Content marketing is continually changing and evolving. Many think that the reason for this is primarily due to all the pressures from Google to produce better content. Since they control about 90% of all search traffic. But that’s not the whole truth. It turns out that much of the industry’s pressure to perform better is due to internal demands. Specifically from high-quality content marketing agencies raising the bar for everyone else.
There will always be content marketing agencies that cater to the lowest bidder by doing barely enough work to get recognised by Google. Some of which took years to stop publishing thin, 300-word articles after the Google Panda update. But overall, content marketing is changing, and for the better! Here’s how.
1. We have access to more data than ever before
More and more data has become available to fuel content marketing agencies’ decisions. Particularly for the planning phase of content creation. Having access to more data enables these agencies to make more well-informed decisions and produce even more powerful results. Accessing this data involves using a mixture of machine learning platforms, AI optimisation and all of the old analytics that they’re used to.
Believe it or not, the process for creating content begins long before a single word is written. This is due to a large amount of groundwork that needs to be done to research competition, keywords and keyword variations, traffic, estimated value, calls to action, etc.
A piece of content must be well thought out and planned before it can be written. It must also be able to fulfil a specific role. To do this, more advanced technology is applied. As a result, tools become more sophisticated, data sets become bigger and entire systems become more robust.
2. Quality over quantity is vital
Google began pushing for quality over quantity back in 2011 with the release of its Panda algorithm. That push continues with content becoming longer, more in-depth and more specialised with every passing year.
Part of the reason for this is the sheer volume of content already online. Almost every basic subject you can think of has about half a dozen authorities writing about it in depth. That’s why every piece of new content needs to be:
• Narrowly defined in a specific niche with low competition.
• More in depth than what already exists.
• Written to position the author as a thought leader in the space.
What this essentially means is that the old strategies of hiring writers from content mills who pump out bulk posts about low-level topics will no longer work.
Content marketing agencies need to produce results, which means that the content they create needs to perform well. The reality is that low-quality content doesn’t perform well, no matter how much of it there is.
3. It should be about the long game
Content marketers have known for quite a while that blogging is a long term strategy for any business to create brand awareness online. Not to mention that it takes years of blogging to reach any significant level of organic ranking and traffic for brand new websites.
For established websites, it can take months before seeing results. Unless content marketing is coupled with large paid advertising campaigns to kickstart the process.
What this essentially means is that short-term promises of getting ranked in Google Search and getting traffic within months due to a few pieces of content is no longer possible.
So instead, content marketers make promises about the results clients will see after years of blogging and how the average lifespan of a piece of evergreen content is longer than ever before. As well as other promises associated with long term thinking.
Convincing people of this, however, is difficult because too many clients are just focused on the short term, immediate gains. Telling a business owner, for example, that blogging is in their best interest when it will cost them money for quite some time before they start to see returns is hard to justify.
4. Content marketing agencies have started to get picky
When a long term relationship becomes essential to success, content marketing agencies can get picky. What usually ends up happening is that instead of potential clients interviewing them for a fit, the agencies interview the clients and decide if it’s a good fit for them. This happens because it requires an immense amount of time, tools, energy, planning and content creation to get a client’s content strategy to be a success.
Different agencies have different ideas of what they consider their ideal client to be. Some choose to work with specific industries while others, specific size clients or certain attitudes.
The days of a one-size-fits-all content marketing agency that accepts any sort of client are over.
5. Organic content versus paid
Social media, paid advertising and other forms of online advertising are becoming increasingly more expensive and difficult for the average business to take on. Ads are more expensive than ever, competition is stronger and interest from audiences is waning. Meanwhile organic content (which can be very attractive to audiences and possibly go viral) is growing.
Conclusion
Content marketing has been changing and evolving for decades and will continue to do so for as long as this type of content is consumed. To be successful, content marketing agencies need to stay up to date and on the cutting edge of that ongoing evolution.
