It’s Back to School for B2B Content Marketing!
I am not a native New Englander. But, with six years of living in the Boston area under my belt, I’ve pretty much become accustomed to the parking lot that is any of the major highways during rush hour.
Traffic gets especially bad around this time of year, when school buses start popping up around every corner. I’ll be the first to admit that my road rage has a tendency to flare (hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em), but spending excessive amounts of time in my car can actually be a good thing because it provides the opportunity to brainstorm blog topics (really!).
Take, for example, the idea of going back to school. I’ve been out of school for years now, but it doesn’t stop me from somehow feeling like the year “resets” in September. Call me crazy, but I think this idea even applies in the world of B2B content marketing.
So, in other words, if we were to think about content marketing as being an academic year, here’s what it might look like:
Review of 2014 Content Marketing Trends
Let’s be honest: The best part about going back to school as a kid was that you could count on breezing through the first week or two because it was just review from the previous year. So, before we outline the 2014/2015 year of content marketing, let’s take a review of some 2014 trends:
(Sources: Heidi Cohen; Curata)
(Source: State of Digital)
(Source: KoMarketing blog)
2014/2015 Content Marketing Trends
So now that we’ve reviewed some of the content marketing trends that have shaped the industry over the past year, let’s take a look ahead to the 2014-2015 “academic” year. The following is an overview of trends industry experts predict are on the horizon:
(Sources: KoMarketing blog; eMarketer; Daily Mail)
(Sources: Ann Handley; Lee Odden; Top Rank Blog)
(Sources: visual.ly; Bill Hunt; Top Rank Blog)
Final Thoughts
If you’re anything like me, you groan when you see a school bus’ flashing lights and outstretched stop sign because you know you’ll be camped out in traffic for the foreseeable future. But the back to school season can be helpful for all of us to keep in mind because it’s a reminder of an exciting future ahead.
How is your company strategizing your content marketing efforts for the coming year? What sort of content marketing predictions would you make for 2015 and how will those predictions shape your current and future content strategy?