What’s In Your Content Marketing Crystal Ball for 2013?

Marcus Sheridan, one of content marketing’s rising stars, looks to the year ahead and shares four content marketing predictions for 2013.

2012 was a banner year for content marketing, with companies and brands investing millions into content strategies dedicated to informing their prospects and engaging with their customers. What does 2013 have in store?

1) We’ll continue to see explosive growth in content marketing adoption

We’re currently experiencing a golden age of content marketing. It’s never been easier for companies to connect with, engage, and inform their customers. The scope of our reach and accessibility is astonishing. I can teach someone in Australia something valuable about fiberglass pools. I can answer questions and have a discussion with someone in Iceland about inbound marketing.
It’s never been easier, and more and more companies are starting to get it. Content marketing is only going to be more prevalent in 2013, not less.

2) Get ready for the content marketing arms race

Of course, that also means more and more content is going to be produced, and the majority of audiences are already inundated. We’re going to see increased competition to a) publish content as quickly as possible and take the hill before anyone else does; and b) publish content that stands out and gets noticed.
That will have two distinct effects:

1. At the bottom, there will be a large amount of bad content produced that sacrifices quality for quantity and speed.
2. At the top, heated competition will drive companies to continually raise the bar for excellence, pushing them to produce more innovative, high quality content in an attempt to outdo each other.

As a result, while we’ll see a proliferation of low-quality content, we’ll also see new breakthroughs from the companies doing it right. And in that sense, the rising tide will lift all boats.

3) Automation will become even more key

It’s going to be a great year for the HubSpots, Marketos, and other marketing automation platforms and services out there. As their content workload increases, marketers are going to see these automated tools and access to detailed data and analytics as essential to doing their jobs effectively.

4) Our definition of blogging will change

The way we think of the term “blogging” will change and take on a broader definition as it becomes less associated with a single, stand-alone format, and more associated with a company’s overall content marketing strategy.
Likewise, marketers will extend their focus beyond working with individual pieces of content in single, separate formats to incorporate a broader, more fluid approach to their campaigns.

5) What’s your content marketing prediction?

You’ve heard from Marcus, now we want to hear from you. What content marketing trends do you see making a major impact in 2013?