Investments in content marketing are starting to pay off for companies. That’s according to the Content Marketing Institute, who revealed in a recent report that more than 60 per cent of B2B marketers have found their content marketing strategies to be more effective than they were a year ago.
Great content marketing is more important now than ever. Consumers are bombarded with an increasing amount of marketing messages, diluting the impact of each intervention more and more. Content marketing – when it is personal, relevant, and engaging – has the ability to resonate more deeply with consumers because it puts their needs first. By placing overt promotion in the background, companies can build trust, confidence, and loyalty in their brands.
With that in mind, here are three important content marketing trends to watch out for in 2018.
Personalised Content
300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day and we collectively write two million blog posts. By the end of 2017, we will have produced more data than in the previous 5000 years.
With such vast amounts of content available to the average consumer, it’s no surprise that their demand for high quality, relevant information is increasing. Being informed is no longer enough: they want to be engaged and entertained.
Technology is increasingly making it easier for marketers to personalise their content: data collection and profiling is becoming more sophisticated, A/B testing and content recommendations are more commonplace, and behaviour-based responsive email campaigns are becoming available on most email marketing service platforms.
The Continued Growth Of Influencer Marketing
According to Nielsen, 78 per cent of people in Europe trust recommendations from people they know when it comes to making purchasing decisions. This advertising format significantly outperforms every other medium: editorial content trust comes in at 52 per cent, TV ads at 45 per cent, and ads on mobile devices at just 26 per cent.
People want to hear opinions from those that they know and trust, which is why influencer marketing will only continue to grow. But with the ever-increasing proliferation of endorsements, marketers need to ensure that their strategies are transparent and authentic: consumers are apt to see straight through campaigns that are disingenuous.
Video And Visuals
Video content has come into its own in the last year or two, with the latest data from Livestream indicating that 80 per cent of people would rather watch a live video than read a blog post. But while video continues to be an important marketing tool, the future is all about interactive content.
By 2021, the AR and VR industries will be worth $108 billion combined. Facebook announced earlier this year that AR will become an important part of their ongoing strategy, following in the footsteps of SnapChat’s success.
Brands like Ikea and Sephora are building apps with AR functionality to enable consumers to visualise themselves and their homes using the company’s products.
Extended reality content that entertains and adds value will become more commonplace as technology continues to evolve.
Creating relevant, entertaining, useful content is critical to the success of marketing campaigns, and will only become more important.
As we move into 2018, putting the customer’s needs first, ensuring transparency, and investing in emerging technologies will enable brands to stay ahead of the curve.
Kate Jones writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs.