Content marketing is constantly evolving as more and more organizations adopt it as primary marketing and promotional activity.
For many years now it has been a trend among content marketing companies and online publications to predict the trends of the forthcoming year. 2018 is about to end and we are about to enter 2019.
Many publications will be coming up with their own take on how content marketing is going to change in the new year, what turns it is going to take and where it is heading in terms of adaptation, big data, artificial intelligence, analytics and technology.
The Forbes magazine has just published “Five Predicted Trends for Digital Content Marketing in 2019“. According to the projections in the article,
- Content will be better integrated into email marketing strategies.
- Content marketing departments will grow.
- Content will need to be optimized for voice search.
- Marketers will start making thorough content marketing strategies, not just editorial calendars.
- Live video, as a content marketing tool, will catch on.
Content marketing will be integrated into email marketing strategies
I’m happy to see that email marketing, which was, for a few years, being ignored, is still being taken seriously. Email campaigns that can make personal connections with the recipients/subscribers, will perform better and personal connections can be made through customized, targeted content that is meaningful and useful.
Off late my landing pages that I have created to promote my email writing services have been generating lots of queries and I can see that most of the customers are better informed when it comes to how to use email communications to reach out to their prospective customers and clients; not just by blasting off random messages, but through targeting and segmentation.
Content marketing departments will grow
Since content marketing is maturing and it is no longer a “snake oil” field, many businesses are having dedicated content marketing departments and since these departments have experienced better and growing ROI, they too are bound to grow.
Content will need to be optimized for voice search
When people use voice to search they use slightly different language. They search the way they talk. For example, to find my content writing services, instead of merely typing “content writing services”, someone may say into the phone, “find me a content writing service” or “looking for a content writing service”, or “content writer for my garments business”, or “find me a content writing service to improve my SEO”, and so on.
The best way of achieving this is preparing your content in question and answer format. Anyway, this is a totally different topic but yes, content will need to be prepared so that it is optimized for voice search.
Thorough content marketing strategies instead of merely content publishing calendars
Strategy, in simple terms, means knowing what you want to achieve and then taking strategic steps to achieve that, using the resources that you have in the best possible manner.
Since many people are using content marketing and experiencing success, more documentation is available. More insights are available. Over the years people have discovered what works and what doesn’t. This helps in strategizing.
Strategy means publishing and distributing content on the basis of at what stage of the funnel your target audience is.
Live video will be a major part of content marketing
Live video is more engaging. Though the success of your live video depends on how many people are actually “live” at that particular moment, but yes, if you have a brand presence and if you publicize the event in advance, it is a great way to interact with your prospective customers and clients in real time.
This sums up the blog post on the upcoming content marketing trends in 2019 that are published in the Forbes magazine. I will be covering more such trends in the coming days.