With the advancement in technology and social media, businesses are also changing the way they interact with their customer. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to be smart enough to know what do people want and how to fulfill those needs.

Marketing your business and promoting your products needs a strategy and extensive planning. You need to think about your public relations (PR), marketing leads, tactics to increase your sales and connect better with your customers by posting interactive content.

Content marketing is the most reliable and effective way to get people listen to you. If your content is worthy, people will interact with you and take better interest in your product. The original content also gets people talking about it and share it with their friends, leading to increased traffic on your blog or website.

If you want your content marketing to succeed, your first step is set up a blog, be it on social media or a web hosting service. Social media blogs do not offer much because of limited customization options but if you really want your brand to grow, invest some money and get your own domain name and blog hosting so you are able to start a professional well-maintained WordPress blog.

Always remember that the content marketing strategy once planned is not the final one. You will need to make changes and modify it according to the trends and your product. Finding a way to accommodate your business goals with current trends is the best way to ensure your outreach and impact on the customers.

With 2016 here, we are going to look at some of the trends that were hot and 2015 and have a high probability to stay in the news through 2016 as well. Here are some.

1.  Quality over quantity:

Google has changed their search algorithm and the way content used to appear in top search results. Before the updated algorithm, it was all about quantity of the content and making unlimited posts was a way for you to make in the top search results, but now quantity and number of posts on one topic do not matter anymore.

What matters is your understanding of keywords and using them repetitively in the content. Writing quality content that is also SEO worthy is the new trend and you need to follow that if you want to improve your outreach.

Various plugins and tools that allow the In ad blocking are making it difficult for marketers to put the content in audience’s line of sight. But with high quality and engaging content, you can overcome that problem easily.

2.  Social media focused content:

Content marketing is much more than posting on website and blogs or building a strong copy for your advertisements. It is any content that you post on social media even as a part of casual conversation without the hopes of targeting customers to buy your product.

Any update you post on social media is closely scrutinized by your audience and competitors. For that reason, you need to make your standing in the crowd without imitating someone or their content.

Genuine and real content on social media keeps the users interested and makes you look authentic. Give due consideration and diligent thinking when you are creating posts for social media. Social media posts are one of the biggest key factor in driving traffic to your website so make use of excessive back linking in every post.

3.  Customers’ involvement in content curation:

People love when they are appreciated and their work gets noticed. This gives you a chance to involve them in the process of marketing and advertising by asking their suggestions.

You can call out skilled professionals who use Photoshop, illustrator or Corel draw to create graphics and images that can be used in advertising strategy. Put up rewards for the winner to ensure increased participation. Rewards serve as a motivation and a chance for people who are highly talented but are unable to break through the clutter of professionals present on social media.

Apart from competitions, recognize people who are loyal to your brand and stick with you through thick and thin. Give them a shout out on Twitter and Facebook by mentioning their user names, so they are certain that you are specifically talking about them.

Public appreciation is one of the best ways to interact and build a long-term relationship with your clients / customers.

4.  Fast loading content:

People do not have time in this fast-paced world to wait even for a minute to view your content. They want to see it immediately the page opens. If your content is augmented in terms of bytes and loads slowly, your customer moves on without waiting for it to load. This presents the problem of producing high resolution content that is not only not bad in quality but also takes no time in loading, even with the slower internet connections.

The world has become fast moving and internet presents itself as an opportunity anyone an avail at any time. You can find information on a one topic from multiple organizations, just one click away. You need to make sure that click comes your way by avoiding the use of images or data that takes million years to load. People expect to find information as soon as they open the page, and if it is not there, it is highly unlikely that they will come back.

5.  Video and audiovisual domination:

Visual content is paving its way in to our live fast. People like to see content that is real and has appeal. Not only that, but as I mentioned in previous point, social media users are becoming impatient so they want the content the go. Instead of reading about a thing in a boring paragraph, preference is being given to audiovisual and live stream videos.

Videos are more interactive than text posts and are a fast way to access content in real time. Wireless connections and Internet speeds continue to increase, which gives people high capacity to access images and videos even while they are busy sorting through information. The written content is becoming highly saturated, leaving users with a higher demand for more visual forms of content

Users expect instant form of information so it is safe to say that the end result is a much higher demand for videos and other visual forms of content in 2016.

6.  Tailored content:

If you want your business to succeed, you need to start doing your own market research no matter how much time or resources it takes. It might not be ideal or financially feasible at start, but you will start getting projected results as soon as you build the content accordingly by using the data right.

Your audience expects so much more from you and it is no wonder that by this year, they are accustomed to viewing customized content in their timelines. Turn these expectations into reality by filtering out any unwanted content and just promoting the content that is actually useful and interactive.

7.  Mobile friendly content:

More than half of our day passes by while we are using our smartphones, be it for personal or business reasons. People use internet and social media in that time too, which means accessing information from relevant blogs and companies.

If your website or blog does not have a mobile friendly interface, you will stay hidden from the face of smart phone communication world. One bad experience and it is quite possible that the user never visits you again, even on the laptop and computer.

For this reason, focus especially on mobile interface for your website and blog and make it user friendly.

8.  Relationship marketing via interactive content:

You cannot make people listen to you or read whatever you post, unless it does not spark interest and thoughtful ideas. Create content that will be able to make a place for itself in market by attracting community response.

Tell an amazing story for your brand and urge people to do the same. This method of content creation and distribution creates a chain of responses from people who are ready to share their ideas and stories with world on right platform.

Humanizing your brand is an important way to build clientele, loyal customers and influencers present in market. Use personal tone if you want to have a relationship with the customers and influencers. They also serve as great asset to advocate you brand / product in market, whenever you need them.

To keep track of your performance on social media and blogs, install Google analytics so you can get the idea of how far you have come or how long till you achieve your defined objectives. Stats are easy and simple way to keep up with the trends and your audience’s wants.

Analyze the situation and adapt to new technology and trends no matter how hard it is. No one likes change, but in the digital age, change is what keeps us working towards better situations wanting more.

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