June 27, 2014

Inbound marketing strategy is increasingly being dominated by content marketing, which has been estimated to have a share of 60% of all marketing techniques. The traditional marketing that entails intrusive communication is losing its popularity. Consumers are now frequently taking to a systematic way of accessing information through content marketing.

Content Marketing

Content marketing aims at presenting the eager recipient with quality information in the form of content.  It creates awareness, builds trust and inculcates a positive attitude towards a brand. When it is established that your content is trustworthy, a long term business relationship is stabilized with relative ease.

Content marketing is presented in many ways including, but not limited to: PowerPoint presentations, e-books, blogs, emails, podcasts, videos, social media, webinars, live presentations and white papers.

Inbound Marketing in 2014

Content marketing will become more and more commonplace in 2014. It will no longer be a minor player in a plethora of marketing methods, it will be THE method. The marketers as well as consumers will look upon content marketing as the prime source of information.

CEOs and their staff are bound to perceive inbound marketing in its proper perspective and will make significant investment in it. Content creation and dissemination will see more budget allocation, enabling dedicated content managers to be put in place.  This is a position which previously was seen as a luxury rather than a necessity. It has been proven that companies actively engaged in content marketing acquire customers at far less a cost than those who are not, thereby increasing ROI.

Google algorithms are getting more and more complicated and clever. The old, previously legitimate, techniques of SEO are gradually getting sidelined and blacklisted. Previous methods have no choice but to fall by the wayside giving its space to content marketing.

Smartphones have opened a new gateway for marketers. Players who do not recognize the impact Google’s Hummingbird and the company’s decision to revoke keyword data will have on desktop usage will lose out. It is predicted that mobile phones will nudge out desktop in less than two years. Presently 2 mobile devices are purchased for every 1 traditional laptop or desktop.

Even people not ‘on the go’ are increasingly using mobile phones to access Internet. Mobile-friendly formatting, actionable blog posts and shorter posts will become the standard and ultimately the norm.
A case-by-case measurement of results of inbound marketing techniques and ROI may not always be possible for companies. It is easier and more accurate to calculate the result over a long period of time.  SaaS software will offer significant help to businesses to calculate the effect of their content marketing strategies and the ROI. This will lead to a proliferation of SaaS software companies.

Content marketing, at least in the foreseeable future, is not likely to be automated but, efforts will be on to make marketing less labor-intensive but also more efficient.  This maneuver, at least in some cases, may end up lowering the quality of the content and that will be bad for the business. Customers may lose interest in the company. Automation may become a possibility, given the advances being made in technological fields.

Slideshare saw a big leap in 2013. If the trend continues, the current 40% of B2B content distribution will only see an upward swing.

GPS users will pinpoint the location of dealers and close flash deals from their own location. Brick&mortar stores that are already seeing a decline in their business may see more of it in 2014 if they do not embrace new trends and establish their e-commerce presence and regular development of quality online content.  The greatest winners will not just be the lowest in price, but the greatest resources of information.