In 2020 and beyond, digital content consumption continues to evolve and change. This means that in order to reach your ideal audience and personas with your approach, you’re going to have to adapt to the latest trends. Otherwise, if you keep recycling old trends, you’ll be wasting your time and effort, while being left behind by the industry too.
So, what are the latest digital content consumption trends? And which ones are best suited to your approach and audience? This post will outline everything you need to know, and will include useful tips and guidance for you to take into your marketing approach - so that you’ll always have the upper hand on your competition and will reach your audience effectively.
We’ll cover:
- How do prospects consume information?
- Which platforms are most popular for digital content consumption?
- A major shift from written content to video
- The depths of research that prospects carry out
- The sheer amount of content on the internet
How do prospects consume information?
If you’re going to effectively reach out to your target audience, you need to understand how they best consume information. If you make a blind decision on this one and leave it to guesswork, we can almost guarantee that your marketing campaign won’t perform as effectively as possible. Peppering the wrong channels is an easy way to slide under the radar and put content in front of people that don’t need it - you must be tactful in which mediums you use.
So, how do prospects consume information? Well, recent years have seen the massive switch to all things mobile. That comes as no surprise really - in the UK, 79 percent of adults own a smartphone. That means the general public has more power at their fingertips to read articles and watch videos on their mobile devices in an instant.
When outlining your marketing approach, you should bear in mind the power that mobile devices have. After all, mobile is the future of everything - there’s only one way that this is all heading right? Pair that with the prediction that in 2021, the average person will spend 100 minutes watching a video online, you may have just found the perfect approach.
Which platforms are most popular for digital content consumption?
As we’ve just mentioned - to ignore mobile marketing would be absolutely criminal. In fact, it’d be a cardinal sin. The average person spends three and a quarter hours on their phone per day - whether that’s keeping check on social media channels, browsing websites or catching up on their favourite series on Netflix.
When you think about - that’s quite a lot, isn’t it? And if you’re leaving out mobile platforms, that’s a big opportunity that you’re missing. People are always on their phones. They set wake up alarms on their phones, which leads them to having a morning browse. Also, it passes time on long commutes and it’s the last thing they’ll look at before sleep. Quite simply, you can’t afford to miss out on this vital market.
Within the last couple of years, mobile usage has taken over desktop. With that being said, to only target desktop and tablet users, you’d be shutting out over half of the market. So, automatically, you’re lowering your chances for your campaign to be a success. Instead, you should be targeting the places in which your audience are more likely to engage with your brand - and that’s mobile!
A major shift from written content to video
Content is the cornerstone of marketing - FACT. But that doesn’t mean you have to churn out blogs, ebooks and whitepapers for an effective marketing campaign. Video content has risen to popularity over the last few years within marketing. For instance, in just 60 seconds, there are over 500 hours of videos uploaded on YouTube.
This shows the popularity that videos are benefitting from at the minute. We always put ourselves in this situation, if you ever come across an article that’s accompanied by a video, you’ll always watch the video first. Not only do you get a better feel for the intent of the content, you gain a deeper understanding by making an instant connection with the person in the video.
Videos are quicker too - which massively helps their popularity. Why would you sit there and read an article for seven minutes, when you can watch a three-minute summary with visual aids for a more tailored experience? Quite simply, you wouldn’t. There’s a reason why 85 percent of businesses utilise video as a marketing tool - you’re missing out if you’re not.
Video marketing is an amazing tool for both B2B and B2C businesses to utilise. It’s the perfect platform to build trust and form a relationship with your ideal audience and personas. It’s too good of an opportunity to pass up and you’re at risk of being left behind by your competition if you haven’t introduced it into your marketing strategy.
The depths of research that prospects carry out
Particularly for B2B investments, the level of research that’s carried out is massive. Quite often, B2B investments aren’t an overnight decision, and they cost a significant amount of money - this means that the decision-maker will need a lot more convincing. Luckily for marketers, there are many ways that prospects carry out their research - some carrying more weight than others.
Content will always play a crucial part in the nurturing of leads down the Buyer’s Journey. As a business, your content is your voice - it’s how your prospects perceive you to be. So, you should make sure that it’s tailored to your ideal audience and uses words that are guaranteed to engage them. Otherwise, they’ll make their mind up within the first 10 seconds of being on your page and leave.
Confidence, not arrogance. It’s a fine line, but one you need to tread carefully. In everything that you do, the reader should never be in a position where they think you’re being too in their face. While the way that people consume information may have changed, their mindset of being the one in control of their journey hasn’t. Build trust with your prospects, not a cocky reputation that’s looked at negatively.
People care about other people’s experiences - especially when dealing with products and services that cost a significant amount of money. Video customer and partner testimonials are a great way of showing to the modern prospect that you’re the right business for them and that you can be relied upon to deliver.
The sheer amount of content on the internet
It takes as little as 50 milliseconds to form an opinion on a business’ website! That’s how quickly poor content, whether written or video, can harm your site. So, you can’t afford for it to be anything other than top level. With the sheer amount of content on the internet, people won’t struggle to find content on your chosen topic - so you need to nail it.
With that in mind, are you going to blend in with the masses? Or, are you going to stand out from the rest as an industry thought leader? Well, if you’re going to do the latter, you need to produce amazing content which is on trend with the industry. That right now is all things video marketing - if you’re not creating it, you’re blending in with the rest.
Videos add a true sense of personality to your delivery - anybody can hide behind words on a screen, can’t they? But the perfect way to drive home exactly how knowledgeable and passionate you are about a topic area is through video. Video sets the men from the boys, the women from the girls and the experts from the novices.
Red-Fern can help with your video marketing campaign
As you’ve seen, from 2020 and moving forwards, it’s all about making a stance with your content. You need to stand out to be successful, and you need to target your ideal audience in the places that they’re most likely to see it. With that in mind, it’s time to start thinking about implementing a video marketing campaign.
At Red-Fern, we’ve worked with a vast range of partners throughout various industries to deliver amazing videos that have helped bolster sales and brand perception - to name a couple of benefits. We understand that it’s difficult to take the first plunge, it’s daunting as hell - but you’ll reap the rewards as soon as you put yourself out there.
To see how we can help you, don’t hesitate to get in touch! Our expert team will be on hand to help answer any questions and queries you may have. And remember, you’re not the only ones who have pre-video campaign worries about seeing yourself on camera - that’s completely natural.