Top 7 Content Marketing Trends For 2016

Over the years, content marketing has become one of the best and the most reliable ways to boost the reach of businesses in their niche markets. But the content overload on the web has made users desensitized towards branded content. Users now have a wide variety of content available at their disposal. No wonder, a large number of marketers struggle to capture the interest and attention of users.

In fact, Hubspot reveals that producing engaging content is the biggest challenge for 54% B2B marketers and 50% B2C marketers. Given this stat, it’s not too difficult to understand that creating unique, engaging and memorable content is no mean feat! So does that mean there’s no way to effectively push your content in the market and stay ahead of the curve?

How will you make sure that your content marketing strategies stand out from the crowd? The answer is simple! You’ll need to embrace the trends of 2016 to stay prepared and calculated well in advance. Here, we present to you some innovative, upcoming trends in the content marketing industry to help you deliver maximum value and minimize the impact of ever-changing and demanding market.

1. The Magic of Content Distribution

So far, publishing was the main concern of content marketers, which of course is the first step to promoting a brand. But in the year ahead, content marketers will be investing heavily on content distribution. A report from Cmocouncil.org reveals that currently only 26% marketers are putting money on the distribution at present.

Distribution will become important for marketers, who are likely to spend more time building relationships with established blog sites and other publications. In addition, marketers will now focus on enhancing their reach industry influencers to connect with a wider audience.

In the present scenario, most businesses hesitate to place more funds for distribution. There are many reasons for that. Many of them aren’t sure of getting the desired amount of traffic, while many of them are apprehensive about content distribution. Moreover, they are not sure of which channels are better suited for their content. But, we’re sure the picture will become clearer in the coming months and marketers will be able to identify best channels for distribution for their content.

2. The Power of Social Media

Over the years, marketers and businesses have identified the importance of social media for sharing content. As the year 2015 is coming to an end, more and more businesses are realizing the potential of social channels in terms of propagating business messages with a louder voice. In a blog published at Designhill explains that sharing your content on social media is a must.

We predict that social media will be at the center of content marketing campaigns, for content distribution. The spate of social media content distribution is likely to bring paid social media advertising to the forefront. This also implies that businesses will be spending more on popular social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for effective and successful social content distribution. 

3. The Enigma of Email Distribution

While email marketing has already proved its worth in driving traffic and content distribution, marketers will work on different ways to effectively explore this medium for maximum advantage. A Hubspot surveyreveals that emails with relevant content trigger purchase decisions amongst recipients. However, the ever-increasing events of spam continue to haunt and discourage users from consuming useful content.

We’re likely to see marketers creating professional and useful emails to counter this challenge. In 2016, marketers will experiment with compelling content in their emails. Focus of marketers will be on creating email content that can engage and entertain subscribers.

4. The Comeback of Guest Blogging

After being in a trend, guest blogging was pronounced dead by the likes of Matt Cutts. Experts believed that guest blogging was no longer an effective way to get traffic. In 2016, guest blogging is most likely to make a comeback.

However, this time guest blogging wouldn’t be used for link-spamming, but for contributing relevant and best quality content to reputed publishers in order to reach out to a wider audience. Marketers will continue to seek advantages of guest blogging in the most legit way possible in the year 2016.

5. The Potential of Content in Advertisements

While traditional banner advertisements continue to make their presence felt on the web, chances are that soon these banner ads will incorporated within the space of content – blogs, articles & press releases. An article published at Tricksmachine.com suggests you to advertise your product in blog posts.

This implies that marketers will shift to ads such as sponsored content, advertorials and banded content in order to push their products and services in the ever-so-competitive market. We’re likely to see marketers put such ads strategically within their brand content to create value and memorable experiences for their users.

6. The Role of Content Marketing in SEO

Another trend that we’re sure will continue to make waves in the year 2016 is prominence of content marketing amongst businesses looking to win the rat race of ranking on the web. We’re sure that marketers will see content marketing as a new way to get better search engine ranking for their respective websites.

This is because the distribution of content involves sharing and linking of content, which help immensely in giving boost to SERP rankings.

7. The Increase in Content Marketing Budget

Contrary to the preconceived notion that content marketing requires no budget allocations and that it can be driven at zero cost, more and more marketers and businesses are setting aside a defined budget for content marketing.

Businesses and marketers now understand that investing in content marketing is as important as investing in vital branding tools such as logo design, websites, social media pages, etc. A Content Marketing Institute report says that 50% marketers will increase their budget for content marketing significantly by 38%.

This is due to the encouraging results content marketers are getting. This also means that there will be more funds pledged for creating different types of content. Therefore, we can see more funds set aside for creation of content such as blog posts, case studies, mobile-specific content, white papers, syndicated content and more. But the funds will also be allocated more for distribution of content through paid media.

Conclusion

To conclude, new trends in content marketing have already made inroads. In the coming months we can see these content marketing trends dominating the industry and their visibility across all channels will be much more evident than it is today. Marketers are likely to allocate more funds for content marketing.

Email content distribution will gain much more importance to engage audience with businesses. Advertisements also will be less loud. In fact, the dynamics of advertisements will change and new content heavy adverts will become a norm rather than an exception.

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