Is Content Marketing Dead?

There was a time in the past when people thought it was only a matter of time before content marketing would lose it's place in the modern digital business space.  A few years down the track and the reality is that content marketing is alive and well & continues to be a driving for small business sales.

This doesn't mean that things have changed, the truth is that content marketing has evolved to accommodate the new challenges faced by modern businesses.

The. Evolution of Content Marketing

As the years go by, business have had to deal with changing marketing conditions and consumer preferences.  Covid-19 sped up the process of online purchasing and communication significantly as consumers realised that being locked down in their homes they had to move to a more digital presence.  This meant they were spending more time online than ever before and so their behavours changed.

More Use of Video
From 2017 to 2021, users increased the average time spent on watching video from 20% to 80%.  That means in 2022 video is taking center stage in a big way and is not the main form of content uploaded by businesses each day.

Multimedia has reached an all-time high
The use of multimedia which includes both video and images, continues to rise.  As a result, the attention span of customers has dropped significantly.  Consequently, marketers have been forced to find ingenious ways to use multimedia to grab and retain customer attention.

Clever SEO Techniques
SEO grew from 64% in 2020 to 69% in 2021.  Marketers are now creating personalized experiences for online shoppers with the help of SEO.  The goal is to create content that offers value but is also different from wha the competition is offering.

Personalized Content
Marketers are now creating content that speaks to the user.  This means investing time and resources in learning about the customer's desires, wants and needs and creating content around this.  As a result, content marketing is geared towards attracting a more loyal clientele. 

Creating Value of the Quantity
As more customers shifted their time and shopping online, they were exposed to more content.  There was a need to shift from offering more content to offering something unique.  Churning out more and more content doesn't mean anything if you are not offering your customers value.  The best content, therefore, should be able to provide solutions to customer problems.

Repurposed content
content marketing is not seeing more repurposed content.  This is where marketers have already created valuable content and they share it across multiple platforms in multiple different formats.  A good example would be this blog post.  We created a blog post, a youtube video, a podcast and 8 social media posts just of this one piece of information for our clients.

Final Thoughts
Content Marketing is not dead but has definitely evolved in response to new business challenges.  By keeping up to date with content marketing trends you can stay ahead of the curve and help your business stay relevant now and in to the future.

Altitude Business Solutions are committed to helping Small Business Owners navigate their way through growing their business. Helping them assess where there are issues and providing the recourses and contacts to give Altitude to their business. We offer online training, Social Media Services & Website Services.  

​First Published April 2022​