At this time of year, everyone has an opinion on the future and the best 2019 content trends that will come to dominate the next few months.
But how you can actually use these trends in your business is something that’s often overlooked by these predictions articles.
Here’s how you can use the top five trends likely to impact content marketing in 2019 to make a positive impact.
Using the best 2019 content trends
Which of the predicted trends for 2019 will benefit your business, and which will prove most lucrative for you?
1. Content marketing is marketing
New original content that inspires the reader is at the heart of all marketing now. The distinction of content marketing as something different has gone: content is a critical foundation stone for much of modern marketing.
Content has a tough job, to capture readers attention, inspire them and turn them into paying loyal customers. Creating not only good but truly great content is becoming more important.
More than ever, content that both adds value and that can demonstrate its value will be needed to make your 2019 a success.
How to use this trend: Review your marketing plans with an eye on content opportunities, look at how you can use content in a more integrated way. By starting with a documented content marketing strategy, you will form a clear action plan that makes the most of the content you have and identifies the gaps you need to fill.
2. Content marketing with purpose
Taking content seriously means investment. You will need to scale your content creation and promotion, and to justify this you will need to understand the value of that content.
Creating valuable content at scale means getting organised, planning, strategising and having systems in place for you to make the most of your content and understand the return you are getting from your content investment.
How to use this trend: Look at the content you are creating and what you are hoping to achieve with it. What value is it adding to your business and is that enough? What can you measure to make sure the content is doing what you need it to do? How can you track the ROI on the content you create?
3. The marketing funnel changes shape
Instead of the traditional marketing funnel, you need to be changing the focus of content to support your reader at every step of their experience.
Supporting customers through the whole relationship cycle is increasingly more important than getting customers to buy. A content-driven relationship creates more opportunities not only for purchase, but also for repeat purchase, customer satisfaction and advocacy.
How to use this trend: Start by mapping your content to your sales funnel. From there you can identify gaps in your content that will be filled by changing your funnel to more of a matrix shape, designed to support the whole customer life-cycle.
4. Content promotion vs content creation
All the effort that goes into creating content is wasted if you don’t spend more time on promoting that content and getting it seen by the right audience.
Having a plan of promotion, not being afraid to repeatedly share good content, is critical as you create new content.
How to use this trend: Find new ways to get your content out there with an active distribution plan to get people to engage with you. Don’t stop once you’ve created the content, plan ahead and promote over time for better results and visibility.
5. Own your audience
Did you spend time last year building up a following on one or more social media platforms? You were renting out someone else’s audience, and as we look at Google+ closing in April 2019 I hope that wasn’t your platform of choice.
A borrowed audience is useless if the platform goes away, much better to focus efforts on building your own audience, driving leads to your own website or to sign up for your email list. That way you have more control about what and when you communicate, and can stay more in control.
How to use this trend: It goes back to your strategy and where you focus your efforts. With GDPR rules in place there has never been a better time to build a consenting, engaged audience via email as owning your own list puts you in a much stronger position. Developing your website as a solid, informative and valuable destination for users gives you an agnostic platform that you can then promote on whichever shiny new platform comes along.
What next?
Creating high-quality content to support a sustained relationship with your readers will be more important than ever in 2019. If you would love to do this but don’t know where to start, get in touch and we can plan out a successful, content-driven 2019 for you and your customers together.
Leave a Reply