5 Trends Content Marketers Need to Know for 2017

2016 was an eventful year for content marketing. The demand for quality content was all-time high and organic reach declined. As we complete 17 years into the new millennium, we can’t help but wonder what will 2017 hold for content marketing? Experts engaged in various San Diego SEO Services Agencies have made a few new year predictions of their own.

More Creativity

2017 may take the “quality over quantity” mantra to new frontiers. Traditionally, content marketing has always been about eBooks, articles, blogs and web copies. However, the New Year will focus more on brand management- which, we all know, is all about creativity. Visual content is likely to gain importance and we may see more and more gifs in blogs. In short, 2017 content will be shorter, unique and extremely sugar coated.

Niche Messages

In the upcoming years, we may have to stop going all gun-blazing with content and focus more on nitty-gritty messages. The content should be focused to serve a niche audience- right from the title, all the way to the last sentence. For instance, the blog titled “How to Gain Leads” may now have to be written as “How to Prevent Loss of Leads through Classified Ads”.

Video Games

If given an option, most of us would rather stick to videos, animations and DIY videos rather than read through a 1000-word online blog. Content marketers need to understand that videos offer the highest ROIs among all other marketing tools. It’s why we see Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram introducing video sections. Google now owns YouTube. That’s your cue to stop focus on writing so much, take out your cameras and start filming something instead.

Retention Marketing

We have all written compelling blogs to attract readers and leads over the past few years, but 2017 will change that. For the next year, the focus will be on retention marketing- i.e. how to keep customers engaged to that they do not leave the page. This means more video engagements, webinars, personal replies and one-to-one conversations on your social media page. For content writers, this poses an exciting challenge as we can hope for long-term customer retention writing contracts from our clients. On a flip side, it means more work and more attention to detail.

Overtaking Advertising

It’s now an established fact that companies (particularly startups) are willing to invest more in content and digital marketing, rather than in printed advertisement. In 2017, the same trend is likely to continue and we can expect a bucket load of investment in content writing firms. This is not to say that print media is dead. Print media will still hold its significance and generate returns. But 2017 is definitely the year where online copywriters and freelancers will get to enjoy a larger share of the marketing pie. What’s more is that we will get to keep our jobs after all! This makes 2017 an excellent time to consider copywriting as a long-term profession and for new SEO experts to set up their businesses. Who knows what 2018 will bring?