Believe it or not, we’re nearing the end of 2013. As we’re gearing up for a new year of fresh marketing strategies, it’s important to account for growth in content marketing. Simply stated, content marketing focuses more on building a relationship with your target audience than delivering a hard sell. The goal is to build trust, branding, awareness and positive sentiment with current and potential customers, and that’s what content marketing delivers.
Content often included in a content marketing strategy includes blog posts (like this one), email newsletters, guest blog posts, social media marketing, white papers, webinars and more. As consumers continue to tune out traditional, intrusive marketing communications, Forbes predicts we’ll see a number of content marketing trends next year. Here are a few predictions:
- Due to its influence in Google Author Rank and Authorship and expected growth in the coming year, Google+ will be an even greater tool to promote content via social media, especially for B2B. Slideshare will also be a key player for sharing content.
- As mobile is poised to surpass desktop usage within the next 2 years, not incorporating mobile in your content strategy is no longer an option. “On-the-go” content — mobile-friendly formatting, shorter and more actionable posts — will be very important.
- Businesses that fail to adopt location-based content marketing strategies will see sales decline as their competitors capitalize sales with location-based flash deals, offers and coupons.
To read the rest of the list, click here.
What content marketing trends do you expect to see in 2014?