to the next level this year.
