3 Things To Add To Your Content Marketing Strategy 2018

In this post we’ll look at 3 things you should add to your content marketing strategy 2018.

We’re on the cusp of 2018 and the digital marketing landscape is more challenging than ever. Facebook reach has declined so much that many experts are advising we abandon organic content altogether.

Video and Live Video are no longer enough to sustain decent reach on Facebook. Twitter and Snapchat are struggling and there’s so much content being created by businesses we’re constantly fighting for the attention or our audience.

2018 is going to be about thinking differently and adapting. If we are strategic we can still succeed.

With that in mind here are three trends that I predict will help you stay connected with your audience, build relationships and attract new customers in 2018.

3 Content Marketing Predictions For 2018

1. Stories

Snapchat gave us stories. A cross between reality TV and innovative visual storytelling the ‘story’ format has taken off.

We knew it was evil when Facebook stole the idea for Instagram but it didn’t take us long to migrate there and start building our stories on a social network we’d grown to love.

According to Recode, by June of 2017 250 million people were using Instagram stories daily, compared to 166 million on Snapchat.

Instagram Stories took off. Will Facebook stories be big in 2018?

Then came Facebook stories, which flopped. But they’re not dead.

Facebook needs those stories. It’s short of advertising space and by opening up new channels like video, Instagram and WhatsApp it’s increasing its space. So it needs Facebook stories to work.

In the past when Facebook has needed a feature to work it’s used us, marketers, to help. By offering us extra reach they got us to embrace first standard native video then live video.

In 2018 I predict Facebook will be incentivising us to use the story format.

We may not have to wait until 2018 either. I’m already seeing predominantly business stories when viewing Facebook on the web.

Facebook stories are already having impact for business

Users who manage their page from their personal profile (rather than business manager) already have access to stories for pages and there are hints that we’ll be able to send our Instagram stories straight to our business page story in the future.

We’re also seeing stories from events and groups pop up in our feeds.

Share stories to a Facebook page you manage.

If you haven’t embraced the story format yet now may be the time to learn. You can experiment on Instagram or your Facebook profile.

2. Short form video content

We are living in the age of what Mark Schaefer has coined ‘Content Shock’. There’s too much content. So much that we are constantly fighting for the attention of our audience. When we make a longer video (and by that I mean 2- 3 minutes), we are asking for a significant commitment from our time-starved audience. The same goes for blog posts and podcasts.

To grab the attention of a new audience we need to give them a quick fix. Short form video content could be the solution. It’s visual and eye-catching but doesn’t take time to consume.

A study by Nielson for Facebook shows that even a 3-second video view can increase brand awareness.

Even a 3 second video view can help your brand awareness

The good news is that high impact short-form video content is easy to create on your smartphone. Read more about the apps I love here.

3. Bots

Organic reach may be on the decline but Facebook Messenger bots give us a way to stay in touch with and engage with our audiences in private.

Facebook seems to be invested in getting us to use bots too.

They just commissioned a study showing that 80 percent of adults and 91 percent of teens message every day. 63% of people surveyed said their messaging with businesses has increased over the past two years, and 67% expect to message businesses even more over the next two years.

And they’ve launched a challenge for Small businesses in the US to create Bots.

In 2017 chatbots were still in their infancy but I expect to see small businesses (including mine) using them more creatively in 2018.

These are just three of many possible trends for the coming year. Embracing them as part of your content marketing strategy 2018 will help grow reach, grab attention and build a strong audience that you can work on converting into customers.