Feature: 5 key trends in content marketing

Content marketing is a growing industry with a yearly investment from brands that could well be in excess of $135 billion. The content is coming from a variety of sources too, writes Ashley Norris for the Digital Innovators’ Summit blog.

Advertising agencies, PR agencies and brands themselves are creating content, however many of the companies that have been most successful in creating content for brands have come from a traditional publishing backgrounds. Some emerged in the nineties as independent publishing houses solely focusing on brand (or in those days contract or custom) publishing. More recently several publishers around the world have significantly ramped up their content marketing offerings.

Hear more on the topic from GE, Contently, The Economist and others at the Digital Innovators’ Summit in Berlin, taking place from 20-22 March (standard rate bookings are available until 15 March).

To be effective content marketing, like any type of publishing, needs to respond to the changes in the way people consume content and how that that content is distributed. Hence many of the issues that publishers are grappling with - such as what is the ideal length of online content and how much content should be video based - are concerns for branded content providers too.

Here then are five key trends in content marketing, what has inspired them and how brands are responding.

1 Video, video and even more video

Many mainstream publishers seem to be obsessed with their video output with, for example, The Huffington Post promising to deliver 50% of its content in the format from this year. Brands are also highly aware of the way that video is consumed and the impact a great piece of footage that tells a story can have on brand awareness and viewer engagement. Video content can also be distributed on multiple platforms too, so not surprisingly there is a massive investment from brands at the current time. It appears to be paying off too. The winners of the Grand Prix awards at the UK CMA (Content Marketing Awards) have for the last two years been video based - previously they tended to be magazines or websites. Shell took the award this year for its superb ‘Power of Sport’ a campaign helmed by a video that attracted over two million views.

Supermarkets like Waitrose, as well as brands like Jamie Oliver, have invested heavily on promoting recipe based video content on YouTube, while Airbnb has created several series of intriguing videos which focus on its hosts and the stories they tell.

Other brands are experimenting with short form video on Vine and Instagram, while Adidas, Taco Bell and many others have used Periscope to live stream their press events. Meanwhile, when The New York Times launched its debut VR video experiment in November 2015 and in addition to its films viewers were also offered extended VR content from Mini and General Electric.

2 Niche blogging

A decade ago the Internet was filled with blogs from enterprising individuals covering topics that were a little too niche to interest mainstream publishers. Many of those bloggers have gone onto greater things, like writing for media brands and consultancy, but niche blogging continues to thrive and these days is as much the preserve of brands as it is of influentials. Startups, in particular, have discovered that if they can own a subject online they can use the editorial content to gently nudge readers towards their sales pipeline. A really good example of this is Van Winkle's, a website that is focused on sleep and includes stories such as ‘how athletes use sleep to enhance their performance’ and the sleeping patterns of US Presidential contender Donald Trump. The site is owned by a mattress company Casper, which harvests data from the site and uses it to generate sale leads.

B2B companies are also experimenting with blogging again. A really strong example is the Native Advertising blog, which features a ton of useful information on the design, implementation and monetisation of sponsored content. It was created by Sharethrough, a company which provides native advertising software for both publishers and brands.

3 Creating premium and longform content

“It is essential to produce longform content of at least 1800 words, or maybe even longer. This shows maturity and thought leadership and plays well with search engines,” argues Mark Walker, Head of Content Marketing at Eventbrite UK, who uses content marketing to drive event organisers to use its technology. Longform is a growing trend in content marketing. It was largely pioneered by the likes of General Electric in the US whose GE Reports regularly featured posts of over 1000 words. Other brands that regularly post longer articles include American Experss and Intel. There is plenty of  evidence that longform content is favoured by search engines. And longform content doesn't have to be just extended posts. White papers, reports and extended videos are just part of the trend.

4 Visual social platforms

Visually driven social networks are becoming increasingly important to content marketers. Many high profile brands have been on Instagram for while, sharing images and in some instances extended captions. Travel brands like Expedia lead the way here with dramatic images and intriguing captures designed to engender wanderlust. The younger demographic that use the platforms has also made it huge for fashion and beauty brands. Meanwhile Pinterest continues to be a useful place for brands in certain niches. Research from TapInfluence highlighted that almost fifty per cent of those who use the platform had made a purchase based on something they have seen. In addition to fashion brands Pinterest has also been widely used by retailers too especially in the home wares space.

5 The importance of measurement

The days of judging success by the number of likes and clicks have gone forever as brands are experimenting with more accurate and forensic ways of measuring how successful their campaigns have been. Brands use content marketing for different reasons - some for thought leadership, others to generate sales. Content can also play different roles too with more consumer friendly clickbait posts designed to tempt users on to a  website, while richer content, like white papers, may be most effective at turning browsers into customers. So measurement metrics need to reflect these differing criteria. Google Analytics remains a staple for brands, especially if they use the goals option which can measure how useful a specific piece of content has been. There are many other more sophisticated content marketing measurement tools available now including Eloqua, Hubspot and Pardot.

There will be plenty more on content marketing at the Digital Innovators' Summit from 20-22 March in Berlin – see the programme here and register here (standard rate bookings available until 15 March).