As we step into 2016, content has moved from buzzword to the boardroom. Leading companies are more prepared than ever to allocate large budgets to content marketing campaigns, and some are going one step further and hiring internal CCOs, or ‘Chief Content Officers.’
As a company that lives and breathes content, we at New Narrative (n/n) are excited to see the way the business has developed over the past couple of years, and we’re optimistic about the year ahead--though there are a few pitfalls to avoid. With that in mind, here’s our take on the trends that should drive content marketing in 2016:
Gourmet dinners trump fast food
First and foremost: quality must (and hopefully will) trump quantity. To be effective in 2016 and beyond, marketing departments must engage the people or partners that have the intellectual capital to produce compelling content, and be prepared to take calculated risks.
The Internet has given every company the ability to publish as they wish. But that freedom, while intoxicating, is often abused: some companies rush to publish even though they may not have anything compelling to say. They end up like the annoying guest at a dinner party who adds nothing of value to the conversation but keeps talking anyway.
How does a company ensure what it says is compelling? That’s the million-dollar question. One rule of thumb is to make sure something important is at stake in any piece of published content--just like in the movies and novels we all know and love. Content consumers have to care about or be invested in the story, emotionally, intellectually or financially. Many companies instinctively shy away from expressing opinions or taking a clear stance in the content they produce, but that makes it difficult for an audience to draw inspiration from or identify with it.
This also means content creators need to care about caring. The issues they address in their editorial output should matter to their key stakeholders, but also resonate beyond their company and its immediate goals and interests. Put plainly, companies need to talk about something beside themselves. Corporate narcissism is no more appealing than its human counterpart.
Take a global investment bank for example. Bragging about its size or capabilities probably isn’t going to get the bank very far in the world of content marketing. But sharing a prediction about the future of market reforms in China, and how companies and investors can benefit by adjusting exposure to China’s currency, the renminbi? That’s a story that an external audience is also invested in, and positions the institution as a voice of authority on a topic that matters by many definitions.
Let’s see that editorial calendar
The second content marketing trend in 2016 will be the rise of the editorial calendar. Although quantity should never be a goal in itself, it’s a fact of life that clients, investors and customers expect regular engagement in this sleepless information era. The trick is to produce a steady stream of content without sacrificing quality.
On that note, one-off items like lengthy white papers, no matter how insightful, will no longer have the impact they once did. These projects should be part of a broader editorial calendar rolled out over a longer time horizon, typically six months to a year, that builds the image of the company as a consistent and informed voice in the marketplace.
These corporate editorial calendars, much like news planners in the world’s top media companies, should include a diverse mix of content types in order to keep audience engagement fresh and compelling. Content sets could include everything from op-ed columns to infographics to animated videos.
Flexibility is a requirement. The editorial calendar needs to respond to current news developments, and output adjusted accordingly. Again, back to the dinner table conversation analogy: no one invested in Asia’s financial markets would be interested in your views on the latest developments in Indonesia if Hong Kong were to drop its currency peg.
Focus on distribution - and results
Once you’ve got the content, what do you do with it? In 2016 more focus should be on the answers to this question. Companies will need to find partners who offer comprehensive distribution plans for their content to make sure the effort doesn’t effectively float out into space, never to return. Distribution is where companies will be able to unlock and evaluate the return on the investment they are making in their content.
The first step toward an effective measurement of content ROI is audience definition. Just as companies must have a compelling story to tell, they also need to know who the story is for. An existing customer? A potential customer? An investor? A regulator? Many companies fail to spend enough time considering these questions before they launch their campaigns, and hence struggle to produce content that’s relevant and insightful.
All content is not equal for all audiences, and no one piece of content is likely to appeal across a firm’s stakeholder groups. A bank’s insights on China’s interest rates may be of interest to currency investors or CFOs, but irrelevant to everyone else.
Once the audience is defined, however, the content can be crafted accordingly, and the right distribution machinery deployed. The options have never been more numerous. There are paid-for distribution options on LinkedIn; dedicated content publishing platforms such as Outbrain; and all-in-one marketing software solutions such as HubSpot, all of which allow content to be channeled towards certain audiences with a high degree of accuracy.
Use of these platforms will give marketers an overview of who is consuming their content, where they are based, and to what extent the content is reaching the target audience. This data, in turn, should be used to refine future content outreach and converted into sales leads, making it easy to establish the links between content and the bottom line.
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