Content marketing is the sharpest digital marketing strategy. It was impactful in 2012 and is even more impactful in 2022.
However, content marketing is an ocean that never stays still. One moment blogs are bringing in more traffic, and on another, podcasts or videos are helping your business grow online.
Therefore, you should frequently revise your content marketing strategy based on current trends, market dynamics, and customers preferences.
This post will walk you through all the content marketing ins and outs to develop a result-driven content strategy for 2022. Let’s dive in.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that revolves around articles, podcasts, videos, and other content distribution channels to connect with the right audiences. This marketing approach is adopted to increase brand awareness and introduce products/services to potential buyers.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Content marketing is a highly scalable marketing strategy. Be it Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft or Cisco Systems, or any local brand — every business can today fit content strategy into its budget.
Why Should You Invest in Content Marketing in 2022?
Content marketing is one of the simplest methods to develop your brand presence, engage your audience and drive sales. Therefore, a HubSpot inbound marketing report states that content creation is a top priority for 80% of marketers in 2021.
Besides this, having a tailor-made content marketing strategy can help to:
Educate potential customers about your brand
Content is the finest way to make potential customers familiar with your brand, products, services, or values. Your website is the perfect place where you can publish content to make people aware of your brand.
You can leverage ‘about us’ and ‘product pages’ to educate your visitors about your business so they can make informed decisions. Publishing blogs on different topics also helps to educate users. A Think With Google survey states that 53% of shoppers always do online research to ensure they buy the right products.
Generate high-quality inbound links
Inbound links, aka backlinks, occur when another website links back to your site. Google considers inbound links as an indicator that your content is high-quality, which helps to improve your website’s SEO score and search ranking. In fact, Google’s first-page result has 3.8x more backlinks than positions 2-10.
Publishing original studies or research reports in your niche can help you generate backlinks and improve your conversion rate in no time.
Build brand loyalty
Do you know the first organic result in Google Search has an average click-through rate of 28.5%?
That shows people trust brands that appear on the top of search results. Since content and links are the vital stepping stones to climb online rankings; thus, you can attract more users with good quality content.
Plus, when your brand name is reflected everywhere online, it will help users trust your brand and eventually establish your brand loyalty.
Support other digital marketing channels
Content leverages you to target different digital marketing channels. From video to audio platforms, you can repurpose your one content piece on multiple content distribution channels.
This will allow you to drive traffic from different digital marketing channels in 2022. According to WebFX, the top digital marketing channels to target with your content are—
- Search Engine Optimization
- PPC ads
- Social media management
- Emails, etc.
Readymade content for social media marketing
Content is a business asset that you can repurpose multiple times to attract new users. Since Facebook only has 2.89 billion active monthly users; thus, staying active on social media is important for businesses in 2022.
 If you have a solid content strategy, you can easily build a social media brand. For example, if you have a blog post ready to publish on your website, you can make videos, podcasts, and infographics using the same content and post on social media.
 This way, you can do social media marketing within your content marketing budget. Isn’t this cool?
B2C vs. B2B Content Marketing
The gap between the B2C and B2B marketing landscape is reducing day by day. B2B marketing is getting more personal and creative like B2C marketing. However, B2B and B2C content marketing strategies have a few basic differences that you should remember while redesigning your content strategy in 2022.
B2B, aka Business to Business models, targets other businesses. For example, Salesforce is a business that sells CRM solutions to other businesses. Thus, B2B content marketing focuses on creating content that can engage and motivate business buyers to make purchases.
On the flip side, a B2C, aka Business to Consumers model, targets direct customers. For example, McDonald’s serves to direct end consumers. So, B2C content marketing covers all the best patterns and practices to promote your services to the end consumers.
At Marveta, our content marketing funnel starts with understanding the business’s nature. That’s because B2B and B2C content marketing approaches are quite different from each other. Therefore, we understand our clients’ business models before customizing content marketing strategies for them.
How are B2B and B2C content marketing different
- The targeted audience persona is different in both business models. The B2B audience is more professional and intellectual, whereas the B2C audience is diverse.
- B2B leads require more nurturing than B2C. B2B buyers need to connect with vendors at different touchpoints before coming to a purchase decision. On the other hand, emotional connection, financial consideration, and personal gratification can drive B2B buyers.
- B2B buyers prefer more educational content. However, B2C buyers prefer to read lifestyle content.
- Direct selling works best with a B2C audience. But, B2B users required more information and nurturing rather than selling.
How is B2B and B2C content marketing similar
- It is important for B2B and B2C content marketers to earn consumers’ trust to build brand authority.
- Both B2B and B2C need to set a content marketing goal before creating a proper marketing strategy.
- They need to use the personalized experience to convert and nurture more leads.
- Both groups need to target different digital marketing channels to distribute their content in front of a large audience base.
