Content marketing trends for 2017

Content marketing is evolving quicker than ever and you need to keep up with the latest trends to ensure you’re delivering the best possible content to stand out from the competition.

We’ve listed below the content marketing trends we’ve spotted so far for 2017!

Make sure you find a way to work these into your strategy.

1. Content marketing is getting better and better and we’re getting better at doing it

Marketing reports are showing that content marketing is becoming more and more effective year on year.  This is a good thing! But it does bring with it its own consequences. The problem is, your content is going to be competing with other marketing channels, which means it’s got to be EXCELLENT and very relevant, if your audience chooses to engage with it. It’s about quality, not quantity. Constantly review and analyse your content, and ensure you are providing something that your audience actually needs.

Also, as content marketing gets more successful, so it’s going to need a bigger budget and either an agency or bigger team, to help generate it.

2. Money is still king, and there are audiences you can buy

The big boys are still buying their target markets. This means they are going straight to the people they absolutely know they want to contact. For example, CNN, wanted to start a new media platform and instead of spending time growing their audience organically, they recognised that YouTube celebrity Neistat, had the audience they wanted to target so they simply purchased Neistat and his team for $25 million! Of course, for most of us, that is not really possible … but in times of urgency, there are opportunities to buy your audience.

3. Be careful with how you post your content on social platforms

The problem is that social media platforms are updating their algorithms on such a frequent basis, it’s hard to keep up. Each change they make affects the traffic to your content. What we’ve seen on social so far in 2017, is that there is more and more advertising, which is making it harder to rely only on organic traffic. It’s almost forcing businesses to have to pay for their content to be boosted, in order for their social profiles to grow a following. We still believe that organic content is king, because the followers gained, would be your exact audience as it’s what they want to engage with but, simultaneously, to stand out from the crowd, it’s advisable to put some budget behind it too.

Facebook is still the most-used social media platform for small businesses. However, it goes without saying that the ever-declining organic reach problem is real, and the reality of Facebook becoming a pay-to-play platform is real!

So, if you haven’t already asked for budget, now’s the time.

4. Email is still a strong contender when it comes to growing a following!

Although it’s been around for a while, email is still a powerful way in which to grow your audience. This audience has chosen to be part of your subscriber list. And if the content is good enough, they’ll share it, and the cycle continues, but you must make sure that the content in the emails is continuously evolving to give your audience what they want to engage with. Our advice is to ensure you run an email marketing campaign in conjunction with your content generation. Emails should be in the form of newsletters, NOT marketing collateral, and should essentially be providing a brand experience for the customer. For example, Pick ‘n Pay, sends out ‘’supper sorted’’ emails every week – these are brilliant! They provide inspiration on what to cook, plus incorporate good deals and they’re sending the audience through to the website.

5. Apps, apps and more apps

Everyone is using mobile. Which means, your content is being viewed on mobile. Seems obvious … but have you considered how your content would display on mobile? If you’re showing a PDF, infographic or white paper – how does it look on mobile? Probably terrible. If you’re going to be a major content player, perhaps it’s time to get an app built which will provide a far more user-friendly experience when it comes to displaying your valuable content.

6. Video content

Video is now core to the internet experience. Think YouTube, Vimeo, Snapchat, Facebook, the list goes on. If you’re only producing imagery and words, you need to start evolving to video production. Video is the easiest and quickest way for your audience to engage with your content. To quote Mark Zuckerberg’s famous words “I think video is a megatrend, almost as big as mobile.”

Content Marketing can be a little daunting. If you need help from the experts, MO agency can help you create a content marketing plan and help you to produce the content – we have excellent writers, researchers, designers and video producers on board. Give us a call!