The tech world changes constantly. In the internet era, it seems like the rate of change is ever accelerating. When Google or Facebook change their algorithms, the whole community of bloggers shift directions so they don’t lose their connection to their audience.

As a content marketer, it is a good idea to remain watchful about changes and upcoming trends in content marketing. In the spirit of doing a few things well rather than doing everything, we will focus on three.

Machine Learning

Some of the biggest names in search and social media offer marketing tools powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence. They crunch big data using powerful algorithms to provide you with easy-to-use tools. If you’re a programmer, skilled in data analysis, you can build these yourself. But the big names like Google and Facebook have largely given us the keys to their well-engineered methods of reaching specific audiences.

Google

Google used to simply provide results based on the terms that a person typed in. Today, Google does a lot more behind the scenes to ensure that the results they deliver are relevant to the person performing the search.

Google collects a lot of your previous internet history, like it or not. They combine this history with your geographical location and other demographics to provide results that are as tailored as possible. Have you ever noticed that the ads and results have a spooky connection to things you have shopped for?

As a marketer, you can use Google’s tools to your advantage. If you want to reach people who are in a very narrow demographic or geographical area, you can target with laser-like precision when you set up your ads.

Facebook

Similarly, Facebook is another power platform for sending ads to the exact audience you want to reach. If you write an article and want to promote it to people who are similar to the audience of someone more successful that you’re trying to imitate, Facebook and the Facebook Pixel makes that easy.

By defining a Facebook Lookalike audience, you can target and cross reference potential readers/viewers of your content. Never have your advertising dollars had such leverage for reaching new people who may be interested in your product.

Vlogging: Video Blogging

More and more people are consuming their content in the form of online video. It is easier, faster and a richer delivery method than text-only blogs. Social media hubs know this and give preferential SEO and traffic to content creators who use video in their marketing mix.

There are gurus, experts and even introverted bloggers who have seen their traffic explode by using video as part of their marketing. Amy Landino-Schmittauer, Author of the recent bestseller, Vlog Like a Boss, coaches content marketers to use vlogging to enhance their results. 

For some, the trend presents a hurdle. Stage fright might pop up when it comes to posting video content on the web. You can overcome this with planning and practice.

One great example of an introverted blogger who has seen great results with video is Bo Miller of I Speak People. His subscriber base jumped from 1,000 to 5,000 in just a couple months when he started using video.

Long-form Content

There are many guidelines for improving your SEO and traffic from your web content. Some say that consistently posting gets better results. That may be true, and certainly will help you keep an active dialogue with your audience. One of the newest trends is making longer posts, those that are at least 2,000 words.

Short posts can certainly earn good readership. However, top search results often link to blog posts and articles over 2,000 words. Longer content demonstrates expertise and depth of information. Google has even stated publicly that they find their users want in-depth content.

This post from Knowlege Enthusiast gives further advice on how to spend that extra effort, building higher-quality posts, that reward by a better search ranking. It teaches that you should craft your posts to have good structure and a well-organized topic. Establish the goals and purpose for the content.

These are just a few of the new trends in content marketing. It is a constantly changing frontier. Making sure you stay engaged with the way your audience wants to consume content like yours, will help you get better results.

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