3 Trends for Content Experiences

Authenticity, transparency, and value marketing are three vital aspects you should focus on to deliver excellent content experiences. Let’s look at how you can integrate these three trends into your content strategy.

Content marketing is getting a makeover. Brands are now focusing on delivering an experience that encompasses not just the content, but the interface and the structure within which the content resides. This new phenomenon is called ‘content experience.’

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As brands and marketers prioritize delivering amazing content experiences, here are three trends to keep in mind when working on your content strategy.

Trend #1: Authenticity

The internet is saturated with way too much content. Type in any query in Google, and you get millions of search results. For brands, it’s a challenge to break through this content clutter, and for readers, finding relevant content that addresses their concerns.

Authentic content strives to be of genuine help to its target audience without implementing any shady tactics. By being authentic in your content experiences, you are not just building your brand, you are building long-term relationships with your customers.

Here are three ways to promote authenticity in your content experiences.

1. Users First: To be authentic, you need to think from your users’ perspective. Rather than asking, “What’s in it for me?”, ask “What’s in it for my audience?”
2. Inject Your Brand Personality: Let your brand’s voice shine through your content. Are you trying to establish thought leadership in your niche? — Express yourself like a leader. Do you want to educate people and at the same time be playful? — Be witty yet insightful like Tim Urban.
3. Social Proof: People trust their friends, peers and social circle. People read testimonials and online reviews before purchasing a product or a service. Social proof is essential to create an authentic image. Even if you get a bad review, address it promptly and use it as an opportunity to build a positive reputation.
    

Also Read: Top 7 Customer Experience (CX) Trends for 2020

Trend #2: Transparency

Being transparent through your content experiences shows that you care. Transparent brands are often perceived to be trustworthy and credible. So, how do you project transparency? Simple, by being honest in your communication. Did you make a mistake? Admit it, apologize for it, and let your customers know what steps you are taking to fix it.

If you are looking to ensure your brand is transparent, we recommend three ways to do so:

1. Guard Your Brand Image: In an age where any piece of content can spread like wildfire, stay updated with your social listening efforts. If you see a rumor making rounds in the online space about your brand, be prompt to address it.
2. Be Consistent: Your focus should be to deliver consistent content experiences across different channels be it your blog, social media or any other property.
3. Encourage User-Generated Content: Urge your users to share stories of their experiences with your brand. Testimonials are good, but when you ask them to share photos or videos, you are letting your product do the talking through their content.
    

Also Read: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Customer Experience

Trend #3: Value Marketing

Value is the usefulness and importance of a product or service. Your aim with your content should be to deliver value to your customers. Offering value through your content can simply mean helping your target audience solve their most significant problems.

How do track whether you are successfully providing value through your content? Ask the question, do my readers look forward to my content? If the answer is yes, backed by data to prove it, then you are successful in delivering value-driven content.

Here are three ways you can deliver value through your content:

1. Personalized Content: Understand the core needs of your audience and address them through your content. Create content based on geotargeting, audience segments, stages of the buyer’s journey, personas, industries and so on.
2. Strike the Right Content Mix: Don’t focus exclusively on one format. If you’re churning out excellent blog posts, also focus on infographics, videos or podcasts. You can repurpose your top performing content if you don’t have the bandwidth to diversify your content.
3. Listen: Marketers often stick to creating only content types that get them to the top of search engine rankings. By all means, focus on that strategy, but also listen to your audience. Listening to your audience will give you new ideas to create value-driven content. This small shift in your strategy can help you deliver tremendous value to your audience.
    

Also Read: Why Mobile Apps are Key for the Customer Experience

Closing Words

Authenticity, transparency, and value marketing are interdependent. You can’t be authentic without being transparent and adding value, and vice versa. Try out these trends in your content strategy to deliver quality content experiences.

What trends in the realms of content experiences do you see emerging? Let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook!