Now that we’re in the beginning of 2016, I’m sure that everyone will be curious about what will happen next in content marketing. It’s no doubt that SEO is evolving, and it’s getting more difficult. But that’s not gonna stop us from keeping up, right?

Google’s algorithm is changing from time to time, and we have to make sure to stay updated with it too. Previously, Zhi Yuan has written a blog post about 2016 SEO Predictions. And from there, we know that Google’s latest brainchild, RankBrain will have a big impact on SEO on 2016. So what about content marketing?

After analyzing the content marketing in 2015, here are my predictions for 2016 content marketing:

Blog Post Will Not Be Published Everyday

Marketers will publish lesser content in 2016. Blog posts are everywhere nowadays. So marketers will develop a new strategy to create a better content, and then smartly distribute it. Instead of publishing a blog post every day, marketers will be publishing 2 – 3 blog posts in a week.

Not only that, there will also be a decrease in word count compared to what we did in 2015 as well. Last year, content with 2,000 – 3,000 words tend to perform better. However, as time goes by, people no longer interested in long content because in the end, the content will be too long; didn’t read (TLDR) for them.

So my guess is that word count will be lesser, probably with less than 1,500 words and instead of long-winded content, content will be more straight to the point this time.

There Will Be Lesser Beginners Topics

If you realized, there are not many beginners in the SEO industry anymore. People nowadays know SEO and they also know what they’re doing. Therefore, blog posts that are targeted to beginners don’t really perform well these days.

Not just the beginners topic, but topics regarding technical stuff is no longer attractive compared to a personal story. Readers want to read a story that contains emotions in it rather than just plain content explaining what SEO is all about.

Neil Patel nails it in this part. He always writes about his experience on how he manages his business and how much revenue he has made. With this, he gets to attract more readers who are interested in the SEO industry to read about his experience.

Personal story tend to attract readers more because they can relate and gain something from your experience.

People want to know what you have gone through so that they can learn from it. This is why a personal story is important and there will be more content heading towards this direction.

Content Will Come To Life

Yes, you read it correctly. More content will be in the form of infographics and GIFs instead of long content.

If you’ve been following our blog posts frequently, you should know that we’ve mentioned it several times that visuals have a better impact compared to text. According to Thomas Korte website, it stated that our brain processes visuals faster than text.

At this time, you should have seen that there are more and more content using visuals in it if you actually notice. This has proven that content marketing is changing. Content with just text no longer works effectively.

Readers will remember your content better if you have creative and colorful infographic.

More Content Will Be In Video Form

Other than YouTube, Facebook is now a popular platform for you to post your videos. 2016 is prepared for marketers to get ready for mobile video marketing. Whether it’s Facebook Live, video on Twitter, Instagram, Vine, or the common YouTube, 2016 will be the year when videos become a primary content marketing consideration for all marketers.

Even Moz is already generating their content in video form where Rand Fishkin shares his thoughts and explains more about inbound marketing.

Many tend to trust user-generated content like reviews that come in video form more than any other types of marketing media. This is because people get to understand about the product better when there are others who share their opinions and review in video than words. When you have reviews in the form of video, your audiences can at least see it. Users tend to believe you better when they can see the product.

Social Media Will Be The Next Content Marketing

Content will be published more on social media. The storytelling method doesn’t apply only to blog posts, but you can also use the same method on social media.

Even famous networks are using Snapchat to share and promote their content.

The best example would be Snapchat. In this generation, most people don’t prefer to read anymore, which is sad, but true. We can’t deny the fact that they tend to consume content better by watching, snapping, sharing and commenting on social media. They want original, and quick visual content even Instagram is not real-time enough for them.

Snapchat has more than 100 million daily active users that brands can use it to deliver messages and unique content. If you have not installed Snapchat yet, you should do so. It’s fun!

For example, Universal Pictures make good use of Snapchat by showing a short trailer of the movie, Ouija through Snapchat.

By creating Stories on Snapchat, you get to build up the anticipation for your product or event, which can help in your content marketing.

Apart from Snapchat, Facebook is also the most cost-effective content distribute channel that anyone can use to publish their content and get it shared. Like what I have mentioned in my previous post, The Complete Guide To Social Media Writing, you can now post content on Facebook with the improved version of Facebook Notes.

Let’s take a look at BuzzFeed. They’re constantly publishing their content on Facebook, which receives a huge amount of feedback. I’m pretty sure more people prefer to read BuzzFeed content on Facebook rather than on their website because of the convenience. At this century, mobile is the best source of news, which brings me to my next point.

Mobile Is The Future

Mobile is no longer the second option that everyone will turn to. With mobile traffic surpassing desktop on Google, it is clear that the amount of people using searching on mobile is constantly growing. This is also one of the reasons why many marketers are making their website mobile-friendly.

There are more people using voice searches such as Siri, Google Now and Cortana on their mobile nowadays. All these “virtual assistants” have become very useful to the users as they are more accurate and user-friendly.

You can also refer to these 10 simple ways to make your website mobile-friendly.

More Ads Will Be Displayed

Just like Facebook and Instagram, the amount of ads is increasing each month.

Based on a report from Brand Networks, Instagram is increasing their number of ads every month. The CEO of Brand Networks, Jamie Tedford also said that video advertising on Instagram is increasing as users are willing to spend their time on ads when it is shown with a short video clip.

And now, Facebook has introduced audience optimization for publishers too. The purpose of this optimizations is to target the organic posts to your desired audience.

With these two findings, I predict that more ads will be displayed in content marketing 2016 because it has proven that users are more willing to spend time on the advertisements now compared to last time. This has given the marketers an opportunity to promote their products to the potential customers.

Increase In Wearable Smart Devices

The latest and smart tech devices will be the next big thing in 2016. Based on a report from PwC, the wearable technology is growing as more than 50% of millennials and early adopters are excited about it. Many consumers said that they are eating healthier and exercising smarter with the smart devices.

Marketers will be able to monetize on this technology by finding innovative ways to deliver engaging and educating experiences for their customers. For example, implementing virtual trials of products on an e-commerce website can help to enhance the customer’s online purchasing experience.

Wearable smart devices such as Apple Watch gives marketers a better opportunty to market to their target audiences.

Fitness bands are convenient and helpful in transforming big data and interpret the information to deliver insights to the users, which creates a better user experience.

Increase In Personalized Content Marketing

Consumers today are demanding, it’s not easy to satisfy each and every single one of them. So in 2016, it will be the year where everyone gets to choose what they want. A personalized content marketing strategy is something necessary for your business to grow if you want to get more audiences.

By having personalization, marketers can now choose their content strategy based on categories such as who their audiences are, their audiences location, and what kind of devices their audiences use to access their site. When marketers have collected all the information, they will be able to create a better user experience and help to increase user engagement.

Just like how you can choose your audiences on Facebook ads, I believe personalization will become wider in 2016.

Look Ahead To Content Marketing 2016

Content marketing is about sharing and exchanging the latest information on inbound marketing. You just have to look for the best and effective way to get your content noticed.

I hope these predictions will help you to prepare for content marketing in 2016. Just remember to keep yourself updated with the latest updates in the content marketing world so that you will be able to plan and handle your SEO strategy well.

What are your predictions on content marketing in 2016? Don’t forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

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Updated: 11 December 2024

About Allysa

Allysa is always eager to learn something new whenever she got some free time and that includes SEO and inbound marketing. She also has a passion for traveling and discovering the unknowns.