Top Content Marketing Trends for 2026

Content marketing trends are valuable in answering questions ranging from “Should we jump on X now that it’s taking off?” to “Should we start laying the foundation for Y in our five-year plan?” In a discipline where certainty is rare, trends are the marketer’s friend in helping navigate the future. On this basis, we once again bring you the top content marketing trends for the year.

Each of these content marketing trends for 2026 is backed by data and expert opinions.

Take a look.

AI will become a workflow play

The impact of AI on content marketing isn't coming from any single tool — it's coming from where AI sits inside the workflow. Enterprise teams are consolidating around platforms that carry context automatically from ideation through publishing, instead of stitching point solutions together after the fact.

Read the full breakdown: How Is AI Changing Content Marketing Workflows?

Brands will deepen influencer partnerships to engage communities

Enterprise marketers are pulling back from one-off influencer activations in favor of sustained creator relationships. Niche creators with high follower trust are consistently outperforming celebrity endorsements on engagement, and brands are backing that shift with real, growing budget.

Read the full breakdown: How Are Brands Deepening Influencer Partnerships in 2026?

Marketers will continue optimizing for AI search

AI search rewards many of the same fundamentals as traditional SEO, but enough has changed in how answer engines retrieve and cite content to warrant a closer look. Marketers are adjusting their strategies for how content gets surfaced, not just how it ranks.

Read the full breakdown: How Should Marketers Optimize Content for AI Search in 2026?

Video marketing trends: Snackable video, vertical video and, AI-powered video creation

89% of businesses use video as a marketing tool to cater to consumer preferences for this format. As you may guess, video marketing isn’t going anywhere in 2026. But experts are betting on certain video formats to dominate and AI to ease and scale video creation.

Where is video headed?

• In 2025, 69% of marketers reported creating video specifically for social platforms. Social media videos is likely to remain the most popular use case for video marketing.

• With short-form video proving powerful for reach and engagement, consumers have shown that they’re ready for vertical videos on news and media sites. Taking the cue, publishers are expected to go less text-heavy and instead, add swipeable video feeds in their home pages and articles.

• AI has enabled more brands to bring video creation in-house. But mere access to AI doesn’t guarantee engagement and clicks. As AI video proliferates, brands must balance creating at scale with quality and authenticity.

• B2B video ad spend is expected to continue climbing.

Pro tips

• Use Video Agent to repurpose long videos into TikTok/Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

• Mix and match clips to create sizzle reels tailored to a specific product line or audience segment.

Graphic design trends: Anti-AI, sensory textures, local influences, expressive typography, and more

Going by expert predictions, visual design in 2026 will lean toward raw, bold, and human-centered expression. This comes as AI continues to relieve designers of the more mundane aspects of creative work.

Showcasing human craft

As AI-generated visuals become more common, designers are intentionally creating visibly human work to stand out. They’re using hand-made elements, analogue techniques, and deliberate imperfections to make brands feel more authentic and distinctive.

Inviting people to feel, not just see

How do you create immersive experiences for a population that’s spending more time with digital media? By simulating the physical world. Designers are increasingly using tactile elements mimicking touch, movement, and physical materials to enhance sensory engagement.

Typography turns rebellious

Playful colors, varied sizing, loosening rules, and reworking classic letterforms with a modern flair. 2026 could be the year typography moves beyond rigid minimalism and becomes more expressive and character-driven.

Returning to the roots

Designers in markets like India, Mexico, and Spain are blending heritage aesthetics with contemporary styles to assert a unique visual identity in an increasingly homogenized global visual landscape. Loud, layered visuals, handloom patterns, festival-inspired color palettes, and regional typography reflect this unique expression.

AI reviving traditional styles

Generative tools are reintroducing techniques like woodcut illustration, stone carving, gothic typography, and ornamental patterns within creative workflows. This creates an interesting contrast — machine helping revive traditional craft as designers showcase human skill.

Balancing efficiency with craft

As visual creatures, we instinctively assign more credibility to brands with strong design aesthetics. Maintaining that quality, however, places intense pressure on creative teams.

Creatives enter the field for their passion for the craft, but the day-to-day reality is different. Designing dozens of similar assets week after week can be exhausting and monotonous.

That’s a major reason AI tools like Image Agent have found a place in creative workflows. By offloading repetitive visuals and cross-platform ad adaptations to AI, teams reduce busywork and free up time to demonstrate human craft for key visuals.

Try Typeface

That’s a wrap of the content marketing trends for 2026!

Typeface gives you the AI workflows to execute on these trends at enterprise scale while protecting creative quality and avoiding burnout. Get a demo or talk to sales to learn more about how Typeface can help your team achieve more this year.