The world of content marketing is ever-changing and evolving. In the midst of your busy day-to-day, it’s not always easy to stay on top of the latest industry shifts and trends.
To help you keep up with the latest and greatest in the content marketing industry, we’ve rounded up the top five things you need to know right now based on recent studies, findings and news articles.
1. Marketers intend to allocate more funds to content marketing. Content marketing is becoming increasingly vital, and savvy marketers are acknowledging this reality. A recent report from PulsePoint and Digiday (analyzed here by KoMarketing) indicates that content marketing budgets are expected to rise by 59 percent over the next two years. The report suggests that this increase may outstrip budgets for search and social media.
2. Content marketing can make your business more productive. In an article for the Huffington Post, Jonha Revesencio explains that content marketing can make your business more productive for two reasons:
- It creates best practices that can be applied throughout the company and
- It encourages departments to work together and interact to achieve thought leadership.
3. Your content marketing strategy needs to grow up. Content marketing isn’t new, although it has definitely become more mainstream over the past few years. Jayson DeMers tells Forbes that it’s time for companies to create a content marketing strategy that goes beyond the basics. Or in other words, it’s time for your strategy to grow up!
4. Ebooks, infographics and third-party licensed research reports are hot right now. A brand new report released by Starfleet Media details the state of B2B content marketing. The report is filled with interesting tidbits and insights, but perhaps most compelling are the three pieces of content marketing companies say they have the most success with: ebooks, infographics and research reports.
5. Forty percent of LinkedIn’s ad revenue comes from native advertising. In a call with investors, LinkedIn reported an ad revenue of $119 million for the first quarter. In a not-so-surprising twist, display ad revenue was down, but sponsored updates (AKA native advertising) grew to more than 40 percent.