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In his new book “Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in the Age of Distraction,” Derek Thompson busts some big myths about how popular stuff gets popular. Myths like: “Content is king,” i.e., good stuff rises to the top because it’s good.“ Distribution is more important” than content, Thompson said on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka. “You can say that a song is the best song in the world, you can say that an idea is the best for people’s welfare, or a movie is the best documentary of its kind. But without a distribution strategy to reach people, nobody hears it.” Thompson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, challenged the idea — popularized by other pop-sociology writers like Malcolm Gladwell — that ideas can go viral, spreading and reproducing in a biological way. Instead, he said, everything from memes to tech companies can “piggyback” on existing social networks....
Last month, before people went away on vacation and struggled to explain their jobs to their extended families, the editorial team asked everyone at Contently to think about the future of content marketing. Will video rule 2017? Will fake news change the way publishers pursue marketing? Will artificial intelligence go too far?
Now we’re back, ready to hope for the best, plan for the worst, and prepare for the ROI apocalypse. As marketers try to stay ahead of their competitors, here are 23 predictions to watch out for during 2017....
Being great at content marketing was harder to do in 2016 than ever before. That’s because there’s more content in more places, with more topics and more faces. And that trend isn’t going to stop in 2017—it’s only going to multiply. The key is going to be understanding how to take a more nuanced, informed approach, so your content works smarter and harder. I asked my consulting team at Convince & Convert to create this guide to the content marketing trends that matter, based on our content marketing strategy work for some of the world’s most interesting brands....
In 2017, content will continue to be one of the most important marketing tactics for ecommerce businesses. Look for content marketers to produce a greater number of videos, focus on mobile media consumption, spend more money promoting content, produce more shows rather than standalone posts, and use technology to an advantage.
Content marketing is the act of creating, distributing, and promoting content, such as blog posts, articles, podcasts, and videos with the aim of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. For ecommerce marketers, content can be a way of building a relationship with a shopper, which in turn will allow an online store to compete not on price or delivery speed, but on experience.
What follows are five trends that could impact content marketing in 2017....
I recently spoke with Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, co-author of the bestselling book, The Content Formula, and recognized by Forbes as one of the top CMO influencers in the country.
Michael is one of the best in the business, and in this interview, we covered a lot of ground concerning the current state of content marketing, and what to expect in 2017 and into the future.
David Reimherr: So, what is happening currently, when it comes to content marketing?
Michael Brenner: I think the state of content marketing is pretty strong. Modern content marketing, I think, is just about 7 years old. A lot of people point to American Express Open Forum as one of the earliest examples of modern content marketing. I think it took another two or three years for other companies to really learn from their example — myself included.
Those early days were a real struggle. 1 — We had to explain content marketing. 2 — executives were still trying to figure out what social media was, and along comes another trend. And then 3 — there weren’t a lot of people nodding their heads in the room when we were having these kinds of conversations.
A lot has changed. Now, everyone understands that you’ve got to distribute content, and be where your audience is on social. I think most companies are starting to realize that you have to create content that helps buyers, as opposed to just creating content that promotes your business....
This is the time of year people post their prognostications for the next year. The predictions will be … predictable: More video! More Snapchat! More podcasts! Well, OK. It’s pretty easy to make a prediction based on what’s already happening. But there are less obvious tectonic forces rumbling through our marketplace. Here’s a view of some of the underlying shifts, the marketing mega trends, you need be considering in 2017: 1. Content Marketing Re-constructed If you are operating under the idea that what worked in content marketing last year will work this year, it’s time to update the perspective. The world of 2017 will look nothing like the marketing world of 2015. These trends will be forcing dramatic change....
Bryan Kramer once wrote, “Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, everyone of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life.”
Content is the key to this kind of communication and your company’s fuel for building connections with these multi-dimensional humans in your network — and that stems far from a marketing-only initiative.
One of the biggest mistakes I see companies continue to make is believing that quality content should be created, distributed, and used only by the marketing team. This belief is not only false, but it’s also a dangerous mentality that dramatically limits your long-term growth.
Content Marketing Institute reported this year that almost three in four B2B marketers still don’t believe their organizations are effective at content marketing. As I’ve discussed in a previous piece on content marketing trends, we’re starting to see new strategies emerge for utilizing content and improving its effectiveness. A trending strategy that brands need to take advantage of now is the use of content by teams outside the marketing department to accomplish more goals....
More brands and people continue filling the channels with their blogs, infographics, white papers, etc. As a result, we’re experiencing a deluge of content, most of it suffering from over-messaged, self-important corporate sales talk, or worse, shoddy workmanship. There’s no better example of this issue than our own marketing space where the effort to produce consistent content creates an ever increasing level of drivel. In fact, there’s so much “me, too” content, getting beyond a headline skim requires some real shake-up in the social media marketplace or a dramatic post. When readers find themselves inundated with ever increasing quantities of the same, creators find themselves producing content with diminishing value. The situation devolves to the point where content becomes spam. We all know what happens to spam. It doesn’t get read, it’s unsubscribed from, deleted, and relegated to the annals of digital indexing somewhere deep in Google....
