With great change, comes great opportunity. We closed out 2020 with this blog post How 2020 Changed Content Consumption – a summary of the 5 most significant changes in content consumption behaviour that we saw last year. (They’re included in this post if you didn’t read them)
Now it’s time to look forward. We know things have changed, but what does that mean for your marketing roadmap? What are the opportunities? What should brands adopt, adapt and abandon in 2021? Here are 5 ideas to get you started.
What happened?: Global content consumption doubled.
In 2020 people spent twice as much time online consuming content compared to previous years. These are the findings of a global survey conducted by DoubleVerify, which found that the average consumption has increased from 3 hours 17 minutes, to 6 hours 59 minutes.
What to do: Make every interaction count.
With content consumption at an all-time high, there’s never been a greater opportunity for brands to get in front of their target audience.
But with more eyes on your brand, it’s also more important than ever to make sure your brand is showing up in the right way.
Revisit your content strategy, revisit your personas. Do they still make sense in today’s environment? Chances are that they will need tweaking.
Tweak, refine – reinvent if you need to, but don’t stay silent.
What happened? It was a year of many ‘first times’.
2020 was a year of many firsts that have accelerated content consumption even further. If before this year you (or maybe your parents) didn’t know how to look up instructions on YouTube or watch a live stream event, you probably do now. Even as things are returning to normal, many will stick with their new behaviours which have proven to make life easier, save time and increase the opportunities for connection with loved ones.
What to do: Reassess your channel strategy.
There could be golden windows of opportunity waiting, that your competition hasn’t caught onto yet. New spaces where you can find a greater share of voice.
Is your target audience inhabiting new channels that have in the past been low priority for your brand?
Now’s the time to take an honest look at your channel priorities and adjust budgets. Don’t just use the same old marketing plan from last year. 2021 is going to be different.
What happened? Content consumption exploded on social with the average time spent on social media up by 30% in Australia (L&A Social Census,)
Globally, social media was the primary source of content consumption in 2020. According to the L&A Social Census, the average Australian’s time spent on social media grew by 30 per cent between January and June 2020. In stressful times, for many users, social is the one-stop shop for news and information about what’s happening in the world and connection with loved ones.
What to do: Refine your social strategy & claim your space on the feed.
If you imagine that there’s 30% more time on average being spent on social feeds, that’s quantifiable as 30% more space to fill as people are scrolling.
That’s nearly a third more impressions up for grabs, chances to engage, space to fill. More opportunities for brands to be seen.
With more eyes potentially on your brand, it’s crucial that your social media presence is on point. So take this moment in 2021 to revisit your strategy or create a new one. Some questions to ask:
- Does your social media presence reflect what your brand really stands for? Is your social team across the master brand narratives and how are they being told?
- Have you listened to what your community has told you via comments, conversations and engagement on social? How has it influenced your approach?
- Is your target audience still the same as it was in 2020? Have their pain points changed? Or have they completely left the building, only to be replaced by a new, socially distant crowd?
- Is your brand showing up with authenticity and a social conscience?
What happened? We became increasingly aware of the dark side of social media, but it didn’t stop us from using it.
A significant 1 in 4 Australians identify as being ‘addicted’ to social media, continuing to spend more time on their favourite platforms despite feeling that they are spending too much time on them or comparing themselves u1nfairly to others. Netflix’s ‘The Social Dilemma’ highlighted how companies like Facebook and Google manipulate users with algorithms designed to make the platforms addictive and harvest personal data to target users with ads.
What to do: Connect with your communities off social media too.
Will everyone quit Facebook one day? Hard to say. But building a community solely on someone else’s platform is risky.
Brands should be prepared for what will happen if people started jumping ship, or when algorithms change.
Like a community built on somebody else’s land, the owners could kick you off one day, they could impose new rules, or they could put a gate up and start charging entry.
How can you prepare? Build direct relationships with your customers. Create a database. Emails. This can be easily achieved by offering valuable gated content, members programs and the like.
There are so many valid reasons why brands should be making their audiences their own – especially in this climate. Make it a priority in 2021.
What happened? How-to fconsumption has spiked on YouTube.
2020 accelerated the guided content trend, especially on YouTube. With many Australians finding themselves at home and wanting to make positive use of their time, the key content trends reported by YouTube include yoga, guided meditation, nature sounds, home workouts and home cooking.
What to do: Look for branded content opportunities.
Trends like this one can be a golden opportunity for content marketers. What areas of expertise is your brand in a position of authority to speak about? What can you teach your target audience? How could your expertise make their lives easier?
Loved brands such as Bunnings Warehouse have built substantial audiences with How-To content on YouTube, elevating their brand to the role of a helpful advisor and expert.
Think beyond “This is how you use our product”. With a clever content strategy you can tap into broader topics and provide real value to your audience. Pulling data from places like Answer the Public and Google Trends can be a great starting point to get you thinking.
As content consumption volumes and behaviours change, new windows of opportunity along with new challenges will arise. Will your brand be capitalising on them, or playing catch up?
Is your Content Strategy soooooo 2020? We can help. #letsconnect
