Content Marketing in 2019: Trends, Predictions, Opportunities

JP Abecilla January 9, 2019
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Known to be a new phenomenon in the world of marketing, content marketing in 2019 will soon make traditional marketing outdated. It is radically changing the norms and techniques of reaching the market in the era of consumerism.

Content marketing, as defined by Content Marketing Institute (CMI), is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Content can either be written (e.g., blogs and articles), visual (e.g., videos and webinars), image (e.g., photos and infographics), and audio (e.g., podcasts and audiobooks).

In general, marketing adapts to the fast-changing environment of the mobile world which makes content marketing flexible enough to become a trend in creating a strategical approach and in reaching a broader and more unique market.

Based on the CMI Report, backed up by different research groups, here are what to expect in the realm of content marketing this 2019.

TRENDS

Top 3 Technologies
In the CMI research sponsored by Conductor, they have presented that B2B marketers use social media publishing, email marketing software, and analytics tools in managing content marketing efforts.

a graph of trending technologies for content marketing in 2019

Businesses use social media publishing to create, facilitate, and publish content to their social networking sites from a single platform, such as TweetDeck and Buffer. According to the Pew Research Center, Facebook is still the most dominant social media network followed by Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Top 3 Techniques
In researching the target market, the top three techniques used by B2B content marketers are sales team feedback, website analytics, and keyword research.

a graph of top techniques for content marketing in 2019

Most studies, such as the ones from Social Media Today and Forbes, agree with CMI that creating a clear, goal-oriented content marketing strategy is a big deal in achieving a successful marketing result in 2019. The idea is also supported by the Smart Insights’ Digital Strategist, Dr. Dave Chaffey.

Top 3 Types of Content
Most B2B content marketers invested more in the use of audio/visual content, written digital content, and images as a way to communicate with their audience.

a graph of types of content for content marketing in 2019

It is unquestionable that more people want to watch a live video than to read written content. According to a study, videos will account for 82% of global internet traffic by 2021. However, with only 3% lower, written digital content will still go popular followed by images, such as infographics, GIFs, and photos.

PREDICTIONS

1. Content Marketing in 2019 Will Not Be Separated from Marketing

According to Allison Wert, the Content Marketing Manager of Frontline Education, “A growing number of businesses will stop thinking about content marketing as a separate discipline and instead realize that all good marketing involves content marketing. You can’t have good demand generation, or good PR, or good product marketing without a commitment to meeting your audience’s needs with valuable and interesting content – the essence of content marketing. Successful companies and marketing teams will increasingly blur the lines between these disciplines and learn to leverage best practices in content marketing and audience engagement in every customer- and buyer-facing interaction.”

2. “Creation Will Decrease, Distribution Will Increase.”

prediction of cathy mcphillips about content creation and distribution for content marketing in 2019

This doesn’t mean that you’ll go slack in creating content because what you’re going to distribute after all if you will not produce valuable content. What the VP of Marketing at CMI wants us to do is to think about how we can refocus on the needs of the customers and think about how to improve their experiences and their engagement through our content, and also through the technology necessary to help us share our message.

3. Invest in People Over Technology and Tactics

It is inevitable for experts to think that technology, like AI, will continue to advance to make businesses and quality of life better. Technological developments, however, depend on how employers trust their human employees to continually strengthen the culture of trust, empathy, and empowerment, which is the key to content marketing success, according to Luke Kintigh of Intel.

4. Content and Compassion Will Go Together

To reinforce the human touch of content marketing, the Founder and Chief Content Officer of Crystal Clear Communications, George Stenitzer, suggests that human compassion should be added to visuals, audio, and brains.

prediction and advice of george stenitzer about content marketing in 2019

5. Compensation for Content People Will Rise

Well, as I do, you might also agree that this will be more exciting if you are working in the content marketing department. The high demand for quality and valuable content will make the tenured content strategists, marketers, and creators get a more reasonable payment based on the skills and abilities to implement the job compared to the newcomers.

prediction of andy crestodina about the rise of compensation of content strategist
OPPORTUNITIES

Top 3 Most Effective Type of Content
Still based on CMI’s B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, blog posts, white papers, and case studies are the most effective types of content from getting the interest to considering your business and purchasing your products and services.

If you have been creating these kinds of content, then it is most likely that you’ll have a better time to shine this year.

Top 3 Increase in Spending
56% of content marketers have increased their spending on content creation. Next to that are content marketing staff (37%) and paid content distribution (36%).

Again, this is supporting the greater opportunity for staff members who are a part of content creation and digital marketing, in general.

Top 3 Skills

In line with the higher spending of marketers for content creation, they are also ready to give a favorable budget for individuals with these three indivisible skills: Marketing, Business/Strategy, and Journalism.

statistical figures for top three skills, namely: marketing, business or strategy, and journalism
CONCLUSION

If you are a business person and you wouldn’t want your competition to overrun you, you might need to consider content marketing in your business and marketing strategy.

If you are a freelance blogger, content writer, copywriter, web developer, and anyone who is in the world of content creation, 2019 will be good to you as long as you won’t let the opportunities be gone with the wind.

If you are a marketer who knows what’s going on and understands how things are working, you will never have a second thought on diving in the world of content marketing and making the world a better place for you and the netizens.

JP Abecilla

JP Abecilla is a lifestyle Filipino blogger, freelance content writer, copy editor, and motivational speaker based in Cebu City, Philippines. He was awarded Blog of the Year 2020 (2nd Place) and Best Cebu Events Blog of 2019. More than writing, JP loves drinking a cup of coffee and eating donuts while reading a book or magazine.

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