8 Must-Know Content Marketing Trends for 2019

If you are looking to take your marketing strategy to the next level for 2019, you will want to be aware of these content marketing trends. They say that change is the only constant and that old saying is especially true for content marketing as marketers find better ways to connect with their audiences on all platforms.

Staying on top of these 2019 content marketing trends can help ensure that your marketing is more successful, more efficient, and more impactful than the competition. By embracing new trends and making them your own, you can catch the next big marketing wave before anyone even has a chance to realize the wave has formed.

With marketers spending an estimated $207 billion in 2018, and over half of that going to digital mediums, savvy marketers need to ensure that every dollar invested is delivering maximum ROI. This is why seizing on new content marketing trends early can be so important.

8 Intriguing Content Marketing Trends to Watch

As mentioned, now that marketers have fully embraced digital channels, it feels like the marketing world is on the edge of a major change. This trend will likely continue in 2019, but the marketers that will be genuinely successful will move ahead of the curve by watching out for these new trends.

1. Strategy Becomes Mainstream in Marketing Trends

Content marketing is an essential part of any marketing plan. There probably aren’t many people who will argue that assertion these days. However, what kind of strategy is going into content marketing?

Simply generating content for the sake of having content will not cut it in 2019 as more and more marketers embrace the power of content marketing.

The significant trend that marketers should embrace immediately is a clear content marketing strategy. Directly driving traffic is not a strong enough strategy in 2019. Instead, marketers need to determine specific goals, metrics for tracking those goals and set out clear timelines for reviewing their success, or lack thereof.

Determining clear metrics to measure success is an integral part of a content marketing strategy. Traffic is nice but what should that traffic be accomplishing? Are more email subscribers needed? Are you looking for more app installs? Determine these metrics as a part of your strategy, build content to deliver based on those metrics, and measure them closely. In doing so, you can ensure that you are investing every dollar in delivering the best results possible.

In addition, a content strategy must focus on the customer experience, rather than just gaining access to wallets. What will keep customers coming back again and again? That’s more valuable than a one-time visit to boost traffic stats.

2. The Rise of Instant Messengers

Traditional marketing mediums like radio and television are very one-sided. The marketer speaks to the customer, the customer watches or listens, and that is the end of the interaction. Logically, the next interaction might be a visit to a website or store if the marketing was successful.

However, content marketing in the digital world is much different. Many types of content marketing are meant to be more of a two-way conversation. A business may post a video on social media, illicit questions or comments from followers, and then continue interacting with followers in the comment section. Of course, that’s a pedestrian way to look at digital content marketing and the relationship between marketers and consumers. In reality, things are getting much more advanced.

One of the most significant content marketing trends to watch in 2019 will be instant messenger content. This could include campaigns sent through instant messenger or even the use of increasingly popular chatbots. Some companies are already using chatbots to connect with customers and deliver information on demand, 24/7.

Consumers want to be a part of the conversation. They live in an age where their phone can instantly give them answers to any question they may have. Content marketers need to recognize this changing relationship and capitalize on it in 2019 and the years to come.

3. The Creation of Niche Sub-Brands

You cannot please everyone with everything. Creating a marketing campaign that captures the hearts, minds, and wallets of every potential customer certainly sounds nice, but it is next to impossible. These days, consumers have so many ways to tailor their media consumption to meet their unique interests specifically.

For example, someone can subscribe to a forum about their favorite make and model of car. They can also follow a social media influencer that participates in their favorite sport.

No matter what someone is into, there is a growing list of ways they can feed their hunger for content.

Brands began dabbling in niche marketing in 2018 and, in 2019, we believe this will be one of the most significant content marketing trends. We have seen brands create branded podcasts that cater to a unique subset of their customer base. This is just a taste of how brands will continue to dive deeper into niche marketing as 2019 kicks off.

4. Personalization of Content Via Omnichannel Delivery

In 2018, we stated that generic content was dead, and we believe 2019 will further cement this trend as fact. In an age where someone’s Netflix recommendations know what they want to watch before they do, people don’t have the time or patience for generic and uninspired content marketing. They want personalized experiences, not the same old marketing tactics.

