2018 Content Marketing Strategy in Review, Prep for 2019

By Natalie Evans

December 31, 2018

content marketing, Content Marketing Institute, Content Strategy, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, E-mail Marketing, persona, personalization, social media, Social Media Marketing

What is Content Marketing? The Content Marketing Institute defines “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

The dynamic nature of the digital industry means we can never let ourselves get too comfortable or complacent when it comes to creating meaningful content experiences. Content today is being delivered in creative, innovative and engaging ways through many different platforms.

Trends, are always changing for the consumer. As marketers, our role isn’t just to build strong, trusting customer relationships but to keep up with the changes by enabling brands, and our stories to evolve along with them.  So what is the best way to start planning for your 2019 content marketing strategy?  

Here are a few tips that you should consider:

Basics – Start the year by reviewing your existing strategy, analyze what worked well in 2018 and decide what needs to be improved for 2019. Taking a closer look at your current strategy will help you decided if your current plan is still relevant. Did you know that only 39% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, according to CMI’s recent report, meaning that many marketers are not able to prove the value of content marketing to their peers. Remember even a simple overview can be effective strategy.

Channel Selection – You will need to evaluate what your best-performing channels are and start focusing your energy on how to use them more strategically.

Experimentation – While you are focusing on your most effective channels don’t forget to experiement on your other channels and try some new ideas. This will be a good time to stay ahead of the curve when trying new technologies. Finding something new and relevant for your target audience is worth the effort of experimentation.  

Put your audience first – Remember the only real way of ensuring a successful content marketing plan is to listen to your audience and their needs. This may be time consuming but spend time diving deeper into your data to really understand your audience’s behavior and what they need from you.

Browse our top 10 content marketing articles on latest strategies, trends, various tools and ideas for marketers. Read our thought leadership articles on best practices and stay up to date on content marketing trends from 2018 and beyond.

Reality Check On Overhyped Marketing Buzzwords - A study concluded that most marketing technology solutions have overpromised and under-delivered, leaving marketers ready to throw in the towel. In fact, 75% of marketers say they can’t meet their goals with their current martech software; even brands that have invested in marketing suites have struggled to get in shape, despite these all-in-one solutions promising the world.

How to Utilize WCM to Support Your Account-Based Marketing  - An Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach is a strategic go-to-market approach and creates more specific, relevant, and personalized interactions to drive engagement and conversion at a targeted set of accounts or expand existing ones.



How to Develop a Digital Strategy and Roadmap - Did you know that only 29% of companies have a multi-year digital roadmap to guide their digital transformation evolution? Although there is not a one-size-fits-all plan for Digital Transformation, this article, discusses the fundamentals and some tactics that many organizations can apply to their own journey.



Organize Your Content Marketing Workflow for Optimal Teamwork - It’s time to make a change to take your content marketing creation process to the next level. Today, we’re going to explore seven ideas that can help you to take back control, managing your teams effectively and begin seeing some real results.



Video Strategy Can Be More Than Just Marketing - There is no denying that Video has hit a tipping point, and what YouTube has known since its inception (the undeniable impact of video content) has caught on so universally. Nearly every brand regardless of market is aware that developing a video strategy is in their best interest. Infusing video into the marketing and branding strategy is a logical place to start but its value is starting to emerge in other areas of business as well.


How to Make User-Generated Content Work for B2B Audiences - Just because you don’t have a product like GoPro that users are dying to post their pictures with after purchase, doesn’t mean B2B brands can’t cash in on UGC. So the question is; how do you make this kind of idea work for a B2B audience? As the old saying goes; where there’s a will, there’s a way.



A Content Marketing Strategy Guide for Nonprofit Marketers - When you think about nonprofits, they have all the elements from a strong core mission to a meaningful and inspirational story. What is left for the organization to do is to orchestrate them with a well-thought content marketing program that could unleash the power of their strong mission so nonprofits can attract, engage, and convert target audiences.


Many Businesses are Asking Themselves: "Is Email Dead"? - There’s said to be a popular misconception among businesses that keeps surfacing time and time again which in turn is generating a common question among many businesses: Is email dead?




Customer Journey Mapping for the Growing Business - An accurate customer journey map guides marketing, sales, and operations. Defining the phases of the customer journey, as well as the desired customer experience at each phase helps each functional division within the business understand what to focus on and how to apply their talents.



Why Businesses Should Take Instagram Seriously - No matter what type of business you have, Instagram is becoming a very popular and growing marketing and customer retention platform, with over 25 million businesses connecting to customers through Instagram.

 

Taking a look at the best content marketing articles of the past year, will show you how far content has traveled and just how strategic it has become. It's impressive to see how content has evolved with ideas and innovation in 2018. Content isn’t King it’s the Emperor! 

I hope that you have enjoyed the articles and look forward to a stellar 2019! Need help with your 2019 plan? Connect with our team of consultants at CMSC Media to get your content marketing plan mapped out and check out the rest of our content marketing related articles here.

Natalie Evans

Natalie Evans has over 16-years in the tech industry and currently works as the event coordinator and tech reporter for CMS-Connected, keeping up-to-date on what's happening in and around the Content Management industry.