With this final post in our series on what makes good content marketing, it’s time to set sights on the future. If there’s one thing marketing technology executives agree on about content marketing, it’s that it’s here to stay. However, the industry will be undergoing some major changes over the next few years.
Compiling predictions made by company CEOs, this post is going to look at some of the leading aspects of content marketing and why they’re likely to be lucrative options in the future.
Interactive content
What is it?
Interactive content is all about getting the customer involved. It’s an aspect of content marketing that seeks to engage its audience through questionnaires, games, and videos, but the trick is that every piece of interactive content gives something back. For example, BBC’s Your Life on Earth app gives users the chance to see what age they’d be on various planets, how many times their heart has beaten and in what ways the world has changed since they were born.
Why is it the future?
Brolik CEO Jason Brewer believes interactive content to lead the future of advertising because it’s markedly different to traditional advertising forms. It’s ideal for handheld technology and customers don’t feel like they’re being sold something. You’re not being targeted or interrupted, instead you’re being given an experience.
Data-driven content
What is it?
Data is statistics, graphs, charts and all that fun stuff you slept through in maths—except now it’s actually fun! Statistics are being implemented into engaging articles and videos, infographics are colourful and their layouts are ingeniously simple. Just look at this data crunch assessing artists’ earnings in the music industry today. The expanding pink bubble indicating more plays for less money delivers the message in a captivating way.
Why is it the future?
Ross Crooks, founder of Visage, points out that industries are increasingly leveraging internal data so they can publish original findings. With the high percentage of people on the internet, data is easier to gather and thus companies can make more accurate predictions. With the marriage of visual creativity to hard data, stats have become a mainstay in content marketing.
Video content
What is it?
At some point, video content transitioned from traditional advertising (TV ads) to a radically different version that still used the visual medium to sell products. Video content can now be created for a modicum of the original cost and shared widely, reaching audiences television executives couldn’t dream of. GoPro’s skateboarding cat received millions of views after going viral because it was entertaining and different, and it never once felt like you were watching an advertisement.
Why is it the future?
Cisco predicts that by 2019, ‘consumer internet video traffic will be 80 percent of all consumer internet traffic’. Videos are quick and efficient ways of conveying information and you’ll want to share the best ones with your friends. The technology will only improve, making it easier to watch higher quality videos anywhere.
All of these predictions spell one thing: the death of traditional advertising. Consumers don’t like to have their songs interrupted on Spotify so they pay for uninterrupted streaming. TV watchers switch to their smartphones when the ad breaks come on and internet users install adblockers to remove distracting banner ads. Advertising is changing because it needs to change—content marketing is the answer.
