Before you present your 2016 strategy your company’s executive team, here’s a list of some content marketing trends that you should be considering for the new year.
1. Interactive Content Is On The Rise
Interactive content is starting to emerge as a leader in the content marketing world; whether this means branded apps, custom newsfeeds, or tailored content, users want to see interactive and individualized content – and they want it to be available on any device they are using. It’s now more important than ever to ensure your website and content is mobile-optimized, allowing your users to do virtually anything on their iPhone that they can do on a laptop, such as:
- Research products
- Apply coupons and discount codes, and make purchases
- Read and write reviews
- Complete surveys and online quizzes
- Find and research local businesses
- Use media or apps to contact customer service or support
- Consume company content, such as videos, newsletters, and emails
2. Different Social Media Tools
Facebook and Twitter are no longer the only dominating figures in the social media playing field. More and more forward-thinking marketers are making use of new and hugely popular tools, like Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope and Meerkat. Instagram’s ad platform has already doubled consumer actions year over year, soaring past Twitter and Facebook’s actions on their own ad platforms.
Users are liking new and unique ways to interact with brands, so give them this opportunity by branching out to new social media tools. Shareablee, a social marketing company that monitors and provides data on the world’s biggest brands and social media publishers, has a great platform that reports on engagement trends on a monthly basis. Check out their blog for and actionable insights into what platforms you should be thinking about.
3. Consolidated Content
“Moments“, Twitter’s new feature, brings event-based curated content to the Twitter platform, consolidating information from thousands of individuals into one broad picture. The new feature collects instant-load photos, videos, posts about a topic or event (like the Stanley Cup play-offs, for example) and creates stories for you to follow. So if you’re stuck at work for the first two periods of the final game, you can scroll through the “story” of what’s happened in the game so far, until you catch up to tweets or videos being posted in real time. And these event experiences can be embedded across the web and even in other apps, like Vine and Periscope, allowing you to easily follow a story without having to search for it across multiple users or hashtags.
User’s time is valuable, and finding easily consolidated content about an event or news story will be top of mind in 2016.
4. Competition Will Be Stronger Than Ever
As technology will continue to grow in 2016, so will the competitors that use it. New technologies and new algorithms are going to make it easier than ever (and cheaper!) for any old Joe to make a investment in content marketing. You no longer have to be a great writer with hours of writing time set aside to make it in onto the content marketing stage….but you do have to be able to put out great content that is targeted to your buyer personas. The market will become inundated with content in 2016, meaning the quality of what you put out means more now than ever, as only the strongest will survive.
In Conclusion…
As 2015 (rapidly!) comes to a end, it’s so important to make sure you’re educated on all of these trends for the new year. Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and you don’t want to be stuck in the dust with an outdated model. We’re excited to see what our favorite brands come up with in 2016, and learn from their creativity. Are there any other content marketing brands that you’re looking to implement in your strategy for the new year?
For more insight into the success rates of inbound marketing, and changes you can implement in your sales and marketing teams, check out our free download of HubSpot’s State of Inbound report:
