In 2017, content will continue to be one of the most important marketing tactics for ecommerce businesses. Look for content marketers to produce a greater number of videos, focus on mobile media consumption, spend more money promoting content, produce more shows rather than standalone posts, and use technology to an advantage. Source <> http://www.ecbilla.com/blogs/ecommerce-content-marketing-trends-for-2017.html

1. Ecommerce Content Marketing
Trends for
In 2017, content will continue to be
one of the most important marketing
tactics for ecommerce businesses.
Look for content marketers to
produce a greater number of videos,
focus on mobile media consumption,
spend more money promoting

2. content, produce more shows rather
than standalone posts, and use
technology to an advantage.
Content marketing is the act of
creating, distributing, and promoting
content, such as blog posts, articles,
podcasts, and videos with the aim of
attracting, engaging, and retaining
customers. For ecommerce marketers,
content can be a way of building a
relationship with a shopper, which in
turn will allow an online store to
compete not on price or delivery
speed, but on experience.
What follows are five trends that
could impact content marketing in
2017.

3. 1. Video Will Begin to Dominate
A recent comScore and YouTube study
found that about 35 percent of
millennials preferred to watch
YouTube compared to about 18
percent that preferred traditional
television programming.
What’s more, some 74 percent of
those millennials said they liked to
watch videos that brands, companies,
or institutions had uploaded. It is not
much of a stretch to say that some 74
percent of these millennials like
content marketing.
In 2017, content marketers, who
already recognize this trend, will
increasingly produce videos. In fact,
expect video to begin to become a

4. dominant form for some large
ecommerce operations.
2. Mobile-friendly Formats
According to various reports,
somewhere between 65 percent and
75 percent of all Internet use will
come from mobile devices in 2017.
Again, depending on who one asks,
this might mean that a typical person
will spend three hours a day on a
smartphone or tablet.
While ecommerce sales will still skew
a bit more toward desktop devices,
shoppers are increasingly likely to
consume content on a mobile device.
Thus, don’t be surprised when savvy
content marketers start to focus on
mobile-friendly content formats. This

5. might mean employing accelerated
mobile pages or creating mobile
apps.
3. Increased Content Investment
As online marketers, particular
sales-oriented ecommerce marketers,
become more comfortable with and
confident in content marketing, they
will also become more likely to
increase how much they invest in
content development and promotion.
About 63 percent of B2BC marketers
surveyed for a recent MarketingProfs
and Content Marketing Institute study
believed that their organization’s
content marketing was either
somewhat more successful or much
more successful than it had been a
year ago.

6. This increased confidence in content
marketing should translate into an
increase in its activity in 2017.
Specifically, it may mean that some
ecommerce marketers, or marketers
more generally, will invest more in
content promotion.
According to some estimates, a
typical business will invest about 80
percent of its content marketing
budget into content creation,
allocating about 20 percent of that
same budget to promote or advertise
content. This may shift somewhat
toward promotion.
Don’t be surprised in 2017 if you see
more digital ads, like YouTube pre-roll
commercials, Pandora ads, or even
search engine ads promoting content.

7. 4. Episodes
In early December 2016, a
brick-and-click retailer in the
northwestern United States was busy
planning the editorial calendar for its
new podcast and radio show. The
company recently hired a
professional host, had an editor
working with the retailer’s various
departments for story ideas, and
began selling co-op advertising to its
suppliers, who want a chance to be
featured on the show.
This retailer understands that
entertainment and information is an
important part of content marketing.
If you can consistently provide an
audience with entertaining
information, you can build a

8. relationship with that audience, which
in turn may result in sales and profit.
In 2017, marketers who admire the
success of popular YouTube shows or
podcasts may begin to release their
own, episode-based content.
According to Ted Karczewski, content
marketing manager at Skyword, a
content platform provider, episodes
have at least two distinct advantages.
First, the need to develop an ongoing
series of episodes will force the
content marketing team to develop a
better, clearer, and more organized
content plan. This increased focus
should lead to increased success.

9. Second, “your audience grows
accustomed to the style of
information you’ll be providing…that
expectation sticks out in their
memories. The more [episodes] you
produce around a series, the higher
[number of] returning visitors you’ll
see month-over-month,” Karczewski
wrote.
5. Artificial Intelligence
In 2016, some content marketers
began to experiment with
machine-generated content. These
innovators were, for example, trying
to produce product descriptions from
a list of product specifications.
While this is still far from taking hold,
it was a significant topic of discussion

10. at important industry events. Next
year, look for machine-generated
content to continue to evolve under
the heading of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence could take
several forms as it relates to
ecommerce content marketing,
including automated translation,
predicting what to write about, or
even offering personalized content
experiences.
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