Content Marketing Trends in 2022 and How to Master Them

As more and more people have shifted online, the world as we knew it is no longer the same. E-commerce is booming, and brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling to adapt. This drastic change brought many questions, and users are turning to the internet for answers. We don’t just need more content — we need better content. This means content marketing is changing, and there are new marketing trends to look out for.

So, what are the important content marketing trends in 2022, and how can you make the most of them? Let’s dive right in!

If you are not an established business or brand, it can be difficult to gain significant traction as you are building your online presence. What you can do, however, is to create and publish more specialized content relevant to your niche. When drafting your content marketing plan, this is one trend you absolutely have to consider. More and more businesses (even established ones) are focusing on creating more specialized content to showcase the best aspects of their company and what makes them unique.

You can publish content that focuses on the latest news and developments in your niche, or you can focus on helping your customers with their evolving needs by providing solutions.

By doing that, you can:

• Demonstrate your knowledge and competence
• Stand out from your competitors and establish your brand/business
• Create content that your target audience is interested in and wants to read

One of the most important aspects of creating content that your audience wants to consume and would actively look for is to aim for data-driven marketing. There are a number of free online tools you can use to collect data, both from how people interact with your website and how they interact with your competitors’ websites.

By doing that, you can tailor content that addresses the needs and goals of your target audience and influence them at every stage of the buying cycle.

By focusing on specialized and data-driven content, you would naturally need to research keywords that are specific to your niche. To get better chances of ranking in 2022, your best bet continues to be long-tail keywords.

Why?

Because they are niche/topic-specific and often have less competition. This makes ranking for them much easier than if you would target more generic keywords with greater monthly traffic but also more intense competition. In other words, by targeting long-tail keywords and creating highly segmented content, you can get more organic traffic in a relatively short period of time.

For example, if you have a small cleaning business, you would likely have a much better chance to rank for keywords like “regular house cleaning service” and “kitchen appliance cleaning” rather than going for a more generic keyword like “cleaning service.”

There are many tools to research long-tail keywords, such as Ahrefs and Semrush. You can also use Google Suggest, Google’s related search, and the “people also searched for” feature on Google to get keyword ideas for your content.

One of the most underutilized yet proven content marketing trends is repurposing content across your different marketing channels. Doing this will save you time, enhance your reach, and let you get your content in front of a different audience. This does not mean copy-pasting your content everywhere. It means “repackaging it” into a different format.

For example, you can:

• Turn a blog post into newsletter content or an e-book
• Transcribe your YouTube videos and distribute them as blog content, a podcast, and even in your newsletter
• Create infographics
• Embed YouTube videos into your blog or newsletter

In a digital age where more and more content is published by the minute, diversification is key. The best way to achieve that is by hiring content experts with a wide range of skills and a diverse portfolio.

Traditional content marketing is obsolete, and consumers want something exciting and outside of the box. Some of the most successful brands understand this very well. Instead of flooding their audience with content, they have a broader strategy that also focuses on key skills like:

• Graphic design, illustration, and editing
• Video production and editing
• Content optimization
• Audio editing and production
• Strategizing, SEO, campaign management and execution
• Content distribution and promotion

It is through this wider range of skills and competencies that successful companies manage to provide fresh content and formats that raise their traffic through the roof.

The days when businesses put out their products and services and customers just flock to them are long over. In times of extreme competition, those who understand the intent behind online searches are those who win the sales battle.

In 2022, marketers and businesses need to pay attention not only to what people are searching for, but also why they might be doing it. Back in 2016, Google officials explained how the search engine understands user intent. Paul Haahr explained the basic theory that if a user is searching for a specific store (e.g., McDonald’s or Walmart), they are most likely looking for their nearest McDonald’s or Walmart store, and not the brand’s head office in Chicago or Arkansas.

For example, if a person types in “Apple” into the search engine, Google needs to understand whether that person means the fruit or the electrical goods brand. By doing that, it can offer more accurate and useful search results. This is where SEO becomes more than a numbers game. It is not just about keywords, rankings, and organic traffic. It is about understanding what people want and how they are searching for it.

That is why Google has been focusing on using AI to better gauge the intent of users’ searches. This is also why AI is one of the dominant content marketing trends in recent years.

So, how can you adapt your content strategy to meet your target audience’s search intent?

Here are a few tips you can apply:

• Look at your customers’ journey and outline stopping points, content gaps, and areas where you can create a more seamless browsing experience.
• Use various web tools to tap into real-time search insights to get a deeper understanding of what motivates your leads and prospects right now.
• Do deeper topic, keyword, and competitive research to create content that better meets each searcher’s intent and answers their questions.

One of the most important goals yet one of the biggest challenges in 2022 is to get noticed. The most effective way to achieve that in an overcrowded space is by developing a community. This, of course, is easier said than done.

So-called “community marketing” came as a result of businesses realizing that establishing a long-term relationship with customers is more profitable than seeking a quick sale. Community marketing, therefore, is not a tool to make money quickly; it is about engaging with leads, prospects, and customers in order to build their trust and reach a wider audience.

You can do that by:

• Collecting an email list and having a regular newsletter
• Developing your social media channels to better interact with your followers
• Maintaining an informative blog on your website where you publish new content often
• Networking at events
• Participating in community projects
• and many other activities

In other words, your content marketing strategy in 2022 should be a long-term investment and not a one-day wonder. You need to be patient with your prospects and really focus on giving them value upfront. Whether in the form of professional advice through your blog and newsletter or by listening to their needs and problems shared on your social media — this is the winning strategy to have.

One of the most undeniable marketing trends that keeps expanding is voice search. According to TechCrunch, about 55% of American households will have at least one smart speaker by 2022. Data by eMarketer shows that by 2022, almost half of the US population will be active voice assistant users:

What that means for you is that you need to optimize your content for voice search in addition to regular text search.

We have a thorough guide on how to optimize for voice search, but here is the TL;DR:

• Use natural language
• Include question phrases in your content
• Consider adding an FAQ-type of content format to your website, as this is a proven method to boost your voice search results
• Aim to get into a featured snippet
• Focus on improving your local SEO
• Keep your NAP (Company Name, Address, Phone Number) consistent everywhere
• Stay in the know about any new voice search trends

When you are sharpening your content strategy and trying to get ahead of your competitors, you need to focus on the basics as well as on the trends. Convincing Google that your content offers the best answers to relevant queries is not easy, and there is always more that you can do and improve.

Start by making sure you are following Google’s website guidelines strictly. The best way to win in the game is by following the rules, and Google has always been transparent about what those rules are. In addition to that, the search engine also allows you to try and rank for a lot more than the traditional blue link results. You can also aim to appear in the Featured snippets, image results, People Also Ask section, Top Stories, video carousels, and many other opportunities.

Ranking in the different SERP features is far from easy. Here are a few tips on what you can do to increase your chances:

• Take a look at the SERPs where you want to appear and analyze the current results. This will show you what you need to change to optimize your content better.
• Make sure you are using the most appropriate schema markup to help Google understand what your content is and how it is organized on your website.
• Regularly review and update your older content with a focus on optimizing it for new ranking opportunities and types.
• Consider adding minigraphics, infographics, and image cards within your content as a way to make it easier to read; plus, it will help you get into snippets!