We asked the top content marketing experts for their 2016 predictions and this is what they said.

1. 2016
Content Marketing
Predictions
Curated by
Randy Ksar
VP, Digital
@djksar
Voce Communications
From the Experts

2. We asked the top content marketing experts their 2016
predictions and this is what they said:

3. Jeremy Kaplan
@smashdawg
Editor in Chief
Digital Trends
Smart Publishers Will be Transparent to Readers
“It's only a matter of time until digital gets wiser about
integrating brand messages more deeply into content.
The same sort of integration we see in TV and the
movies? We fret about sponsored content and branded
content, but next year I bet it will be even less visible to
the end user – which means the smart publisher will
need to be very careful and VERY transparent to
readers.”

4. Lucas Mast
@sneakrz
VP, Corporate Social Media
Visa
Employees Will be Key to Content Amplification
“Employees are going to be an important part of every
company's content amplification strategy in 2016. When
an employee shares their company’s content with
friends, family, and their professional network, you tap
into an amazing set of evangelists that can reach new
and important audiences."

5. Julie Zisman
@juliezisman
Head of Marketing
LittleBird
Brands Will Mine Contextual Social Data Cues
“Brand activation for influencer marketing will become
highly dependent on corporate goals and will vary
greatly between B2B to B2C businesses. Marketers will
definitely come to see that it is more than an extended
paid media strategy. Corporate teams will find both
execution and research components to influencer
marketing that have equal value including the ability to
build social campaigns through contextual
segmentation. Companies that take advantage of
information discovered through authentically built
influencer relationships and mine contextual social data
cues will gain a significant competitive edge.”

6. Dennis Shiao
@dshiao
Director of Content Marketing
DNN
New Analytics Tools Priced for the Mid-Sized Business
“It’s important for content marketers to tie their efforts
to results. For instance, we use Google Analytics,
marketing automation and CRM to measure the
effectiveness of our blog posts and eBooks. In 2016, we’ll
have more tools to tie every content asset to revenue.
Yes, we’ll know the revenue impact of each blog post we
publish. But buyer beware: some tools can cost you an
arm and a leg. Sure, they’ll promise you many other
capabilities, but a tool costing $50,000 per year just
placed a dent in your content marketing ROI.”
While high-end tools will sell into the Fortune 500, the
ones we’ll be talking about at the end of 2016 will be
priced right for mid-sized businesses.”

7. Eric Vidal
@EricVMarketing
Editor & Chief Content Officer
The Marketing Scope
Customers Will be the Stars
“If you want to engage with millennials, video is a must-
have marketing tactic; they prefer to find entertainment
and education on YouTube over conventional channels
like television. Snapchat, YouTube, gifs, Vine, and more
are being consumed at a rapid rate. Streaming video
takes this to the next level, and platforms like Periscope
and Blab have put interactive live video into the hands of
anyone with a smartphone. The next year will see video
continue to shine and streaming move to the forefront of
marketing, with innovative new campaigns that allow
consumers to be the stars. We will see more of this from
B2C brands over B2B brands.”

8. Jason Miller
@JasonMillerCA
Group Manager, Content Marketing
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Focus on Shorter Anecdotes
“I think marketers are going to move away from trying to
tell grandiose stories and instead focus on shorter
anecdotes. With declining attention spans, shrinking
budgets, and increased competition in the feed, I think
a move towards helpful, informative, inspiring anecdotes
will be the way forward. Think of it like this; if an author
writes a biography they only get one shot and it's a huge
endeavor, but if they write a memoir to reflect on a point
in time, this can be scaled. Focusing only on storytelling
in a traditional sense can get a marketer stuck in a
vicious circle of beginning, middle and end. That
approach inevitably begs the question, why does there
have to be an end?”

9. Richard Brewer-Hay
@ESBAle
Senior Manager, Social Media
Splunk Inc.
Cross-Department Efforts Will Increase
“The lines are already blurring within traditional hub-and-
spoke models for brands and this will only increase
further in 2016. Companies are exploring the
convergence of in-depth written and visual content
within interactive video and blog posts and already
seeing how users are seamlessly interacting with video
on the web on their own terms; accessing additional
information when they want it. For organizations this
means a commitment to cross-departmental efforts by
the PR, product, social, creative and marketing
communications teams – all working together as one.

10. Continue the conversation
#2016contentmktg