Top 9 Content Strategy Trends 2021

What is live videos? Predictive modeling? Read the top 9 content strategy trends 2021 and content marketing trends in 2021 that every content creator must follow.

UX content strategy trends and content marketing trends are evolving every year with the introduction of new ideas and technology. 

Here are the top nine content strategy trends that you should know to make your content strategy a success in 2021: 

Top 9 Content Strategy Trends 2021

1. Broadcasting live videos

Videos are not new. The internet’s next billion users want video and voice. It was forecasted in last year’s content strategy trends that the marketers would put in more effort to produce more videos and visual content.

The forecast came true. We saw an increased marketing budget pouring in to create video content and also live videos. The strategy is working well for some brands, especially in Asia.

In 2021 and beyond, we will see more creative video content and a spike in brands broadcasting live videos to promote and sell their products. 

2. Effective communication through data visualization

It is usually difficult for marketers to communicate complicated data and numbers to users.

Effective data visualization, however, turns complicated data into attractive story-telling to allow users to understand information more accurately and quickly.

Our favorite data visualization example is the US map created by Karim Douïeb for US Election 2020.  US Election 2020 is one of the most searched keywords on Google Search across the globe.

The traditional election map colors the American constituencies based on the winning party. This can be misleading as constituencies with a large area but fewer voters are more visible than small constituencies in terms of land area, but with much more voters. The new map is instead redrawn based on the number of voters.

3. Good infographics

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is just too much information that requires digesting, from safety precautions, lockdown restrictions, travel restrictions to quarantine requirements. This information is simply too important to be ignored.

Media and authorities have been coming up with creative and easy to understand infographics to approach the mass public. Infographics are especially effective for Generation Z with a shorter attention span.

Infographics will continue to be one of the content strategy trends 2021 and beyond and used widely to convey information and messages.

4. User-generated content

COVID-19 has created and trained an army of savvy e-commerce users who would spend time buying online and ordering deliveries online on daily basis.

These are smart and informed consumers who spend time comparing prices across platforms. They read and they value your detailed product description. They scan through the verified user reviews one by one.

Influencers do not appeal to these consumers anymore. They have higher trust in normal users who have tried and used the products.  

If your influencer marketing strategy was effective in 2020 and before, you will most likely need to realign your content marketing strategy in 2021 to include user-generated content (UGC). In 2021, brands will invest more to encourage users to share reviews of their experience with the products on social media platforms.

5. UX writing

UX writing is also one of the top 12 UI UX trends in 2021.

As more business functions and activities have moved online, typical sales channels have also transformed to include multiple e-commerce platforms. With UX writing, brands can ensure a consistent brand voice and language across all the physical and online platforms.

UX writing will likely maintain its momentum in 2021. 

6. Accessible content

Accessibility will be a big topic in 2021.

Content creators and content strategists will need to ensure that all their text content, image content and video content are accessible.

A few simple accessibility guidelines to start with:

  • Content should be clear and concise
  • Write meaningful text description and captions for images
  • Create transcripts or summaries for videos
  • Use distinguishable and contrasting colors
  • Allow resizing of texts

7. Voice search

More people are using voice search on daily basis with Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri gaining popularity.

While voice search at the current stage is largely limited to simple QAs such as “how is the weather” or “where is the nearest Starbucks”, advances in technology may help to provide answers for complicated questions, problem-solving or even personalized suggestions. 

Content creators will need to optimize the content for voice search. As a rule of thumb, make sure that you properly setup your schema.

8. SEO and Schema

Unless your content is created exclusively for a few VIP customers, you will probably want your content to reach as many users as possible.

SEO & Schema plays an important role in ensuring that your content reaches the users effectively through organic searches. As Google releases new algorithm updates from time to time every year, SEO & Schema will remain a headache and an important content strategy trend for all content creators every year.

9. Predictive content marketing

Have you ever received emails with contents or promotions on a particular beauty product you are using when it is about time to replenish? If you have, the companies have done an astonishing job.

Predictive content marketing is targeted content marketing that extracts data from users’ behaviors and past interactions with content over the internet to make smart recommendations. It is enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning to process and interpret big data.

With predictive content marketing, your users will see the personalized content that they want to see which will eventually increase the conversion rate. 

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