What will be the future of inbound marketing?
Marketing had radically change these last 10 years thanks
to very innovative technology breakthrough. Marketers used to look for
customers that would buy their products or services, but nowadays, they lead
the customer directly to them.
I had the opportunity to see this change through
discussion with my father who runs a marketing and communication agency.
I asked myself this following question many times:
What will be the future of inbound marketing?
I found some great takeaways through the article written
by Carrie Dagenhard, a content
analyst for a web development and SEO company.
So, what are the crucial components that are making inbound marketing
better than ever?
1) Interactive content
Interactive contents are now a
must to do as attention spans have considerably decreased. Interactive contents
are very stimulating, and it is easier to engage readers instantly.
If you have a look on
HubSpot’s The
State of Inbound 2016, you will see that 42% of inbound marketers
said that creating interactive content is at the top of their marketing
priority. To outpace your competition, you will have to made interaction
content a day to day habit.
2) The rise of « fake news »: Pay
attention to what consumers say.
The phenomenon is such
important that social media have taken measures to curb the spread of fakes
news. On the same side a lot of content consumers have started doing their own
fact-checking. It is very important for writers to pay attention to this point.
It is important to be ethical and publish only researched content, because
everyone today has access to information and could check fact instantly on the
internet.
3) Quality over quantity will reign
In 2011, since Google’s Panda
algorithm got updated, great content marketers have been focusing on quality
more than quantity. This algorithm, born in Febuary 2011, is devaluating the
research result of low quality websites content.
The most successful brands
will be those that put extra time and effort into their content.
4) Content dabblers will waste a lot of money
« Brands that create
content without a sound strategy and objective aren’t just going to waste their
time, they are also going to waste money » said Joe Pulizzi the Content Marketing Institute founder.
According to Mr.Pulizi to do
great content you have to :
- -Plan a full-fledged editorial calendar in your organization
- - Planned content strategy tied to company
objectives
- - Put in place reliable method of measuring
success.
If you are interested in
having more insights have a look at his very interesting articles on : http://contentmarketinginstitute.com.
5) Content writers will need to pivot
As I mentioned before, content
will change into different forms in the future and writers will need to acquire
new skills to meet the expectation. Ability to write short but fascinating copy
for interactive pieces and thoroughly investigated long-form articles that
expose and uncover valuable and new information will become critical to their
future.
6) Demand generation strategy will continue growing
in complexity
Marketers know that they must
continually learn and evolve their skills set and know how. But for a business that
focus on increasing the sales with quality leads, all those changes might be
frustrating and difficult to accept. Fantastic content worth nothing if nobody
see it or have access to it. Through a mix of owned, earned and paid efforts, demand
generation helps to win this challenge by attracting and leading prospects
directly to your content.
It is very important to keep
up with the complex and dynamic world of demand generation. You have two
choices to carry out this work: Hire a team, but pay attention, that could be
fastly expensive and time consuming or outsource to an experienced agency that
can help you to achieve great success.
7) The most engaging content will be Extra-long or
Extra-Short
Shorter-style copy will be
more and more usual. To illustrate it we can take the example of newspaper
application on smartphones that regroup mainly small and shorten articles.
Long-form content will
continue to be offered as ebooks for example, but we will still see long-form
editorial-style in specialized publications like for example scientific
publications, or on blogs.
« If the content is worth
reading, your customers will value and share in-depth articles. »
You should vary the content
length, but not in systematic ways, only when it makes senses.
To conclude we can argue that
content marketing is not dying, it is more important than ever and these 7
elements helped me to figure out how content marketing will evolve in the
future, and I hope that it will also help you to have a better understanding in
how to right content like an expert.
Victor Huyghues Despointes and Axel Girard
Victor Huyghues Despointes and Axel Girard
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