We have previously discussed about the importance of developing strategies for e-mail and video marketing, as well as listed the services Ace-up offers for those strategies. The next topic, perhaps is the most important topic and the one that sums up our previous articles, is content marketing and its trend in 2016.

The phrase “content marketing” is no longer a novelty, and every respectable business and venture practices it in their own way and pace. According to Forbes,  the longest time the websites that were able to produce the highest volume of quality written content were dominating the search engines; however, this standard has evolved and has placed other important factors for success: your connections, your format diversity, and how well you can connect with your audience across multiple social platforms. This trend further strengthens the Ace-up venture as a place to expand coaches’ connections with other customers as well as other coaches.

The never ending technological race has made content marketing strategies become obsolete faster than ever before, and it is Ace-up’s job to inform its coaches to stay up to date with the fast-changing pace of content marketing. Here are 5 trends that will be seen at least throughout the year 2016:

Content personalization

The web is flooded with countless articles that are similar to each other. It is almost impossible to reach to the first pages on search engine for coaches unless the coaches have carefully learned about customers’ need. The content personalization should not be aimed at who you are as a coach, but how can you help prospective customers to reach their goals and potentials.

Visual content

Long gone the days when plain texts were enough for engagement, today it is all about how to instantly catch customers’ attention. What can be a better way than to engage the audience than through infographics and video marketing. According to HubSpot, the presence of visual factors increased engagement by 80%! With Youtube being the second largest search engine and the rising in popularity of visual-focused platforms like Instagram and Snapchat enforce the importance of having visual content.

Interactive content

Continuing off from the previous point: the web is flooded with similar articles, coupled with busy readers who have short attention span, many businesses have realized that interactive content is the effective way to create long lasting impression on their target customers. It drives two-way communication with quizzes, polls, tests: this helps customers to better understand to understand what the business does, as well as helps businesses see active participation from customers, as opposed to the unknowing void with static content.

Influencer marketing

This should not come as a surprise to anyone: how many times we saw popular Instagramers, bloggers and other influencers showcase different products in their account. This peer-reviewing system works into the trust of people, especially those who follow their favourite influencers. According to McKinsey study, the use of influencers generates a double amount of sales of paid ad! Again, Ace-up platform was built for such purpose: to increase the chance for each coach to connect with each other and become each other's’ influencers.

Mobile-first content marketing

It is more and more common to see people to substitute their laptops and desktops to their mobiles phones for variety of purposes: e-mail-checking, booking, selling, looking up information, and other simple tasks. The reason is simple: you spend much, much more time with your phone than with any other devices. That is why any business should build their website to be optimized and responsive to mobile devices first and foremost. Take IKEA as an interesting case study: it created a mobile catalogue that has exclusive model and color choices that are not available in traditional paper catalogues. In addition, customers can place their virtual IKEA furniture in there room via their phone camera, which proves to be a fun and useful tool.

There are more and changes coming into content marketing for our business and career coaches to be aware, including possible automation of articles (robots and algorithms will soon replace writers for generic news). Ace-up job is to stay sharp with trends, inform coaches, and adjust services to ride the trends safe and soundly.