While we’re all embarking on the New Year, I have been determined to find some new content marketing trends for 2014 that are not just recycled facts about content that you already know. Of course, content is crucial because you can break it down into several subcategories that all remain just as important – that is, if you want to keep people on your website.
When it comes to content marketing, I have discussed several topics, some of which were the previously mentioned subcategories – such as articles on:
Now, all of those topics were great and can carry on, develop, and become more prominent in the coming years, but I’m looking for the cool content info for 2014. After doing some research and finding some articles that didn’t just seem like repeats of other content marketing trends, I stumbled upon an article focusing on the top 6 marketing trends for 2014, and somehow – my brain automatically filtered out all the interesting ideas on content development.
There were three main points that I ended up concluding in my content filled head, and the future is as follows:
While we all know that content marketing is not a new trend, throughout 2014, it will continue to belittle traditional marketing which favors the per-dollar approach. Content marketing as of today produces three times the leads that other marketing techniques would get you, and that’s according to studies done by both Eloqua and Kapost – two companies that reign supreme in revenue performance management and content marketing software.
Content marketing changed the way of the marketing world entirely. No longer are marketing firms pulling out press releases and magazine ads left and right, but now they are forced to interact with their customers in a two-way dialogue. Without that conversation, the consumers lose interest and ultimately cannot gain trust with your business. The content within a website helps to define your brand, the language and formality you use will be the definition of your demographic.
As an internet marketing company, the best way to help your brand grow is to just get your name out there in a fun and unique way. The most recent example I’ve come across on this has developed from my obsession with a popular blog. Buzzfeed – my new obsession – has developed such a large fan base that major corporations are beginning to sponsor their content on it and use their social lift capabilities.
Coca-Cola even created an account on Buzzfeed to sponsor their new “Ahh” campaign. This blog has grown an insane amount over the past few years, devoting an entire creative services team to developing content for their advertisers – which is why on Buzzfeed, you will often see posts by extremely popular brands such as Dove, Dunkin Donuts, Jetblue, Toyota etc. Now, the reason that sponsored content will gain popularity is because the search engine powerhouse, also known as Google, takes a look at editorial content and sees it as a more reputable source.
One of the hardest things as a content marketer is writing quality content that will gain your clients the traction they desire. I recently wrote an article on the difficulty of writing content for less than appealing clients, well – without quality, you get no rewards as an author. As a content marketer, your success is strongly reliant on your writing abilities, and getting your name out there is a personal bonus. AuthorRank is Google’s latest quest in making sure that whatever you search on Google, you get the best and most credible results possible.
Therefore, it is becoming less crucial to pump out content at such a rapid rate – and rather focus more on producing quality content at a scheduled pace. Setting up a Google Authorship account is the best way to not only sell yourself as a content writer, but also to ensure that you’re being rewarded for the content you produce.
Now, while a lot of that may seem like a repeat of the content trends that began popping up throughout the tail-end of 2013, they are the trends that will carry content marketing throughout the first half of 2014, at least… that’s what I’m betting – and if not, I’ll let you know.
