Empathy. Human. Connection. Transparency. Trust. Authenticity. These are all buzzwords you’ve likely come across when developing your content marketing strategy in the past, but due to the global pandemic and everything else 2020 brought, they will be more important than ever in 2021.

Your content marketing strategy should feed your digital and traditional advertising, social media channels, emails, website and blog. It should showcase who you are as a brand, connect with your audience on a deeper level, and provide value, entertainment and education to your customers and prospects.

Content strategies should be the backbone of marketing plans. Here are a few trends I’ve found to keep an eye on for 2021.

1. Keep creating

Without content, your business will struggle. It’s an honest fact.

However, many of us are facing challenges we didn’t in past years, like significantly smaller budgets or less manpower. Don’t let those challenges stop you from creating.

If you have the time and money to invest in content, do it. You won’t regret building that into your budget and plan. However, if you don’t, creativity, consistency and authenticity can still go a long way.

2. Include content in your customer journey

What do you know about your audience? What is their customer journey? Everything you know is likely translated into your marketing plans, and that information is used to create ideal marketing and nurturing campaigns for customers and prospects.

Consumers need you to be where they are when they need you, and each micro-moment is an opportunity for you to use content to move customers through the conversion funnel and customer journey.

Create mobile-first content, lead generation forms and opportunities. Make your content easier to find and navigate. Optimize for local searches and important industry keywords. Try creating content specific to your buyer personas and directed more toward the bottom of the funnel.

And as you do all of that, showcase engaging, entertaining or educational content instead of sales CTAs.

3. Remarket

We’ve all been to a website, or looked at a product on Amazon, and then seen an ad for the same or a similar product in our Facebook newsfeed. This is a form of remarking, and it should be part of your marketing strategy.

However, consumers are savvy, and they are being more selective about the brands they engage with and purchase from. Your traditional remarking ad may not be enough anymore. Instead, use content to increase brand awareness and keep your product top of mind.

Make your content personalized. Allow the consumer to pick up where they left off. Tie other channel’s such as email, Google ads, social media ads and others together with the personalized content. Make the remarking ads seamless across channels.

4. Diversify and include

If you have a blog, and that’s been the focus of your content marketing efforts, that’s a great start. However, it may no longer be enough. Diversify your content marketing efforts to be more inclusive of other tactics and channels.

This can include videos, infographics, memes, and gifs. In fact, video streaming has become even more popular than ever before, and with the introduction of Tik Tok and Instagram Reels (in addition to Stories and Snapchat), people are consuming video at record-breaking amounts.

Then, once you diversify your content, include it in everything. Tie together your website and blog, social channels, email and other marketing efforts. Make sure the tone, information and strategy carry over.

If you repurpose content, be sure to alter it (even if slightly) to fit the format and expectations of the channel you’re repurposing on. For example, you shouldn’t promote a blog post in an email the same way you would on your Facebook page.

5. Improve the experience

How your audience interacts with your content is just as important as what content they are interacting with. In order to drive ROI with content, you need to focus on improving the content experience.

Analyze metrics like bounce rate and time on site, scroll depth, and clicks. It’s not enough that visitors come to your site, they have to engage and spend time with what’s on the page.

Try different content layouts, images, videos and types of content. Offer videos, webinars, white pages, podcasts, and images. Test which topics are the most engaging and informative. Be more tactful about placing CTAs and asking for email addresses. Be more strategic about how you more the consumer from that piece of content to the next step in the funnel.

6. High-quality SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) has been a content marketing buzzword for years. However, as competition increases, attention spans decrease, and customers are being more selective about brands they interact with and where/how they spend their money, SEO will be a critical piece of your content’s success.

Figure out how you can differ yourself and your content from the big competitors. Focus on more niche, targeted and long-tail keywords. Be sure your content is engaging, including having a low bounce rate, and high time on site and scroll depth.

Take time to create an actual SEO strategy. Include members of your team, like your web analytics team and search engine marketers, to find the opportunities that will be key for you and your brand.