One of the most obvious developments in content marketing over the past 12 months has been this: the audience is now in control. Content marketing is driven by demand, originality and the ability to serve a particular purpose. What this means is that poor content will produce little to no results thus affecting your business’ bottom line. Here’s what we recommend you do in 2015.
Start Joining the Dots
Content marketing isn’t just about creating content. It’s not only about adding new materials to websites, nor is it only just about writing for other websites. While these tasks will form part of the overall plan, content marketing is a holistic and strategic approach to a business problem, so 2015 will see content driven by research and demand with a pre-defined goal.
We feel that that in 2015, content marketing will contribute to a brand’s marketing goals, with the aim of capturing consumers regardless of where they are in the consumer cycle. There is little doubt that an agency will be placing heavy emphasis on page load speeds, the context of a piece of content and the speed at which consumers can digest information. Remember, that without an audience your content is nothing regardless of how well it is written or how beneficial it is to your ideal audience. Good content now has to go beyond eye-catching titles and well-written articles. Content will now be driven by mobile consumption and created to support other marketing channels such as search.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Due to the various ways of delivery, consumption and purpose, there is now no such thing as a single content solution. A content marketing agency must now take into consideration the different entry points to content, the audience who is reading it and understand what information they’re looking to take from it.
In addition to this, 2015 will also see an uplift in printed content as gaps have started to appear in physical marketing. While digital marketing is overtaking direct marketing, and is a quicker method to deliver, this doesn’t mean that direct marketing should be ignored. There is still room for the traditional method of marketing without having to heavily rely on it.
As well as tailoring your content to suit different channels and goals, there is a need for engaging editorial, which is where a brand can gain a competitive edge. Today’s consumer is in tune with outdated and over-optimized content. SEO and social media have been responsible in driving a change in quality from writing content for content’s sake to writing content to increase the value proposition offered to consumers. Readers are now more inclined to want to learn, thus writers now have a responsibility to nurture.
A One in, All in, Approach
In 2015, content marketing teams will need the contributions of other areas in their company to enhance the online presence of their work. Content strategy is now being driven by the broader areas of a brand, business or agency. No longer will a content strategy be based on the efforts of one writer or a group of writers.
Furthermore, your business’ analytics will continue to play an important role in defining which key areas of the business will benefit most from content and who the reader is. This will allow marketing teams to become more confident using the data taken from their metrics to target areas lacking visibility. It’s these areas that will benefit most from additional content.
Content marketers will need to be aware of the purpose of a campaign and its intended audience. What are you trying to achieve with your strategy? Is it to build brand authority and delivery thought leadership content? Are you trying to create inbound traffic to your website? Do you want to start bringing in leads? If you have thoroughly examined your content strategy, hopefully it’s a combination of all of the above and much more. The most important aspect of your strategy must be to understand who will be reading the content and how it can be accessed. Those businesses who are able to analyze data and use it to create content that will engage their ideal audience and customers, will be on to a sure-fire winner.