Brafton CEO Richard Pattinson predicts the future of content marketing

Source: Brafton In his Leading Edge blog series, Brafton CEO Richard has been exploring the evolution of content marketing and how it has shaped bot

Source: Brafton

In his Leading Edge blog series, Brafton CEO Richard has been exploring the evolution of content marketing and how it has shaped both businesses and their marketing departments. But we wanted to get more insight into what he thinks about the industry, what it takes to stay on top of the game and where content is headed in the years to come. So we asked him.

This year is the year that digital content marketing enters adulthood. Richard believes that 2017 will be an explosive and important year for content and for marketers as companies continue to invest more in the digital landscape and adapt to how it has significantly changed the marketplace.

Over the past 15 to 20 years, there has been a content transition, from widespread printed forms to a predominant digital sphere. And while this may seem like slow but steady growth, Richard, who took the CEO helm of Brafton in 2013 after serving as its Editor in Chief for five years, believes you have to look at it in the context of how content has evolved.

“For it to take a decade or two for content and its potential to establish itself in digital form may seem like a long time if you’re in the thick of it,” he explains. “But when you compare it to the fact that the written word has been around for millenia and the printing press for centuries, the pace of change is electric.”

Creating a content experience with integrated marketing

“To say there is a proliferation of content is an understatement,” Richard states.

But you can no longer just create quality content in order to stay competitive and bring in new business. You have to use it to create experiences for prospects. This is why Richard believes that an effective content strategy, and how it fits into an integrated marketing campaign, is more important than ever, and it’s what will propel businesses forward.

Richard says that brands must provide an overall immersive content experience for prospects and customers. And marketers need to make this the focal point of their goals.

“When you’re on a client site, you need to feel fully engaged by a multitude of factors: UX, brand messaging, what the site is about … it all needs to be very simple, consistent and intuitive,” he explains. “But achieving that level of simplicity is hard, so you need to be obsessing over this, all the time.”