Chitra Iyer Editor-in-chief , Ziff Davis B2B
Source: www.martechadvisor.com, July 2019
While content itself remains relevant and increasingly central to marketing, the way content is created, distributed and indeed, consumed, is, and will continue to change dramatically over the next few years. In this article, we take a look at the top 10 content marketing trends that will have a definitive impact on your content experience strategy.
Will text content as we know it be the audio cassettes of 2020? How prepared are we, as marketers, to anticipate how consumers will shift their content discovery, consumption, and sharing preferences and habits? How should this knowledge impact the way we are designing content experience strategies for the near future? What technologies do we need to know about and experiment with today? What skills will content marketing teams need to create and execute the content experiences of the future? In this issue of the Content Experience Explainer, we dive into some of the major trends and themes that progressive content marketers need to consider, in order to stay one step ahead of the curve – and their customers!
1. Data-driven creativity: With everything in business being data-driven today, can creativity and story-telling be far behind? Whether it is the use of data to execute a creative ‘big idea’ in an unexpected but effective way; or whether it’s the more widespread use of data to personalize content or offers, data’s place in the creative process is here to stay. ‘Data + technology + great storytelling’ have come to form a powerful engine that are taking brands into new territory with both relevance, personalization, and creativity.
Learn more: What is Customer Data? Collection, Validation and Analysis
2. Dynamic, personalized content streams: As we discussed in the experience-led approach to content marketing, content marketing is going beyond prospects consuming individual pieces of content at random points of their buying journey. With identity resolution and CDP like technology enabling a unified customer view across devices and platforms, ‘dynamic content streams’ are also already possible. It is possible to tailor an entire suite or bundle of content to an individual customer’s journey. Using smart recommendation engines and AI to move prospects purposefully towards making an informed decision; displaying tailored content streams to returning website visitors based on identity tags; and nurturing prospects with response-based next best content over email are all also already possible. But the real goal is 1:1 content experience – personalized not just to the individual but to the context of the transaction. This approach will recognize that each individual wears many hats or personas; and will behave and respond differently when consuming content, say as a professional, as a mother or as a patient.
Learn more: What is Dynamic Content and How to Implement it?
3. Omni-channel content strategies: The customer is everywhere- across all channels, platforms and devices – and therefore, so must our content. Irrespective of how or where prospects choose to engage with content, they expect a seamless experience. An omni-channel content plan is not as straightforward as repurposing a piece of content for consumption on various channels or platforms or even devices. It is about understanding what platforms and channels the prospect prefers to use for what-kind of information gathering needs, at which stage of their journey; and building content to leverage those insights.
Learn more: What is Omnichannel Marketing?
4. Brand partnerships and collaborations: This is a trend we are seeing take off in the B2B marketing space. Two brands targeting the same audience, but with complementary value propositions coming together to co-author guides and eBooks or even host Webinars is increasingly common. In the B2C world too, there are examples where complementary brands come together to offer the consumer additional value. A cosmetics company may collaborate with a clothing brand to create a video on the latest looks and trends, for example; or a car company may collaborate with a travel company to create content about amazing road trips.
5. In-the-moment/ micro-moment content marketing: According to Google, winning consumer engagement in 2019 and beyond is all about capturing the micro-moment. While a detailed journey mapping exercise would form the foundation for such an initiative, progressive content marketers know that the purpose of content is not just to sell but to be useful when the customer needs it most. As Google puts it, at every micro-moment on the ‘I want to know’, “I want to go’, ‘I want to do’ and ‘I want to buy’ spectrum, brand content should be there, be useful and be accountable. Content delivery systems should not just be able to recognize the individual, but the specific context of that individual interaction or transaction as well.
6. Conversational content marketing with chatbots and AI: Traditional ‘interactive content’ such as quizzes and tools are getting a real-time engagement makeover with AI, chatbots, and AI-powered chatbots! Not only do these technologies enable 24X7 access, they also enable meaningful conversations and purposeful responses. From eliminating the need for tedious form-fills, to keeping the prospect on-site for longer with intelligent content recommendations, the concept of ‘call-to-action’ is being transformed by conversational content marketing approaches. The real trick to prepare for this future is for marketing leaders to build inhouse competency in writing content to train these AI-driven technologies and complement AI-powered content creation tools. In essence, people who can help the machines sound more human than ever.
7. Value metrics: Being measurable and making a strategic contribution to business goals are undoubtedly stated goals of progressive content marketers. But the context of measurement is shifting from volume metrics (traffic and visits) to value (time on page, sharing and engagement, number of content pieces consumed over the buying journey etc.), and from individual pieces to dynamic content streams. Marketers are today prepared to pay premiums to publishers who can show high engagement between audiences and content – whereas just a short while ago, it was all about which publisher could show the highest traffic volumes.
8. Smart content: There is a lot of interest among progressive marketers on IoT and Smart Devices and the role they play in the buyer’s journey and life. And this naturally begs the question: how would consumers want to consume or engage with brand content on these platforms? While still nascent, there is a huge potential for early-starters to understand buyer behavior or interaction with IoT and other smart platforms and experiment with content approaches that make the most of the opportunity. Will the world shift to having content curated and read to them by messenger bots and smart speakers? Or will some whole new, unexpected way of engaging with smart devices emerge? Assigning someone on the team to track these technologies and spot opportunities at trade shows and in mainstream media is a great idea for marketers that want to seize the early wins.
9. The changing world of ‘search’: Search is not what it used to be, and we are not talking just about Google’s constantly changing algorithms. Including voice, visual and vertical search into traditional search strategies means reskilling content creators to understand how these new search channels work, how and when consumers use them, and ensuring they are built intelligently into the content marketing strategy. Holistic search skills will be essential to the smart content marketing team in order to optimize search outcomes in 2020 and beyond. For example, vertical search typically occurs at the final stages of the buyer’s journey. So, content created for vertical content needs to be conducive to decision-making, not focused on awareness building. Platform search is also growing in popularity – a significant number of customers today start product search on Amazon or their preferred social media site (think Instagram) – and not on Google. The potential of turning a search into engagement is much higher on these emerging search platforms as well.
10. Content for communities: Like-minded communities, peer-based communities, communities on Facebook, Slack, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora or WhatsApp: everywhere you look, it seems consumers are making subject-specific communities their go-to place to get unbiased reviews, feedback and suggestions on the products they are considering. Progressive marketers are beginning to understand that to truly leverage the community-based content marketing opportunities, a different kind of content approach is needed, which is all about real-time responses to queries without any branding elements. The importance of local content, and content in regional languages is also growing in importance, no matter how global the brand or its consumers, as several of these communities organize themselves geographically. Finally, the power of influencer and word-of-mouth marketing strategies in the context of these growing brand-neutral communities also needs to be re-examined, in order to create compelling conversations that can help better understand these communities and the consumers who are a part of them.
That’s my list of trends and themes for smart content marketers to think about, experiment with, and prepare for including in their 2020 and beyond content strategies! What are yours? ? Tell us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
