The most important trends in content marketing for 2016

CONTENT MARKETING Experts agree: 2016 will bring with it a more intensive focus on content marketing and a move towards professionalization, personalization and moving images.FROM MARTINA GARCIA*The term content marketing is on everyone's lips and has also arrived in Switzerland. This is also shown by the development of the term content marketing on Google Trends. The history of content marketing shows that content marketing is nothing new. What is new is the drastically changed framework conditions in today's markets, which makes the publication of content with added value for target groups so relevant. Certain companies have recognized the business model, others are in the starting blocks, experimenting, often leaving the strategy and implementation to agencies that have specialized in this area, and learning as they go. Content marketing is no longer a trend, but a product of the Internet age and a development in a direction that is sustainable. The study as part of my master's thesis entitled "Successful content marketing in B2B" showed that content marketing is still in its infancy in Switzerland. However, Swiss companies and organizations could learn a great deal from content marketing know-how in neighbouring markets such as Germany, the UK and the USA. Based on in-depth research and the knowledge gained, I am convinced that a strategic approach and intelligent and well thought-out implementation of content marketing can give companies in Switzerland a sustainable competitive advantage. The sensory overload will probably increase. On the contrary, the acceptance of outbound communication will tend to decrease. Companies will have to undergo a learning process with regard to the new framework conditions and the information behavior of their target groups.What do the experts say about the current state of content marketing?ALDO GNOCCHI The term content marketing already exists in people's minds, but there is still some catching up to do in terms of content. Swiss companies have not yet taken any really major organizational measures to define content marketing processes. Agencies, where the know-how lies, are currently still mainly commissioned. In addition, the focus is still too much on the distribution of content via the various channels than on the quality of the content.STEPHAN LENDI In my opinion, the courage to engage with content marketing generally increased in Switzerland in 2015. Some have informed themselves and sought advice, others have experimented and still others have unfortunately ignored this area. Awareness of the potential of content marketing and changing customer needs is increasing, but not yet as rapidly as in other markets.IVANO CELIA Very few companies have yet understood that content marketing automatically means SEO search engine optimization, although content marketing has of course been on the rise in recent years - as it was in 2015. Developing our own content marketing services turned out to be more challenging than originally thought. It was a complex and lengthy process with a lot of trial and error, but also a great deal of experience gained through countless experiments. Ultimately, online campaigns and content marketing are nothing more than experiments to find solutions based on problems and hypotheses. This trial & error culture - which is necessary for above-average performance and success with online and/or inbound/content marketing - seems to have been somewhat lost in Switzerland and is holding back development here compared to countries such as the USA, England or Spain, which are much more advanced and benefit greatly from this. Austria and Germany are very similar to Switzerland in this respect. Fortunately, we have enough customers who think in the same way and are creating competitive advantages and unique selling points in the market through active content marketing and the use of marketing automation.What developments can we expect this year and what are the experts hoping for?ALDO GNOCCHI I expect even more companies and organizations to focus on content marketing in 2016 and that marketing and communication budgets will increasingly be used for digital marketing, while the content mix will also change. I assume that more visual content will be produced. In particular, the area of moving images (video, GIF, interactive infographics, Ciemagram, life streaming, etc.) will become more important, as it is becoming increasingly challenging to be noticed in the ever-growing mass of content. it is also to be expected that companies will rely more on "owned media" (own content hubs) in 2016 and that social media platforms will be used more for content distribution and promotion (seeding and "paid media").I would like to see a rethink in terms of the philosophy of marketing, especially in the area of content marketing - because it is about providing useful content in the right context and in the desired format to create relevant added value for the target groups.The perspective should not be "inside-out", but "outside-in", i.e. oriented towards the needs of the target group.organizations must learn that content marketing is of a long-term nature and is not about packaging traditional marketing messages in new containers and then believing that it is no longer advertising, but content marketing. Content marketing is not about advertising campaigns as we know it from traditional marketing: there is a beginning, but no defined end to a "campaign".GERGINA HRISTOVA The next big trend in content marketing is the interplay of content, personalization and evaluation, drawing conclusions from data about the preferences of the target audience. In other words, the definition of ever more clearly defined user groups in order to eliminate blind spots. This results in potential for user research. Weaknesses in existing content can be identified, the interests and motivations of the target groups can be identified and their expectations in terms of content can be better fulfilled. After all, content can be well written and beautifully designed: If it doesn't interest anyone, it has missed its target. It is therefore important that companies focus on their core competencies and create content that is credible, authentic and understandable for the target audience. If McDonald's were to write about Wall Street, it wouldn't be credible because the audience has completely different expectations of McDonald's. Content marketing is not the solution for everything. Less content is sometimes more. And that's why it's important to question and realistically assess the feasibility and usefulness of content based on the company's goals, with a precise analysis of the market, user needs and internal resources and processes. Analytics - i.e. the evaluation of content performance - then shows whether the experiment has worked or not. The same applies here: mere figures and evaluations do not answer the question of why - the reasons why content worked or not. If you can interpret figures correctly or ask users, you have an advantage.STEPHAN LENDI For 2016, I hope that all those successful Swiss brands that are active beyond the country's borders will also take a closer look at the content marketing approaches of their competitors abroad. A clear strategy, a well thought-out approach and appropriate budgets will continue to be the success factors. The use of moving images as part of content marketing is particularly important to me; I hope that the quality here will continue to increase.IVANO CELIA Many more companies will discover content marketing for themselves this year. Some will try it themselves. Others will organize everything externally and some will find a hybrid form. Content will remain the most important asset in 2016. Content is still king! If you want to organize content marketing efficiently and successfully acquire customers and sales, you can no longer do without editorial tools, content marketing tools, project management tools, time recording tools and marketing automation tools. And this is precisely what I consider to be the next big trend, namely professionalization using tools, and the biggest challenge in 2016 will continue to be the recruitment of suitable authors on specific topics and at affordable conditions. The quality standards for content in Switzerland are traditionally very high. At the same time, content marketing is still a young and little-known discipline for which people are less willing to pay. This is a very difficult constellation to overcome and all market players are challenged to find solutions. The good news is that even in content marketing, less seems to be more. The more companies discover the potential of content marketing for themselves, the higher and faster the demands of the segments (users) increase. This is a major challenge, if not an unsolvable problem, for smaller companies if the users/segments and the market simultaneously demand or require a high publication frequency. There is no way around positioning yourself very precisely, formulating your own buyer personas precisely and focusing on very few hobbyhorses. For companies that have not yet organized their content marketing in 2016, this will be a challenge if they recognize this as an opportunity. For companies that already use content marketing and generate no or too few leads, reducing the cost-per-lead will be a challenge. Ultimately, the aim of content marketing is to acquire new customers, improve the loyalty of existing ones and generate goodwill and a positive image.