Where Marketing is Going … in 2013 and Beyond

Where Marketing is Going … in 2013 and Beyond

Reader Comments (65)

  1. New technologies, new challenges. We are always ready to get updated and try them.Yes, We are always need to watch latest marketing strategies and act according to them.Really it’s an informative post.Thank you jason. 🙂

  2. Marketing is changing a lot.

    The only thing that I beleive is that you can’t sell without educating. This will be a must for every blogger to do.

    Now, you do content maketing just in the hope of getting more sales. But after that, it will be a must to get even one sale.

    And it will be there forever.

      • But what’s the best way to seed all of this content?

        I feel as thought there’s a difficult chicken and egg scenario.
        You could write some amazing content, but have no way of promoting it.
        Meanwhile you can only get the following to promote it from already having popular content.

        • It’s a cycle. Create something worth paying attention to, then reach out and find a few people to talk about it. I’m sure you have colleagues & relationships with others in your field. You start small, build a bit of an audience, and keep cycling through to grow.

          Social media makes it fairly easy to find that “seed” of an audience to start talking with. But if your content is unremarkable, there’s no fuel for the engine, so any attempts at networking will sputter out.

          • Well said Sonia. I would also add that it’s a good idea to consider paid social ads to promote your content. In my experience social ads that simply interrupt do not perform well, but ads that promote good content drive engagement and referral traffic. It’s a great way to give a boost to your content and jump-start an audience.
            (PS; Great seeing you at SXSW as well, the Copyblogger party was awesome!)

  3. Thanks Jason…great post. Things really have changed drastically, especially in the last two years alone. Content marketing is the key here…

    • Absolutely. It’s remarkable how the trend went from social to content and now the two are coming together as part of one overall strategy.Thanks for the comment David.

  4. Great article Jason, came at the perfect time also. I’d been focusing a lot on how I can monetize my blog, but really I should be focusing on the content first, the rest will come inevitably. Money isn’t even on my mind at the moment, I want to build a list, create the best content I can (for free), and ultimately build connections with readers.

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    • Hi Sam. That’s a great mentality to have here; focus on delivering value first. The mantra of “always be selling” has now been replace with “always be helping”. Thanks for the comment.

  5. A precise, and very entertaining synopsis of where our marketing team was, has been and is headed (in a DeLorean). It’s good reinforcement at a time when we are explaining this positioning and our goals to the sales team and the entire organization. We, as a marketing team, are data and revenue driven, and not just here to “create the pretty pictures”. 🙂

  6. Thanks for the insight, Jason
    “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”? Sounds to me like you are quoting one of the early pioneers of science. That would be the one and only Dr. Emmett Brown from “Back to the Future”. Great article though. Content is, as always a very important to any website. Some of us have a difficult time with writing the content for ourselves, me being one of those. But, I have learned that if you use article writing services for your content that the majority of the time you get junk that is barely readable.

    • That is correct! That statement sticks in my mind every time I think of the future of marketing. Can’t say that I ever thought I would quote Doc Brown in my writing, but it truly fits in this situation. I wrote a post about how difficult writing can be a few weeks ago and I was surprised at how well it resonated. My overall point was that writing IS hard. The people who enjoy writing are already making a living from it; they are called authors. For the rest of us, we have to try a bit harder. I found a lot of inspiration from Hugh Macleod’s book “Ignore Everybody”. Some of the best advice from his book is simply not to force content. “If you have something to say then say it, if not, enjoy the silence.” Here’s the post I referred to if you are interested. http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2013/01/if-your-writing-sucks-so-will-your-content.html
      Thanks for the comment!

  7. Not only rise of the content creator but rise of the person who can coordinate the whole process from a gleam in someone’s eye through distribution to a variety of channels. New roles will be emerging rapidly.

    • I concur. I think it’s setting the stage for a major transition where progressive thinking companies will combine PR, social and content into one team. Thanks for the comment.

