Today’s hottest trend is tomorrow’s old news. All the great content marketing strategies you have been applying so far are doomed to become ineffective one day. And by the way people’s demands and expectations evolve, that day may not be too far away.
However, there is always something new to replace old marketing strategies. Just think of your own marketing campaigns before social media ads. Or before the internet age. It was not easy, but you adapted and survived – your business is still prosperous.
This is why we believe that you will be able to face the changes coming to the world of content marketing in 2018. We have asked experts and analysed emerging trends in this active and fast-changing niche, and we believe that these are the key trends which will rule next year in the content marketing world:
- Live Video Is the New King
Video is the most effective format in content marketing, but there are many ways of creating and sharing video content across the web. As the technology for producing and editing videos has become more and more affordable and easy to use, video content has exploded everywhere: on blogs, websites, and the social media.
The most recent video format – live video sessions – has become the undisputed king of content marketing. Statistical data released by Facebook™ indicate that:
- Live videos have three times the audience of uploaded or shared videos;
- Users comment on live videos 10 times more than on other types of videos.
The numbers speak for themselves; people are more engaged by a video that happens in real time, when they can interact with the broadcaster and ask questions.
- A New Emerging Specialisation: Audience Strategists
Targeting the right users at the right moment is crucial if you want to get a good ROI for your marketing campaigns. And this is why we will see a new type of specialist in digital marketing: the audience strategist.
An audience strategist will be in charge of defining, refining and predicting the behaviour of the customer persona, so that the rest of the marketing team can deploy the right kind of content at the ideal moment to stimulate the buying decision.
- Transparency Is Everything
In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission has already started sending out letters and warnings to brands and public personalities, urging them to disclose any kind of affiliation or endorsement deals.
Various brands have already lost a lot of reputation and customers when it was discovered that many enthusiast influencers which promoted their products were actually paid by the respective brands for their endorsement. There is only one way to deal with such situations: be 100% transparent about paid promotions, endorsements and other similar agreements with bloggers, celebrities or public personalities.
- People Love Content That Doesn’t Push a Sale
And not only do they love it, but they are more likely to buy products from businesses which share interesting, useful, and original content that doesn’t have a sales pitch in it. One of the key trends of 2018 is that brands are being built by stories, by being able to create emotions and personal connections with their customers.
This is why the new content marketing strategy you develop for next year should provide a significant percentage of content where you simply share an inspirational story. Soft selling is the motto for the upcoming year.
- Social Media Organic Reach Takes the Final Blow
If you were still holding out hope that organic reach may be brought back to life, you should put it away for good. Social media platforms are continually changing their reach algorithm, opening the organic reach freeway to personal accounts and barring it to business pages.
You will still be able to create a sales funnel on the social media – you just have to pay for it and say goodbye to any kind of freebies.