Five Things We Learned About Content Marketing in 2020

2020 has been one for the record books in a multitude of ways. Between a global pandemic, an uprising against systemic racism, and a presidential election that was crazier than ever anticipated, we know we’re not the only ones looking forward to a new and improved 2021. But even in these trying times, there’s been a lot that the content marketing industry has been able to learn and take with us into the new year. This week we’re rounding up the top five most important lessons learned at team inPowered during this wild ride of 2020:

1. AI will solve the industry’s ROI problem

-We’ve said it once, twice and we’ll say it again – the content marketing industry has an ROI problem as it currently stands. when industry standards for ROI metrics look at only “CPM and CPC”, it’s challenging to gauge tangible business outcomes & real return on content marketing spend. How can true ROI be determined when data lacks anything besides clicks and impressions?  By looking at metrics such as engagement, increased positive brand sentiment, time spent onsite, and driving leads, content marketers now have the ability to use artificial intelligence to deliver bigger business outcomes.

2. Empathy, reliability, and agility are the keys to success.

-Almost every brand has had to re-tool their messaging in order to remain relevant and resourceful to their consumers during COVID-19, learning that it’s more important than ever to come across as humanistic and not sounding like a corporate machine. It’s also critical to stay agile and ready to pivot strategy at a moment’s notice – something that will continue to be key to success even post-pandemic.

3. Make sure all content is created equally, with diversity and inclusion top-of-mind.

– As marketers, we’ve seen how both COVID-19 and the BLM movement have impacted consumer behavior & brand loyalty in 2020. It’s never been more important to evaluate each piece of content for its tone, the sentiment it creates, and making sure that it’s inclusive of all individuals regardless of race or background. Making content inclusive from the early creation stages will ensure that it resonates with your audience and reflects core brand values such as diversity and equality for all.

4. Martech can step to optimize content analysis for real business outcomes.

-How many hours have you spent crunching impressions or pageviews, only to still grasp at what the true value of all of this data means? Martech stacks can not only help to take out the manual component of content analysis but also to streamline the entire content distribution process. The best ones can also deep dive into the data and actually translate it into bigger business outcomes, a win-win for the marketer and technology platform.

5. Intelligent calls-to-action across pieces of content is essential for helping consumers to take the next action.

-With the simple drop of a Java Script tag across all pages of a brand’s content, employing AI-powered calls-to-action across content (what we refer to as “Content Intelligence”) allows marketers to test various calls to action targeted to achieve higher-funnel business outcomes; optimizing the time & placement of an intelligent “Next Action” across all content, and driving consumers further down the funnel of consideration to take action.  This new approach to content marketing measurement allows marketers to not only measure the impact of each user engaging with each piece of content, but also to drive defined business objectives — such as increasing engagement, brand consideration, lead generation/high-value actions taken onsite, and time spent on each piece of content.

Which ones resonated most with you? Any top takeaways that we didn’t cover? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! From everyone at inPowered, we wish you a happy & healthy holiday season, and cheers to a bigger & brighter 2021!