We look at how content marketing may evolve in 2017 and discuss ways B2B marketers can benefit from potential trends.
Considerations For Your 2017 Content Marketing Plan
What does the word ‘content’ mean to you? Blogs? Videos? Social posts?
For marketers, the ingredients that combine to form an effective content marketing strategy are ever-changing. What worked well last year will need to be reviewed to achieve results this year.
We’ve already explored how content marketing has evolved over the past few years. But where is content headed in future? How do marketers prioritise content within the sum of their total marketing strategy? What channels, platforms and content types should you consider for your next content plan?
Blog content is marketers’ bread and butter, with 60% of marketers focussing on blogs in their work. - HubSpot State of Inbound 2016
Content creation remains a key inbound priority
B2B marketers, as in years past, continue to be heavily focussed on creating engaging content (72%), citing it as the top priority for their internal content creators over the next year. - 2016 B2B Content Benchmarks Report
A complete B2B inbound marketing strategy contains a lot of moving parts; knowing what to prioritise can be complex. However, content creation as an action isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s increasing as an overall marketing priority.
According to the HubSpot State of Inbound 2016, ‘Blog Content Creation’ was named by 60% of respondents as a key inbound priority - second only to ‘Growing SEO and having an organic presence’ (66%):
Other major marketing priorities also revolve around content creation, including content distribution, interactive and visual content creation, and video and webinar content creation.
Even when content priorities are split by region (see chart below) content creation is the 1st or 2nd greatest priority across the board, with North America placing content creation as the most important priority (for Europe, it is the second most important marketing priority).
But how is content changing?
The fact that content creation remains a priority is not too surprising, as content is crucial for effective lead generation, education and nurture. Split that down into exact content formats, again looking at data from the State of Inbound 2016, and we can see the digital channels that marketers plan to add to their core content strategies in the coming year:
Clearly video content (YouTube, Facebook video, Vine, potentially Instagram) is set to skyrocket, as are interactive and real-time platforms such as chat and messenger apps. To get ahead in the coming year, it seems marketers must not only maintain a core of relevant, quality blog, social and article content, but increasingly embrace evolving channels.
6 Considerations For Your 2017 Content Marketing Plan
What does this mean for you? At a strategic level, key 2017 content considerations are to:
1. Expand on visual content (particularly video)
As reported in Business 2 Community, the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it does text.
So it should be no surprise that visual content such as infographics, and video are increasingly popular. Not sure about video investment? According to Impact:
Video now appears in 70% of the top 100 search result listings
75% of business executives watch work-related videos weekly
54% of business executives share work-related videos weekly
65% of executives have visited a vendor's website after watching a video
Visitors who view videos stay on a website 2 minutes longer than those who don’t
Homepage video usage is shown to increase conversion by 20% or more
Using video on landing pages can increase conversion by 80% or more
These statistics support the State of Inbound’s finding that 33% of marketers list visual content creation as a priority for their company.
Videos don’t need to be limiting either - they contribute solid value whether they’re used at the awareness, consideration or decision stages of the buyer’s journey. As an example, you can take a look at a recent Inbound Marketing Technology & Software Case Study video we created:
2. Maintain an approachable, active presence on social
Social media activity, from social selling to content promotion and distribution, is important for successful inbound strategies. Having an active, approachable presence on the right social channels is a good way to get in front of, engage and build relationships with key buyers for your solutions. The exact platforms you use will change depending on where your audience sits, but in addition to the usual Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook mix, it’s wise to start considering channels like Instagram and Snapchat - and to keep monitoring for new social opportunities.
93% of marketers use social media content distribution as a key tactic. - Content Marketing Institute 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks Report
3. Get to know your chat and messenger apps
If you could message an organisation in real time and get the exact answer or piece of content you need, would you? The ease of instant messaging means buyers are evolving their expectations of where and how they want to engage with organisations and content. In 2017, messaging apps and social platforms are expected to increase as buyer engagement platforms - so it’s wise to get to know your messaging apps, (i.e. Slack, Drift, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger etc), and consider how to integrate them within your strategies.
4. Start thinking about more interactive content creation
Imagine you want to access a gated piece of content - i.e. you need to submit your name, email and other details into a form in order to download something. While lead capture forms of this nature are a tried-and-tested way to generate quality leads, as an Inbound campaign evolves, it’s wise to add other formats to the mix.
Interactive content is great alternative way to entice interest; offering an alternative reward in return for lead data. For example, you might create content such as interactive surveys, polls, quizzes, or tools such as ROI calculators to encourage engagement.
Interactive content creation was the 5th highest priority for companies in 2016 - 41% of marketers prioritised this. - HubSpot State of Inbound 2016
5. Keep creating regular blog content
Sure, creating video and other content for a wide range of platforms is increasingly important. But so too is keeping a balanced content mix. To effectively nurture prospects through their buyer’s journey it’s important to maintain blog and other long form content creation. Consistent, regular blogging will also positively influence your search presence, as our recent study on the impact of cumulative blogs in relation to site traffic found.
Blog content creation is the second highest company priority in 2016 (60% of marketers replied with this). Longform content creation was 6th on the priority list at 33%. - HubSpot State of Inbound 2016
6. Ensure all content is formatted for all mediums, including mobile devices
With content increasingly accessed via mobile and tablet devices you know content must adapt to suit how people now consume information.
But did you know that mobile is increasingly the primary preferred device option for people to access content, from social media posts, to videos, to interactive content? (note, the exception here is content that requires closer reading, such as blog/news content):
To underscore these considerations and as reported in a 2016 survey of where people go to access content, over a two year period:
The percentage of people looking to their Facebook feed to find interesting articles/videos has grown by 57%
Those relying on mobile notifications to highlight news, business and lifestyle stories has grown by 34%
The percentage of those using Twitter to access articles/videos has growth by 25%
The percentage of those using LinkedIn to access articles/videos has grown by 21%
The Future of Content Creation
Producing meaningful, informative and educational content remains a priority, though where and how marketers are publishing is changing. Looking at the data, it’s wise to ensure your upcoming content plans start to take the above into consideration.