As the rise of micro content is one of the gamechangers in this list, we’re going to skip the intro where we tell you that the last two years of pandemic have changed the game in the content world.

Even though it has.

But we’re gonna skip it to avoid the risk of this post being another bit of content amidst the ever more crowded feeds and screens fighting for your shrinking time and patience.

So here it is. Just the essentials – the content marketing game changers in 2022 summarised, short and sweet.

1. Demands for audience’s attention is increasing, their time is shrinking and so should your content 

It’s not our attention span that’s shrinking. It’s our patience and our tolerance for shitty content.

Only top shelf quality content will earn audience’s attention in 2022.

There’s an abundance of the stuff coming at audiences from everywhere. And a lot of it is good stuff.

So why would they spend their valuable time and have their lives interrupted by content that looks like it’s been put together by a person that hates their job and wants to take the company down from the inside by publishing shitty content (we’re sure that it’s happened).

2. Snack-sized, micro and atomised content is the most consumed content

TikTok and Instagram Reel style social video is the micro content that audiences are binge scrolling for hours.

Such short form videos fit perfectly into the pockets of time your audience spend with content – while on the toilet, on the bus, while waiting for their date to get back from the toilet in a restaurant. These brief moments in a day are exactly when you want to earn the eyeballs of your audience. Even better – stop them from scrolling because your content is so obviously worth them spending their precious time on. Even better – inspire them to click your way.

Make your content with this goal (and therefore high standard) in mind. Make your micro content game strong – infographics, social media posts, lists, memes – whatever gives a lot to your audience in a fraction of time. This is why atomising your content marketing is a best practice in 2022.

3. TikTok is the best place to be a brand at the moment

It’s a new age in social media marketing. You know that opening scene of Lion King when the monkey (Rafiki?) thrusts forward and upwards the newborn Simba lion cub to a savannah of cheering and bowing animals? The brands were the admiring animals and Simba was TikTok in 2021.

OK, this metaphor may have only appearedbecause I watched Lion King for the first time recently, but the fact remains – brands are going mad for Tiktok and will continue to do so.

It remains to be a very brand-friendly channel where GENZ demands brands be human and vulnerable, and in return, they offer them a friendly relationship.

And we’ll just slip quietly in here the fact that we’re running several successful TikTok brand accounts (insert an awkward, but not creepy, wink, wink, here).

4. Robots are making content

OK, they may not yet be spitting out prize-winning content yet, however, a splurge of AI-powered content generating tools have emerged in recent years that signal the beginning of a new phase in the fun and games of content production.

While most still think of robots as the subject of content, there is plenty of content already populating the internet that has been produced by a machine.

The machines have mostly been churning out copy, however, we’ll probably see the first video and audio content that’s worth watching produced by a AI in 2022.

5. Bye, bye cookies and hyper targeted campaigns

Who doesn’t love a cookie, right? Well, when we’re talking about those little tools of tracking known as third-party cookies, they’re about as popular as that creepy uncle of yours that sits in the corner and leers at everybody at family parties. Cookies and your uncle actually have a lot in common when you think about it.

Anyway, us marketers and publishers have been using these lil’ guys for some time now to learn about website visitors and collect data about them to target ads to the right crowd.

And now, that’s all about to come to an end. Google announced a while back that they’ll be phasing out third-party cookies, and the time has come in 2022.

Other browsers have already pulled the same move, meaning cookies are out and marketers will need to get inventive in how they compensate for this seismic shift in digital advertising. More content on this coming soon.

6. Branded audio content will continue to grow

Yep, everybody wants to have a podcast these days. No wonder. Brands looking for that sweet stuff known as brand intimacy are going nuts for it and the medium is getting plenty of love from audiences with podcast listeners skyrocketing year on year.

7. Voice search will influence how we make content

People are increasingly using their voice to find what they’re looking for via their phone or their smart home devices.

So little tip – optimise your content and website for voice search. Contact us to find out how!

8. Less text, more pretty pictures

Reading will never die, but it will suffer a long and painful death until humans become extinct. OK, that was dark. Apologies. The content that will fly in 2022 will be made up of more video and images and little text.

For those that are determined to go down with the reading ship and want to continue producing long form blog posts, here’s a tip: also give the audience the option to listen to your text-made content masterpiece by recording a little audio file of it and integrating it into the post.

9. Metaverse, AR, VR – watch this space

With the idea of the metaverse going mainstream thanks to that guy who owns Facebook ( what’s his name again?), VR and AR content is a space you should definitely watch in 2022.

While audiences are still not biting hard on it, albeit a small percentage of clunky glasses wearing nerds and early adopters, it’s only a matter of time.

It’s just hard to say how much time it will take before they do and in what form the Metaverse will materialize. Various factors are coming together in 2022 that could see AR and VR content become the new and exciting content frontier.

For those who are just pretending to understand what the hell Metaverse is when people bring it up, read this.

10. Knowing your customers is going to be much harder but much more important 

Trends and your audience’s behaviours and what’s important to them is changing quicker and it’s all being defined online.

Meanwhile, audiences continue to be attracted more and more to hyper-niche and hyper-personalised content. Stalk your audience online (not in a creepy way like that uncle of yours) and stay up-to-date with your audience’s conversations online. Then give them the content that will make them feel like it has been tailor-made just for them.

11. It’s risky to remain safe

Create to stand out. This is no longer a bold statement, but a necessity in an age when standing out is so damn difficult. After all, what’s the point of it all – your content strategy, the budget – if that’s not your ultimate goal: to stand out.

And it just so happens that we’re damn good at helping brands break through the noise, so get in touch if your looking for a partner help you navigate these turbulent times in the marketing world.