The current marketing landscape is ever-changing. That’s why we are going to discuss some digital content strategies in 2023.
What’s successful in one moment seems to falter as soon as everyone jumps on board, leaving those who aren’t actively working to stay ahead of the curve always just one step behind.
To ensure the prolonged success of your business, it’s important to always keep an eye on the future.
Spotting trends before or as they emerge can allow you to capitalize on them more so than your competition, which is why your digital content strategy should always be in a state of constant evolution.
In an effort to steer that evolution towards higher engagement and booming profits, here are some trends to consider that will impact and guide your strategies in 2023.
There Is An Increasing Emphasis On Expertise In SEO
There is nothing new about the need to emphasize SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, for those still not hip to the acronym.
For most of the time, SEO has been a thing, this has meant boosting the authority of your website through backlinks, which are generated, often, through content marketing.
However, as we move forward, while backlinks will continue to be one of Google’s primary search factors, the search engine giant is increasingly taking other things into account, such as a website’s Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness often referred to using the acronym E-A-T.
At the moment, it remains unclear exactly how Google’s algorithms account for these aspects of a website, but it has become clear that producing quality, useful content that demonstrates your expertise in a particular area will impact search performance.
How Does Google Judge The Quality Of Your Content?
While we don’t know the answer to this question on an algorithmic level, we do know that Google and other search engines consider quality content to be that which provides the best response to a searcher’s query.
Question: How Does Google Determine This?
Answer: Using A Variety Of Different Metrics.
For example, time on page and bounce rate matter since people stick around to read articles that are answering their questions and click away from those they find unsatisfactory.
For this reason, Google tends to value longer content, but that is not a hard-fast rule. It first has to be good.
In addition to this, Google will look for other indicators of E-A-T.
These include backlinks to help establish Authoritativeness, but also who wrote the article.
More specifically, authors with credentials and a strong online writing presence will help boost search performance by establishing the site’s expertise.
This is particularly relevant for companies dealing in niches such as health and wellness, as well as law, personal finance, real estate, and other areas where the source of the information very much matters.
Other factors such as your site’s security, reviews across the web, social media engagement and activity, and more, factor into the Trustworthiness of your site.
How To Make Use Of This Trend?
What all this means is that, if it isn’t already, your digital content strategy in 2023 must emphasize quality in every way.
Gone are the days of posting keyword-rich text and getting a few links to rank.
Now, you must provide real value to searchers, and do that you will need to boost your credibility on the web through the production of great, value-driven content.
In a way, though, this shift aligns nicely with what has been going on in the rest of the marketing world.
Mainly, to be able to stand out from the competition, brands are having to find ways to be useful to consumers in more ways than ever before. Providing them with relevant information is a great way to capture their attention and bring them into your funnel.
So, in this sense, by shifting your focus towards how you can help, support, and educate members of your target audience, you can win their attention as well as that of the search engines.
Of course, this means lots of time brainstorming new content ideas, digging into data, and writing and designing something unique, but these are just a few of the many reasons why digital marketing is among the best jobs for introverts in today’s majority extroverted world.
Purpose Driven Content
Over the past few years, a lot has changed in the world. Between the pandemic, politics, and the many social movements that have generated new dialogues, it’s clear that the focus of public conversation has changed.
To remain relevant and also win the favor of today’s consumers, it’s important for brands to know their voice in this conversation.
In fact, being able to connect with people on their values is a huge source of customer loyalty, according to a trends report from HootSuite.
Therefore, as we move forward, it’s critical you find out how to do this with your customers.
But let’s be clear: there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Saying the wrong thing, or saying it at the wrong time, can cause you to do more harm than good.
Therefore, the content you produce that’s designed to make this kind of connection has to be a reflection of what is actually going on behind the scenes.
Don’t publish things to social media or your blog that are just meant to raise your hand and make you visible for the sake of being visible.
Instead, take this as an opportunity to look inward and determine what it is you do that actually sets you apart, or where there might be gaps between you and your customers, and then highlight what you do that reflects these aspects of your brand.
Content that authentically showcases your values is going to resonate infinitely more with those who consume it than stuff that’s obviously just an attempt to make yourself look good.
Going forward into 2023, if you haven’t already started these conversations about your own values and purpose and how they connect to your audiences, it’s time to start.
This will allow you to develop a strategy for the coming year to start producing this kind of content and making new connections with your audience.
Interactive Content Is Going To Take Charge
Moving away from the substance of your content, interactive material is becoming the new standard for digital content and therefore must be a part of your strategy moving into 2023 and beyond.
Interactive content not only encourages action by drawing viewers’ attention to certain parts of the page, but it also enhances the user experience by being easier, more elegant, and, well, just plain old more fun.
One area where interactive content offers a lot of potential is customer retention. By using interactive content to guide existing customers towards new purchases, you can get more value from your customers (a key customer retention metric) while also building trust and loyalty.
Animated menus and purchasing experiences have been having a lot of success, but so has 3-D content (think of virtual home tours), as well as content where users get to easily skip around to the information that is most relevant.
In the end, the approach you take needs to fit your brand and your audience’s preferences (which means you might need to test a few things out in the beginning).
But based on how things have been going, you can expect interactive content to be a part of your digital strategy moving forward.
You Must Have A Strategy For Your Content
Another trend in the digital marketing space that will impact your 2023 strategy is the reality that content creation and marketing now need a lot of your attention.
Whereas in the past you could get away with having someone on the team write some blog posts here and there, now, if you want to make meaningful, valuable connections with your audience, stand out on social media and search engines and grow your business, it’s imperative to have a purposeful, goal-oriented strategy for your content.
It must be part of your overall business plan and be given the attention and resources it needs to succeed. This means building a team, perhaps led by someone certified in project management, and committing to a long-term approach.
If you incorporate this attitude into your 2023 digital content strategy and also pay attention to the most compelling emerging trends, you will be in a great position to succeed with your content in the coming year, bringing growth and prosperity to you and your business.
