Any future digital marketer have you been hearing the concept of ‘Content Marketing’ all over the place and wondering what the fuss about this terminology is all about? Content, you might say, is obviously required in the marketing world – so what’s new about it? And moreover, it’s not rocket science.

The concept of ‘Content Marketing’ came into limelight during the period between 1995-1996, but the click about that marketing needs to be about affluent in content-wise has always been there but it is the probability of the formats that the content follows and the medium of distribution of the same can be specified that has come through a lot of changes.

The slow modification

The format of content during the last decade has faced quite a number of changes that is from being widely used in digitally or whether through the internet, whether content be through video or mobile which areas of today by far the highest consumed means of content and dealers are scrambling to reach targeted audiences through these by most.

 

1. Offline to Online:

Reading articles/ news few years ago was a paper related activity but in today’s date the same content is connected with multiple gadgets with high-speed internet available to most of the urban areas and gradually it has been observed a paradigm shift towards content available online not only for news and information but any mode of communication-related to amusement purpose also. Today generation is more into online video, mobile app, for online TV, Podcasts etc and therefore, Television, which was so far considered the sacred mode of communication, is now facing tough race. Latest gadgets like Smart-phones, the Kindle and tablets are now being mostly used to read digital content and watch YOU-TUBE videos are now a normal daily routine and an everyday consumption for every TGA whether housewives looking for new and innovative recipes, to youngling learning our traditional rhymes, preteen simplifying science fundamental concepts and not to forget the young audience looking for their music fixes. A person with good reading habits also refers to E-books and audiobooks which are today have become more popular than physical hard or softcover books.

 

2. Influencer / Trendsetter Marketing through Blogging and Vlogging (a thought process out of the box

 

A recent trend has shown the usage of Blogging and Vlogging has exploded in the last couple of years and among them has also been successfully converted into monetization blogs/vlogs. For instance, we can take the example of the famous tech blogger Mr Amit Agarwal for his Digital Inspiration which is one of the most indicated examples among the recent Indian blogger’s success and to specify others, famous celebrities could be named as Nisha Madhulika for her innovative cooking videos or Mr Suresh Menon for his channel “ Arnab Frankly Speaking” which basically contains hilarious spoofs on Television news representative Mr Arnab Goswami. Along with these famous icons not to forget our Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, who has one of the largest on-going incredibly increasing crowd/ fan followers on Twitter and Youtube too. The Indian Brands are not even far behind as they copy the same trend which not only cuts off the budget but reaches to the maximum number of TGA and keeping the lead time almost to zero levels.

 

3. The trailblazer for visual appeal

An effective content marketing is what sets perfection into both images and perfect content write-up, now this is what creating a boom in the market. Put a slight thought about Instagram and  FB Page (IoT) – a completely seeable action which is not only being enjoyed by preteen/teens/young /old generation but also retailers as well as fashion enthusiasts, fitness trainers/fitness freak and big brands alike all over the Globe.

 

Info-graphics has created an eye-catchy in a bigger way in the last 5 years. Basically it is used to present abstract and complicated data in an easy-to-scan visual form or pattern. This pattern not only makes a process fast and easy to assimilate raw data but also makes it more memorable and the same time presentable. Big Brand Owners are now widely sharing branded (old/ popular/ newly launched/demanding) infographics with data that is valuable and relevant to their target groups.

 

The Expert Point of View

Speaking to Ms.Suhasini Kirloskar, co-founder of MarketAxis Consulting, one of the Pune’s leading consultancies that focus into strategic content development and digital marketing domain. She has extensive experience in content marketing for B2B companies and expertise in the IT sector.

According to her experience – Content for any B2B marketing is the fundamental base and in the meantime crucial. Moreover, a B2B purchase decision is based on rich-knowledge as well as trustworthy vendors, so in the initial process, the whole system is complex and therefore taking decisions takes long. However, Indian Traders are mostly struggling with the creation, publishing and promoting the strategic contents as maximum content writers are lacking that high-quality strategic view. In her viewpoint, SMART investment of senior leadership targets mostly in just putting down money for content. So, overall, a lot of efforts require to be done to really tackle the full potential of Content Marketing and in her thought, the field is bountiful with scopes for young/energetic marketers who can distribute quality content which is valuable and meaningful to their audience.

Latest Trends to watch out for in 2019

 

1. Usage of location optimized content

2. Content optimized used in Voice Search

3. Use of Artificial Intelligence in creating Content marketing