Content Marketing Year in Review from the CEO
Last week, we capped off our first year of LinkedIn Lives with a 2-part series on marketing/communications and business trends. The LPC partners shared their insights looking back and thinking ahead. In the new year, we’ll continue to share trends and predictions.
For our final blog of the year, I thought I would give a quick recap of the state of content marketing in 2024, drawing on some of the trends the team shared and my own observations.
1. Going Live with LinkedIn
We hosted 31 LinkedIn Lives this year with 10 topics and 25 different guests! I began the first few months with my own lessons and eventually transitioned the show into an interview style where I brought on thought leaders to talk about the topics that matter to my audience. While the first few months were challenging to figure out the technology and the back end, we finally got the hang of it, and now they are a crucial part of our content strategy. If you’re thinking of starting a LinkedIn Live Series, I suggest starting off short and sweet with a topic you are familiar with before adding too many steps or additional people.
2. The Rise of Short-Form Video Content
My next observation is that the key to those LinkedIn Lives is turning them into short-form video content. I’m seeing a big trend in short-form videos, with many platforms capitalizing on the success of TikTok. This doesn’t mean you need to learn some crazy dance moves unless you want to. It just means harnessing video's power when you can. This could be as simple as adding animation to your text graphic or something more complex like repurposing live snippets from a webinar.
3. Emphasizing Social Media Channels
Speaking of TikTok, as our team explained in the LinkedIn Live, younger audiences are turning to social media for their information, so bear that in mind as you craft your marketing strategy. For some businesses, this may mean a social-first strategy, while others just need to get creative in putting more emphasis on social media.
4. Content Accessibility Is Essential
Accessibility has been high on my radar lately, and this can mean so many things. On our end, it means ensuring that graphics are accessible to low-vision readers and that content is appropriate for the reading level of our clients’ audience. However, I’ve also learned that accessibility also means using care in choosing words, fonts, text types, emojis, hashtags, and much more. Now, I’m much more careful of what I put out there.
5. Embracing AI as a Content Partner
One way to ensure your content is accessible to various audiences is using our good old friend AI, which leads to my next point. This year, I’ve noticed a fundamental shift in embracing AI as the partner it is instead of fearing it as a dreaded replacement. In addition to using AI to check your accessibility, you could also use it to work smarter, not harder, such as editing work or ideating blog topics. You’ll never find us using it to write or create our content, but we’ve learned how to harness its power.
6. Being Authentic
That said, we’re still very conscious of sharing genuine content. More than ever, we want to make sure our clients sound like themselves. We make sure that all content and copy align with their values and mission. As we have often mentioned, infusing your content with authentic language and expert-driven insights is essential. That’s the best way to ensure your content resonates with your audience, and that’s where AI cannot assist. AI content lacks the personal touch people crave from businesses.
7. Humanizing Your Brand
We leaned into the power of employee advocacy in unique ways this year with our clients and our own marketing. For LPC, employee is a loose word here since I technically don’t have employees, only partners. However, the concept is still the same—engaging your employees (partners) to humanize your brand and expand your network. This could be bringing your employees on LinkedIn Live (ha!), sharing employee accolades on social media, or encouraging them to share pictures of events they attended. These tactics are especially important on LinkedIn, where “content shared by employees gets 8x more engagement than corporate channels because people trust real, personal voices.”
8. Building Your Community
On the same note, the other tactic we’re seeing in unique ways is community-driven marketing, meaning your content is driven by positive feedback and interactions with the very people using your product/service or in your community. Case studies, user-generated content, and co-branded partnerships are just a few examples we’ve seen in action. These strategies are essential for interacting with customers and building brand loyalty.
9. Collaborating with Other Brands
Speaking of co-branded partnerships, one thing we’ve seen across all our worlds—life sciences, advocacy, entrepreneurs and beyond—is collaboration. Our team discussed this in the first part of our two-part series. We’re seeing so much more collaboration among brands. Even just the other day, as I manned the Chronic Boss Booth at the Massachusetts Women’s Conference, multiple organizations approached us, eager to partner. I love bringing more bright minds together to create a stronger product for overlapping audiences.
10. Being Consistent and Adaptable with Your Content
Our LinkedIn Live series also called attention to the theme of consistency with adaptability, which is nothing new in marketing/communications but always a good reminder. To be memorable, you must be consistent, but to be a good marketer, you must be adaptable because trends constantly change.
Those are the content concepts I saw in 2024, and I think many of these content marketing trends will continue into 2025. What would you add to this list?
Check back in the new year when we share our content marketing predictions for 2025.
