All words that describe content marketing, especially as 2018 gains steam. Content is the backbone of websites and marketing plans. Content has already evolved well beyond articles and copy. Blended media already holds a top position and with good reason. So many eras have come and gone already in internet marketing. Best practices have flourished and died out over the last decades and through them, al,l only a few elements have stood the test of time. Chief among those is content.
Catchy websites, fluid designs, bait-clicking headlines, and SEO tricks have risen and fallen (and might rise again), but through it all content has truly remained king. You can’t have a powerful web presence without offering your readers and visitors something meaningful. Why visit your website if there is nothing of value?
Content can mean so many things, and it is truer than ever that your content matters most. The type and amount of content you create and use might vary, but one thing is certain. Content will continue to evolve. And those who make the effort to be early adopters will certainly reap the rewards.
Table of Contents
Remarketing is Booming
Remarketing is the advanced version of traditional ads. Effective remarketing is simply showing would-be customers ads for things they were looking at on your site. They browse through something on the site and then when they click away, remarketing shows ads for those items on many other sites, encouraging customers to return and buy.
Customized Experiences Thrive
Customers like to feel special, and what better way to enhance a customer’s experience than by making it all about them? A customized experience can take many forms but generally involves setting up an account or entering information so that the website can tailor suggestions and information specifically for the customer.
Niche Specific Specialization
In the online marketplace, there is always room for new ideas and innovation, especially in niches of the industry. Dig deeply into a particular niche. Don’t just provide information about exercise, drill down a bit and provide exercise information for one specific sub-group like new moms, pregnant women, and people with mobility issues, or in the case of Nerd Fitness, focus on exercise for the non-athletic.
Also Read: SEO Content Strategy: How To Stay Ahead Of The Competition
Voice and Natural Language Searches
Voice searches and commands are growing at an enormous rate. People speak differently than they type, however, so natural language searches are playing an increasingly important role as well. This means that keywords will be less important and using search questions will be more so. People ask Alexa and Siri questions – they don’t ask her keywords.
Content Snippets
For a while, the trend was to make content as long as possible. The longer and more complicated text does do well in search engines, but younger viewers don’t like it. They have a short attention span and they want something visually interesting and easy to digest. Content in smaller snippets makes this possible – especially when the snippets are accompanied by richer media.
Deep Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing works. People trust recommendations made by people rather than what they see in advertisements, so companies will likely build even stronger relationships with influencers. Rather than spreading some marketing efforts (and dollars) across dozens of bloggers and social media personalities, they may sponsor and develop deeper relationships with those most closely associated with their customer market.
Transparent Advertising
Internet users, Millennials especially, inherently distrust advertisements. They don’t believe it when a company tells you something is valuable or that you should own it. They don’t like feeling manipulated and they see companies trying to label themselves with brand advertising as desperate. Companies that are transparent about who they are and what they represent are appreciated by customers and people spend their money accordingly.
The Importance of Video
People like videos. They watch well over an hour of video per day and would rather see something in a video than read about it. The preference for video is still increasing, which means there is more opportunity than ever to develop a true media presence through commentary, instructional media, and pure entertainment developed for customers.
Take It Live
The next level of video is to live stream. Live streaming makes people feel connected to others in real-time (which they technically are) and comments and interactions with the videos increase dramatically. In addition to thinking about new ways to create videos for followers, consider using live video feeds to help boost viewership and interaction.
Content Professionals, not Writers
Content is complex. It’s not just articles or videos – there are infographics, rants, how-tos, live streams, social media posts, comments and questions and so much more. Successful companies know that one writer can’t do all of the writing that a robust company needs. They need the services of many content professionals in various specialties to create the full range of media and material.
Also Read: Content Strategist: Responsibilities And Job Description
Keeping Existing Customers
The customer cycle isn’t new, but it’s being embraced more than ever. A new customer is much harder and more expensive to get than an existing customer. Keeping an existing customer around is not only cheaper but can lead to more referrals and long-term relationships. Companies are spending more time building relationships with customers and meeting many needs of individuals to benefit from what we know about the buying cycle.
Explosion of Native Advertising
Native advertising is about the only type that customers don’t seem to mind. A quality native advertisement contains something useful to the customer – an entertaining article, a slideshow of relevant material, or an infographic to support a favorite hobby. But that content is clearly labeled and sourced as an advertisement so customers not only get useful information, they appreciate the transparency from the company that provided it for them.
