17 Content Marketing Trends You Should Watch Out For In 2025

Wondering what exact trends and tactics lay in store for the year ahead? Read on to find out 17 content marketing trends that’ll likely dominate in 2024.

The past couple of decades have seen marketing go from offline to almost completely online. While traditional marketing methods (TV, billboards, radio, and the likes) still work well to generate brand awareness, they simply aren’t affordable for everyday businesses, startups, and SMEs.

With the internet becoming increasingly accessible in recent years, enter digital marketing — a substantially more affordable way to market your business using online means such as search engines, email, social media, and so on. And at the core of any digital marketing strategy lies content — aptly crowned as “king” by Bill Gates way back in 1996.

The 2010s saw the unfolding of content marketing from a mere nice-to-have to something of a necessity. As Seth Godin once said back in 2008, “Content marketing is the only marketing left”, and for good reason — it’s authentic, useful for the audience, and highly shareable — ideal for the internet generation.

So, while the effectiveness of content marketing is pretty much indisputable, the channels, tools, and techniques marketers use to create and distribute content will continue to advance in 2024 and beyond, particularly after disruptive technologies like GenAI have made it into the mainstream.

Wondering what exact trends and tactics lay in store for the year ahead? Read on to find out 17 content marketing trends that’ll likely dominate in 2024.

Trend #1: Video content marketing will take center stage

Most marketers today are no strangers to video and its effectiveness in marketing, and video content marketing has grown significantly in the last couple of years.

In fact, 90% of marketers say that video marketing has given them a good ROI in terms of brand awareness, content engagement, lead generation, sales, and even retention, indicating that video content will quickly become a must-do in brands’ promotional strategies.

Plus, as you know, video content is being devoured on social media like never before. YouTube, not Bing or Yahoo, is the second biggest search engine after Google. People search for practically everything on YouTube — how-tos, product demos, recipes — you name it.

No wonder consumers watched an average of 17 hours of content online in 2023. And according to Wyzowl’s 2023 State of Video Marketing:

• 96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• 89% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a product or service.
• 91% of people would like to see more videos from brands.

What’s more, 84% of B2B marketers reveal that video marketing has helped them capture leads effectively.

Even so, many businesses are yet to give video marketing a shot (due to lack of time, budget, technical know-how, or some other excuse). Thus, it is still a relatively untapped marketing channel that you should seriously plan on leveraging in 2024 (if you haven’t already).

Also, video marketing is much more than creating explainers or how-to content, uploading them on YouTube, and sharing posts on socials linking to it. Perhaps it may be enough for the B2B sector, but for B2C, the rules have changed.

Trend #2: Death of Google+ sees the rise of new social platforms like TikTok

Currently, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with well over a billion active users worldwide. That’s more than several well-established platforms like Snapchat, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Reddit — yes, unbelievable.

Furthermore, its users spend nearly 23.3 hours a month on the platform which is quite popular with Gen Zers and millennials. For instance, nearly 70% of adults aged between 18 and 19 years and 56% of adults aged between 20-29 were using TikTok.

But wait, there’s more — TikTok is the most downloaded mobile app in 2022, clocking in 672 million downloads. It crossed the one billion mark for worldwide installs (on both the App Store and Google Play) back in January 2019, which itself is a truly commendable achievement.

One of the main reasons why TikTok took off is that the audience can’t get enough of byte-sized entertaining videos that always push the creative boundaries. 

85% of marketers accept that short-form video content is the most effective format on social media.

It seems to be no turning back for TikTok at this point, and if your target audience is between 16 and 29 years of age, investing in TikTok marketing campaigns is almost a no-brainer. 

That said, you could argue that…

Trend #3: Text would still be preferable over videos, at least by the older folk

There’s something about plain-old text against a white (or black) background that still works wonders.

People seem to agree — a casual X (Twitter) poll by Kunal Shah, Founder of FreeCharge and CRED, indicates that people prefer news-like content in the form of text rather than videos. Of course, this may not be true for other varieties of content such as interviews, product reviews, and how-tos.

However, videos will grow more important as 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video, up from 87% in 2022.

So, yes — the times they are a-changin’ — but blogging will still remain the primary form of content marketing, at least for the foreseeable future, even with AI-powered search offered by tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Bard, and more. 

The effectiveness of a human’s take on trends, concepts, etc., in the form of listicles, how-to guides, etc., isn’t going to die anytime soon.

