The content marketing trends your business should be implementing

JT Ripton is a business consultant and freelance writer.

Through proper content marketing, businesses can build their brand, raise awareness, and engender trust. This type of marketing positions businesses as credible and reliable information sources. Sharing and promoting content related to your particular industry attracts people to your social media and digital platforms as well as your product lines.

With so many potential benefits from content marketing, here’s a look at the trends that your business should consider implementing:

“Director of Content” is the new highly recruited marketing title

The person in this critical role helps coordinate sales and marketing activities to ensure both departments are working toward the same goals. In addition, this leader provides a vision and helps the business incorporate the best content marketing strategies, including webinars, videos and guest blog posts.

By shaping strategies and overseeing execution, the content director ensures messaging remains focused and on brand. Whoever holds this role needs to have a well-rounded approach to creating, managing and distributing content across multiple platforms to reach as many people in the company’s target audience as possible.

Mobile optimization is crucial

A 2014 report from the Pew Research Center Internet Project reveals 90 perent of Americans over the age of 18 have cellphones and nearly 60 percent have smartphones. Approximately half of all adults in the United States own a tablet.

With such impressive penetration, it’s not surprising that a separate report from financial giant Morgan Stanley predicts mobile Web usage will exceed laptop Web browsing by 2015. As smartphones are becoming cheaper, the study results illustrate the absolute necessity of content marketing on mobile devices.

Whether you’re creating email newsletters, white papers, or podcasts, optimize the content for mobile devices. Failing to take this step means you might not reach a large part of your target audience.

Videos need to play properly on smartphones and tablets. Webinars need to enable people to join on the go. Thinking about mobile now ensures your company won’t fall behind the curve in the coming months.

The evolution of the guest video post

Many companies are hip to the opportunities that come from having one of their leaders write guest blog posts and bylined articles for industry publications. Imagine, however, the bang you could get from doing a guest video post.

Guest bloggers can easily create engaging, high-quality videos that will inform and educate on a variety of essential topics. Videos allow guests to show, not just tell, so the company will receive a more compelling piece from their guests.

With studies reporting videos as the new way to reach a mass audience, the evolution of guest videos is upon us.

Engaging industry influencers

Don’t think that you have to create all content in-house. Work with industry influencers who have respected voices, and ask them to develop content your company can distribute.

For example, you might ask a well-known consultant to write a review of your newest product. While you won’t have the kind of control over the content you’d have if you used someone inside your company, you do gain greater credibility and trust through working with a professional outside your firm.

Another possibility is having someone in your marketing communications department do an audio or video interview with the influencer. Edit and package the content for distribution on social media and your company’s website. Then, ask the influencer to share with his or her followers.

Develop a one-stop shop

Some companies enjoy success by developing a one-stop online resource where visitors can educate themselves on issues and topics relevant to your industry.

One approach is to use a university model in which you offer online courses, instructional modules, and self-test tools. Content packaged to teach your customers things they want to learn is highly effective at drawing in visitors and getting them to engage with your site.

Create a check-list to ensure you’re contributing the most helpful information for your viewers. Does your site have extremely high-quality content? Does your company practice data curating to get the most up-to-date, comprehensive information available? It may be time to start!

Try custom-content feeds that give viewers access to a variety of content like social media RSS. Another option is to recruit influencers to contribute to your site. Have a leader in the field post a blog, or take the time to interview one of the most successful people in the field and post the video online.

Utilize Google+ and SlideShare

Move over, Facebook! New social media sites are pushing the envelope for B2B content marketers. With new technologies from Google bursting at the seams every year, there is no doubt that Google+ is innovating a whole new network of social sharing.

Many people are taking up Google+ to disseminate content marketing information for their companies. Professionals are connecting with their work, while also sharing personal articles and photos with family and friends.

SlideShare will also be a key contributor in content sharing. With the ability to create presentations and share them easily with groups, this trend has B2B marketers working hard to create vivid and engaging content.

With all of these new trends, it’s easy to say that content marketing is growing rapidly. The industry is experiencing new advancements every year, which is sure to provide more insight on what is producing ROI for all companies utilizing it.

Read next: 6 ways content marketing has changed the way we do PR

Featured image credit via Curata