The only thing constant is change. Content marketing is no exception. Never get complacent with what you’re offering your visitors. We know that in a digital world, customers don’t like to settle, and they won’t. Stay on top of your content and give your visitors what they want. They will reward you in kind.
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Moss,
Thank you so much for the comment,
Lately, I have noticed that instead of searching with keywords, I too speak a lot on my cell phone when searching anything on Google. It is the same thing that I had noticed with my off line friends who aren’t as internet savvy. Obviously, predicting is hard but it seems like long phrase questions are the future …
I agree with you, the long-tail keywords had always been useful for us as they are low in competition and in time with voice search catching up – they are surely going to increase, which is why instead of keywords we should start focusing on questions and phrazes!
thanks,
– Oleg
Noman Sarwar
Sounds great,
Content is always king whether it is 2018 or beyond but it totally depends on you that how you create content for your target audience. Content that fulfilling your visitors’ needs, will definitely lift your brand higher in search results but if you are writing it carelessly even in a bad way than your competitors, it could be terrible for your online reputation.
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Sadhan,
thank you for the comment,
Totally agree with you, content will always be more important than anything else in the future,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
They Noman,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Completely agree with you, writing quality content that matters to your audience helps a lot,
thanks,
– Oleg
Joy Healey
Hi Oleg,
Interesting point about potential customers speaking their requests rather than searching on keywords. Obviously an important trend to bear in mind.
Hmmm – it’s not just millennials who mistrust adverts. I am so fed up and cynical about adverts now that I automatically discount them.
Joy Healey – Blogging After Dark
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Joy,
Thank you for the comment,
Cell phones have changed a lot, both in real world and in the SEO world!
About the adverts, yes – that is so true! I never even look at those ads, its like an inbuilt system that automatically ignores the ads …
thanks,
– Oleg
Brandi Gates
such an amazing post Oleg as you written always
i really impress to your contest will evolve strategies
Thank you for sharing
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Brandi,
Welcome to Temok and Thank you for the comment,
Always happy to hear positive feedback, glad you like the content,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Nzekwe,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Glad you liked the post, always happy to hear feedback,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Martin,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you started out as early as 2002, amazing!
People do read longer articles and interviews are always exciting but having rich media snippets can help in catching attention of the reader – and once you have their full undivided attention – they won’t be going anywhere else without reading the whole thing!
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Emmanuel,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yeah, anyone who is blogging for sometime realizes that blogging in the long term isn’t easy!
Totally agree with you, staying niche is always better, that way you earn an expert tag for the niche you are in!
thanks,
– Oleg
Anil Agarwal
Great Post Oleg,
I totally agree with most of the points you made here. Content marketing is truly evolving as we will only expect to see a lot of more changes as times goes on. And that is often the thing with online marketing. It’s a platform where most of the things that worked today might eventually not work tomorrow and in the future, and that is why it’s always advisable to be on the look out for these changes and adapt accordingly.
However, I don’t think I will agree with the point you made about keywords not going to be relevant, in fact, I totally disagree with that. Even if every other form of content marketing will change in the nearest future, I don’t think that keyword research will cease to be important as far as gaining search engine traffic is concerned.
Yea, I understand that voice search is gradually taking over, but when you perform a voice search, the results will still come up based on which content are properly optimized for what you’re searching for. I can only say that the way we use keywords and write can change because by then, if you must appear in the SERPs, you must be writing in a conversational manner.
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Anil,
Welcome to Temok and thank you so much for the comment,
Totally agree with that, everything in online marketing is dynamic and one needs to adapt well in advance to survive!
I guess most people will disagree to keywords being extinct in the future – perhaps it won’t but it will change the way it is currently. Long tails are slowly getting longer and search engines are focusing on cell phones where people are asking questions and longer queries rather than just keywords – after all what a keyword connects internally with a long query is what it matters when results are displayed!
Yeah, I guess that is the bottom like where the focus will shift from keywords to content that matches the query!
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Priya,
Thank you for the comment,
Yeah, with the rise of the smart phones – people are using voice much more than typing, as it is always easy to speak rather than find keys on a small keyboard.
Yes, people always like it easy – reading takes time but watching videos is quick and effortless – and it explains better!
thanks,
– Oleg