14 Content marketing

predictions for 2014

PRESENTS…

Craig Hodges, CEO, King Content

Looking beyond the buzz Having lived and breathed content marketing for the past four years, I could make any number of predictions for 2014 – from new tech platforms and the increasing importance of audience segmentation and personalisation to the growth and transformation of the Australian content marketing industry as a whole. I could go on and on. If I were to really forecast the next 12 months in content marketing, however, I would say that 2014 will be the year that we, as content marketers, stop being the darling child of the marketing industry and become just another – although critical – component in any effective marketing strategy. The spotlight on content marketing has certainly been exciting, energising and validating, but I’m looking forward to this next stage. Looking beyond the buzz, brands will begin to really come to grips with the tactics and mechanisms required to drive results and ROI. They will realise that in order to be effective in today’s highly competitive digital marketplace, they need a dedicated content marketing strategy. This level of adoption and integration has always been our goal. While 2014 may not be as exciting as the whirlwind of 2013, I think it will be more rewarding. In 2014 we won't have to educate our clients – just deliver results for them.

Content technology

Cameron Upshall, Commercial Director, King Content Melbourne

In 2014, content marketing will become even more reliant on the effective use of technology platforms to drive business results. Next year’s content marketing superstars will be those who master highly integrated technology platforms to plan, automate, amplify, measure and refine their content marketing strategies. We will also see the number of content-influenced software platforms explode. A high number of specialized niche platforms will come on the scene, solving a number of key challenges for content marketers. This will see a very fragmented content technology landscape in late 2014, with lots of smaller software platforms doing only one or two things very well. Late 2014 will see the start of a frantic consolation of these smaller players

though mega-vendor acquisitions.

Content marketing in Asia

Peter Bakker, Commercial Director, King Content Singapore

Although still in its infancy, content marketing is rapidly growing to become the most influential marketing discipline at both the client and agency level across Asia. Marketers in Asia face a unique need for multi-language, multi-channel and multi-cultural content creation and amplification, so a full spectrum of content marketing services – including social media marketing – is in high demand. The key challenges content marketers in Asia will come up against in 2014 will not, therefore, be client acquisition, but the development and management of multi-faceted online channels using a range of widely different languages and cultural norms. Existing content technology platforms and social media marketing tools do not currently offer comprehensive solutions to these challenges. Unless these come online soon, fragmentation will continue to prevail into 2014.

ROI and lead generation

Kye Mackey, Senior Content Strategist, King Content

ROI, ROI, ROI! Making a return on your efforts is a fundamental business objective, but sometimes marketing projects fly under the radar in the guise of ‘brand awareness’. Now that content marketing is no longer seen as a nice-to-have, marketing teams will need to show real, measurable returns on investment in their content marketing strategies. This skews the focus towards lead generation and further highlights the need to set measureable content targets.

Paul Gilbert, Social Media Director, King Content

It’s time for social media to grow up We are still very much in the infancy stage of social media development. Just as is the case with any baby, as the days go by, we can start to see the type of adult it may grow up to become. In 2014 I believe we will start to see less of the new start-up tantrums from previous years and more of the established behaviours that come from large corporations with the ability to plan for the long term with a level of certainty. I predict that the digital channel will move from being seen as an ‘addition’ to traditional marketing spend to becoming the centre for brand campaigns and content engagement. As Google, Microsoft and Apple continue their moves to control or own the online experience from top to bottom, we will also see a consumer lead backlash in some areas where the online may split into those who still see the internet as a free and open playground for information and sharing and those who have grown up knowing it as a highly controlled, tracked and overly monitored public service network – not dissimilar to a telco or gas company. I predict we will see more buy-ups from the big three as well as the emergence of some more traditional players attempting to acquire companies and networks of which they have little understanding in the search of new lucrative revenue streams.

Amplification will reign

Nicole Stevens, Content Strategist, King Content

Where is your audience coming from? This will be a key question for content strategists in 2014, as the market in Australia continues to mature and brands enthusiastically embrace owned assets. It’s no longer enough to produce great content and host it on a microsite ‘in the desert’. Visibility is key. We’re increasingly seeing the benefits of a combined approach to amplification using social media, SEO and SEM. Amplification tactics will form a key aspect of content marketing strategy going forward.

Your customer is king (not just your content)

Jo Sharp, Sub-Editor, King Content

As content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi said earlier this year, “There was a time for more, but that time has passed.” Between 2010 and 2013, the volume of content on the internet is estimated to have tripled and will only grow exponentially from here. Moving into 2014, smart brands will seek to cut through the clutter by putting their customers at the heart of their content. Relevance is a given: to get under the skin of their audience, they’ll find innovative ways to inform, educate, amuse and inspire them, while providing real opportunities for engagement. In so doing, they will be the ones who succeed in changing behaviour.