Another big challenge for marketers will be delivering personalized content when and where their customers are available. The most significant social media trend or the hottest new platform of 2019 may not even be in the public consciousness yet. Brands that are situated to embrace new channels quickly will have a massive advantage over brands that are slow on the uptake.

Delivering this level of personalization and being able to adopt new channels as-needed could prove to be a major headache. Marketers need to ensure that their content management system is equipped to work efficiently with the services they already use and quickly integrate with new services as they become available. Extensive programming and planning may be required to adopt a new trend or service won’t work for brands that want to be on the leading edge in 2019 and beyond.

5. Embrace Interactive Content in 2019

Another content marketing trend that is going to take off in 2019 is interactive content. We have already seen one notable example of this with Netflix’s interactive, choose your own adventure episode of Black Mirror. This is the modern version of the choose your own adventure books that many people read as a child.

Consumers will gravitate to this type of content marketing because it makes them a part of the content rather than just the consumer of the content.

Of course, not all interactive content has to be a Netflix-quality feature production. Content like surveys and contests will gain favor with customers who want something different from the typical marketing tactics they are used to.

The ultimate goal of interactive content is greater engagement. There are hundreds of different things trying to capture the attention of consumers and only the pieces that engage people will earn any significant attention. Much like videos are better than basic, text-only social media posts; interactive content will be the next step in content marketing and one of the most significant 2019 content marketing trends.

6. Increase in Distribution or Paid Content

“Social media influencer” has been a bit of a buzzword over the past few years. This is a trend that will continue to grow in 2019 as marketers look to reach people through new channels.

67% of marketers believe that influencer marketing helps them reach a more targeted audience. As we know, people want personalization that fits their unique interests, and influencer marketing is one of the best ways to achieve that for marketers.

Of course, influencer marketing isn’t the only way to get paid content out to interested customers. Look for more marketers to directly pay for promotional content on publication websites. With quality content, marketers can appear less like they are marketing and more like they are providing top-notch information to readers.

This can help break through that invisible wall that many people put up when they see traditional marketing messages and mediums.

7. Video Goes Big in 2019 Marketing Trends

Okay, so video content marketing doesn’t qualify as one of the hot new content marketing trends of 2019. Marketers have been embracing video more and more recently. However, we do believe that video will continue to grow and deliver tremendous results for marketers.

With marketing channels like Facebook and YouTube cracking down on content that creators can monetize through the use of video ads, marketers should feel more confident than ever that video content is a powerful tool in the old toolbox.

With 1.9 billion people watching millions of hours of video per day on YouTube, video content is going to be a popular way to connect and engage with potential customers.

Best of all, you can combine video with many other 2019 content marketing trends. For example, video can be made to be interactive, it can be made as part of a niche branding channel, or it can be incorporated into a paid content promotion. This flexible form of content will undoubtedly be one of the best solutions available to marketers for years to come.

8. Watch for AI, IoT, and Voice Search to Grow

Artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), and voice search devices are not new concepts in general, but they will quickly become refined, essential pieces of modern content marketing plans. The new ways that people search for and engage with brands will require marketers to adapt the way that they target searches.

While brands will need to cater to AI search results, they will also be able to use AI for better planning and strategizing. With the help of AI, marketers will be able to get deep insights into data in a way that was previously unimaginable. The big challenge will be embracing and implementing these powerful tools.

2019’s Marketing Trends - Bringing it all Together

Those are the eight significant content marketing trends to look for in 2019. On the surface, they may look like unique trends and, in a sense, they are. However, there is one underlying theme that connects all of these concepts and trends: personalization.

We have been banging on the personalization drum for some time, and 2019 is not going to be any different. Marketers need to embrace personalization more than ever as consumers begin to expect more from their favorite brands and the content that they consume.

If you want to learn more, we have some in-depth blogs about the rise of digital experience platforms, the benefits of an omnichannel content management system, what a headless content management system is, and how a digital experience platform is related to a content management system.

To learn more about Contentstack’s headless CMS or begin using this powerful tool for your brand, you can start by trying it for free today.