Fast & Easy Friday: A Recap of the Week’s Top Content Articles & Insights

It’s our job, as marketers, to not only manage day-to-day plans and long-term campaigns. We also need to be on the cutting edge of new and emerging trends, and help our brands differentiate in our respective industries. The marketing world is a moving target, and it’s up to us to be agile and help our organizations quickly respond to new imperatives. 

To help you better prepare for 2017, I wanted to spotlight some of the forward-looking trend pieces I came across this week. While most of them are high-level and discuss the future of B2B marketing as a whole, all of these pieces feature some great insight around how content marketers can be more effective in their roles: 

  • Want a successful content marketing career?: People who are successful at content marketing have specific skills and areas of expertise. But as new trends and technologies emerge, content marketers must constantly expand their knowledge and refine hone their skills. This blog from Curata combines recent research conducted by the company, as well as profile data from LinkedIn, to uncover necessary skill-sets, computer-related and technological skills, as well as basic skills content marketers need to have thriving careers. If you want to see how you stack up personally, and where you should look for your next content marketing job, this blog gives you some great insight. 
  • Three ways B2B marketing will change next year:  I personally love seeing all of the unique perspectives, data points and opinions that come with predictions pieces. Of course, Forrester is an important thought leader in the space, so I couldn’t resist sharing this teaser article on how the firm thinks B2B marketing will change over the next year. Even better: the article includes a link for a free brief that dives deeper into the topics, which include account-based marketing, vendor consolidation and customer obsession. 
  • Top trends to watch in 2017: I told you now was the time to look out for trend pieces! While Forrester’s piece was extremely focused, this article casts a wider net, focusing on everything from distribution channels, content formats and hot topics like storytelling, email newsletters and virtual reality. The article also includes links to helpful reports in case you want to dive deeper into any of the trends. 
  • Trendy or practical solution? You be the judge: Navigating through the sea of media and marketing trends, and figuring out what’s right for your brand, can be extremely tricky. But you can make the right decisions as long as you know your brand, target customer and have some industry knowledge and data to validate your decisions. This article breaks through the clutter and uses industry research to show which trends are just that (trendy) and which brands should really consider as they roll out their plans for 2017. 

Have you come across any other helpful 2017 planning and predictions articles? Do you have any thoughts or feedback on the trends discussed in these articles? Drop us a line in the comments section below! 

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