Content marketing can be defined as: a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
According to a study conducted by BrightLocal.com, 28% of B2B marketers and 30% of B2C marketers say content marketing contributes to business goals.
A recent Beckon study counted a three times leap in the amount of content created by brands in just a 12-month period, with one single brand creating, on average, about 29,000 pieces of original content in one year.
Lots of people invest in stocks and businesses, the returns for which are quite uncertain. However, one thing that many people may not realize is that investing time and work in content marketing always generates compounding returns.
Jason DeMers, CEO and founder of Audience Bloom wrote in an article for Forbes, “As your investment earns interest, your principal grows and you earn more interest with each subsequent round of compounding. Content works much the same way, since it’s more or less ‘permanent.’ If you publish twice a week, you’ll have 110 pieces the first year, so the first year you’ll produce 110 pieces and get 110 pieces’ worth of results. The second year, you’ll produce 110 pieces and see 220 pieces’ worth of results.”
Here are five content marketing trends that will help you boost your content marketing strategy:
1) Visual Content
As people keep getting busier and busier, they have a habit of doing everything ‘on-the-go.’ As a result, not all the people who land on your age through clicks will read long articles or reports. Instead a more effective method of reaching out is through infographics or short videos. According to CMI, 65% of senior marketers believe that visual content is the core to how their brand story is communicated.
#PROTIP: Use memes and graphics that have the potential of going viral.
2) Going Niche Specific
Every brand or company has a target market. And every target market has various verticals. These verticals can be based on age, gender, geographic location, etc. These verticals when considered individually are known as niches. Niche marketing means curating and marketing content to any of these niches.
3) Focus on getting viral
This is one aspect that most marketers fail to prioritize is to focus on getting viral – it’s the quality and not the quantity that always matters. When Coca Cola started making personalized bottles with people’s names on them, they went viral and witnessed a major boost in sales.
4) Influencer Marketing
People trust other more than they trust companies about the offerings. Therefore, it is essential to choose influencers whose reach coincides with your target or niche markets. This will make for a great source of traction.
5) Targeted emails
This year, we see more and more companies sending out email newsletters. The Washington Post, for instance, has over 75 e-newsletters, while The New York Times has 12 people dedicated to newsletters. Some marketers believe email is dead, but studies show that that email is a growth area. The trend has moved from “email as marketing collateral” to “truly amazing and relevant customer experiences.”
Thus, if the marketer keeps in mind these trends, content marketing can generate great and compounded returns.
