How many times have you heard the phrase ‘Content is King’? That’s because content marketing has proven itself as one of the most effective tools to source leads and to convert them into consumers. According to the Gartner’s Hype Cycle, it’s at the end of Trough of Disillusionment and is fast becoming a staple of marketing and advertising across all channels.
However, it’s peak of Inflated Expectations has meant some marketers are skeptic about the future of content marketing. But, it’s not a trend that will fade anytime soon, since recent innovations are driving change making it a relevant tool for the foreseeable future. Here are the latest developments in content marketing you need to look out for.
1. Less Is More
The matter is that we are drowning in content. Currently, 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram per day, while 300 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s an alarming amount of content.
What marketers fail to understand is that consumer demand remains the same. What has actually changed is consumer perception. Large volumes of content have reshaped consumer demand, and what kind of content they want to consume. There is no need to create content for the sake of it, but instead, you should focus on developing the quality material which can do more for you than a year’s worth of mediocre content.
2. Mixing the Content Offer
Evergreen content is content that’s always relevant and doesn’t lose its value over time. Focusing most of your efforts on creating this type of material makes you competent in your niche, and positions your business as an authority in the industry.
However, evergreen content works best when mixed with smaller amounts of temporal content. This type of material usually accompanies recent trends and buzzwords, which spike short-term interest.
When you use both types of content together, it creates a symbiotic relationship. For example, industry news might bring someone to your website, but evergreen blog posts educating the reader will keep them glued to your brand.
3. Historical Optimization
One of the most significant issues of creating content is that it requires a lot of resources. However, more and more marketers are turning to historical optimization – updating old content to give it a fresh, modern perspective – to increase lead generation through traffic without increasing their cost per lead. Types of material you should consider optimizing include:
- Content with high conversion rate but low traffic volume;
- Content with high traffic volume but low conversion rate;
- Content that’s underperforming relative to the resources spent to create it.
4. SEO Is Reality
Without decent content distribution, the material isn’t able to reach consumers. However, the modern consumer is wary of advertising and would instead source content with their own free will. It has made search engine optimization the main focus of marketers when talking about the channel of distribution.
SEO is also supported by the fact that Google and Facebook have a combined total of 5 billion searches per day. As the number of mobile users increases, the volume of search queries will surpass that of the human population.
Essentially, search optimization is no longer a trend but rather a reality and marketers have to incorporate it into their content creation, and keep an eye on recent developments like:
- Personalized search is challenging keyword predictability;
- Featured snippets are essential for positioning on SERPs;
- Facebook is updating organic reach on News Feeds.
Need Help with Content Marketing?
We’ve got you covered. Our team of content marketing experts know the industry inside and out and can use the latest trends to create a strategy fit for your business. Contact us and learn more about how they can help you.