In today’s digital age if your not promoting and advertising your business online then chances are you’ve been left in the dark because online marketing is the future of marketing for businesses. Much of the traditional marketing through avenues such as print, radio and TV is being passed up for content marketing. Content Marketing is when you create and distribute content that is considered relevant and valuable to your target audience in hopes that it will attract and then retain your audience as a customer. The point of content marketing is to sell yourself to the customer as being knowledgeable and experts of your industry. Content marketing is successful because it tells the buyer why the product is good instead of directly telling them that they have to buy the product, this leaves the buyer with a decision and if your content is good enough hopefully they decide to buy. Content marketing can also be distributed on multiple platforms such as social media and blogs. This can help build your brand message and increase brand awareness. So with that here are 4 content marketing trends you should know about…
The More Personalized the Better
Content marketing is successful because it is engaging. It allows you to create relationships with your target audience. In an era where content is literally everywhere, people seek out the content and information they want generally by what their interest or needs are. So If you tailor your content to what your target audiences likes and interest are, they are more likely to be interested in what you have to say. A simpler way of thinking about this is, if your content is not what the person is looking for, then your content is going to be passed over.
It’s a fact that people respond better to people rather than a faceless corporation. Creating content that gives off a personality and identity that the audience can connect with is going to be most successful. Your content should aim to spark conversations and make the audience feel like their talking and interacting with a real person rather then the corporation.
Videos, Videos and More Videos
If you only take one thing away from this blog then let it be this; video is the future of content marketing. If you don’t believe us consider this “By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video-on-demand traffic alone will have almost tripled”
Online videos are quickly becoming consumers go to for information and entertainment. Videos have the ability to naturally grasp the audience’s attention because it offers content that can be easily digested. If you personalize your videos to what your audience wants or needs then they will feel more connected and view your company more positively, they may even share your video with their social network and spend more time engaging with your brand and website.
Hyper-Segmentation and Micro Targeting
In todays digital age there is extensive amount of consumer related information, all thanks to websites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. These websites act as a storage house of information that marketers can use in order to better reach their target audiences. Have you ever been doing online shopping and decided that you weren’t going to by the item just yet? Then you go to a different website and staring directly back at you is that new watch you had your eye on from the previous website you visited. This is thanks to micro targeting which allows marketers to spread their messages and calls to action to specific groups of consumers that fall within specific demographics
In fact research has even shown that target advertisements are twice as effective as non-targeted messages. Yes, the fact that businesses can better advertise to you by seeing your interest is creepy, but welcome to the digital age.
Going Mobile
Take the subway home from work or maybe even go to a restaurant and look around and I guarantee you, you will see people staring down at their phones. Phones are increasingly becoming peoples go to for finding out information or seeking out entertainment on the fly. Even you may even be reading this blog from your phone. So what does that mean for marketers and specifically content marketing? Well it gives marketers more platforms to create content that can be accessed via mobile and also means that consumers can be marketed to at all points in their day.
New to content marketing and looking for some help? We have over 20 years of marketing expertise, and have been able to use that to help businesses of all sizes craft integrated content marketing plans – even Fortune 500 companies! You can contact us by visiting us at our website or calling 617-576-3100.
