This Week in Marketing: Prepare for the Future of Content

Remember the 2000s? Nu-metal and pop-punk ruled the airwaves. Survivor ushered in a new era of reality TV, for better or worse. Franchises like Shrek, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter filled multiplexes with each new installment.?

And content marketing was all about writing blog posts (preferably with keywords crammed in as densely as possible). In the later ‘00s, you could link to those posts on social media to drive traffic back to the blog.

If your taste in pop culture hasn’t changed since 2009, no harm or foul. But if your content marketing strategy hasn’t evolved with the times, you’re likely overdue for a refresh.

For this week’s issue, we’re looking at resources to help you get current with your content marketing strategy, and even get ahead of the curve.

What to Read

How to Create a Digital Content Strategy for the Digital-first Era (Contentful): Even as digital channels continue to expand, many brands are still using an outdated web-first (or even print-first) strategy. In an organization that produces everything from podcasts to ads on digital billboards, a digital content strategy is essential. Adriana Soliz walks through the process in this post.

Zero-Click Content: The Counterintuitive Way to Succeed in a Platform-Native World (SparkToro): How do you market to people who don’t want to click away from their social media feed? A modern content marketing strategy, says Amanda Natividad, should include a “zero-click” component. This type of content is designed to spark engagement on a third-party platform, without linking back to your site.

Creating A Content Strategy That Speaks To The C-Suite (Forbes): It’s one of the biggest conundrums in B2B marketing: Executives have the final say on purchase decisions, but have the least amount of time and inclination to read marketing content. Denis Sinelnikov offers practical ways to make your content more relevant and compelling for busy executives.

Content Marketing Metrics & Analytics: 5 Types Of Data Insights (Search Engine Journal): More accurate and meaningful measurement is a key part of building a modern content marketing strategy. This piece from Lemuel Park focuses on advanced metrics and the intelligent infrastructure that supports them.

11+ Things To Do To Make Your LinkedIn Newsletter a Success (CMI): Speaking of new content channels: brands are seeing promising early results with LinkedIn Newsletters. This type of content can help build your follower base, increase awareness, and develop deeper relationships with your audience. Start with these pointers from John Hall.

What to Listen To

One new frontier in content marketing is the idea of intelligent content—that is, using AI and automation to deliver the most relevant piece of content to potential leads at scale. Helen Baptist explains how it works in the latest episode of the B2B Growth Podcast.

What to Know

Building a Memorable B2B Brand

We know that people are more likely to respond to creative, even entertaining, marketing. But B2B marketers still struggle with making their content compelling.

The solution: Marketers need to embrace creative, data-driven content to build a memorable brand and drive results. This post from the?LinkedIn Collective?is a good place to start.

Also featured on the Collective over the past week:

• During Economic Downturns, Investing in Creativity Is More Essential Than Ever. Here’s Why.
• Time to put ‘traditional’ B2B thinking aside to make room for a new era of creativity