According to the 2017 benchmarks and trends report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 60% of B2B marketers who followed the trends, found their content marketing strategies to be more effective than in the previous year.

Around 34% of the marketers found their content marketing to be more effective in 2016 as compared to 30% in 2015. Factors such as better quality content, strategy development, more time spent on content marketing, and better targeting in content distribution, collectively added up to this success.

To maintain that pace of growth, marketers need to stay active on the trends in the content marketing arena. Let’s take a look at some of these trends.

1. People tend to place their trust more on reputable content, not ads

According to a Neilson report in 2015, the best sources of advertising content were people you know, branded sites, editorial sites, and reviews.

Since 30% of consumers tend to use adblock software, any ads that marketers intend to show have to be relevant. So it’s wise to invest more in content marketing, influencer marketing, referral partnerships, and other methods that are designed to deliver actual value to audiences.

2. Evergreen content and historical optimization

‘Evergreen’ content is content that will not lose its sheen over time; it stays fresh throughout. On the other hand, ‘temporal’ content has only short-term relevance and keeps changing with time. It’s the former that generates compounded returns and adds value to content marketing trends.

Evergreen content is said to have repeatedly proven itself for generating the highest organic traffic against minimum effort. That said, it would need constant touch-ups to stay consumable. For such a requirement we have historical optimisation.

Historical optimization is the art of refreshing ‘old’ (not published today) content to improve lead generation and traffic. It helps with the following:

• Content with high conversions but low traffic
• Content with high traffic but low conversions
• Content that under-performs relative to the time and resources it took to create

3. AI-oriented solutions rule the content marketing world

In 2018 we saw the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications, and their influence will only increase in 2019. With bots beginning to handle every service a consumer might possibly need, this is leading to higher productivity and efficiency, while enhancing the consumer experience.

Digital workflow will become more convenient as more and more technology-oriented businesses are looking forward to streamlining their workflow digitally. For instance, with smart algorithms, campaign performance can be measured and improved; and with A/B testing in real-time, marketing ROI can be increased significantly.

4. Video views lead internet traffic

• Video is expected to occupy more than 80% of web traffic by 2019.
• Appending a video to marketing mail can amplify click-through rates by 200-300%.
• Videos in landing pages can result in increase of conversion rates by 80%.
• 90% of customers agree that product videos help them make purchase decisions.
• As per YouTube, mobile video consumption grows by 100% year on year.
• 64% of customers tend to buy a product online after watching videos on it.
• 87% of online marketers use video content regularly to boost their digital marketing strategies.
• About a third of people online spend time watching videos.
• Video ads now account for more than 35% of all ad spend online.
• People tend to watch videos more than read blog posts/articles, including 59% of company decision makers.
• Digital marketing expert James McQuivey estimates that a single minute of video content is the equivalent of 1.8 million words.

The average attention span of netizens is short and most people today prefer watching videos than reading reams of text. Realizing this, brands have made the shift to post more video content, including live events and behind-the-scene moments. But video marketing can be fruitful only it is relevant to the target consumers.
In 2019, live video feeds would grow exponentially but ‘originality’ would be the key differentiator. Interactive and imaginative videos will outpace regular videos, and brands that lay emphasis on keeping users engaged will thrive in the long run.

Sources

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