17 Content Marketing Predictions for 2015

At Contently, we’re always thinking about the state of content marketing—and thinking about what the future holds for the industry. Earlier today, we ranked our 2014 predictions—the good, the bad, and the ugly. And now, here are 17 predictions for 2015 from around our Soho office:

1. 2015 is the year content subsumes marketing and brands realize that content is the atomic particle of every aspect of marketing, and will staff and budget accordingly. (Tweet this.)

—Shane Snow, Chief Creative Officer

2. The native advertising backlash will intensify—but from brands, not media critics. At some point, brands are going to start wondering why they’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent an audience instead of building one of their own. (Tweet this.)

—Matthew Rothenberg, Content Strategist

3. Brand publishers will finally realize they’re not competing with their competitors for their audience’s attention time, but with the entire amazing world, including The New York Times, YouTube, the Internet… If you don’t produce amazing, original, high-quality content, you stand no chance. (Tweet this.)

—Paul Fredrich, VP of Product

4. More publishers will start to sell ads based on time spent, as the Financial Times and The Economist have already begun to do. And, in turn, more advertisers will get on board with the idea. (Tweet this.)

—Amanda Walgrove, Social Media Editor

5. Being able to successfully plug content workflow platforms (Kapost, NewsCred, Skyword) into marketing automation platforms, content management systems, and email service providers will be the most requested need by Q3 2015. (Tweet this.)

—Ray Cheng, VP of Marketing

6. At least 10 prominent content marketers will offer real case studies showing real, measurable business results from doing great content. (Tweet this.)

—Neil Chase, Content Strategist

7. The term “snackable content” will mercifully be put out of its misery. (Tweet this.)

—Sam Slaughter, VP of Content

8. “Distribution” and “audience growth” will be the biggest content marketing buzzwords of 2015. Now that brands are creating content, it’s time for them to start creating long-term relationships with people. (Tweet this.)

—Joe Lazauskas, Editor-in-Chief

9. Content marketers will be responsible for building engaged high-value audiences and delivering quantifiable business results = $$$. Just producing content will not cut it anymore. (Tweet this.)

—Joe Lopardo, Sales Executive

10. We’ll see a large number of brand-owned publications launch, using budget that once went to sponsored content. (Tweet this.)

—Shane Snow, Chief Creative Officer

11. A major agency will make a high-profile acquisition of a content marketing platform. Without the technology and talent to power content marketing at scale, agencies are like New York Jets fans—totally f*cked, and completely aware of that fact. (Tweet this.)

—Joe Lazauskas, Editor-in-Chief

12. Brands will stop seeing licensed content as anything other than a diversion. (Tweet this.)

—Sam Slaughter, VP of Content

13. Content marketers in B2C will increasingly borrow tactics traditionally employed by high-value B2B campaigns to target, track, and measure their return on content investment. (Tweet this.)

—Elisa Cool, VP of Sales

14. Journalists, after a decade of worrying that their careers will end any day now, will take the National Truck Driving School’s phone number off the refrigerator and instead set up LinkedIn searches for leadership roles in content marketing. (Tweet this.)

—Neil Chase, Content Strategist

15. Newsjacking/news-jumping will become more top-of-mind for enterprise brands. (Tweet this.)

—Ray Cheng, VP of Marketing

16. Brands will finally embrace YouTube as a major network. Want to reach millennials? Create high-impact content with YouTube creators. It’s the biggest and most obvious opportunity brands aren’t taking advantage of. (Tweet this.)

—Joe Lazauskas, Editor-in-Chief

17. Joe Pulizzi switches from orange to purple. (Tweet this.)

—Shane Snow, Chief Creative Officer