1. More content in 2015
Yes, content marketing is a long-term enterprise that requires commitment and continuity, but at the same time it is more profitable than traditional marketing (statistics say it is 62% cheaper), and it generates three times more business leads. Content marketing also differentiates you from your competition, helps you build your brand image and ensures your existing and potential users have a place where they can get informed, entertained and educated. We therefore predict that the presence of content marketing will further increase as companies come to recognize its usefulness and high returns.
2. Quality? Most certainly. But what about quantity?
Quality is unquestionably a crucial factor in the creation of original content, but that does not mean that quantity should suffer. These two notions cannot stand on opposite sides, but should complement each other instead. Content marketing depends on regularity and continuity, and recent research shows that frequency is also important: brands that create at least 15 blog posts a month on average have 1,200 leads in the same period. Visibility is important and successful posts are visible. And relevant. And high in quality.
3. Education and profession profiling
The perception of social networks, SEOs and content marketing as special areas that require expertise of specific divisions and professions is going to become more common and consequently skills in those areas will become an advantage for employees. Considering that the time in which companies need to react to challenges is becoming shorter and shorter, the knowledge and variety of skills that employees posses in this area will become more and more important.
4. Systematic planning and digital strategy
Content marketing will become an issue of systematic planning, while experiments and testing will become a thing of the past. Since it is becoming more and more common as a tool for company communication, there is an increased need to define the roles and locations in the process of planning, production and execution. Successful content marketing does not leave much room for improvisation, and it demands a clearly defined strategy that all those involved in the company communication are familiar with.
5. Authenticity
Brands will become even more adapted to their users. In other words, instead of creating content which is still a slave to corporate style and expression, communication will become more focused on the end consumer. Varied topics that reveal more detail about the company, and original headlines developed for individual target groups are an example of approaching audience interests. The content marketing rule of 70:30, which states that only 30% of published content is to refer to the brand itself, will become more relevant than ever.
6. Mobile is not up for debate any more
We tend to access the Internet more and more on the move, using our mobile devices. It is an unstoppable trend that is reinforced with every new smartphone and tablet sold. And since user habits are changing, so should the way we present content, which is why we should expect shorter and shorter form, more attractive headlines which will be much more precise rather than just functioning as clickbait, as well as blurbs which will be easy to share on social networks through a click on the mobile screen.
7. Personalizing the content
Good content is created for an average end user and their particular needs or habits. The best content is created precisely for each individual user. We are not talking about the technical issue of inserting the reader’s name into a generic text, we are talking about a higher level of personalization. We present content to users according to their interests and behavior on networks, which we can access in big data analyses. We are talking about delivering content at the right time and in the right context, thanks to the capabilities of mobile technology and geolocation. Personalization will become invisible and will increasingly be determined in the phase of planning, rather than operational performance.
8. Newsletter
Connected to personalization, the form of the newsletter is coming back into style. Not because it is retro popular, but because it is an efficient and profitable channel of communication that delivers an incredible ROI. Get ready for more interesting newsletters in your inboxes in 2015, because the newsletter is a crucial content marketing tool.
9. Metrics
Measuring marketing activity and its success is always relevant. In the context of content marketing, metrics is a true revolution because it requires defining the new settings, ways of tracking, and analyzing the tracking of this type of communication. With the global trends of presenting new ways of tracking the success of content, using elements such as time of exposure, A/B testing and heatmap tools, we will be seeing more and more specific metrics that every company will individually define and use to suit their needs.
10. Video
A trend that first became noticeable at the end of 2013 has proved to have caused an unstoppable snowball effect that has gained the necessary momentum. Highly produced, user-generated, interactive and augmented video content will be more and more consumed. On the other hand, a dynamic video production will affect the service market, causing agencies, production houses, media and advertisers themselves to start restructuring in order to produce video content and follow the market demands.
