Content marketing has been around since 1895 when John Deere's company started a magazine for farmers. Fast forward to today, when brands have unlimited media options to engage customers of websites, blogs, videos, social media, podcasts, and webinars at among them. Each medium offers different ways to tell a story, educate prospects, a and turn customers into supporters. And in 2018, new forms of content marketing gained traction, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual assistants like Alexa Amazon.
Here are 7 Content marketing trends of 2018
1.Brands Will Ramp Up Trial With Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and 360-Degree Videos
With so much content flowing from so many brands, marketers realize that they have to finish their game for attention, says John Haynsworth, senior content strategist at a POP marketing agency.
"I've noticed that clients are switching from stock stocks in a blog post as a reflection to deliberately considering how key information or data points can appear as illustrations," Haynsworth explains. "More aggressively, I've seen clients willing to experiment with new technologies like VR, 360-degree video and AR. With so much content available to audiences, content marketers and their clients have to crawl closer, even if reluctantly, to the forefront. "
Haynsworth added that VR and AR as content marketing channels "are still a bit aspirational.VR, in particular, has a barrier like equipment, which is not part of the mainstream, so it's difficult to convey that experience on a grand scale."
But the benefits of VR and AR are their ability to "provide a complex experience to anyone anywhere," Haynsworth continued. For example, consider a B2B company marketing large goods or production equipment. "A live demonstration that drowns an audience in an experience where they can engage with a full-scale product is a great evaluation tool for conversion," he said.
Although VR and AR can offer exciting new ways to reach consumers, the question is: Is the brand right for your brand? "There's no lack of channels to reach customers right now," says Ann Handley, a chief content officer of MarketingProfs, which provides training for marketers. "But you can not catch them all, just focus on what you can do well and that makes the most sense for your audience."
2.Personalization Will Be More Important
By 2018, the digital experience will feel more personal, predicting Shafqat Islam, CEO of the content marketing platform of NewsCred. "Individual online experience will be curated and adjusted," he said. "What you see when visiting a company website will look different if you visit from a Dallas hotel after seeing a new movie, versus an airport in Miami while waiting for a delayed connection to Argentina." For the smartest marketers, personalization creates great competition opportunities. "
Personalization is very important in email marketing. One example of success comes from BarkBox, a monthly subscription service that rewards dogs and presents. "Their email program is amazing," Handley said. "They always listen socially and use that data to run their marketing in a smart way."
BarkBox does an excellent job using humor and tone of voice and customer data to deliver highly personalized content, Handley says. The email he received from BarkBox looked as if "it was written specifically for me, and I have this crazy brand loyalty for them as a result," he added.
3. Content Marketers Will Utilize Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Greater Personalization
Currently, only half of all B2B content can be found on Google, says Kevin Bobowski, vice president of marketing at BrightEdge, a marketing and marketing company. "When we talk about B2C, that number drops to 20 percent.The brand is not able to let this continue and hopes to stay competitive."
By 2018, Bobowski predicts marketers will increasingly turn to learning machines (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to create 'intelligent content'.
Intelligent content is created by combining search marketing, AI, and content marketing, Bobowski says. "These three factors develop, enable and optimize high-performing content.Examples of smart content will leverage AI to identify what consumers want, what consumers search for organically, and where consumers search.By using this information, content marketers can create content that relevant keywords and phrases that target their key audiences.The customer-centric approach allows content to be more easily found within search engine rank pages. "
4.ML and AI Will Accelerate Content Production
ML and AI will also help marketers stay easier with the growing need to generate large amounts of content quickly, says Elliot Sedegah, group manager for product strategy and marketing for Adobe Experience Manager, a digital experience management platform. It's not so much about using this technology to replace marketers, he noted. It's about helping marketers become more efficient in their work.
"When you think of all the different steps needed to create, manage, collect and deliver content, many people and the steps involved," Sedegah said. ML and AI will further streamline the process in various ways.
For example, AI can accurately add various specific tags automatically to images that, in the past, humans had to add them. Family photos on the beach may be marked with generic identifiers such as "vacation", "beach" or "family". But if, say, the father in the photo is holding a beer, AI can identify the beer brand and automatically tag the image with its brand name. In turn, the image will then appear in the keyword search of the beer brand name.
ML and AI "will help explain the brandless assets in a repository of content that should be hidden in the dark," Sedegah said.
5.Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) provides yet another "digital portal" with which you can provide useful content to your audience, Handley notes. By 2018, expect to see more brands and organizations using IoT devices, especially assistants like Alexa Amazon, to deliver content, he said.
For example, the American Heart Association develops Alexa 'skills to provide verbal instructions for performing CPR and also how to detect signs of heart attack and stroke. "Providing a very useful tool for people in emergency situations is the kind of easily accessible content that marketers should think about with the Internet. Things," Handley said.
6. Expect to See More 'Microinfluencers'
The Federal Trade Commission has reduced the marketing of influencers in an effort to curb the practice of paid celebrities to support products in social media without revealing that they are being paid. By 2018, celebrities will continue to support the product to some degree, but the brand will start utilizing micro-influencers as well, predicting Islam.
Microinfluencer is "an ordinary person with a very small but very involved social media fan base," says Islam. They branded "an opportunity to connect with their most vibrant audience members." More 'regular' customers, especially younger ones, will share their product experience in their network in ways that inspire confidence.This user-generated content will continue to add artificial content brand. "
7. Marketers Will Be Smarter About Why They Produce Content
Eight years ago, at the time of the advent of modern content marketing, some marketers have a documented strategy, Handley said. Instead, "there are many random content actions." However, in recent years, marketers are getting smarter "not just about how they produce content but why they produce it," he said.
More content marketers consider their program more serious lately, Handley said. They are more likely to ensure content related to specific business strategies and targets, and their content marketing programs are well-documented (not 'random').
Among the best performing B2B marketers, 62 percent have documented content marketing strategies, according to a recent survey conducted by MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute. But there is still room for improvement, Handley notes. According to the survey, 37% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, while 38% have a strategy but are not documented.
Documenting your content marketing strategy is key, Handley says. "It's hard to get others to buy strategic content marketing strategies unless you have a documented strategy.What do you want to accomplish? Who do you want to achieve? What do you want them to do? It needs to be documented."
Ultimately, "creating great content consistently and on a scale requires strategic editorial processes, with measurements integrated into broader business strategies," notes Robert Rose, a key strategic adviser for The Content Advisory, advisory and advisory group The Content Marketing Institute. "And ironically, solving that challenge is the only way the marketing team can explore new and exciting shiny acronyms like AI, VR, and IoT."