2017: The Year Your Content Does THIS

Wondering what your content marketing should look like in 2017? In a word, it better get real.

Good marketing content – king, queen, jack and aces of any successful brand strategy – is crucial in the digital age. And this year provided some watershed moments that will have a massive impact on the content publishing industry.

So what should we expect for 2017? Joe Pulizzi and his team at the Content Marketing Institute have some ideas, available in the free “2017 Content Marketing Predictions” e-book.

“For what it’s worth, my own predictions are mostly focused on the business side of our industry as it’s been a year where more media companies than ever are struggling to maintain their relevance and value under their traditional business models,” Pulizzi writes. “In contrast, brands are picking up the slack and are pushing content forward through strategic acquisitions, diversified revenue streams, and by breathing new life into older content formats.”

We’ve seen evidence of this happening for a while now. Magazine media publishers are still figuring out what their future will look like; non-media brands, on the other hand, are finding huge value in brand publishing.

Among Pulizzi’s top three predictions: “…more brands will launch print magazines in 2017 as a way to cut through the clutter – a critical goal that has been proving increasingly difficult to do online.”

More brands will launch print magazines in 2017 to cut through the clutter
says @JoePulizzi. #cmworld 

His predictions come from insights into his industry that echo the idea that breaking through the noise is of primary importance. And print magazines are an absolutely sound strategy for doing that.

What else should you be doing in 2017?

“To effectively communicate in 2017, showcasing your brand personality will be a requirement. In fact, Facebook has changed its algorithm to reward brand communications that convey personality. So, if you plan on creating content in 2017, your brand communications should lighten up and loosen up if you want to break through the noise,” advised Juntae DeLane, founder of the Digital Branding Institute.

And in those communications, you’d better be real.

“Millennials abhor falsehoods; as they become the dominant audience, storytelling will become grounded in reality,” notes Jay Baer of Convince and convert.

All of this leads many brands to see print, especially in magazine form, as a rich and relevant strategy for engagement. Are you ready?