Trend #4: It’s now Experienced-E-A-T

Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness isn’t enough to give your boost your content to the first page of the SERPs. Your blog content will be more valued by search engines if they come from your Experience, as they clearly state:

They have explicitly stated the importance of EAT already:

To demonstrate E-E-A-T, Search Engine Journal’s Senior News Writer Matt G. Southern recommends:

• Demonstrating Experience: Share personal stories, case studies, or examples where you directly engaged with the topic. This could include using a product, visiting a location, or applying a technique.
• Highlighting Expertise and Authoritativeness: Alongside experience, showcase your knowledge and credibility on the subject. This can be through certifications, recognitions, or contributions to reputable publications in the field.
• Limited AI-Generated Content: Since AI lacks first-hand experience, Google advises against publishing AI-generated content without human review. Focus on content that reflects personal insights and experiences.

This is where textual content, which is “crawlable” by Google’s web crawlers (unlike videos), makes its value known. In 2024, you must continue creating long-form content such as how-to guides and massive listicles. It is a great way to prove authority and earn links. Consider partnering with an experienced content marketing agency to automate your production of consistently high-quality long-form content that actually drives results.

Trend #5: Garnering more User-Generated Content will become a priority

All that big talk about video content and social media is incomplete without highlighting the importance of user-generated content (UGC), that is, any type of content (blog posts, lifestyle images, video reviews) created and posted online by users who aren’t paid to voice their opinion.

Think about it — would you rather trust a brand’s marketing or a recommendation from your friends/family? Of course, the latter. People trust other people more than they ever could trust any brand. And this holds true in 2024 more than ever.

UGC adds to your social proof (product reviews, testimonials, and shout-outs), boosts engagement with your brand, and saves you time on content creation.

For instance, when Samsung released the Galaxy S24 Series, they ran the hashtag #GalaxyS24 on X, inviting all the early adopters to share their experiences:

In 2024, you’ll see more and more brands running branded hashtag contests on platforms like Instagram and X (Twitter). Overall, it is safe to assume brands would become increasingly customer-centric and focus on earning more product reviews and customer testimonials.

Trend #6: Collaborated content will see a surge in demand and execution

When thinking about content collaboration, it is time you go beyond guest blogging and sponsored posts. Start thinking about influencer collaborations, specifically, micro-influencer collaborations.

Why micro-influencers? Not just because the usual influencers with massive follower counts (over 100K) have exorbitant price tags, but because micro-influencers have more intimate relations with their followers which results in a much higher engagement rate.

To get an idea about how they size up against other influencer categories, have a look at this chart:

Plus, the problem of “fake followers” is highly unlikely in the case of micro-influencers. You can easily ascertain that the followers you’re targeting are real people and the engagement is authentic.

Moreover, micro-influencers don’t necessarily demand money in exchange for content. They may be open to other ways of payment, such as you offering your products for free.

Furthermore, as 61% of Gen Zers and millennials trust social media influencers, collaborative marketing efforts will boost your E-E-A-T as well.

So, if you haven’t already, 2024 is the year for you to try content collaboration with an influencer that’s fit for your brand.

Trend #7: Podcasts will be more popular than ever before

Nielsen’s 2022 report indicates that podcast audiences grew by 40% over three years, and the number of podcast titles and episodes increased by nearly 200% in two years. 

This substantial growth has led 56% of marketers in North America to plan an increase in their podcast spending, with 15% planning to increase their spending by 50% or more​.

Weekly podcast consumption has also increased notably, and some of the world’s leading podcast publishers achieve millions of unique streams and downloads per month.

These numbers are expected to continue growing in 2024. So, if you find there’s a clear demand for audio content in your niche, now is the time to go for it.

However, it’s important that you do so with an intention. Creating a podcast just for the sake of doing so won’t do you any good. Similarly, creating an episode whenever your team has some time to kill or whenever the mood strikes is of no use.

Instead, approach your podcast content strategically as you do with the rest of your content marketing efforts. And if you’re not looking to produce podcast content yourself, you may consider appearing on other podcasts your audience listens to.

Think of it as the new way of guest posting for the year 2024.

Trend #8: Content personalization will be the key to effective marketing

The consensus among marketers is strong, with nearly 90% acknowledging the critical importance of personalization for B2B buyers. This perspective is mirrored by buyer expectations, where 75% expect personalized offers based on their purchasing history, and 77% are more likely to purchase from companies providing personalized content​.

Simply put, customers want a tailored experience as they proceed from first hearing that a company exists all the way through to deciding to do business with them. Besides, B2B buyers are well aware that they have countless options to choose from when making decisions. Many of them won’t hesitate to switch to another company if they feel that their needs are not being met.

So, personalization is now a must to give your business a competitive edge. Without a sharp focus on personalization, your 2024 content marketing strategy is far from effective.

Sending personalized emails, which is commonplace nowadays, is another surefire way to more marketing success.

A significant 72% of consumers engage exclusively with personalized messaging, demonstrating a strong preference for emails that cater to their individual needs and interests.If you have been sending generic emails to your customers, 2024 has to be the year you change that. You can also personalize the links you create and share online with a tool like Rebrandly. Branded links can increase click-through rates by up to 39% over the use of generic links.

