The End of ‘One Size Fits All’ and Other Content Trends

People have preferences. Whether we’re talking about the way they take their coffee, their favorite flavor of ice cream, or how and when they consume content, people are unique and come with their own likes and dislikes. People are also complex, and when it comes to consuming content, a person may want a short video when they are on the run but may be willing to sit down and read an in-depth article when they are at their desks or lounging on the couch. And, increasingly, technology can make accurate predictions about who our audience is and what they want in a given moment — putting an end to the idea of “one size fits all” content.

Today, creating engaging content requires that we get to know our audience, not as a monolith but individuals who have different needs, interests, likes, and dislikes — and then create content for all of them. Of course, this is a demanding goal for content creators, but technology can play a useful role in diversifying the offer and taking care of routine tasks and processes. This frees up the content creator’s ability to think holistically about developing, distributing, and monetizing content. Armed with the right audience data and the right tools to streamline creation and distribution, content creators can start doing what they do best — creating content.

3 current content creation trends

Audiences may be unique, but every content creator has to start somewhere, and getting to know the content trends guiding content marketers can give a team a leg up on the competition.

#1 Video content is still king

According to Cisco, 82% of global internet traffic will come from video streaming or video downloads in 2022. Additionally, people spend an average of 84 minutes per day consuming video. From short social media videos to binging Netflix, people clearly love video and savvy marketers are finding ways to capitalize on this across every platform — even tiny mobile screens. This year, it’s predicted that there will be 205 million smartphone video viewers in the U.S. alone. From long-form content marketing videos — like Red Bull’s “The Alpinist” which is currently available on Netflix — to quick rewarded video ads in mobile games, audiences not only like video, but they will interact with it when given a chance — which brings us to our next trend.

#2 Interactive content drives engagement

Increasingly, interactive content is driving success for marketers on many platforms. Interactive features like polls and quizzes are popular on social media because followers love engaging with them — and, when used correctly, these formats can give content creators important feedback and audience data. In fact, this type of content is expected to show up in more places, such as landing pages, ebooks, reports, and more.

But at the moment, playable ads may be the pinnacle of interactive content. Many mobile apps — especially games — use these ads to give potential users a taste of gameplay before they download. VR and AR are helping enable even more innovative types of interactive content, with everyone from magazines to museums to marketers cashing in on the interactivity of virtual experiences.

#3 Short-form content is trending in 2022

We have been hearing for years that audiences’ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. What this often means is not that people can’t pay attention, but that they are so inundated with information that you have to catch their attention quickly — and then keep it. Fail to hook a reader or viewer in the first few seconds and they will move on to the next piece of content. The rise of TikTok illustrates this perfectly. TikTok has successfully focused on short-form video as a driver of visitor engagement: Americans over 18 spent a whopping 1.43 billion hours on TikTok in March 2020.

Videos can also be made interactive with a call to action (CTA) that prompts users to take next steps. Short marketing videos with interactive CTAs combine all three trends into one super video format that audiences should love.

Focusing on the audience with AI tools

Following content trends can only take you so far — and often tells creators more about format and channel than what messages and information will resonate with a given audience. That’s why it’s important for marketers, editors, influencers, and every kind of content creator to get to know their audiences.

When creating content for specialized audiences like investors, there are a growing number of tools based on AI and ML processes that suppliers of investment research can use to increase the value of their content for their customers and track the consumption of what they provide.

An example of this is the 'embedded intelligence' recently added to Eidosmedia solutions for producers of investment research through partnerships with Amenity Analytics and Singletrack. The functionality added through the AI-based analytics and CRM capabilities of these tools allows research providers to add significant value to their reporting without having to increase their resource base.

Find out more about Eidosmedia solutions for investment research providers.