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The following is a guest post by Hazel Raoult. Hazel is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.

With the growing interconnectivity of people across the globe and rapid advancements in creative technology, the question “How to market?” is now a swanky “How do I market best?”

Enter content marketing.

Content marketing is the resourceful, consumer-centric way to market a product or service. Content marketing involves sharing relevant content that informs, describes, engages, and equips your customer to make a better choice while choosing a brand or service.

The technique does not directly promote the brand itself but relevant content that a customer would find helpful while making the right choice.

Why do you need a content marketing strategy?

Here’s why.

1. It helps you clearly define your goals and milestones.
2. It helps create a solid plan for all your content efforts across various platforms.
3. It makes it easier for you to work on content ideas, upcoming trends, and brand needs.
4. It’s a great way to optimize your marketing team and its efforts.
5. And most of all, it makes life easier for all those involved in the process of content creation and marketing.

So, a content marketing strategy is a must. But with new emerging market trends, your content marketing strategy needs changes that will make it more effective, engaging, and efficient!

This blog post will introduce you to 7 great changes that you NEED to make to your content strategy.

#1 Integrate AR in your Content Marketing Strategy

AR or Augmented Reality is fast-growing as one of the most interactive, personalized, and seamless user experiences in the tech world. Put simply, AR is an enhanced user experience that simulates real-world experiences with computer-based objects and sensory content (auditory, visual, etc.).

Integrating AR-based content in your content marketing strategy can ensure an exciting user experience, as well as an informative, creative way of putting relevant content across. According to reports by Tech Jury, about 67% of media planners and buyers want to incorporate AR in digital marketing campaigns. To add, almost 50% of brands think that using AR can help prevent ad-blocking.

According to ClickZ, AR in your digital marketing strategy is the next big thing for your brand.

Here’s why you need an AR-themed tweak in your content strategy:

• Provides customers with an out-of-the-box, engaging brand experience
• Helps you set up a “try before you buy” system, increasing brand awareness and understanding of the product(s).
• Game development – various brands are developing games users can play while interacting with their products, with integrated AR and location-based targeting.

IKEA’S AR-based app lets users customize their home with a click! (Source – TechCrunch)

#2 Create and Collaborate on Podcasts

Want to know why podcasts are the new “in thing?”. Simple. They help people multitask. Brandtastic brings to light recent studies that show that while 49% of podcast listening happens at home, 22% happens while driving, 11% at work, and 8% while exercising.

These numbers are indicative of the enormous potential podcasts hold for your content marketing strategy.

Creating podcasts is the best way for you to share ideas, perspectives, brand info, and boost awareness and engagement. Top brands are creating and collaborating podcast series that delve into various aspects of the brand, such as its history, sneak peeks into upcoming products, light-hearted conversations about brand bloopers and behind-the-scenes, and more!

Think about how exciting a podcast with the creative heads of Apple and Samsung would be!

(Image Source – Podcast Insights)

Pro Tip: When creating podcasts or other audio-based content, keep in mind these questions.

• Why am I integrating this podcast into my content strategy?
  Is it to solely promote the brand or to provide my customers with adequate information? (If it’s the former, you need to adjust your strategy so that your podcast isn’t promotional, but informative and educational)
• What is my main goal for this podcast?
  Is it to boost brand awareness? Is it to monetize a certain product – i.e., boost sales? Is it to better equip the listeners with the information they need to make the right choice? Is it to work on the brand’s image?

#3 Use an Effective Change Management Process in your Content Marketing Strategy

Effective change management can make or break your brand’s progress towards new content ideas, forms, strategies, and more.

But what is change management? Change management is “the process of adapting to, controlling, and implementing change.” Content strategies have to constantly adapt and change according to market trends and needs.

When it comes to embracing these new strategies and successfully implementing them, a solid change management process at the project level is needed. An effective change management process when it comes to content strategy development involves the following

• Determine the reason for the change.
• Set specific goals for the change.
• Establish milestones to monitor progress.
• Gather feedback.
• Analyze progress and results.

