I assume by now you must have read at least a dozen of those ‘predictions’ and ‘trends’ articles doing their rounds on the Internet. If I may say so, like many of you, I have been disappointed by the obviousness of prophecies like, “good quality content will rule in 2015” being passed off as the “hottest content marketing prediction.” Apart from a few credible voices, most of those predictions reflect the sorry state of content marketing itself: we are seeing quite a bit of rehashed content with little to no originality.
That said, here’s a list of 5 content marketing trends for 2015 that have not been beaten to death (yet).
1. Content Will Grow but People Are Becoming Numb
A research study has found the annual growth rate of content production to be 200%. With so many people creating so much content, there will be more emphasis and commitment to generating meaningful content that is highly targeted on the goal of making deeper connections. Even though the amount of content will continue to rise, that doesn’t mean that the content put forth will work for all brands. Since the future will require standing out with better, more targeted content, only the brands that produce content with the targeted audience in mind will benefit from the content boom that will have many people craving something different.
2. Brands Will Realize It Is SEO AND Content, Not One or the Other
For the longest time, some companies have been at war with themselves as to whether they should focus on SEO or Content. The truth is that Content and SEO are a marriage made in heaven, and companies who recognized that partnership will continue to succeed in the digital space.
Even Search Engine Land, the well known and respected source for SEO content says this in one of their online e-books about the relationship between content and SEO:
“Content is king. You’ll hear that phrase over and over again when it comes SEO success. Indeed, that’s why the Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors begins with the content “elements,” with the very first element being about content quality.”
Those who come to the realization sooner than later will be poised for success in 2015.
3. Ignoring Video is No Longer an Option
Did you know that a one minute video can represent as many as 1.8 million words?
Sure, once upon a time, written content was king, but times have changed. With mobile use increasing at such substantial rates, there are now more than 100 million consumers watching online video each day. This is precisely why brands need to have alternatives to written content. Video is an alternative that lends itself well to the mobile age, and that is why in 2015, we are going to see more video than we have seen before. As brands recognize the need to use video to reach their audience, explanatory videos, video-based storytelling, and video-embedded content will be hot.
4. Paid Media Continues to Force the Issue
I recently wrote here about another Facebook change that was made in favor of paid marketing. In the future years, viral or highly trafficked content without a strong community base is going to become more and more difficult. Social and search will force paid avenues for most brands, making it harder and harder to place high on the search list without money backing your brand up.
5. The Media Hub for the Win
Businesses that want the most exposure through content will need to embrace the four trends discussed above, and build robust environments that offer diverse content for desktop and mobile. The key to content marketing success will lie in how well a brand combines video, visual, and written, with strong social and SEO integration. We will see the hub, those who integrate these trends, rise to the top in 2015.
Content marketing is headed for an interesting future where embedded videos, interactive graphics, social integrations, SEO and mobile optimization, together with written content, will form the content marketers’ mix. Still, at the heart of all the trends that we talk about year after year lies the classic, old-fashioned truth of content marketing: serve your audience with terrific content and they’ll be yours.
Image: Creative Commons
