Content strategy trends: what leaders are cutting in 2022

If your 2022 content goals include a whole lot of doing less, you’re not alone.

Last month, we asked content leaders to share what they’re planning to cut down on and do more of this year, and many responses were about narrowing focus to break through the noise. “Doing less” is really all about freeing up time to make what matters.

Take a look at all the things content leaders said they’re dumping — and what they believe will make the biggest impact over the next 12 months:

Less: “Create less content. Your readers don’t want more stuff, they want better stuff. But as content creators we often get stuck in the trap of creation for creation’s sake.”

More: “Focus less on the content I want to consume and more on the content my readers actually want. It’s a classic content creation best practice, but something I want to do more.”

–Bernard Meyer, Director of Content and Research at Omnisend

Less: “We’re going to be less camera shy this year. The prevalence of video content, especially by influencers or other customers, is only growing. It’s best to remember that your audience is looking for authenticity not perfection.”

More: “Creating more authentic campaigns that truly speak to the audience as more than a brand and more as a fellow human. Compassion should be at the core of every pain point.”

–Ashley Akau, Assistant Director of Social and Sales at Agency onethree LLC

Less: “We’ll question and hesitate less. Flooding social channels with solid content will bring more attention, then we can sift through the conversation and audience.”

More: “We’ll create more social media posts for clients — test faster, fail faster, rise faster.”

–Monica Dema, President of Global Content at MDINC

Less: “Get sucked in by vanity metrics, like the LinkedIn like count. Of course we’ll still track metrics like this, but we’ll balance it out with other KPIs such as qualitative feedback on content. But most importantly, we’ll focus on the number one main metric that all marketers should be rowing towards: revenue growth. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.”

More: “Collaborative content creation. Harnessing the power of B2B influencer marketing, like I did back in the day. It’s what helped put our agency on the map years ago — and something we want to ramp up in 2022 both for our own marketing efforts and for our clients. There’s power in numbers. And we’re in the ‘age of influence’ as Neal Schaffer puts it. So let’s bake some virality into our content by co-creating powerful pieces with other experts and influencers — and make some magic happen.”

–Konrad Sanders, CEO and Lead Strategist at The Creative Copywriter

Less: “I want to do less ‘copy cat videos’ of what’s trending. If it doesn’t feel organic, I don’t want to encourage my clients to jump on trends for the sake of ‘keeping up.’ Following trends just to be like everyone else doesn’t feel authentic, nor can I make promises on how it will convert to more engagement or more sales.”

More: “I’m going to invest time in creating authentic captions, video, and messaging across the board. Being vulnerable with an audience is key. It doesn’t come easy to put yourself in that space as a biz owner or non-profit leader. I want to coach my clients on reframing their forward-facing messaging so it showcases who and what they are without any gimmicks.”

–Julia Sellers, Writer and Editor at Thirty Press

Less: “We’re going to put less emphasis on trying to go viral with our content. This serves as a disadvantage in the long run because it’s unpredictable and risky.”

More: “I’m going to focus our efforts on putting out consistent, high-quality content for our users, rather than putting out content just for the sake of putting it out.”

–Brandon Brown, CEO at GRIN

More: “Continue to build strong relationships on behalf of clients and myself. We’re on information overload right now, with everyone and their brother spamming via social, mobile, and email. People are sick of it and want the security and pleasantness of dealing with real people who don’t immediately jump to a pitch.”

Less: “On behalf of clients, we’ll do less ‘bugging.’ Information overload is a huge issue right now. Providing useless, noisy content is counter-productive in 2022. Smart, innovative thoughts and ideas and initiating real conversations are what will rule successful marketing.”

–Heather Doering, Owner at ACE Strategies

Less and more: “Drive away from the old way of blindly creating MORE content and focus on creating less content with better results. Most brands are still stuck creating content for Google rankings and social media with little to show for it. They publish 1-5 articles per week, then wait for Google to send traffic to their site. You should design your site with users in mind. All search engines want to show users the content that’ll be the most useful to them. Organizing your content for best usability will help you get better rankings for your business.”

–Chris Von Wilpert, Founder of Content Mavericks

Less: “I’m going to care less about a typical content and SEO approach focused on keyword volume and numbers. Quality and relevancy of traffic are more important for our business than just the traffic volume itself.”

More: “Content strategy that’s highly focused on our target audience’s real problems and queries. We’re going to target engineers to provide them with the highest quality technical content (tutorials, guides, case studies) — no marketing pitch involved.”

–Gosia Hytry, Head of Content at spacelift.io

What are you doing more and less of this year?