Trend #9: AI will aid in content creation

LLMs like ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude 2 have made their way into the writing workflows of content creation teams. Whether it is generating ideas, writing metadata, conducting research, or proofreading, these tools are helping marketing teams become more efficient.

A survey by ResumeBuilder in February 2023 found that 49% of companies were already using ChatGPT, with an additional 30% planning to adopt it.

Even though it sounds impressive, it is essential to pick and choose which action items should be done by generative AI and which ones are better off in a human’s hand.

Google’s “helpful content update” emphasizes content created “by people, for people,” indicating a preference for human-generated, informative content over AI-generated content aimed primarily at boosting SEO rankings. 

This suggests that while AI can contribute to content creation, especially in generating ideas or overcoming writer’s block, its output requires careful review and possibly significant revision to meet quality standards and search engine guidelines.

Moreover, the adoption of LLMs to write drafts faster is not the only area AI is transforming the content creation world.

Several other AI-powered tools have come up to help SaaS content marketing teams create images, videos, and music, and some notable ones include:

• Descript: The tool transcribes conversational content like podcasts and enables the user to edit videos directly in its script like you edit a word document.
• HeyGen: Have a script but lack a studio, the equipment, a production team, etc.? This tool can create videos from a script and the AI-generated avatar will look and sound like you.
• Boomy: Users can create complete musical tracks in any genre and style regardless of their music knowledge.
• NightCafe: This image generation tool can create high-resolution images in any style in various dimensions.

Trend #10: Interactive content will continue to grow

Content is maturing from plain-old text interspersed with stock photos to more engaging and gratifying interactive formats. As already discussed above at length, visual content is where the money’s at.Calculators, online quizzes, and interactive infographics are great, but for 2024, they’re old news. For example, did you know you can now make your own augmented reality (AR) filters and lenses for Snapchat?

A statistical review conducted by Mediafly in 2022 revealed that interactive content gets brands 52.6% more engagement compared to their static counterparts.

Sure, creating interactive content requires considerably added investment of time and money. But the results are worth it. So, if you haven’t yet started creating and promoting next-level interactive content, make this your 2024 marketing resolution.

Trend #11: Evolution of result-oriented content

Along the lines of interactive content, result-oriented content is something that’ll really help you stand out.

Here, the phrase “result-oriented” doesn’t mean to convey content that is subtly persuasive or keyword-optimized. Of course, that is expected from quality content and is needed for effective content marketing.

Rather, think of the phrase from the user’s perspective. You want to help the consumers of your content get their answers as quickly as possible — that is good user experience which builds trust and retention.

To be specific, consider shamelessly stealing this fantastic idea of creating filterable posts from Content Mavericks:

Instead of skimming through an enormous list of metrics to learn about how to achieve their particular desired content marketing goal, all readers have to do is click on the goal they want to achieve, and those metrics are brought up.

As a result, the content is easier to consume and focused on getting readers what they want. You’re right — you might need a developer’s help to make this happen, but your readers would love it. Do it for them this coming year.

Trend #12: Most content will be optimized for voice search

It is crucial to create content that can be easily accessed by everyone, including people with special needs. A simple and cost-effective way to make your content more accessible is by optimizing it for voice search.

In the US alone, 72% of people with disabilities own a smartphone and may prefer to browse the internet via voice rather than typing.

Brands are still just starting to optimize their content for voice search. So, if you do so before your competitors, it won’t be long before your content gets spoken out of your audience’s smart devices.

For this, you must understand how users actually conduct voice searches. With text-based searches, they might type “2024 content marketing trends” but their voice query would likely be something like “What are the top content marketing trends of this year?”.

Recognizing these nuances will help you craft more effective headlines and create more specific long-tail keywords within your content that’ll be picked up by Google as featured snippets.

Trend #13: Good user experience (UX) will become indispensable

Truth be told, user experience always was and will be imperative for product-based companies, just as customer satisfaction is for service-based businesses.

While even the biggest of the big companies have been getting away with bad UX (ahem..Facebook), it won’t be the case for long. The amount of competition in every niche and the sheer number of alternatives available to consumers today simply means that products with poor UX will perish.

The same goes for your content. If it fails to engage, entertain, and delight the user while providing relevant information, it’ll be lost in a sea of lackluster. 

Research suggests that 75% of web visitors trust a site more if it has better aesthetics when compared to a similar site with a relatively poor UX and reading experience.

And so, make sure you focus on content quality, not quantity, in 2024.

Trend #14: Account-based marketing (ABM) will become the go-to B2B marketing strategy

Back in the day, all B2B marketers followed the same ol’ sales funnel. But not today, and certainly not in 2024.

The funnel is flipping. Instead of casting a wide net with generic blog posts hoping to catch some leads, account-based marketing takes a completely opposite approach.

