Content Marketing – What we learnt in 2017
From the days when advertisers had complete control over the type of content we could access to the end user controlling the content flow, the times have changed a lot. The year 2017 was a phenomenal one with respect to content marketing trends. The advertisers no longer rule the roost and the customer is truly the king. Here are some interesting things we learnt about content marketing this year and how that would make an impact on the coming year.
Advertisers no longer control the industry
Tables have turned and the advertisers no longer have control over what type of content or even the ads we see. Blocking an irritating ad is just a flick of finger away. Customers do not want trashy content that is saturated with oddly placed keywords; they want engaging, informative and good quality content that is worth paying heed to.
Users want that the content that they are going to access:
- Should provide great value – content should benefit the reader in one way or the other.
- Must be based on verifiable facts – nobody wants to read shallow words that are world apart from real life.
- Needs to be optimized, current and newsworthy
- Must be accessible on a mobile device – mobile is the way forward; is your content accessible on smartphones and tablets?
- Should be personalized and well researched
Evergreen content is must for building trust
Evergreen content is the holy grail of content marketing. If anyone had any doubts regarding the efficacy of lasting content, the same should have evaporated in smoke this year. It is essential for building trust and readership in the long run. Evergreen content is like magnet for readers, they continue keep coming for it even after years of publishing. Today’s internet users prefer content that doesn’t get old and reward such publishers with loyalty.
What type of content is classified as evergreen?
- Such content that answers burning questions.
- Long form posts that are rich in statistics and evidence
- Readers love case studies
- Visually appealing Infographics have tremendous power
- How to guides that provide step by step information regarding solving a problem
- The popularity of Podcasts has soared to unimaginable heights
Use as many Infographics as you can
Infographics are a rage these days and pack a heavier punch than text alone can. Some powerful messages can be conveyed with the help of the same thanks to rich graphics involved. Research has shown that customer engagement can be increased by several times thanks to use of infographics. These are three times more likely to be shared on social media than text. This essentially means these ought to be in the arsenal of every content marketer
Here is why you need to use more infographics in your content marketing efforts:
- These improve website’s SEO by several notches
- Infographics are likely to get tons of social shares
- These are great for increasing brand awareness
- Connecting with your target audience becomes immensely easy with infographics
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is catching up fast
With new technological advances being witnessed with each passing day, it is quite important for a content marketer to remain updated with the same. The rise of augmented reality and virtual reality is worth mentioning here. The efficacy of the same was proven much beyond doubt with the tremendous popularity of Pokemon Go that milked these technologies like no one else and tasted enormous success. Any content marketer looking forward to stay ahead of competition ought to make good use of the same.
In fact, companies are investing a lot to make most of the trends. For instance, specialized VR and AR equipment is making way into the market that helps content publishers to create cutting edge content. It is highly likely that there will be a deluge of such content in the coming year.
Rise and rise of influencer
Influencer marketing became a thing in the year 2017. Anyone having a big social media following across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram among others is considered to be an influencer and can impact buying decisions of his or her followers. In this way, influencers are quite too valuable to ignore for brands. In fact, the latter are doling out rewards for the former. This has, in fact, triggered a race among social media users to get recognized as one.
Such influencers are paid handsome sums for posting social media posts that act as advertisement for their followers, without looking too preachy. We are going to witness this trend to continue in the coming year and several new influencers rising to the top of the table, grabbing a piece of the pie.
Given by the above lines some pretty interesting trends were noticed in the year 2017. It is expected that content publishers are going to build up upon the same in the year 2018 and chalk out new success stories.
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