Top 5 content marketing trends that you should be capitalising on

Within the world of content marketing, it’s no mystery that blogs can be very lucrative. Businesses and organisations who implement a detailed, considered blogging strategy tend to reap impressive benefits such as 97% more links to their website and are 13 times more likely to see a return on investment. Furthermore, blogging increases the number of indexed sites by around 434% and the number of indexed links by 93%. For your business, this means higher levels of inbound traffic and repeat customers!

Optimising your content marketing with a defined blogging strategy is great for your business’ online presence, however, blogging is not a new concept – with an average of 7.5 million blogs being published every day – so it’s incredibly important to be on top of the latest blogging trends. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the biggest blogging trends to keep your eye on this year, coupled with quick and easy ways to incorporate them into your blog strategy.

Highly Visual Content

No content marketing strategy would be complete without the implementation of visual content. Studies have shown readers are far more likely to recall imagery up to three days later. That equates to a significant boost for your brand’s visibility and exposure. Design and interactivity often take centre-stage the longer and more detailed your blog is. Readers tend to skim and scan text without reading it thoroughly, so to encourage them to stay on your site – make sure you’re breaking up heavy chunks of text with relevant visuals.

Affiliate Marketing

Another stand-out blogging trend is affiliate marketing. This refers to the implementation of affiliate marketing links as part of your blog content to improve your sales reach and introduce you to new audiences. If you run a B2C business, for example, hiring a blogger to write a review post about your product could be a great call.

Include Critical Readers

Another red-hot content marketing trend that you should be implementing in your strategy is introducing critical readers into your audience pool. In the age of ‘fake news’, it’s important that your content isn’t just engaging but also reputable. Today, readers want to read accurate and truthful content pieces, therefore, you should always aim to include citations, references and sources to support your arguments. Additionally, linking bad sources in your content marketing can negatively affect your SEO and overall domain authority, so it’s definitely worth making sure you’re using trustworthy sources.

Mobile-First Format

With more people consuming content on their mobile phones than ever before, it should be a top priority to ensure that your content is mobile-friendly. No one wants to click through to an article that is illegible on their mobile, whether that be due to pixelization or because the text has been cut off. A recent Google study found that 40% of mobile users turned to another source after a negative web experience. When producing content that is multi-device-optimized, you should ensure that site navigation is easy, your content can be easily scanned, and your on-page content loads quickly. Additionally, you should use a mobile and multi-tablet responsive web theme and avoid using text wrapping for images.

Estimated Reading Time

Our final marketing trend that you should definitely incorporate into your blogs is estimated reading times. Outlining a user’s expectation before they start reading can dramatically improve engagement. The length of a blog can also determine if someone’s likely to read the whole piece or leave the site because it’s too long or even too short. Furthermore, when determining your search rankings, search engines factor in estimated reading times. The longer a user stays on your page, the more likely it is to present itself as authoritative to search engines. Most adults read at a rate of 200-250 words a minute, so to calculate the estimated reading time of your piece, divide the number of words in your article by 200 or 250.

Now you should be fully equipped to implement a water-tight content marketing strategy by using these top tips. High-quality content marking campaigns position your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds and give credibility to your business. Fundamentally, taking advantage of each of these blogging trends can open up your business to new opportunities for success.

Content is essential for reaching customers today, no matter which industry you’re in. Creating effective, interesting and authentic content can generate momentum for your business, from engagement to leads. Find out how Iconic Digital can help create content for your business, get in touch today, call us on 020 7100 0726. Find out more about our Content Marketing Agency in London.