I’ve seen people list things like “get on social media” or “make videos” as their goals for 2019. Well, yeah! These aren’t revolutionary, new trends for 2019. If anything, they’re critical stepping stones a company needs to take before investing in more revolutionary channels. While many exciting things are coming down the line for 2019, don’t forget to cover your bases first.
With that said, let’s take a look at some new content marketing trends small businesses can use in 2019.
2019 Content Marketing Trends for Small Businesses
Thanks to tech, users are able to connect with brands in ways that are immediate and personal. These trends will enable you to connect with users on a deeper level, fostering real engagement that makes an impact on your bottom line.
Vertical video
Hey, remember when you had to rotate your phone before taking a video? Thanks to Instagram Stories, those days are gone. Vertical video is making a huge comeback. This is partly due to the Instagram Story format, as well as larger phone sizes. I mean, have you tried horizontal filming on these huge things? It isn’t easy!
There’s definitely still a place for your standard horizontal videos, at least for now. Facebook, YouTube, and your website will likely pair better with horizontal footage. However, if you’re working on Instagram or Snapchat, you’ll need to rethink how you hold your camera.
VR / AR
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) aren’t just sci-fi pipe dreams. This stuff is real! Thanks to our smartphones, these tools are accessible to most of your customers, too. Don’t believe me? Use your Android device to give Google Daydream a spin. This technology exists on our smartphones already, although few businesses are actually using it.
Customers love virtual and augmented reality. Whether they use the tech to customize their experiences in the real-world, like viewing Yelp reviews as they pass restaurants, or to escape the real world through apps like Daydream, your users are on this technology. Are you going to get there first, or will your competition?
The downside to VR and AR is that you’ll need developers to create content for it. However, it really is the future. I predict that it’s only going to be easier to do VR and AR as a small business.
Chatbots
I know, I know. “Chatbot” sounds like a bad word. We all hear that human interaction and personalized experiences are the key to customers’ attention. And that’s true. The great thing about today’s chatbots is that many of them use artificial intelligence (AI) and rich data to anticipate customer questions and replies. This means the user gets a personalized experience while saving your business more time.
I’m not saying to outsource all of your customer communications to a bot. Use a smart bot to field simple user questions and forwarding the user to a real person if the bot can’t help. This frees up your team’s time while giving users the immediate information they want.
User-generated content
The downside to content marketing is that it can take time. You want to write meaningful, entertaining content that puts your brand center stage for your users. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
One way to increase your user engagement and content output is to feature user-generated content. Whether you share photos from happy customers or unboxing videos from super fans, it gives your followers the bulk of content they want. And you get to keep more of your sanity in the process. 🙂
Audio-free video
It sounds counter intuitive at first, but small businesses and agencies need to be using audio-free video. Why? Think about your own social media habits. As you’re scrolling through your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed, what happens? Does audio automatically play when you scroll pass a video? Usually not. That’s why audio-free video is so important.
I hear you say, “But users can just push the speaker button and hear my audio!”
That’s true, but data shows that your users aren’t doing that. They’re just going to keep scrolling. Your best bet is to create videos with subtitles, or videos that users can understand without sound at all. This is especially important if you’re investing in paid Facebook ads and videos.
The bottom line
Ahh, it seems like 2018 has come and gone so quickly. Fortunately, that means we’re on to bigger and better things in the content marketing world. Use any of these popular trends to reach more users in the new year.