Discover in 11 slides how content marketing is evolving. according to the content agency Cypres.

1. 11 IMPORTANT
DEVELOPMENTS IN
CONTENT MARKETING
Leuven, 2014 July

2. Content marketing is more than just a
buzzword: it really is the new marketing
for both B2C and B2B.
For the past 25 years, Cypres has been
keeping track of how content and
communicating through content have
evolved. That’s what a content agency
should do.

3. Discover
in the next 11 slides
how content marketing is evolving.

4. Brands that take mobile as the point of departure for their content
strategy have an excellent chance of reaching their target audience
wherever the latter are located.
Adaptive content – and not just responsive design – has become the
marketers´ latest darling: a single key message is produced in several
variants, which are used for different platforms and focus on the unique
characteristics of each of these.
Read more: Don’t forget about adaptive content when building a
responsive website
‘Mobile first’ increases the
need for adaptive content
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MARKETING

5. Location-based services and location-oriented content are becoming
more important. Far-reaching synergies are emerging between online
stores and their local outlets.
Through smart data analysis, companies are trying to fulfill the ad hoc
needs of their customers, no matter where or when.
Furthermore, local and personalised content is becoming part of the
digital business model of large media companies.
This is being produced by members of the local community, rather
than, as was done earlier, regional journalists.
Local and personalised content is
gaining in importance
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6. In 2013, we saw the rise of, for example, the mobile phone app Vine
(now also on desktop), the increased visibility of Instagram’s 15-second
videos (look at what the BBC is doing with those), the rising popularity
of WeHeartIt and the growing role of Pinterest as a news source.
Thanks to applications like Exposure and Storehouse, visual
storytelling is becoming ever more commonplace.
Strong visuals are gaining in popularity.
Visual searching, which is becoming increasingly important, is having a
great impact on SEO.
Therefore, when planning our content, we are increasingly including
visuals along with the text.
Visual storytelling is being integrated
into content planning
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7. At the insistence of users, much more of the data captured by social
media is no longer publicly accessible. Not even by companies.
Moreover, governments will be instituting stricter legal frameworks. The
prospect of this is forcing companies to rethink their long-term
marketing strategies, given that, in the future, they might be able to
store data for only a limited time.
Companies will create relevant content that gathers their followers into
small, closed members-only groups. Buzz-generating Snapchat
campaigns are seeing the light of day.
Read more: Privacy and data protection: What do they really want with
your data?
Privacy is changing how we
look at marketing
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8. Traditional customer media agencies may still claim to ‘own’ the field of
content marketing, but that assertion no longer corresponds to reality.
New names now gaining a foothold approach content marketing from a
position of digital expertise. PR agencies are also increasingly seeing
an interest in a content marketing approach.
However, above all, established media agencies are
becoming major players: they are already strategic
sparring partners of companies and make independent, multichannel
recommendations.
Customer media agencies on the other hand have the advantage of
having an enormous amount of experience in conveying relevant
content.
Collaboration between agencies, each with their own expertise, is
therefore becoming commonplace.
See also next development: “Collaboration leads to success”
Media agencies are becoming content
marketing agencies
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9. Few companies have all the skills in-house to integrate content
effectively. After all, content marketing is a complex job, which among
other things demands a multi-channel strategy and thorough data
analysis.
Even more than before, companies are obliged to collaborate
with various partners: the media, content providers,
researchers and digital agencies.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for each of these players to cover the
entire field on their own, so they’ll have to learn how to work together.
This team-player attitude is also gaining ground within the companies
themselves: there’s plenty of good content to be found on all different
levels and in all departments.
Thanks to cross-department teamwork, it will be tapped into much
more frequently than in the past.
The best team players will be the winners of tomorrow.
Read more: How does content marketing work? From defining
audiences to measuring results
Collaboration leads to success
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10. Relevant content remains important, but even more important is
helping customers at every point of their customer journey.
Successful companies continue to encourage communities that actively
promote their brand and, by doing so, think more broadly than just
customer care via social media. They’re also stimulating interaction
between their customers, so that they can help each other.
A pleasing result of this is an increase in the co-creation of products
and services.
Read more: Social media and content strategy – Can it be more than
simply dropping links?
Companies are helping customers help
customers
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11. To escape seemingly never-ending digital noise, people are actively
building offline moments into their lives and developing a greater
appreciation of tactile interactions and face-to-face contacts.
Established digital brands are responding to this with derivative
products for the offline world. Together with a number of niche
communities, they’re proving that print is far from dead – and, as a
result, they’re making print dinosaurs who haven´t yet gone digital
blush with shame.
Read more: From pixels to pages: Why digital initiatives are venturing
into print
Digital brands are becoming print
players
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12. Newspapers and magazines are coming under ever more pressure
and, as a consequence, the exodus of journalists – whether voluntary
or not – continues.
However, the sharpest pens are quickly finding new homes with
brands, which are fighting to employ the best talents in their content
marketing.
Branded content, both on- and offline, is benefiting from the newly
available journalistic techniques.
You can expect to see journalists taking responsibility for the content
strategy of some companies in the near future.
Read more:
Why ‘branded journalism’ is a contradiction in terms
Journalism is enriching branded
content
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13. Wearable technology is penetrating our lives: glasses, watches, even
clothes … one by one, they’re becoming smarter. You just haven’t
bought them yet.
Now that the masses are discovering the ‘Internet of Things’, we’re
once again questioning how we offer and structure information.
Content and UX will enter into a new alliance, giving rise to many
opportunities for brands to offer (micro)content in new and more
intelligent ways and often in one-on-one dialogues with consumers.
Read more:
How to be social with micro-content
The Internet of Things offers new
content opportunities
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14. The need for useful and relevant content is increasing because
companies have to pull out all the stops to get and retain the attention
of their public.
They do this by highlighting their value(s) and actively involving the
public in their projects.
User-generated content plays an extremely important role in this effort,
one equivalent to that of the content itself.
Companies that fail to bring their user base on board are being ignored
and risk being pushed aside by competitors who do know the right way
to do it.
Read more:
The collaborative economy and its impact on content
User-generated content is increasing in the
wake of the collaborative economy
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15. Cypres organizes, creates and manages
cross-media content for your customers,
your employees and all your other
stakeholders.
Our baseline? “Content to connect”,
because we firmly believe that you create
and strengthen relationships with your
audience by providing information they find
highly valuable.
Discover how Cypres creates strong
content for you and your stakeholders.
Cypres invites you to discover The
Content Room, our open competence
center and creative laboratory, in which
we study and test new ways to create,
use and distribute content.
Specialists from Belgium and abroad
come regularly to discuss everything
related to content and content publishing.
This includes such topics as content
strategy and material, content
governance, social content and content
co-creation.
Do you want to stay informed about activities
at Cypres and The Content Room?
Sign up for our e-newsletter at www.cypres.com.