Your content marketing strategy isn’t going to be static. As digital trends grow and change, your company will need to adjust their approach so you don’t wind up looking outdated. Jumping on the bandwagon doesn’t exactly get you the same ROI as being a trendsetter. But how are you supposed to set a solid budget when your marketing strategy is going after a moving target?
First, you need to find out what the latest marketing trends are. Then, you need to evaluate a trend’s long-term potential to get a handle on whether or not you should bank on it. Some trends will come and go, but a few have changed the face of marketing all together. Structuring your content marketing strategy around trends with solid growth potential is a great way to make your business look more competitive (or just plain cool).
Save some room in your budget for these top-pick trends:
Content is King
For those that follow inbound methodology this isn’t much of a surprise. The need for high quality content is only going to grow. Smart Insights says that 20 percent of the businesses they work with consider their content marketing to have the biggest effect on their overall business growth. A big part of creating relevant content is diversifying the way your content is presented. Incorporating a variety of content styles like articles, graphics, and video is becoming the norm because it allows you to relate to a variety of different personas with the same bit of information. Speaking of which…
It's Time to Start Thinking about Video
“But my business doesn’t do anything that would be interesting on video!” We doubt that, but marketers are focusing on video as a way to personalize their client’s branding in addition to making industry-related content.
Since Google purchased YouTube in 2006, they have been steadily increasing the feature of videos in search engine results and are working on incorporating video into PPC ad campaigns. This will open a lot of new territory for businesses. As a response, Facebook is also increasing their video advertising offerings that can be shared on your newsfeed. With these two options, one video can be seen and shared by dozens of people a day.
Don’t Slack on Social Media
We used to have “word of mouth;” now we have our newsfeed. Adweek says 66 percent of companies consider social media essential to their business and 70 percent of businesses plan to increase their social media budget in 2016. Why? Because creating a consistent social media presence is a quick and inexpensive way to boost relevancy and set a tone for your brand.
70 percent of the companies interviewed for the Adweek survey reported that they planned to use their social media efforts to create more entertaining content to share with their audience. Content that’s fun and relaxed tends to get liked and shared more often, boosting organic social marketing. That, in turn, will boost your brand’s relevancy and customer engagement. #MarketingWin
Get Going with Mobile
If your business doesn’t have a mobile version of their website yet, now is the time. PC usage isn’t decreasing, but mobile Internet usage in the United States is outpacing PCs by approximately 51 percent according to Mary Meeker. That means those who don’t have a mobile-optimized page could be missing out on a significant amount of traffic. Not only that, but having a webpage that doesn’t scale for mobile will make your website look outdated, which can hurt from a competitive standpoint.
Don’t Forget Email
Mobile users open more emails, so email marketing is getting a huge boost. Marketers still consider a strong email list essential to any campaign because you can share a variety of content with the same platform. You can also add items like social media buttons to emails to boost organic social marketing at the same time.
Overall, your content marketing strategy needs to focus on creating high quality content. That will never change. Trends will influence the type of content leads are more likely to respond to and which platforms are best for sharing the content you have created. Budgeting to accommodate this evolving landscape will help ensure you’ve got plenty of room to expand as trends take shape.
Topics: marketing