6 Content Marketing Trends for 2018

by Rahimah Sultan

 

For 2018 two things are certain:

 

Content marketing will become even more important
Content creation and distribution will change radically

 

Although content marketing is effective, the channels, tactics and tools that marketers use will continue to evolve.

 

There are 13 content marketing trends that will dominate 2018. Six will be discussed in this article.

 

Trend No. 1– Remarketing Will Become the Engine of Lead Generation
If you have some existing customer data, setting up a remarketing campaign isn’t very difficult.
If you have an email list of people who clicked through on an offer without buying anything, you can create a Facebook custom audience to show them a discount coupon.

 

Or you might have a different custom audience for people who read 2 or more of your blog posts without signing up for any lead magnet.

 

If you have existing user data, you can start a remarketing campaign on these platforms:

 

Google Ad Remarketing
Facebook remarketing
AdRoll
RetargetLinks

 

Trend No. 2– Personalized Content Experiences
One-to-one marketing aka personalization, is the key to good customer experiences.

 

When you visit a landing page and enter your name and email to download an eBook, the next time you visit the same site, you’re greeted by name and also shown more eBooks related to a particular interest. It’s obviously already being done, but more and more marketers will begin using personalization.

 

Personalized emails include name, email address, company URL, company size, etc.

 

Trend No. 3– Brands Will Create More Super Niche Content/Sub-Brands
No matter what industry you’re in, you will need to create niche content if you want to thrive in 2018. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry you can sell related products and reports on fitness supplements.

 

Trend No. 4– Content Will Adapt to Natural Language Search
Due to voice search we’re moving into screen-less search. Voice searches already make up 20% of all Google searches on mobiles.

 

Since the way we speak is very different from the way we type, your content needs to adapt to natural language search. Instead of writing about “best small business marketing tools,” write about “What are the best marketing tools for small businesses?” Here are a few things you can do:

 

a) Write complete, full-sentence questions and answers in your articles, rather than breaking it up into several sentences.

b) Use long, specific phrases in your titles and headers.

c) When determining your target keywords, keep in mind the conversational nature of voice searches. Try to target longer, naturally phrased keywords.

 

Trend No. 5– There Will Be More Bite-Sized Content
Over the past few years marketers have created longer and longer content. Longer content does rank better in SERPs which is fine if that’s your intention. But if your target market is millennials you’re more likely to get positive ROI from shorter, visually-rich content.

 

Instead of creating long-form content, mix it up with long and short. Use tweetable graphics or sharable in-post graphics.

 

Trend No. 6– Influencer Marketing Will Change
Influencer is closing the gap with video advertising. Readers are sick of reading lengthy roundup posts with shallow, regurgitated insights, and they want more authentic stories and actionable knowledge.

 

Instead of aiming for volume, your key focus should be “collaboration” with influencers to create content that speaks to your and the influencer’s audience.

 

Steps to take:

 

a) Identify key brand or product influencers, either manually or through a platform like TapInfluence.

b) Create a marketing campaign directed at those influencers.

c) Create a secondary marketing campaign for the influencers to drive greater awareness to a larger set of target consumers (such as a snackable content from an interview/analysis).

d) Track key metrics relating to reach, sales and brand awareness.

 

That content marketing is here to stay is beyond question, but the way you create and distribute content will change drastically in 2018.

 

From blog posts and social media updates, we should see a shift towards video and niche-focused, personalized content. Bite-sized content should come back into vogue and marketers will increasingly turn to remarketing to reach their audiences, especially in B2B.

 

For more in-depth information on these trends and the remaining 7 trends, read 13 Biggest Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2018

 

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