The 5 Biggest Content, Digital Marketing Trends to Anticipate in 2018

Content marketing is constantly evolving. As we stay on the edge of that evolution, here are our expectations for 2018 trends.

Compared to last year, more businesses have had success with content marketing in 2017.

The key to a continued success is staying on top of trends. What is working this year may not work next year, as new trends emerge every year.

We also have more on content marketing including tips, top startups that use it, and how to make your content more persuasive, so be sure to check those out as well.

But, without further ado:

Here are 5 Content Marketing Trends Edgy Labs Expects in 2018

1. Social Publishing

Social media platforms will no longer just serve as content distribution platforms but also as publishing platforms. Medium and Linkedin have long served as social publishing platforms but it’s Facebook that has kicked it up a notch.

The largest social media network opened up its publishing tool “Instant Articles” to the public last year and it’s already receiving a third of all link clicks on the site. We anticipate this number to go up in 2018 as more publishers embrace the tool.

Also, Snapchat now allows Snappers to add links to their snaps and opens them in-app with a simple swipe.

With tech giants’ history of copying features from each other, we anticipate all social platforms will add publishing features soon.

2. Continued Rise of Influencer Marketing

Paid ads are getting less effective.

A survey conducted by customer acquisition firm Fluent found that 69% of all Snapcat users skip ads on the app. Another 65% of consumers equally skip video ads according to CNBC.

Advertisers are aware of this growing trend and have sought new ways to spend ad dollars. One of the tops among them is collaborating with celebrities and influencers. Advertisers pay up to $500k to these celebrities and influencers to post about their brand.

According to Inc, influencer marketing has a return on investment of about 11x compared to other forms of paid digital media.

3. Livestream and Video Content will Explode

If you’ve made a video post or started a live broadcast on Facebook, you’ll notice that engagement is unusually high compared to text posts, images or links.

On average, videos get 135% more organic reach than images, status, and link posts.

This is intentional. Just like videos are given preference over text and image posts, live videos are given preference over all posts on Facebook.

In a blog post, the social media giant explained that the reason for this is that users spend 3x more time watching live videos than normal videos.

For these reasons, more and more marketers and brands are investing in more video and live content.

Facebook has already announced it’s gearing towards a “video first” platform. Every passing year gets it closer to its goal.

4. AI-Enhanced Content

In 2015, Gartner predicted by 2018, Artificial Intelligence will be responsible for 20% of all content produced.

“Content that is based on data and analytical information will be turned into natural language writing by technologies that can proactively assemble and deliver information through automated composition engines.”

With the recent advancements in AI, this prediction isn’t far from reality. We’re in 2017 and an AI has already composed a full musical album.

5. Visual Content

Virtual reality and augmented reality present a new form of content creation and marketing opportunity. Few brands have already jumped on the visual content bandwagon.

An example is biscuit company Oreo.

To promote its new range of cookies, Oreo created an animated virtual world that took users through an immersive environment of rivers filled with milk and canyons made of chocolate. With over three million views till date, it’s safe to assume the campaign was a success.

The virtual and augmented reality market is projected to reach $162 billion USD by 2020.

What other content marketing trends do you anticipate in 2018?