Get Ready for Content Marketing Version 2 in 2018
- By winstonthomas
- December 22, 2017
Content marketing is about to leap forward, thanks to advances in machine learning.
The conclusion came from content creation firm SDL, which announced five trends that will shape content marketing in 2018. The firm noted that self-creating and organizing content is now becoming a reality through advances in AI and machine learning, and this will shape new trends in this market sector.
"Content that creates itself organizes itself, and scales globally with ease all sounds like the stuff of imagination," Peggy Chen, CMO, SDL said in a press release.
"But the rules of content and marketing are changing in 2018, and the emergence of new AI and Machine Learning technologies are powering this seismic shift. Smart companies know that this is the future they must prepare for if they're going to thrive in the years ahead," she added.
Prediction 1: Content will create content
SDL noted that the demand for more content and the rising importance of engaging content in developing digital experiences are creating challenges for firms. It will see many turning to AI and machine learning to automate content. These algorithms will use current information repositories to develop unique content and experiences.
Prediction 2: Content will manage itself
Content management is a massive headache. With the volume of articles increasing, brands will begin to use machine learning to create content taxonomies and tag them. It will improve search results, fine-tune metadata and optimize SEO. Such efforts will also help other enterprise systems to discover existing content, enhancing re-usability and ROI of content.
Prediction 3: Content will become agile
SDL predicted that the waterfall methodology, using a series of steps, to create content will no longer be viable. Instead, agile methods using AI and machine learning will replace them in 2018. For example, AI-driven authoring tool and machine translation software will become the norm for delivering content for scalability and speed.
Prediction 4: Content will become a sales tool
Brands will shift their sales priorities to creating engaging content. SDL noted that this is because "content never stops talking." The firm expects the creation, translation, and delivery of content will become as crucial as incentivizing and training sales teams. The types of content that sells will also expand rapidly beyond traditional marketing materials into in-depth product information as buyers are more likely to be informed before the sale process begins.
Prediction 5: Content security will become priority
With Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) looming on the horizon, brands will need to take control of their content management. To be compliant, they will need to provide transparency, a full audit trail and complete data custody come May 2018. However, many firms outside Europe are failing to acknowledge the impact of GDPR. When they do, they will turn to machine learning technologies to translate, analyze and automate their content supply chains.
These predictions are part of SDL's Five Future States of Content report and are based on 15 years of research and development into machine learning, translation and content management technologies. The ebook is currently available.