Top Trends in Content Marketing in 2018

The significance of content marketing

“Content is King”. From the days when business published content just because everybody was doing it, today, where engaging content is the driving force behind accelerated revenue generating, content marketing has come a long way.

The ever-changing trend of the reader and never ending demand of the internet generation has drastically reshaped content generation, curation and its marketing in the last 5 years.

The content strategies that worked last year might not produce the same desired results now. The ever-changing nature of content marketing has seen shifts from mobile messaging to classifieds/ directories, all the way to digital search and display advertising.

We have dug down deep into statistics and pulled up a few trending patterns that will shape the way you market content.

1. Create content to accommodate natural language search
   

With the invention of personal virtual assistants such as Alexa by Amazon, The Google Assistant, and Cortana by Microsoft, It is evident that the giants have recognized the importance of audio search. Audio search has taken 2018 by surprise.

One prominent name in audio content creation is GARY VAYNERCHUK. Check out his amazing podcast at https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/podcast/  

According to a survey 71% of people aged 18-29 user personal assistant and voice commands to search online. Teenagers in particular use voice search extensively to get help with their homework.

It is estimated that Amazon’s Alexa alone will contribute almost 10 billion US dollars to their revenue. A CNBC report shows how the giants of personal virtual assistant Alexa, Siri and Google assistant stack up against each other

Amazon’s Alexa steals the show at CES from CNBC.

In view of the argument presented above, content marketers can not overlook the importance of creating content to accommodate natural language search. Writing content that is in sync with the way we talk will definitely have more visibility.

For example; writing H1 for a web page “Top-ranked marketing courses in Australia”, instead the pattern should be “what are the top-ranked marketing courses taught in Australia”.

Keeping in mind the conversational nature of voice search, content marketers have to write long, detailed and naturally phrased sentences.

2. The return of remarketing

Display marketing was a dying medium until around 2014. Recent studies have shown statistics which have baffled many digital marketing experts. Display marketing techniques such as banner ads, videos, sponsorship and rich media have amounted to 42 billion US dollars as compared to just 17 billion in 2013.

This huge surge in the marketing budgets of corporations cements the fact that remarketing is made a comeback against all odds.

One major factor contributing to its success is remarketing. Remarketing allows websites to show targeted ads to past visitors while they are watching videos on youtube or shopping online.

The conversion rate for remarketing is going through the roof. Setting up a campaign isn’t difficult at all. Some of the major platforms contributing to remarketing are Google ad remarketing, Facebook remarketing, Adroll and Perfect Audience. Such a huge no. of user base from these platforms ensure that your remarketing campaign is bound to increase sales.

If you are consistently sharing content to your social media channels, you can take the advantage of platforms such as Replug which can be used for retargeting whenever someone clicks on it.

A few worthy mentions of business that used retargeting to generate considerable profits include Mazda & Merchenta, Watchfinder & Periscopix, eBags & Google and Lumension & Just Media.  If you want to read individual case studies on retargeting, you can check out ConversionXL article.

3. User-specific content experience

Suppose you call your mobile operator and you are greeted by your name, told that you are valued and priority customer and are treated very respectfully. This will definitely increase your confidence in your service provider. Same patterns are being applied to the digital and content marketing arena.

By accumulating data such as name, email, website URL and designation, websites present you with a personalized greeting message. Not only that, they will have recorded your previous visit activity and suggest you actions similar in nature.

More and more digital marketers are of the view that user-specific content experience is critical for converting online sales. Business could potentially show customized discounts or alter the general layout of their sites to funnel conversion.

An unregistered user will see $190 

4. Length of the content

Past few years have seen a race amongst content marketers to produce lengthy articles that range from 3000-4000 words. The idea behind such articles is that it should cover all aspects of a particular topic in details, so as the reader is able to deduce concrete results from the statistics presented. This approach works great for attaining better results in SERP. The below graph shows a relationship between wordcount and SERP

The flip side of the coin is that the young generation tends to lose concentration while reading articles exceeding 1000 words. Some experts have labeled it as the “Goldfish attention span”. Our analysis is contrary to that.

We believe that the millennials are able to extract more information from shorter content especially if the text is aided by some sort of visual content i.e. video, picture or infographics etc.

The inclination towards social media platforms has further contributed to shortening the length of the articles being published. In essence, content marketers have to access their target audience and the purpose of publishing and vary the article length accordingly.

This can be verified by Backlinko’s case study

5. Importance of video content

As reported by CISCO, Videos amount for 69% of all consumer internet traffic. Youtube, the Mecca for online videos report that an astounding 5 billion videos are watched every day. Within the digital marketing community, videos content persistently aids in lead generation. A video allows you to see the face behind the case and gives a sense of confidence while online purchasing. Facebook too is heavily investing its time and resource in augmented reality.

6. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has been steadily gaining momentum in the last decade, to a point now where 90% of individuals trust the recommendations and propositions made by influencer they don’t even know.

This is a huge number when compared to ROI achieved against the budget spending on traditional marketing channels such as TV.

One thing is for sure, influencer marketing is here to stay, how it will be utilized, will change.

From the graph above it is evident that influencer marketing has reached almost the same popularity level of video advertising. This is a huge achievement on the part of influencers and bloggers.

For businesses and individuals to ride the tide of influence marketing, below are a few noteworthy recommendations

• Cherry pic top brand influencers pertaining to your industry
• Specifically targeting marketing campaigns towards shortlisted influencers
• Track key parameters of the marketing campaigns to judge efficiency

The thing to be wary about is the institutes such as Advertising standards bureau and Federal trade commission. These bodies exist to safeguard the interest of the consumer.

A classic case in point is what happened to Machinima. Xbox One promoters essentially paid influencers to deceive consumers with endorsement videos. Ensuring transparency uplifts the confidence of the consumers and a potential spike in online sales.

How ContentStudio helps you with content marketing

ContentStudio is a content discovery, monitoring, and social media management platform. It identifies viral content beforehand and presents it to you so you can share it on social media platforms. Keeping in mind your interests, keywords and search patterns, news, tweets, posts that are popular, are presented so you can contribute to it.

ContentStudio is creating a one-stop content curation and marketing platform that has the ability to produce niche specific content for targeted marketing. Using the latest techniques in AI, machine learning, and data science, fresh content is mined from the internet and customized to fulfill the reader’s appetite.

ContentStudio gives you the ability to discover topic-relevant content filtered by social shares,  different media types, and virality. Select posts individually from your topic feeds or set up an automation campaign with your own rules to publish content automatically to your selected channels.