Content marketing is going to become more important in 2018, and content creation and distribution will change the marketing strategies radically. According to Seth Godin, “content marketing is the only marketing left as its useful, authentic, and perfectly suited for the internet users.” Content will continue evolving this year and beyond. Let’s look into the latest content marketing trends that you should check to change your marketing strategies to keep pace with the latest changes.
1. Remarketing to Become the Engine of Lead Generation
Remarketing shows the people who have visited your site ads while surfing the entire web. Remarketing is booming. Marketers today are ploughing money into marketing more than ever. Look out the data below.
Conversion rates are increasing per ad impressions. The more people see an ad, the more there is an increase in conversion rate.
Remarketing has become the key part for B2B marketers. 2018 prediction says that marketing will become the lead generation driving engine. More marketers are going to spend money on remarketing to get their offers before their prospects and turning them into qualified leads.
2. Personalized Content Experiences
Personalization that is one-to-one marketing is the key driver to get potential customers. The 2018 prediction says that marketers are going to push towards providing highly personalized experiences. It depends on data about your potential customers. The more you know them, the more you can deliver. Personalization narrows down the audience range and enhances the effectiveness of a campaign. Creating content for a broad audience is not the standard anymore. The audience should be segmented based on different criteria like age range, interests, timings, lifestyle etc. Content should be generated targeting each specific group. Applying different segmentation strategies will effectively categorize audience and make it easier to personalize the content. Personalization these days is not just mere mention of customer’s names and their birthdays. As consumers are aware of the amount of data you have, they expect to use it to their advantage. More focus on content personalization will be another trend to be followed in future.
3. Video Content Marketing will Rule
According to a recent survey, more than 80% of marketers use content marketing. 2017 has seen an explosive growth of video content marketing. This raised the competition for 2018 and marketers are searching for various means to make video content as part of their content marketing strategy. Video content marketing has already become a norm in social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube etc.
4. Internet of Things (IoT)
It makes perfect sense to say the world we currently live is nothing short of fantasy, with the internet of things. World of the internet of things emerging each day made the possibility of communication via networked connections. Users can communicate with any smart device within the smart home which is networked. Content creators will have to develop content which is customized to each of the different devices within IoT space.
5. Integration of Ecommerce & Social Media
Content creators have been using social media platforms to distribute content and build audiences. Social purchasing seems to be the latest trend where social media sites are integrating the properties of e-commerce. 2017 and beyond brings a multitude of challenges and opportunities for content marketers. Preparing yourself to adopt new changes will enable to stay ahead of the competition.
6. Virtual Reality (VR) & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Pokemon Go has once again proved how curious the audience is to embrace new technology. Virtual reality and augmented reality have opened the doors for a whole new platform for content consumption. Rising need for visual content will make the path for virtual reality smooth in future. Artificial intelligence is going to change the landscape of content marketing. It enables the marketers to develop content that endorses your audience. One can format content for SEO and automate content distribution with the help of AI. AI is the fastest-growing marketing technology and tool for planned usage. 27% of the marketers are expecting to adopt AI in their marketing strategies in next couple of years.
7. User-Generated Content
Customers trust content coming from fellow customers more than brand’s content. User-generated content comes in the form of reviews, feedbacks, social shares, comments etc. Design your site to generate content for your users by providing them appropriate feedback forms or space to leave their comment or reviews about your services and their experiences with your brand. This builds trust among the customers, which in turn brings more buyers. User-generated content is going to be more important than ever before in 2018 with the rise of multichannel customers. Around 97% of the customers are more likely to purchase after interacting with user-generated content.
8. Mobile Content Marketing
Accessing information on mobile devices is more common these days than on desktops. Considering the shift in mobile use, better to align your content marketing mix with mobile marketing. Mobile contents can be optimized for multiple formats. More businesses have started adopting mobile-friendly formats. Brands will continue to create mobile apps, mobile pages and put mobile first.
9. More Bit-Sized Content
Long format contents are no longer on the runway. It’s time for short, meaningful, relevant, and attractive contents with visuals. For example, infographics, Tweetable graphics, or in-post graphics. People today prefer videos, infographics, social media posts to make any actionable decision. Instead of creating long-form content for any topic, make snackable content with a mix of image and text. See the below Tweetable graphic example.
