As online trends rapidly evolve, marketing techniques that have once worked well for marketers become outdated as well. There’s an on-going discussion on the future of content marketing and how it holds up as a marketing strategy. Some digital marketing specialists say content marketing is still a strong strategy, others claim it’s dead.

As far as B2B marketers are concerned, content marketing may be near its end, but not without a fight. As a digital marketing specialist company, we’re here to gather facts about why content marketing is being presumed dead and the truth about its state in 2018 through the facts.

In a study by marketing website SiriusDecisions, the decline of content marketing may be credited to the lack of buyer insights and the challenge of developing content that “satisfies buyers’ needs through their decision-making process”.

Senior research director Barbie Mattie says it’s the way companies think they can push products to their consumers instead of thinking about what buyers want to buy for themselves.

That’s the thing: marketers think about what ideas they have to endorse without focusing on what consumers are actually looking for. The key is to understand your buyers, who they are, what they consider important, and what they’re talking about.

When you build strategies around your buyers, including points that are significant to buyers like whether they make decisions based on watching TV or reading newsletters, you are able to come up with content that’s tailored especially for your buyers.

Some of the best content marketing strategies are found to center their content on buyer’s needs. For example, the Australian-New Zealand website MYOB helps companies manage finances by connecting businesses with bookkeepers and financial service experts.

MYOB knows that owners are trying to find out how their accounting and finances can change as their businesses boom, so MYOB creates content to guide their clients in each stage of their business’ development.

What we can learn from MYOB is that as marketers, we should be able to understand our audience and list ideas for content that can be helpful for clients. 

We’re done with content that’s created to grab attention but run without substance. There’s too many of that going on already that people are smart enough to know what’s there to help them, and what’s there to chase their focus. It’s not about the clicks you get, it’s getting the clicks that promise conversions and build trust.

Content marketing is all about telling a story. People are naturally drawn to stories, especially the ones told well. It’s not content marketing that’s dead; it’s bad content marketing strategies that need to go. Content that involves clickbaiting is certainly dead at this point.

Any digital marketing specialist will tell you, the important takeaway of good content marketing is creating consumer-centered content. When you understand your audience, you’ll know the things they consider important. Then, you can find ways to present your ideas to them.

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