Since its founding, content marketing has been used to help promote businesses and attract new and prospective customers. In its earliest forms, content marketing was as simple and basic as a magazine or flyer. Today, content marketing is more digitized and has evolved to encompass everything from blogs to social media, websites, podcasts, webinars, and much more. However, it’s still evolving to cater to new and different types of customers, meaning that 2018 will see some new types of content marketing gain traction. Let’s check out three trends to be on the lookout for in 2018.
Personalization Is Key
One of the biggest trends is that personalization will play an even bigger role. Creating a better individual online experience will be at the forefront of marketing strategies, and we’ve already seen successful examples of this at work. For example, monthly subscription services, like Birchbox and BarkBox, use customer data and their own creative flair to package and deliver personalized content. Not only are the boxes themselves highly personalized, but even the emails from these types of businesses are personalized as if they’re written for each individual customer. This type of personalization creates brand loyalty and attracts new customers.
Video Content Isn’t Going Anywhere
Businesses still on the fence about incorporating videos into their content marketing strategy are likely to change their minds in 2018. In fact, recent HubSpot reports estimate that about 48 percent of all marketers plan on incorporating YouTube into their overall marketing plan within the year, and even 46 percent intend to incorporate Facebook video in some capacity, and rightly so. Consumers love videos and often prefer them over traditional written content. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a camera or video editing pro to craft effective marketing videos. Thanks to social media, smartphones, and video editing tools, like Magisto, anyone can create a professional-looking video.
Say Hello to Engaging Original Content
One of the most interesting content marketing trends will be creating original content that actually engages and appeals to customers. This is a big shift from what content marketing has been in the past. Anyone who has been working in the industry for a while knows that traditional content usually includes things like white papers and blogs related to the latest current events and news about your business. Not in 2018. Instead, this year the trend will be to attract customers with engaging original content that isn’t always related to your brand. To get started, check out what bigger businesses are doing and go from there.
Final Thoughts
One thing’s for certain: Content marketing is here to stay, although it’s veering away from branded content designed to sell products and evolving into offering more personalized, engaging content.