Rather than relying on blanket campaigns that are meant to appeal to the whole industry and bring more site traffic, account-based marketing uses highly targeted, personalized campaigns to win over specific business accounts.

ABM stresses on quality outreach and relationship-building. So, instead of endlessly publishing blog posts and blasting email lists with generic content created for a mass audience, ABM best practices emphasize on crafting content and experiences for a specific set of people from particular accounts.

In a nutshell, account-based marketing is essentially personalized B2B marketing on steroids.

It is unsurprising that 65% of marketers successfully grew existing accounts using ABM in 2022, than they did a year before (35% in 2021), and the trends may likely remain as such this year as well.So, in 2024, maybe it’s time for you to ramp up your ABM game.

Trend #15: Intent-based content for semantic search

A few years ago, content marketing was mostly about sprinkling keywords throughout your content but today keywords are just a small piece of the puzzle.

“Semantic search” is how Google sifts through oceans of web pages and data in their index and uses AI to determine the intent and contextual meaning behind a search query. It is how Google ranks the most relevant results at the top.

If Google expects high-quality user experience from your website, the same applies to them too. They too want to be able to deliver the best search experience possible by enabling users to quickly find the best results using natural language search terms.

Optimizing for intent comes down to understanding how and why your audience searches. It’s about understanding what answers, information, products, or experiences they’re seeking.

In 2024, here’s what you need to to create intent-based content:

• Create content that answers your audience’s questions. These could be FAQs — in a Q&A format — but comprehensive. You might create long-form pieces of content to answer just a specific question, answering the question at the top of the piece (“what is semantic search,” for example) before diving into the details.
• Write for humans, not bots. That is, your content must be to the point and written in easy-to-grasp language. No adding fluff for the sake of hitting a target word count. Use subheadings and bullets to aid readability.
• Use structured data when applicable. Using a product, question, article, ratings, or review schema helps crawlers better understand your content and results in a more inviting search result for the users.
• Practice contextual internal linking. Strategically link your site’s pages to create a well-structured map of related content around a central topic or search term — the idea behind HubSpot’s topic cluster model.

Semantic search and contextual optimization will gain more importance in 2024. Google’s algorithm is striving to comprehend a user’s intent, so the more relevant content you create — with primary and semantic (conceptually related) keywords — the higher you rank.

Long story short, create content meant to answer questions that your target audience would have. Think topic clusters instead of fixating on keywords. Use structured data wherever applicable. Finally, don’t write for search engines but for human users.

Trend #16: Live streaming continues to surge

We started with the first trend being about video content marketing, and when you dive deeper into that, you’ll find live streaming to be its centerpiece.

The live-streaming industry is projected to grow significantly, from $70 billion in 2021 to almost $416.84 billion by 2030. Moreover, live streaming facilitates more authentic interaction with audiences and provides real-time audience feedback.

And so, live streaming should certainly be a part of your 2024 marketing strategy, as it:

• Enables Real-time Engagement: Your audience can converse or comment in real-time, enabling you to understand what sparks their interest and motivates them to engage with your business. Live streaming helps build rapport and a sense of connection that can’t be done with other content formats.
• Builds Trust and Transparency: For instance, an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session makes viewers feel that they’re participating in truly genuine interaction with your brand. Your audience appreciates authenticity over heavily edited and scripted stuff.
• Is Appealing and Exciting for the Modern Audience: Viewers love the sense of unpredictability and anticipation they feel when watching a live stream as anything can happen.
• Is Cost Effective: All you really need to live stream is some camera confidence, a stable internet connection, and a decent camera, like the one your smartphone has. Plus, it takes little-to-no time to prepare for a quick and engaging live video once you have some experience.
• Can be Easily Repurposed: Once you finish streaming, you can simply take that video and publish its transcript as a blog post, an infographic, a podcast, and obviously a refined version of it as a proper video.

Closing thoughts

With so much recent focus on mobile-friendliness and mobile-first, “What after mobile?” is a question many marketers ask themselves. Could it be a focus on other mobile devices like wearables and smartwatches? Well, time will tell.

But for now, know that blogging, email, and text-based content marketing aren’t going anywhere. And that 2024 is going to bring a lot more seriously exciting visual content marketing aimed at building E-A-T.

Personalizing content without seeming creepy would be crucial for online businesses. Above all, outstanding user experience and credible user-generated content would separate so-so businesses from thriving brands.

If you want to share these trends with your colleagues, clients or friends, feel free to share this post with them or you can use the infographic below:

Image Sources – HubSpot, Google, Twitter, Heartbeat on Medium, Content Mavericks, Drift, LiveStream

Author

Arkin Khemchandani

Arkin is a content marketer at Growfusely - a SaaS content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. Besides work, he's an ardent recreational runner who loves beaches and trance music. Connect with him on Twitter: @arkin008