Expect Content Marketing to be Tougher in 2016

Content Marketing in 2016

This post, and others written by Wes Finley, appears on MarianaIQ.com

Content marketing has grown significantly over the past several years.Trackmaven estimates the amount of content brands produce increased by 78% in 2014. As more brands produce more content the value of each element will slide. Is 2016 the year when we finally eat the last of the low hanging content marketing fruit?

Since January is the month of predictions, David Dodd outlines 3 reasons content marketing will struggle in 2016.

Successful content marketing has become more difficult to achieve for three reasons. First, as more and more companies have implemented content marketing programs, the volume of content available to potential buyers has increased exponentially, and so has the competition for buyer attention. Mark Schaefer saw this coming a couple of years ago and discussed it in his provocative blog post about “content shock.”

Second, over the past few years, we have developed a substantial body of knowledge about how to do content marketing effectively. Overall, this has been a positive development, but it also has a downside. Many marketers have incorporated these “best practices” into their content marketing strategies, and therefore many content marketing programs tend to look alike, making them less effective for competitive differentiation.

Finally, while there is strong evidence that a lot of ineffective content is still being produced, there’s also a growing volume of good to very good content available in the marketplace. This has allowed customers and prospects to become more selective about the content they will spend their valuable time consuming. Therefore, it’s more challenging to produce content that will consistently win mindshare and create meaningful engagement.

Brands need to implement new technologies to field successful content marketing campaigns. Relying on the adage ‘if you build it, prospects will come’ is already showing faults. To continue to reach an audience in 2016, content producers will need to integrate traditional outbound campaigns with their content marketing practices. (See the 4 Reasons Your Content Strategy Must Include Paid.) But just because outbound marketing is traditional, doesn’t mean it has to be run using old fashioned techniques.

New custom audience targeting capabilities on search, display, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc allow brands to serve contextually aware content to specific individuals. Deep Learning AI digs these individuals out of the mounds of customer data and public ‘Big Data’ sources. New smart ad campaigns target segments of individuals and distribute content that resonates with each unique persona.

While content marketing may be getting tougher, the tools we have to be successful are continuing to improve as well. Let’s hope 2016 is the year marketers begin implementing methods that better serve customers and the bottom line.