Customers are the lifeblood of any business. But competition in every market is increasing and seems to show no signs of stopping. With markets becoming saturated, the challenge that marketing and public relations teams have now is how to ensure that. The right people can see what their companies have to offer.
Enter content marketing. With content marketing, brands are able to get the word out about their products and services without explicit promotion. Nowadays, consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service if it sparks their interest. By subtly embedding these products and services into relevant content targeted for a specific audience. Brands are able to drive customers to do what they want them to do.
Here are a few content marketing trends that we will be seeing more of next year:
Webinars and Similar Video Content
SEO news trends show increasing interest in video content like webinars and webcasts, mainly because of the medium’s visual nature. Streaming sites like Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Smashcast are slowly gaining popularity because of video content. Subscription-based online learning sites like Udemy, SkillShare and Khan Academy. Are also gaining traction because of the number of educational video content that they host. Sites like these offer an untapped potential for marketing products. And services without seeming too intrusive or “in your face” the way traditional marketing does.
Long-form Content
Since the boom of websites that rely on user-generated content like Facebook, YouTube, and other social media networks. The Internet is saturated with a lot of content that is largely misdirected, uninformative, and meaningless. Coupled with meme culture stemming from the rise of Vine and GIF reactions. You’d be hard pressed to find content that can be used as a quality resource, especially for educational purposes.
Search engines are trying to reward lengthier posts in search rankings. As a way to incentivize content creators to produce more quality material, and it appears to be paying off. It was published in an analysis by BuzzSumo that articles. That contained at least 2,000 words generated more engagement by means of shares to social media outlets.
Podcasts
NPR is no longer for cat ladies and other lonely, uninteresting souls. In 2018 alone, podcasts have soared in popularity, doubling the numbers generated from 2017. This rise in podcast statistics may be in part to the increasing dependency on portable smart devices and home setups like Amazon’s Alexa. Whether it’s commuting to and from work, or doing chores at home. People are turning to podcasts to fill the dead air with informational content. This uptick in the popularity of podcasts opens up new avenues for audio as a content marketing venue.
Social Media
Social media is still one of the most reliable sources when it comes to content marketing. While most companies already have a Facebook page or a Twitter or Instagram account to help get their name out to the World Wide Web, other social media platforms are seeing upward trends too. Pinterest, for example, has gone beyond being a digital vision board. LinkedIn surprisingly is also seeing some growth in users since the beginning of 2018.
Although Facebook is still number one in terms of being the best way to create online engagement, Instagram is also toying around with an algorithm for its Stories feature to make it easier for business accounts on Instagram to get their stories shown as ads to their target demographics. This could mean that more and more businesses will be relying on Instagram Stories. Than the Explore page to manage their presence on the social media platform.
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