Content marketing trends change often due to advances in technology, search engine preferences and changes in advertising. While the primary goals remain the same, strategies and techniques vary dependent on audience and industry. B2B companies work to find the best practices to reach their leads and prospects and turn them into loyal customers as they move through the marketing funnel. As content marketing becomes more sophisticated and prospects more discerning, let’s take a look at the current trends for 2017.
1. Videos Gain Importance
When online videos were first introduced, the video channels were clogged with homemade videos made by teenagers and kids that they shared with friends on YouTube and other video sites. Videos are still made by teens these days, but they are vastly surpassed by professionally made content marketing videos. Videos are a popular form of content, especially with the growth of mobile technology. They are easy for prospects to view on any device and if they offer value, drive traffic, revenues and profits to your website and/or brick-and-mortar store.
While videos can be effective for any product or service, they are particularly useful for B2B companies. Most B2B companies need to explain complex operations in bite-sized pieces. Videos are the perfect medium for that purpose. Videos don’t always have to be highly professional; simple hand-held cameras that display insight into a company’s culture, process or events can build a relationship between the business and customer one person at a time. You should also take note that videos show up at the top of the SERPS on Google, and can be searched on YouTube. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the internet.
2. People Get their News from Social Media
With the majority of the news media online, many people get their news from their preferred social media channel. While a person may get individual updates from a local or national news source via email, it is quite likely that they are also getting access to stories on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites. When you add this trend to the growing move towards personalized content, you can see how different segments of the population are seeing completely different stories. Knowing where your audience hangs out is very important in targeting your content marketing. Knowing which personas are your best customers will help hone that content for your preferred audience.
3. Super Niche, Micro Niche or Sub-Niche Branding
As content marketing becomes more personalized, marketers can increasingly dig deeper for niche interests. By pulling together a detailed persona of their ideal buyer for each tiny niche, marketing can be targeted to a very niche population. Big brands are taking advantage of this sophisticated targeting by creating micro-niche branding. If you pay attention, you can see this trend every day in advertising for foods, travel, clothing and specialized markets.
4. The Growth of Remarketing
Remarketing is an insidious force that is very effective. When you visit a website and then leave, you are shown ads from that site as you move around the internet. You can see evidence of this trend any time you search for a topic or visit a site. You get reminders to go back to the original site and place an order.
5. Interactive and Easy-to-Navigate Content
It is easy to lose prospects when they land on difficult or confusing content or hard-to-navigate pages. This issue is problematic, especially after working so hard to move leads and prospects through your marketing funnel. Making websites easier and more fun to use is an effective method of retaining visitors. As technology advances, it is a smart choice to make site interactions more entertaining.
