B2B Marketing’s recent conference, The Content Avalanche, raised some interesting points about the current state of content marketing and what’s to come in the very near future. Below I’ve listed a selection of predictions taken from B2B industry figures, along with my personal observations:
1. Content marketing will be defined. It may be a relatively new term with many varied definitions, but brands will realise the importance of determining their own definition to move forward with consistent implementation.
2. Editorial planning and publishing integrity will move higher on marketing’s agenda. The strengthening of content agendas will only add to editorial transparency and integrity. Brands will plan content around audience personas to understand their goals and deliver their needs.
3. Content will be fully integrated. Marketers won’t see content as a separate entity, instead they will start the process of integrating content across all marketing functions.
4. Marketers will crack the creative content formula. The desire to be more creative and break free of the ‘boring B2B’ label will see marketers experiment with content to find out the successful formula for what their different audiences like.
5. Content will give the marketing department more authority. It will provide marketers with the scientific foundation needed to give them an argument with weight. It will enable a bigger presence in the boardroom to play a larger role in their organisations.
6. More content will be crowdsourced. To gain higher audience engagement levels and shareability, marketers will create more self-governing/self-regulated content spaces to empower audiences.
7. Brands will have no choice but to optimise content for mobile devices. The continual shift towards increasing content consumption on mobile and tablet devices will see brands optimising content for these platforms, or lose traffic.
That’s my predictions, what’s yours?
