Today's content challenges and where will content lead?
B2B marketers are time-poor and often turn to outsourcing marketing content. However, no one knows the ins and outs of your business as well as you do, so there is a risk associated with outsourcing your content creation, in that the output may not fully align with, or represent, your brand and its messaging. If you do turn to outsourcing, ensure that the company or individual you employ to write your content invests the time required to get under the skin of your business, and uses primary research to inform their work. For example, researching the media landscape to identify the pain points being discussed by CXOs is a good way to pinpoint the themes that you should be covering in a content piece that is directed towards CXOs. Directly addressing the topics that your target audience is discussing in the media is a great way to ensure relevance and resonance with them. Finding a balance between outsourcing media research and using internal talent to create content based on this may be a good solution to time and resource constraints.
Speak to your clients directly about the biggest problems they are facing. Moreover, engaging with your audience to find out what kind of content they consume, and what content they consider useful, will help to inform your content strategy and to decrease your chances of ‘getting lost in the clutter,’ as it will give you direction in the type of content that will turn the heads of your audience. Leveraging social platforms can be a powerful tool in responding to your audiences’ pain points through content. Social media listening can help to uncover what your audiences are discussing online, and LinkedIn is a valuable source of data that could uncover insights into C-suite trends and behaviours. Similarly, another way to minimise the chances of your content being lost in the noise is creating content alongside a media partner, especially a well-respected brand such as a broad business media title, or a leading trade press title for more niche media spaces. This may be a good way to boost your own brand and create some high-level content that reaches a wider readership than your proprietary content would, simply thanks to the media provider’s amplification capabilities to its readers.
Marketers need to continuously adapt their strategies to new technologies, ideas, platforms and audience needs, so setting a strategy for the long-term is challenging, but could be ideal. In fact, there are seven major changes in content marketing that have been predicted to take place over the course of the next five years. These are:
Understandably, some of these predicted changes are more likely to have a bigger, positive impact than others. For example, content-generating algorithms, where, essentially, a machine is producing content for you, are not going to be as powerful as, say, app-based publishing when targeting niche audiences. Why is that? Machine-generated content is likely to focus on producing short reports based on quantitative data, lacking the depth and insights of traditional content by human writers.
On the other hand, the rise of app-based publishing will have a larger impact, both in terms of how the content is consumed by the audience, but also in terms of its implications on publishers. In-app content is easier to consume, as readers will not have to switch between webpages to consume different pieces of content. As a result, it could be that publishers end up with less traffic to their own website, and less control over who is able to view their content. Predictions around Virtual Reality and personalised content have the potential to truly impact the world of content, as more and more audiences are seeking experiential formats in which to consume content, as well as content that is tailored to their specific needs and interests. While it is good to be aware of predictions, to anticipate, and respond to, a changing content landscape, it is important to remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ content strategy. Best practice for your company could come from testing different strategies, and anticipating which of these predicted changes might have the biggest impact on your company, and the content that you produce.
The most valuable content is content that offers new information and perspectives, rather than rehashing ideas that CXOs have read about countless times before. Offering a fresh outlook is more likely to get your audience to sit up and listen to what you have to say, especially in a content landscape that is becoming more and more saturated. Focusing on primary research on your target audiences, in terms of the topics they are discussing, the pain points they are highlighting, and the individuals they consider influencers, will provide the intelligence and understanding required to create content that counts. To create relevant content, it is good to reflect current trends to show that you are knowledgeable on what’s going on in the market, especially if you are looking at issues that your target audience is talking about directly in the media. To extend this, rather than simply being informative, the most successful content is useful in a practical way. How? By guiding strategy, answering a question or solving a problem that the reader is experiencing, therefore offering practical advice with tangible outcomes. Not only will this demonstrate your knowledge of your audience’s pain points, but it will also position your own brand as the expert that can help to tackle these issues. Achieving this goes one step further than knowing your audience, and taps into knowing your subject, or your area of expertise. Marrying the two will equip you with content that goes beyond creating ‘content for content’s sake’ and really delivers something valuable to your audience.