Different Types of Content Marketing
One of the best things about content marketing is you get different types of content to explore. You can target different content styles based on your business, audience, and product requirements. Content marketing gives you the full creative freedom to market your business online.
However, we don’t recommend our clients dive into the big pool of content marketing without proper knowledge. We suggest our readers first explore 2-3 content types and monitor results. After that, they should focus on content types that bring more leads and revenue.
Common content marketing streams are—
Blogs
Blogging helps to establish brand authority in your industry and provide information to your potential customers. For B2B and B2C brands, blogging is a simple way to attract organic traffic and optimize websites for search engines.
Infographics
Infographics are the best content style to engage with visual users. You can even share infographics on social media or drive traffic via image search.
eBooks/Whitepapers/How-to Guides
For B2B brands, publishing whitepapers, how-to guides, and ebooks is a great chance to inform potential leads. This type of content can also generate high-quality backlinks without any effort.
Case studies
Original case studies and user experiences can help to build trust among your interested buyers.
Testimonials/Reviews
Almost 89% of global consumers make an effort to read online reviews before making a purchase. Therefore, collect testimonials and reviews from your previous customers and include them in your content marketing strategy to attract new customers.
Videos
Video content marketing has gained a lot of popularity thanks to Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. So, you can either repurpose your existing content to create videos or publish fresh video content for marketing purposes.
Webinars
Webinars allow you to establish a direct connection with your customers. You can better explain your services through webinars and gauge leads’ reactions in real-time.
Paid Ads
Nothing is better than organic traffic. But, new businesses need to produce some paid ads to promote themselves. In fact, paid advertisements help to inform, engage and convert leads faster.
Memes
Memes are fun and sarcastic ways to produce relatable content. For B2C content marketers, memes are the perfect way to become a customer-centric and approachable brand.
Social media
Social media content marketing is a deeper topic. Every social media platform has a unique algorithm that reacts to a particular type of content. So, to understand social media content in detail, book an appointment with the Marveta team now.
How to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy in 2022
As you already know, content marketing is a broad term with multiple sections and clauses. Thus, whether you are developing a new content marketing strategy or revising your old one, pay attention to these points precisely:
Define your goal
Foremost, you need to define goals for your content marketing strategy. That’s because based on your marketing goals, you can better select content type, marketing channels, and other details.
For example, if your goal is to generate high-quality backlinks, publishing original studies, facts, and research is helpful. On the contrary, if your goal is to improve search engine rankings and brand awareness, keywords targeted-informative blogs are perfect for that.
Figure out your buyer persona
A buyer persona is a fictional description of your targeted audience. Figuring out buyer persona helps to select content topics based on your targeted audience’s pain points.
Knowing your audience will help you understand what type of keywords and related content they are searching for online. That will give you a fair idea to map out your content development plan.
Set your content marketing KPIs
Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) is the beginning that will make it easy to monitor your content marketing results. When you know the exact parameters to measure content marketing performance, you can constantly monitor them and compare them with old figures to ensure you get maximum ROI.
Based on your content marketing goals, you should set KPIs. For instance, if your goal is to generate more traffic, the number of new viewers will help you understand whether you are on the right track or not.
Other content marketing KPIs can be—
- Conversion rate optimization
- Backlinks
- Bounce rate
- Click-through rate
- Cost per lead
Run a content audit
Once you set content marketing KPIs, you should go through your entire content gallery. Analyze your website content, blogs, landing page, and other content assets.
Running a content audit will provide you with a fair idea about which content type is performing well on your side. In addition, you will know which content to create, update, re-write, or delete.
Select a content management system
Selecting the right content management system is vital for delivering and managing your content. Therefore, you should consider pricing, content type, and your business requirements before selecting a perfect CMS platform to support your content marketing efforts.
Mainly, three types of content management systems are available—
- You can download open-source CMS software for zero cost like WordPress, Drupal, etc.
- Proprietary CMS software is developed and managed by a single company. It is a paid CMS solution like Microsoft SharePoint, Shopify, etc.
- SaaS CMS solutions are virtual solutions hosted in the cloud and based on a subscription model.
Identify the best content channels
You will share and distribute your content with your viewers through content distribution channels. So, you need to find the best content channel that can present your content properly in front of the right audience.
The content distribution channels vary from content type to audience base. Suppose you are creating video content. In that case, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram will be perfect content channels. However, if you want to promote text-based content, you will not find a better channel than blogs.
Identify the type of content
After selecting the content distribution channel, head over to decide what type of content you want to create. For this, you should refer to your audience persona. And based on that, select a content type that can promote your product and inform your audience at the same time.
Brainstorm content ideas
Now, this is a creative part. You should gather up your entire team and the data that you have collected so far.
You need to create a content vision board based on your audience pain points, interest segments, your selected content type, and channels.
Once you have created a list of potential content ideas, you should use keyword generator tools like Google Keyword Planner to search-relevant keywords to create SEO-friendly content.