#4 Study Market Trends in your Niche

Every digital marketer swears by the importance of studying market trends specific to one’s niche. Various reports, studies, and surveys indicate what customers are looking for and how brands need to bring those aspects to the table.

Integrating these marketing trends in your current and future content marketing strategy can greatly help boost engagement and brand awareness, especially on social media platforms.

As an example, let’s consider the extremely popular Netflix show Squid Game. Over a few weeks, the show’s popularity had sky-rocketed and was proving to be a game-changing trend for brands who embraced it. From apparel brands to food giants, Squid Game-themed content helped these brands boost awareness and sales to meteoric levels.

There are various authors, communities, and institutes on the Web that study and predict market trends, and studying these trends is highly beneficial while making changes to your marketing strategy.

Tip: While creating trend-based content, factor in the content type that will be most engaging for a specific post. For example, will a video work better with your target audience, or will a trend-specific swipe post boost more engagement?

#5 Create Bite-Sized, Easy-to-Understand Content

It’s no surprise that our attention spans are dwindling. A few seconds is all it takes to hook onto a user’s attention or completely miss it. A study by Microsoft in 2015 showed that 8 seconds is all the time we can spend trying to focus on something. Once those 8 seconds have passed, we look for something new to focus on.

Owing to this, your content and content strategy needs to be crisp, to the point, and most importantly, engaging. The biggest mistake made by content creators, managers, and the like is stuffing too much content in a single frame. This frame can be a metaphor for any content type, such as a video, image, brochure, podcasts, etc.

The trick? Break it down.

If you create a video that covers 3 topics and is a minute and a half long, break the video into 3 bite-sized videos that cover one topic for not more than 30 seconds each. While creating graphics, do NOT clutter the post with information. Instead, keep it clean, as spaced out, and as to-the-point as can be.

When a user interacts with your content, they shouldn’t be bombarded with chunks of information and left bored, and confused. Snappy, engaging (read: interesting and simple-to-understand), and bite-sized content is the way to go.

Tip: When breaking your content down into chunks, keep in mind these points:

• If I was a user presented with this content, would I stay to view the rest of it?
• After you create some content, run it by people of different age groups and interests, and factor in their input and response.

#6 Embrace Content Marketing Trends that are Evergreen

Coming back to embracing trends, (refer to #3), some trends come and go in a span of a few weeks, and there are trends that last decades. Many brands have jumped on evergreen trends from time to time, and others have moved a step forward and added their own twist to it!

An example of an evergreen content idea is – “How to use MS Word – a guide for beginners”. Not only is this content idea going to be useful for a long time, but also can be modified and revised as per the latest updates in software and interface.

One of the biggest advantages of evergreen content is its almost-permanent relevance. Along with this, they need minimal upkeep in terms of content modification, require relatively less research, and are planned for the long-term.

(Source – BloggingX)

#7 Create Content Supported by Data

If you want to create a solid content strategy, you have to pay attention to data. Data-driven content is perhaps the best way to ensure that your content isn’t something people AREN’T talking about.

A basic strategy here is to create content pillars for your niche. For example, if you’re creating content for a website that focuses on nutrition and health, create broad topic pillars that give a general overview of what you aim to cover through your content. Your topic pillars can look like this –

(Source – Nancy Casanova)

After you’ve created topic pillars, use content analyzer tools like Buzzsumo, that show data trends and engagement for keywords and topics you search for. After you search for a keyword on Buzzsumo, hit ‘Go’, and you’ll see a list of trending articles and content forms on various social media platforms. The following image shows search results for “Content Marketing” –

(Source – Neil Patel)

Feel free to use this platform as a starting point, and then diversify by studying your social media Analytics, asking for what your users would like to see in future content ideas, and more!

Establishing clear milestones is key to content success on both social media platforms and otherwise. Once again, closely studying analytics, gathering customer feedback and insights, and creating data-driven content is the best way to work towards a successful content strategy.

Implementing these changes into your content strategy isn’t a one-time, one-size-fits-all process. Your brand’s needs, goals, and milestones are key factors while creating a solid strategy.

Keep in mind what’s best for YOUR brand, and you’ll be well on your way to creating an effective, engaging content marketing strategy that works for you and your customers!

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