  8. It’s crazy how quickly things are changing. Content marketing is certainly a buzz word, but I think the concept is here to stay. It just makes sense. When I think about how much marketing has changed in the past ten years, it really makes me wonder what the next ten years will bring!

      • Thanks Jason, that’s another great article! I like how it stresses that content marketing has been around for a while, it’s just finally organizing itself under a unified banner. I also found his definition of a buzz word to be interesting. Regardless of whether content marketing qualifies as a buzz word, it’s definitely something a lot of people are excited about – and rightly so.

  9. I love that you pointed out how valuable content is. And the fact that people in big business are starting to take notice. I personally love marketing and what it has evolved into. It’s about establishing authority and educating. Connecting and giving. It’s not pushy and self serving- this I love. The best modern marketers understand that the more value you give, the trust you build, and the more you will sell. Loved the article!

  10. Hello Jason,

    This was a really good post. I agree that content will be king in 2013 and beyond. I am also keeping an eye on engagement as I think that it will be an indispensable part of successful business growth in the future as well. As a matter of fact great content and engagement will be responsible for creating a big shift in marketing in the very near future. Thanks for sharing. it really was very good

    Al

    • Thanks for the comment Al. Indeed content does remain king for now. I agree that engagement will become even more important moving forward, especially as Google continues to use social signals to influence rankings.

  11. Hi Jason,

    I am glad we came back full circle to good content marketing. It was quite disturbing to see content that was ranking high but had nothing to offer. As a matter of fact some of it was not even legible. We complain about Google sometimes but they did a huge favor for the people who search for answers online. I applaud them.

    I am seeing more and more blogs that provide value rising to the top rapidly. Most of them offer amazing articles and you can see from comment responses how much is that valued by the readers.

    Thank you for sharing a great post.

    Dita

    • Hi Dita, I agree completely. Google is going to continue to reward those of us that produce good content and I welcome those changes. I just wish that I had a crystal ball to better anticipate the coming algorithm changes along with detailed explanations for the content marketers of the world. Thanks for the comment.

  12. Interesting post on where marketing is going. One important aspect that we all should be aware of is that technology is now marketing!

    • Great point Tim. There was a recent article in Forbes that addressed this called “Five Years From Now, CMOs Will Spend More on IT Than CIOs Do.” Really interesting trend.

  13. Good info, like the quotes “I know half my advertising dollars are wasted. I just don’t know which half.” and your correct that today we can be so much more aware of 99% of our marketing spend and success.
    and
    “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads” as jason says above was also used in the movie back to the future. It all resonates back to me the words of a certain Mr Gates in 1996 when he declared “Content is King”!!!

    • Hi Graham. I totally agree. Big Data + Big Analytics = Ability to Measure Everything. If you have a fully matured marketing automation model, you can now measure marketing ROI and forecast and predict future revenue. Very exciting times for marketers. Thanks for the comment.

  14. Thanks for the history lesson. Lots I didn’t know and it does put the current emphasis on content in perspective. I hope you are right about the content writers getting more respect.

    • Thanks for the comment Mary. I hope moving forward that creativity and great writing gets rewarded. That would be a win for the entire marketing community.

  15. It’s really amazing how much marketing has evolved in the last 10 years. I mean, just to think about what Google and YouTube has created. I wonder were we’ll be in 10 or 15 years!

  16. Great post. I have learned so much over the past year due to the accessibility of information. Copyblogger has been monumental in my development as a blogger.

    I love the fact that blogging changes every few months and content marketing, as you suggested, is key.

    Thank you for sharing this post.

  17. I think we are talking about a marketing system right now not only about marketing or online marketing. And there are so many great things that can help you in order to have a very efficient strategy, as you said content marketing, marketing automation, also smart SEO, social media and email marketing, but the problems are: have we enough specialists to make this system work ?(new things are coming up every month but to prepare someone it takes time) Are the managers open minded enough to allow marketers to implement this for their businesses? They want rapid results but to make this kind of system works it needs time…
    I have this questions/problems as blog owner and as marketer for many businesses….

