Trends in Content Strategy

By | April 30, 2017

trendsThings are moving fast in the content world and there are some overarching trends in content strategy which are starting to bubble up to the surface, influenced by the rapid change in the way that users interact with digital technology.

In the past content strategists were wont to refer to ‘fifty types of content’ and these ranged widely from the written word to images, and included everything from blog posts to user generated content and videos, all accessed via keyboard search and served by SEO.

We’ve moved on now.

Although traditional content is still valid we’re also now looking at the impact of artificial intelligence, voice activated search, chat bots and other conversational interfaces and, importantly, how we can deliver what our increasingly more sophisticated users are looking for … relevant, comprehensible and intelligent content. Searches are no longer generated by a simple keyword query but with a more complex and contextually driven request.

Content now has to be delivered at pace, with an eye on the speed of time to market, the opportunities afforded by continuous delivery and the need for intelligent and context-aware products. Content strategists have a broad remit, which requires an understanding of the technology that customers are using, and how they are using it, whilst at the same time being able to focus on the user experience, customer engagement and the most effective way of delivering results.

Artificial intelligence and cognitive computing have impacted significantly on the content discipline which can no longer hang on to the status quo and is starting to develop an awareness of the requirement to future-proof the way that content is developed, including its structure, findability and delivery. This will ensure the avoidance of the constant need to re-factor and enhance the ability to deliver content that customers expect, on any device, anywhere and at any time.

At the Content Strategy Applied 2017 Conference a couple of months ago, Rahel Bailie and Lucie Hyde gave a presentation on industry trends in content strategy covering several of the topics mentioned above in more detail.