Expected trends in content marketing for 2016

Content marketing is getting better over time - all because of the evolution that is constantly taking place in the industry. Content marketing isn't just about content to attract users - it's about a whole series of activities and a lot of work to pay off. What trends in content marketing do the biggest experts in the industry foresee? Does storytelling in a form known to all have a chance to survive? What influence will AdBlock have on the work of content marketers? What will the current content marketing look like? Check the assumptions of the experts.

1. Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner assumes that thanks to the growing popularity of AdBlock, the budget allocated by companies for content marketing will increase significantly. It should be noted that over the last year the number of active users of AdBlock and related plugins has increased by as much as 41%. The number of its users worldwide oscillates around 198 million, and our country ranks second (after Greece).

2. Joe Pulizzi.

Joe Pulizzi believes that in 2016 we will witness numerous mergers and acquisitions in content marketing. Companies will almost certainly be more and more interested in purchasing websites (especially blogs and niche thematic portals). They are aware of how time-consuming it is to build a new website from scratch, so in view of the possibility to purchase a ready-made one, they will gladly take advantage of the opportunity.

3. Jay Baer.

Jay Baer believes that video will revolutionize the world of content marketing. All because network users are still insatiable about movie broadcasts. This trend will also include the B2B sector. An increase in video interest can be observed on Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitter and Blab. User demand for video is one thing - the other is the fact that video contains everything: image, sound and text. No other form works the other way around. Jay Baer anticipates that video will soon become the foundation of content marketing.

4. Lee Odden.

Lee Odden assumes that in 2016 there will be more cooperation in content marketing. He believes that brands will be more willing to invest in co-creating content with industry leaders, experts in the field, as well as customers and the rest of the brand community.

5. Marcus Sheridan

Marcus Sheridan warns against resistance to content marketing. He believes that there will be an increasing number of companies recognising that there is nothing more to say or write about in the industry. Such thinking will be the biggest trap that will keep them lagging far behind their competitors. Only brands that are constantly going into content marketing farther and farther will have a chance to stay on the market.

6. Carlos Hidalgo.

Carlos Hidalgo believes that 2016 will be a year of increasing pressure to measure ROI. It assumes that marketers will broaden their skills by more thorough measurement of their effectiveness.

7. Ian Cleary

Ian Cleary predicts that it will become necessary to search for a new employee profile. Content marketers will need to improve their skills in designing and optimizing processes in the sales funnel. Currently, there is no shortage of specialists who can use the traffic on the website to better convert, but it is the content marketing specialists who should learn from scratch various ways to improve the quality of traffic. Soon you will need an employee who combines the features of a content marketer and a specialist in optimizing the conversion ratio of the sales funnel.

Eight. Jason Miller.

Jason Miller heralds the end of storytelling in a familiar, complex form. It assumes that it will be replaced by short anecdotes, which are much easier to digest by users who have increasing difficulty concentrating attention on long transfers. An anecdote is a perfect and pleasant part of reality, in an easily assimilated form.

9. Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee thinks that now is the perfect time to get to know the people. That means: marketers will pay more attention to getting to know their customers. Thanks to this, they will be able to create a much more precise and better documented content marketing strategy. The assumption is that it will focus on designing a deeper experience, regardless of the stage of the purchase process.

Ten. Luke Kintigh.

Luke Kintigh is planning to reorganise his marketing departments. He believes that the growing convergence of content, media and data will force companies to reform the current roles of professionals in marketing teams. In this way, the cooperation between those responsible for PPC, creative projects and analytics will be strengthened. This will be needed to improve the knowledge of user behaviour. A new type of content marketer will be created: he will combine knowledge and skills not only in terms of creating a message, but also in terms of measuring the real effects of his actions.

11. Luke Kintigh.

Luke Kintigh also believes that the tendency to block advertisements by Internet users, contrary to appearances, has a very positive impact on companies. They are forced to create valuable messages that users will not want to disable. Companies will have to focus on creating valuable and useful content so that it doesn't drown in the jungle of garbage advertising. In this way, the era of value-added advertising will begin slowly but steadily.

12. Ann Handley

Ann Handley's prediction about the future of content marketing is that the name "Content Marketing World" will prove to be insufficient, and Joe Pulizzi is changing it to "Content Marketing Cosmos". These are, of course, speculations, and the near future will show whether the specialists and market experts were right. Do you agree with their predictions? What are the trends in content marketing in your opinion that will take place in the next few or a dozen or so months? Will the previously known solutions soon be forgotten? What is the future of content marketing in the form we all know today?