What Are the Facts behind Content Marketing in 2015?
Content marketing is the number one way to engage your customers in 2015.
So, yeah, it’s pretty damn important!
In fact, the Content Marketing Institute have found that around 90% of ‘business to consumer’ (B2C) marketers use content marketing strategies, so you do not want to miss out on this.
Content Marketing Institute’s analysis of content marketing usage
And it’s this wonder of internet marketing that we’re going to examine today to see how you can create a stampede to your site.
Infographics Are a Huge Visual Must
Like me you probably find yourself struggling to fit everything into your day. Of course, we could just get up a little bit earlier, but everyone loves hitting the snooze button, so we have to work around this time restriction!
And that’s why infographics are proving so popular with marketers at the minute.
Instead of writing a 3000 word report on, say, why your products are the answer to mankind’s problems, you could design a colorful and engaging infographic. It’s easy on your customer’s eye and they can digest everything in about a tenth of the time.
By giving your customers more time for the vital things in life they’re going to have an experience they can’t help but come back to.
DemandGen showed that, in 2014, infographic usage rose leapt from 9% to 52%, so it’s time to build this into your digital marketing!
Social Media Drives Huge Traffic to Content
If you haven’t tweeted today then it’s likely you’ve regrammed, liked or pinned something on the seemingly endless well of social media platforms.
And they aren’t going anywhere soon.
Marketers are well aware of this and a huge 92% of them consider social media a vital part of their business according to Social Media Examiner.
But how can social media promote your content?
Well, maybe you could use it to promote your content and enhance your commerce strategies. And, just look, we’ve already done a piece on how to do this!
And which social media sites are most popular with marketers? According to the Content Marketing Institute it’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, so make sure you create accounts with them ASAP!
Most popular social media platforms with marketers by Content Marketing Institute
Content Needs to Guide Customers
Content which engages and keeps customers hooked is, of course, essential, but when that’s purely what it does I start to roll my eyes!
You may feel as though you’re going down the hard sell route, but you have to use your content to guide your customers through the conversion funnel.
At the end of your content, instead of signing off, tell readers what to do next. It might be to share your content, it may be to download an e-book or it could be to part with some hard earned cash.
A good marketer never wastes a chance to convert, so always make sure a clear payoff is part of your marketing strategy.
It’s Cruel to Restrict Your Content’s Audience!
Content writing leaves you with a delicate little creature which craves attention. It wants to get in front of everyone, so you need to make this part of your content marketing plan.
Many site owners only publish their content on their site. Which is great, it creates a great feel of exclusivity, but you need to reach out to other sources.
Bloggers are increasingly being seen as major authorities and, don’t forget, Google loves authority. That’s why you need to work on building affiliate relationships with major bloggers.
With the number of global internet users rising more than ever you don’t want to shut off any avenues.
Customers Don’t Want a Novel
Statistic Brain have just published some eye-opening stats about how people view content online.
Nearly 20% of page views last less than 4 seconds and only 4% of visitors will stay on a page for 10 minutes or more.
And nearly double the amount of content will be read on a page with 111 words than one with 563 words.
Online attention statistics by Statistic Brain
You could say it marks us out as having a similar attention span to goldfish, but them’s the facts!
That’s why you need to be really succinct with your content. If it can be said in 200 words then say it in 200 words. Don’t pad it out to 4oo words as your visitors will hit the back button long before they convert!
Specialization Offers New Opportunities
Finding a unique website niche in 2015 is now very tough due to the ever growing number of sites already out there.
Many niches are now saturated and aren’t very useful in terms of building a business.
However, you can’t give up! You just need to dig a little deeper into current niches to find something new to work on.
Just look at digital cameras. There’s a niche which reached its breaking point a long time ago. But peel back the layers of that niche and you’ll find there aren’t that many sites looking at specialist zoom software. There’s your new niche to exploit!
Read more about how to find a unique niche with our guide from a few months back.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing and it’s related marketing strategies are changing into something very interesting in 2015.
The short attention span and spare time afforded by customers means that your content writing needs to get to the point, so ensure you’re brutal with your editing and don’t pad content out.
Your marketing plan also MUST use social media as it’s now the hottest commodity online. There’s gold in them thar social networks, so you have to make these part of your digital marketing or you’ll be left way behind.
The number of sites popping up every single day is crazy, so it’s tricky to find prime real estate out on the net now. However, it’s possible to discover a unique niche to show content people are just dying to see.
Content also needs to guide customers to a conversion point. That’s the number one aim of content writing, so don’t fret about a clear link at the end of an article – customers love being guided.
And you can get some great advice on how to deliver great content from our website optimization articles here.