Brand journalism arrives

Kasey Clark, Online Editor, King Content

2014 will see the arrival of additional – and formerly traditional – media companies on the content marketing scene. As this influx and evolution happens, we’ll see an associated increased demand for and rise in employment of skilled former newspaper and magazine journalists in the space, many of whom will find full-time work within content marketing agencies or marketing divisions within large companies. The companies already in this sector will continue to hone their brand journalism skills, new companies will look to the leaders for guidance and the market for brand journalists will really begin to explode.

The rise of the content strategist

Haylie Pretorius, Online Editor, King Content

Using content to capitalise on our understanding of how brands, businesses and customers engage, buy and sell online is the way forward for the digital marketing revolution. As we all know, at the core of all good content lies a strategy. Enter the content strategist. The content strategist is forecast to be an even greater asset to a company’s digital marketing approach in 2014. Aside from the need to develop smart content strategies that go above and beyond the content trends we’ve seen over the past three years, the role of the content strategist is imperative for leveraging the impact of each customer’s and brand’s journey along the digital landscape. It’s not enough to use content to engage customers on a superficial level – someone needs to be watching, learning and optimising for success every step of the way.

Embracing real-time data

Elizabeth Penning, Digital Marketing Coordinator, King Content

Gone are the days of producing a batch of 10 blogs and hoping for an organic search boost. In 2014, real-time data capture, contextualisation and analysis will become critical to online content marketers. Utilising content technology platforms marketers are now able to access data on the performance of content across multiple channels and audience demographics in real time. The availability of this data will mean that there is both little excuse for poorly performing content and an amazing opportunity for marketers to adapt for increased success. It’s time to embrace the data beast!

Snapshots into 2014

Charles Jacobson, Chief Technology Officer, King Content Melbourne

Content will become more personal. Personalisation technologies will increasingly be employed in order to present the right content to the right audience at the right time. Highly targeted EDMs and website personalisation, among others, will ensure well-crafted content will not fall on deaf ears. Content marketing and education will flirt. The educational aspects of content marketing will become increasingly prominent. With marketers focusing on how to best educate their and customers, opportunities for collaboration with the new generation of online education providers such as Khan Academy and Udacity will arise. Content marketing will become more validated as a practice. Expect to see the titles director of content and chief content officer spring up. Content marketing will become an essential part of every agency. Just as every agency now ‘does social’, soon the same will go for content. Consolidation will continue to occur. With large media companies dipping their toes in the water, it’s likely that we’ll see some interesting M&A activity in the next 12 months.

Hummingbird and a new type of SEO

Simon Jones, Senior Sub-Editor, King Content

The introduction of Google’s Hummingbird means a complete revamp in the way search will function in 2014. While some black-hat SEO folks won't like the idea of being unable to access free keyword metrics, Hummingbird is cause for content marketers to celebrate. Google is deliberately changing the way search works in order to provider better content, and thus a better user experience, for consumers. We will likely see a huge surge in content marketing services as companies big and small realise the importance of having high-quality, entertaining copy on their website in order to boost their Google search rankings.

Social surge

Claire O’Dowd, Community Manager, King Content

Just as social media has infiltrated marketing, existing staff have been tasked with these responsibilities. In 2014, I would expect to see more social media specific roles and specialised outsourcing. After the surge in visual content on social this year, I predict that creative video content marketing will continue to evolve to be at the forefront of content strategies. Platforms to watch Google+ is currently dominating search engine results, suggesting this will become the leading channel for business content sharing next year. As the fastest-growing social network in 2013, Pinterest will sky rocket next year. It has recently introduced rich pins, personalised pin recommendations and promoted pins. Watch this space. LinkedIn has also had a year to remember, but I predict that the platform will double in size next year to become even more of a content hub. The recent introduction of Sponsored Updates will both facilitate this transformation into a content hub in 2014 and provide a critical tool for brands who want to grow professional brand advocacy and become industry influencers.

Know thy audience

Lucy Sutton, Content Strategist, King Content

The Content Marketing Institute's 2014 report on the state of content marketing in Australia showed that only 52 per cent of marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. Admittedly that’s better than the 44 per cent of B2B marketers and 39 per cent of B2C marketers in North America that do, but now is not the time to feel in the dark for that blog post that happens to be a hit. In 2014, content marketers will have a serious look at their audience and figure out what makes them tick to have a better chance of coming up with content that suits their needs and will keep them coming back for more.

Do you have a prediction about content marketing in 2014? Share your predictions in the comments section below and tweet using #CMP2014

Presented by King Content, Australia’s most-awarded digital content marketing agency. Check out our blog for more content marketing insights and advice. www.kingcontent.com.au @King_Content