The online market is constantly changing and getting your content across to your audience keeps getting more difficult and complex. New technology and tools are constantly emerging and it takes a lot of effort to keep up with the growing competition. Content marketing strategies that worked in the previous year might not generate the same results in the next few months. We just crossed the mid-point and started the second half of 2016. We have already seen some trends this year and the same shall continue to dominate the remaining 2016 as well. Let us discuss what is hot right now in content marketing.
1. Videos will continue to dominate: Video is everywhere right from Facebook newsfeeds to WhatsApp family groups. In 2016, over 70% of the traffic consisted of video content and this trend is going to continue in the rest of the year forward as well. According to a research case study from Cisco, video content is going to make 95% of the entire online traffic by 2020. With the 4G internet access going main stream, people are going to consume more and more videos as videos are easier to consume, digest and share.
2. Attention Spans shall continue to decrease: With over 3500 advertising and marketing messages which on an average person is exposed to every day, the attention spans are falling. So the content has to be generated with the strategy of grabbing the attention immediately without any delay or it risks the chances of getting noticed at all.
3. Drip content feeding: Breaking a large piece of content into smaller chunk of contents and distribute it over a duration of time has always worked better than the original single piece of content. The simple reason why this strategy always works is that the drip fed content always has a longer lasting impact on the mind of the readers which can never be achieved by the single longer piece of content. It also gives the business multiple chances to connect with the readers which is important in establishing connect and recall. Companies have recognized this opportunity and are taking serious advantage of it in engaging their target audience. They shall continue to do so in remaining 2016 and later.
4. Interactive and visual content: The content has taken various shapes in today’s world. Once upon a time there was only text based content and then later images came in. Today’s content can take many shapes and forms like infographics, videos, video-infographics, quizzes, calculators, assessment and grading systems which can generate a ton of engagement and offer mechanisms of engagements that never existed with other content delivery platforms. Businesses shall continue the use of these new forms of content in rest of 2016 and beyond.
4. Interactive and visual content: The content has taken various shapes in today’s world. Once upon a time there was only text based content and then later images came in. Today’s content can take many shapes and forms like infographics, videos, video-infographics, quizzes, calculators, assessment and grading systems which can generate a ton of engagement and offer mechanisms of engagements that never existed with other content delivery platforms. Businesses shall continue the use of these new forms of content in rest of 2016 and beyond.
5. Social media as primary content distribution channels: The use of social mobile apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and apps for other primary social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube etc. have made it extremely easy to consume the content anywhere and everywhere. This has opened up tremendous opportunities for native content generation for these platforms. Businesses have now started generating content specifically meant for these platforms and audience. This is also called native content.
6. Content Distribution Budgets shall go up: 2016 is seeing a rise in the investments by marketers in content marketing. Marketers didn’t allocate separate dedicated budgets for native content development in the past and they were largely using re-purposed content which didn’t do as well as native content. It has been proven that native content marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing that can drive traffic, engagement, lead generation and conversions. So marketers are now allocating budgets or are increasing their budgets for content development and distribution.
7. Look into Facebook Instant Articles : Facebook will continue to dominate this year too. Though selfies and status updates will continue to rule Facebook, there will be a slight paradigm shift in how people use Facebook, Instant Articles will be a new way to run articles and native ads on the Facebook platform. An individual, as a content publisher, will have control over their stories, monetization opportunities, and brand experience.
8. Mobile will continue to dominate: As already been predicted, more and more people are “shutting down” their laptops and going mobile. There are 3.65 billion mobile users and a huge push from Google to have all websites responsive on mobile. Consumers are expecting more with embedded videos, responsive design and company apps.
9. Artificial intelligence will see a rise: Robots, with the help of algorithms, have started writing today. This currently applies to simple reporting like weather forecasts. The more complex writing still needs a human brain. 2016 will see much more automated algorithms. However, this will happen only in the super-large corporations with massive content requirements.
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