    • That’s a great question. I think the solution is working with tools that scale and compliment one another. It’s easy to fall victim to shiny object syndrome and jump on every new tool out there, but it’s a better idea to stick with the ones that work well for you from companies that continue to innovate. Thanks for the comment.

  18. A good read and a lovely walk down memory lane. Online marketing has indeed evolved over the years, and day-by-day, it becomes easier to exploit its potential. The stage has been set, and the future is indeed bright for every online marketer, all they need to do is make the most of it, and yes, at all times pay attention to what is being communicated to the consumer.

    Melinda

    • Thanks for the comment Melinda. Both the marketer and the consumer win with innovation. Good marketers that make the most of it will continue to deliver a much better buying experience for both prospects and current customers.

  19. As the year goes by, there’s a lot of changes and challenges that comes in our life. Let’s just focus on a valuable content to attract and engage more audience for the upcoming years. I believe that the content marketing is the future of marketing. I’m looking forward for the brighter future of marketing.

    • Thanks for the comment Nina. While that may be the case, the marketers who “get it” and do it well are the ones that will reap the benefits. Google will continue to make sure that great content rises above the flood of generic mediocre content.

  20. A good read and a lovely walk down memory lane. Online marketing has indeed evolved over the years, and day-by-day, it becomes easier to exploit its potential. The stage has been set, and the future is indeed bright for every online marketer, all they need to do is make the most of it, and yes, at all times pay attention to what is being communicated to the consumer.

    Melinda
    ondemandvirtualservices.com

  21. It will be interesting to see the direction of marketing. It clearly is not silo based anymore, and those that still have it silo based need to think of changing their marketing model. I’m not sure if people have empowered marketing or marketing has empowered the people. However, the individual has the tools, technology, access to content, ability to produce content, and reach their market in new ways. This is the new paradigm.

  22. Analytics softwares look really daunting at first, but trust me, once you get them they become an addiction. You can’t live without the data, and you know more about what you do than you ever knew you could know…if that makes any sense. I would hesitate to call them a new trend however. People who work with marketing methods such as PPC have been relying on analytics for years. I don’t really understand how some people could become successful without have the right tools to measure their success up to this point.

  23. It’s great to see that content creation is finally being valued the way that it should be. Content is what informs target audience members, instills trust in your brand, and persuades them to purchase from you.

  24. It’s funny that you quoted John Wanamaker saying,

    “I know half my advertising dollars are wasted. I just don’t know which half.”

    Because my friend Nick and I talk about small businesses having no idea how to track their progress online. It seems that we do take it for granted. It’s easy for us, but for a person having no experience it’s hard to get going.

    The only difference between us and the other guys is we know how to write!

    Forget SEO and “I know someone that can get me on top of Google for 50 bucks.” It’s all about content.

    Copyblogger is a home for writers and creative geniuses.

    That’s why this year I want to focus on becoming a better writer. I feel as if I’m not a very good writer as of now. But one of my goals is to become a great writer.

    Here’s to a epic 2013!

    Thanks for writing this Jason Miller. You seem very smart and you are a great writer.

    Alexander John

  25. Even in a business of 4 staff our next hire is a content marketing executive to add to our content. All our content produced so far has been done by staff on the side of their usual jobs and has worked a treat.

    Now it is time to formalise the role, so instead of spending money on old school advertising, we are spending that budget on content.

    Although traditional advertising and news media jobs are all but redundant, the talents of those people will be redeployed into this new niche.

  26. Excellent article Jason showing the transition from direct marketing to content led marketing, highlighting some of the key players along the way. One point of issue is about lead categorisation.

    For many years I ran my own IT marketing agency. Our clients were very clear what a lead was – someone who had a need, a budget, a timescale and the authority to act. I find myself a little perplexed sometimes when Hubspot brags about generating 70,000+ leads per month for themselves. These are not leads as previously defined. Perhaps there is a need for some different language here. (I do understand that Hubspot have a process for nurturing and managing these enquiries and turning them into business).

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