Experts agree: content marketing is not a fad. It’s an important strategic asset that boosts profitable traffic. In listing the 30 most cutting-edge digital marketing tools, based on its 2015 Digital Marketing Trends poll, Smart Insights put content marketing at number one.
B2B News Network recently reported on why you need a content strategy for 2015. In case you weren’t convinced the first time, we wanted to take a deeper look at CJG Digital Marketing’s list of the top eight content marketing trends for 2015. [See the infographic at the bottom of this post]
Check out the key takeaways, organized into three overarching fields for you to consider.
Technology
Much has changed in online advertising within the past year. From Google’s latest algorithm, Panda 4.1, to the widespread recognition of the Internet of Things, it’s safe to say that the grass is not growing under the virtual feet of digital marketing.
With the growing acceptance of content marketing by brands big and small, we’ve already seen a greater use of the same technologies in this arena that have typically been used in digital e-commerce. Marketers know well the value of targeted advertising — according to a Formstack infographic, personalized marketing results in an average boost in sales of 19 percent. NewsCred head of strategy Michael Brenner anticipates that “content will become targeted and more personal,” and that it will “take a seat at the table, with budget and someone with authority to drive strategic content programs.”
Content marketing will also become more automated, as digital marketers make use of familiar automation tools such as Marketo, Eloqua and Customer.io (the top three tools according to data integration and analytics company Woopra).
On the downside, expect paid placement of ads in social media channels to increase, and for organic posts to receive less natural exposure. It is well established that native advertising is preferable to blatant ads: according to research from IPG Media Lab, consumers look at native ads 53 percent more frequently than display ads. Marketers should be ready for this upswing of paid advertising across all social media channels. Also, invest in paid placement of content, or ads that appear content-like, to rise above the “paid ad” noise.
Quality
With more funding being spent on the technological advances in digital marketing, brands will begin to pay deeper attention to the quality of the content they produce. Marketers are already feeling the squeeze of this demand, and lament the lack of qualified content creators.
With brand-specific blogs and content sites having evolved into quasi publications, more professional writers will be used to maximize the impact of content on the consumer. Marketers should consider building a professional editorial team for their 2015 strategies, with professional writers and content creators to increase chances of organic views and engagement.
Visual storytelling will also become more frequent. With users reading no more than 28 percent of the words on a page, visual storytelling in marketing has bridged the gap between content overload and dwindling attention spans in the past several years. Strong infographics matter. Marketers will continue to rely on visual storytelling to stand out from its verbal counterpart. Videos, audio content and podcasts are expected to either remain popular into 2015, or to regain waning popularity.
Distribution
Of course, without a strong distribution channel to ensure that epic content (which according to Amanda Milligan from Content Marketing Institute is “the right information, placed in the right publication to target the right audience at the right time”) is actually seen, funds spent on content quality and technology is wasted. Expect distribution channels to be increasingly optimized in 2015.
One of the most prominent of these distribution channels is social media. The existing gap between content marketing and social media is predicted to close, as more digital marketers come to recognize social media as a very robust and active distribution channel. Mobile, too, is an important channel. As we previously reported, Bernat Guitart, CEO of mobile application development firm AppFutura, says, “Customers are now on mobile. It only makes sense to try to reach them there. This is expanding every day with new devices coming along.”
The underlying concept of content marketing is that people don’t want to be advertised at. They want stories with which they can identify, and brands supporting easy engagement. To encourage your target audience to engage with your business, keep your content strategy at the forefront of 2015’s expected trends for this invaluable marketing tool.
Embedded from CJG Digital Marketing
