Yes, we are back to square one i.e. talking about content marketing and its entrepreneurial impacts. As much as we choose to ignore this basic topic, content actually forms the backbone of every marketing strategy and requires proper curation and decisive treatment. However, a new year brings in newer content marketing trends and 2017 is no different. In this post, we are going to discuss 5 of the most potent trends concerning content marketing.
Before going in-depth with our analysis, we need to understand how content marketing works in real-life— especially when we are talking business. Creating content is of paramount importance but there are certain elements which determine the effectiveness of an entire marketing strategy.
- Target Audience
- Business Objectives
- Promotional Techniques
These enlisted points are basically the pillars of a marketing strategy and the upcoming trends are readily based on the implementation of the same. Apart from these, marketers also need to understand the importance of demographics, metrics, business tactics and even goals while zeroing in on the perfect content marketing trend.
That said, each trend to be enumerated in this post has been researched for— assimilating data across several platforms. More than 300 marketers have been asked to offer their inputs— further adding to the credibility of this post.
So, let’s get the ball rolling:
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Brand Story: Priority
It’s always good to start with priorities. The brand story is of utmost importance when it comes to content marketing. Perhaps the most important yet overlooked element, brand story trumps other factors like content types, mission statement, audience personas and even metrics— by a sizeable margin.
The surprising aspect, however, is personas losing out to the brand story as the former was held in high regard up till the last quarter of 2016. That said, brand story emanates out of Google’s newest RankBrain algorithm which thrives on engagement.
2017 will surely be all about engagement and brand story is expected to play an important role in strengthening the same. This is one content marketing priority which needs to be looked at closely for determining audience concerns, expectations, requirements and interests.
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Brand Awareness: Goal
Now when the content marketing priority is out of the way, marketers need to focus on the goals. As per the stalwarts, brand awareness trumps revenue when it comes to the most sought-after content marketing goal. Closely followed is higher search engine visibility and then lead generation.
In 2017, marketers looking to focus on content marketing should abide by the strategies of brand awareness. This can only be achieved by generating organic traffic, massive social media engagement, and visitor conversions.
In terms of entrepreneurial setups, streaming startups are attracting all the eyeballs. The likes of Cinemabox, megabox, snaptube, Hotstar and some of the other streaming clients must look to focus more on On-Site content marketing techniques with brand awareness as the first and foremost goal.
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Original/Researched Data: Format
Every marketer must understand which content strategy or rather a format will work for the organization in the current year. For 2017, it would be wise to concentrate more on original data sources. However, originality is elusive and the second-best format would be a set of thoroughly researched data.
2016 was the year of product reviews, infographics, videos and blog posts but 2017 would definitely ride on the laurels of original data reserves. However, for the visual content marketers, Infographics will still be on top. The goal, even here, would be to remain original or at least true to the existing data sets.
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Sales: Success Metric
While the terms ‘sales’ might sound contradictory to most content marketers, it actually is a great determinant of the marketing success ratio. The likes of downloads, page view, social shares and lead generation might still be important but 2017 and even the subsequent years will be all about generated sales.
As mentioned, streaming clients primarily rely on the undercooked aspects like page views and downloads but they must readily pull their socks and concentrate more towards generating sales. That said, many amateurs believe that content marketing isn’t resourceful enough and generating sales can be exceedingly difficult which isn’t true— even minimally.
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Paid Advertising: Tactic
Now when we have discussed priorities, goals, content format and even the success metric, the focus shifts towards the most believable and resourceful promotional tactic— paid advertising. Amidst the likes of traditional marketing, email newsletters, events, and social posts; paid advertisements steal the show. This tactic eliminates the free-loaders and puts the marketer at the same level with the elite organizations who spend money for promoting their stuff.
Bottom-Line
Although the content is still the marketing king, creating great pieces is only as good as the distribution plan. Proper distribution requires resources to reach the audience and efforts to be counted as one of the best in the business. Lastly, if paid advertising is way above your financial league, concentrating more on earned media is a better option— including pitches to influencers and journalists.