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Maybe I’m biased but if there is one thing I can predict with 100% accuracy, it’s this: content marketing will become even more important in 2017. You’ve seen this first-hand: businesses are investing more and more in creating and distributing content. In fact, according to one estimate, content marketing will be a $300B industry by 2019. All this growth means that industries related to content marketing - such as SEO - are also evolving. Tactics that work today might fall flat in the next two years. What are the content marketing trends SEOs should watch out for? What changes will impact SEO in 2017 and beyond? In this post, I’ll show you 5 content marketing trends and how they are changing SEO....
Back then, content marketing was barely on anyone’s radar. I was lucky to get into it early while I could learn on the job as the industry evolved. There were young journalists, like me, who got in the game for a steady paycheck and came to love marketing. There are marketers who transformed their careers. With each passing year, we’ve matured and discovered what works through trial and error.
It used to feel like you could hire anyone to run your content marketing program because no one knew what the hell to do. That’s definitely not the case now. Over the past few years, a new class of creatives has come to learn the ins-and-outs of content marketing. As I survey the industry today, the big differentiator that all successful brands have is people who actually know what they’re doing.
Which leads us to our first big trend of 2017….
Mobile has upended the communications landscape. In fact, mobile device usage passed desktop usage in 2015. More people are on the go and they have less time to consume information than they used to. So content creators — now more than ever — need to be pinpoint in their efforts to reach their audience. If there’s one thing that’s clear about communication in 2016 and beyond, it’s that we can’t make our audience fit into the systems and rules that we think they should be in. We need to put the audience at the center of the experience.
In 2017, I think you’re going to see more of an effort by social media and content marketers to do just that. Communications need to be intentionally designed to be more personal, because what’s happening more and more is that our audience is demanding that.
Here are a few predictions for social media and content marketing I believe you’ll see happen in 2017....
51% of B2B marketers say they plan to increase their investment in content marketing over the next year. (Content Marketing Institute) your buyers are drowning in content. 83% of buyers feel overwhelmed by the amount of content available to them (2016 Content Preferences Survey: Demand GEN Report) They don't trust what you're cranking out. Only 9% of B2B buyers say they trust vendor content like white papers. (CMO Council) Buyers are not happy with vendors. Their contenT [tends to be] over-technical, product-centric and self-serving. (CMO Council)...
Content marketing is an integral part of a digital marketing strategy, and as it grows even more popular in 2016, it’s time to maximise its effectiveness in 2017 and examine all the new possibilities that may be useful for your brand.
Next year closer than you think, so here are our suggestions on the biggest trends in content marketing....
Content marketing has seen a tremendous adoption by brands. Many have started their own blogs and taken advantage of the content climate. The problem is that most businesses don’t have patience. They can’t wait 6 months or more to see traffic rolling towards their website. Moreover, instead of taking data-backed decisions to modify their content strategy, most businesses fail to adapt. So, when they find it difficult to measure ROI, they abandon content marketing altogether. A better option is to understand your customers. Then, brainstorm how you can effectively meet their needs, taking the strategies that are working right now into account. In this article, I’ve combined five such content marketing strategies. These are all backed by data and case studies that not only prove their effectiveness, but also show you a practical way of implementing them....
TODAY THE BRAND “VOICE” TAKES A FRONT SEAT, WHILE THE HARD SELL TAKES A STEP BACK, AND ARTFULLY COMMUNICATING TO YOUR AUDIENCE IS CRITICAL IN A FEED-BASED ADVERTISING LANDSCAPE THAT IS HERE TO STAY. In the past few years, there’s been a real transformation in the way people consume information and communicate. Fueled by the mass adoption of social platforms, this transformation in consumer behavior demands that the ways we market also evolve. This is especially true in business-to-business where brands compete in a content-flooded environment with countless information sources to capture buyers' attention. RESEARCH SHOWS CONSUMERS ARE 60% THROUGH THE BUYER’S JOURNEY BEFORE REACHING OUT TO BRANDS FOR HELP ON AVAILABLE OPTIONS. We’ve gone from a world where a handful of publishers control the flow of most information, to one where anyone with an Internet connection can have a voice. While this has created new opportunities, it also makes it more difficult to hear and be heard. With consumers more sophisticated and the landscape more crowded, connecting with your audience is more complex than ever before. Buyers are not persuaded by advertising alone. They’re using the web, search, social networks, and more to educate themselves on potential purchases. Research shows consumers are 60% through the buyer’s journey before reaching out to brands for help on available options....
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In his new book, "Hit Makers," Atlantic Senior Editor Derek Thompson challenges common misconceptions like "content is king." Key reading for marketing pros. 9/10