Content marketing comes down to commitment. There’s no halfway. You’re either in or you’re out.” – Joe Pulizzi
Over the years, the definition of content marketing has changed tremendously. Earlier, content marketing was simply a fancy term for blogging. Today, content writing has a much broader definition. Everyone is on the internet nowadays. All of them have social media accounts; they can visit your website or read your email anytime. In order to reach out to your audiences, you must be aware of the current content marketing trends.
Along with the platform for posting content, the type of content that is posted has also changed. Articles and blog posts are still relevant, but the way people engage with them is different now.
The Evolution
Content marketing started off as a trend. Many brands were trying their hand at content marketing because everyone around them was doing it. Now in 2020, we can see just how effective content marketing can be. After many years of experimentation, we know the dos and don’ts of content marketing. Its success can now be measured and proved. In a survey, 50% of the subjects said that they want to measure how much attention their content receives.
Changing perception
Businesses are changing the way they used to view content marketing. They now see the potential of content marketing to help businesses grow and to deliver a steady revenue. From a simple marketing tactic, content writing has evolved into a business model. Content marketers are now reassessing the purpose of the work they do, and their role within their respective companies.
Simply the sheer number of brands that have started doing content marketing since the last decade can be considered a big change. Businesses know now that content marketing is something that works. Nowadays, 60% of marketers build daily content. A study conducted in 2014 showed that 57% of marketers made custom content their top priority in marketing. It was also revealed that most consumers, 78% in fact, tend to trust a brand that creates customized content.
The Quality Game
These days, many brands use content marketing as a tool to tell their story. Hence, competition has increased in the world of content marketing. Some brands are going for a niche and then making it their own. Others are leveraging paid advertising media such as marketing through social media influencers. Earlier, content used to be all about quantity. Bloggers had to constantly keep their blogs updated, in order to stay relevant.
Today’s content marketing is more about quality. As such, prioritization plays an important role in it. Content marketers, apart from doing their main job, now have to keep the organization alert on their toes. Also, the entire marketing industry, along with the content marketing industry has come to realize that creativity is more important than processes and tools. Content marketing is still growing in terms of creativity. It was revealed in a study that 39% of the budget allotted to marketing is spent on content marketing by businesses.
Google has recently done some changes to its algorithm that places more emphasis on good content. This has changed the content marketing industry. Content marketers are now concentrating on creating great content to thrive in the world of search marketing, as well as for lead conversion.
Content for Account-Based Marketing
Many Business to Business brands are opting for account marketing, where content is created in a personalized manner for customers. The need is more than ever to provide tailored content that caters to the tastes of individual customers.
With the rising trend in account-based marketing, sales and marketing departments are getting closer. The two teams are often collaborating to create content that is tailored for certain segments of the population.
Promoting the content
A few years ago, paying someone for promoting your content was frowned upon. People simply assumed that you were doing it because your content was of bad quality and that you didn’t have the slightest idea about what you were doing. However, this perception has changed over the years. Creating quality content is not enough. You must promote your content using a channel that allows it to reach many people.
Social media users have a limited attention span. This limited attention span and the growing number of content have turned social media platforms into media outlets. These media outlets are used to target audiences based on their preferences. Although paid promotion was considered a taboo before, now it has become indispensable for promoting content.
Earlier, content marketing was all about the channel. Content marketers were still trying to understand how to make proper use of each channel, particularly social media. Content marketers are prioritizing the quality of the content rather than the channel. Content marketers are more concerned about the consistency and quality of the content.
Strategies for the Future of Content Marketing
It is hard to predict in which direction content marketing is heading. Audience preference plays a huge role in deciding the direction for content marketing, and the direction is different for each organization and its target audience. In today’s competitive world of business, you need to remember the following things, if you are content marketer:
Create Content that the Customer can view while on the go
People have busy lives these days. They desire content they can easily view while going about their daily lives. For example, podcasts are becoming increasingly popular. In a study conducted on various families, it was revealed that half of them listen to at least one podcast, and 22% of them consider themselves fans of the podcast. Podcasts are great because one can listen to them while working out, getting ready for work, or while commuting. So your content does not suffer from their lack of free time.
Don’t neglect Long-form Content
Semantic web is the base of Web 3.0. In this technology, data and information is stored in such as way that the computer understands them. This also maybe the next-gen artificial intelligence. Techies are hopeful that Web 3.0 will make a fundamental change in how developers create websites and also how people interact with these websites. This new paradigm will not only make people’s online presence and work easier and smarter but also more intuitive. Web 3.0 will be akin to artificial intelligence and will have better search functions so that it can give users what they are looking for. Web 3.0 will understand context better than just simply comparing keywords. Web 3.0 is expected to have dynamic applications, machine-to-machine interaction and also interactive services. This semantic web refers to the future and with it as the base, computers can interpret information just like humans do and also intelligently generate content customized according to the needs of the users.
Create Content for the Audience
Voice recognition has already made its entry in a large way. But this future technology trend has proved to be a step ahead of voice recognition. Alexa and Siri already have shown to the world the power of voice in everyday tasks, but their use has been very limited. Voice based applications will come with a bang in 2020. Experts predict that better and useful applications are being developed across the globe that are using voice recognition to its maximum advantage.
As the trends are growing faster and faster every day, these above-mentioned future technology trendsare a prediction over the upcoming future scenario. These future technologies will definitely help to reshape our future.
Conclusion
Voice recognition has already made its entry in a large way. But this future technology trend has proved to be a step ahead of voice recognition. Alexa and Siri already have shown to the world the power of voice in everyday tasks, but their use has been very limited. Voice based applications will come with a bang in 2020. Experts predict that better and useful applications are being developed across the globe that are using voice recognition to its maximum advantage.
As the trends are growing faster and faster every day, these above-mentioned future technology trendsare a prediction over the upcoming future scenario. These future technologies will definitely help to reshape our future.