Create a content calendar
No matter which content distribution channel you select, consistency is an important factor in growing your content reach. Therefore, you should create a monthly or weekly content calendar so that you can produce content in advance and upload it to your content management system.
This way, you can dedicate more time to monitoring and analyzing your content performance rather than producing content.
Create, publish and manage your content
The final step is to create, publish and manage your content. Yep, publishing one blog or video will not show any results today. You have to constantly create new content, monitor its performance, and produce new content accordingly.
Top Content Marketing Trends to Follow in 2022
As we have mentioned above, content marketing is an ocean that never remains still. Thus, new content marketing trends are disturbing the industry every day. So, to make a bulletproof content development strategy in 2022, be aware of these hot trends:
Focus on the content experience
It is no secret that customers’ preferences change every day. Therefore, staying up to date on what your potential leads prefer right now is important for content marketers.
However, in 2022, content strategies will turn more cohesive. You have to focus on improving the overall content experience to reach out to more people.
For this, marketers have to spend more time researching, planning, and deploying different marketing techniques. They also need to constantly monitor individual content pieces’ performance to boost customer loyalty.
Personalization is at the rage
Personalization in content marketing is not a new trend. Therefore, in 2022, you will notice a hyper-personalization trend.
Hyper-personalization goes beyond just publishing blogs on the most searched keywords. It taps into individual buyers’ preferences and needs.
Basically, it is a data-driven approach where analytical tools and AI automation is used to interact with individual customers.
With this, marketers can consider each buyer to select the right tone and structure of content marketing.
This type of personalized content approach is already adopted by brands like Amazon, Netflix, WES., etc.
Be prepared for voice search
Voice search is highly popular among users these days, especially the younger generation. In fact, more than half of consumers use voice search to find relevant information about a product.
So, it is essential to optimize your content for voice search in 2022. Compared to text-based search, voice search is a bit different. Voice queries are in question forms like “Where can I find the best burger near me?” Or “How can I get a driver’s license in the US?”
So, instead of using keywords like “Best burger joints” in your content, cater to them in answer form like “XX is the best place to find burgers.”
 Besides this, a conversational tone will not also work for voice search. Direct and crisp content is the best way to get responses from voice searches.
Don't ignore influencer marketing
Content marketers can’t ignore influencer marketing any longer. In 2022, you have to partner with influencers to expand your reach.
 All popular brands are doing it — from Amazon to Netflix. Not only popular brands but 75% of marketers have admitted creating a dedicated budget for influencer marketing in 2021.
 Influencer content marketing saves you from all the trouble of creating, publishing, and promoting content. As influencers will do all the work, you will reap the benefits from their fan following.
Embrace live videos
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have made it possible for users to go live anytime and anywhere.
Live streaming allows you to connect with your potential leads in real-time and develop personal relationships with them.
Today, many viewers prefer live content over recorded videos. According to Nielsen’s US Video 360 Report, 42% of the US population was hooked to live videos by 2018.
So, if you use videos to distribute your content, be ready to go live in 2022.
Best Content Marketing Tools in 2022
To follow the latest content marketing trends like personalization or better customer experience, you need to first get the best tools. Without the proper tools, you can’t find accurate and real-time data to develop a content strategy.
Today, many great content marketing tools are available in the market. But, the best ones that we also use at Marveta are:
- Keyword Finder. It is a keyword search tool that generates thousands of profitable keywords with CPC, competition, and monthly search volume.
- Mention. This is a social media and web monitoring tool to monitor your targeted keywords in real-time.
- HubSpot. It is a comprehensive toolkit to streamline your sales, inbound marketing, and service operations in 2022.
- Google Search Console. It is a Google webmaster that helps to optimize website visibility and check indexing status.
- Google Analytics. It is a web analytical tool that can help you identify trends and patterns of your website visitors.
Clever Content Marketing Examples
Open forums have always been about community. But American Express’ open forum has changed the way people see the content. It has made people rethink the meaning of content.
American Express
On the flip side, if you head over to the HubSpot IG page, you can see lots of statistics, graphs, and charts. It’s due to most B2B buyers are professionals, and you need solid content to impress them.
Rolex
Rolex spares nothing in spiking users’ interest with artistic visual presentation despite being an epic brand. Rolex’s Instagram page is a perfect visual content example to inspire from.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a popular SaaS B2B brand. However, they have broken all the traditional B2B marketing norms with a funny tone, adorable characters, and engaging social media content. From spoon-worthy visuals to SasSy tone, Salesforce has spared no limits to making people laugh and engage.
Conclusion
There you go, peeps! You have completed the full content marketing guide 2022!
Now, you know how to develop a results-driven content marketing strategy following all the latest trends and tools. If you follow this guide to dot, you will effortlessly build a robust content strategy for your business in 2022.
However, if you are too busy to customize and create your content marketing plan, drop us an email anytime, and we will shortly make your content reach global audiences.
