Last week, we published our Colossal Content Marketing Report, which analyzed 4,618 blogs, 1.2 million blog posts, and nearly 2 billion social shares to pinpoint blogging benchmarks and trends in content effectiveness.

Of course, we think our report is full of actionable insights based on the current state of content marketing… but as proactive marketers, we couldn’t help but think about the future.

According to a recent research report from Adobe, 76% of marketers agree that marketing has changed more in the last 2 years than in the last 50.

That’s a staggering perception of the rate of change in the marketing profession from the people that know it best – marketers! And as technologies and distribution channels continue to grow at an exponential rate, what is in store for the future of content marketing?

For some insight into how content marketing is likely to change in the years to come, we called upon a cadre of content marketing influencers and posed the following questions to them:

• How do you see content marketing changing over the next 5 years?

• As the ability to distribute content at scale continues to escalate, what should a content marketer’s central focus be?

• What do you think is the biggest content marketing mistake?

So grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable — the thoughts and insights from these top content marketers will leave you with plenty of food for thought about what the future holds for your content.

• HOW DO YOU SEE CONTENT MARKETING CHANGING OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS?

JOE CHERNOV: I think over time, “content marketing” will lose its first name, and will come to be known as simply “marketing.” This pattern has already played out with social media marketing, particularly paid social. It’s increasingly seen as “just marketing.” Though it may sound boring, ultimately it’s a very good thing. It shows what we do has found its way into marketing’s groundwater.

JOE PULIZZI: Content marketing will become a core discipline in the enterprise. Interestingly, while some people think that we are well in the mature stages of content marketing, honestly, we are just getting started. Big companies are so siloed that it’s hard for them to put together a cohesive content strategy. Major news and information will come mostly from companies that are not traditional media companies. They just have too many resources to screw this up…but it will take time.

ANN HANDLEY: Content marketers are, increasingly, just marketers. Which thrills me. Because it means that content isn’t just nice to have. It’s necessity. Good writing is the basis of so much good content that gets noticed, no matter what form that content ultimately takes. What’s more, for businesses, good writing is a mirror of good, clear, customer-centric thinking. So I think over the next five years, we’ll see more organizations placing more value on writing.

SHANE SNOW: Over the next five years content marketing is going to get more sophisticated. Brands will get better at it, they’ll hire more staff from traditional media (especially editors and managers), and they’ll dedicate more budget to telling better stories as they mature in how they measure success. In the future, those measures of success are going to be primarily around relationship building—i.e. how content marketing is creating connections and shifting perceptions and attitudes and intentions, rather than old-world publishing metrics like page views and shares.

MARCUS SHERIDAN: For the most part, I don’t see “great” content marketing changing over the next 5, 50, or 500 years. Sure, technology will evolve, but the ones that are great at “content marketing” in 50 years will be just as they are today. They will listen to their potential customers better than anyone else to identify their needs, problems, fears, etc. They’ll communicate in a way that prospects and customers clearly understand what’s being said. They’ll see themselves as *teachers* instead of “marketers” or “sales people.” And they’ll constantly be on a quest to be the most helpful consumer business in their industry. These qualities have been essential since the first businesses were started hundreds of years ago and will be equally important long after we’re all gone.

ANDREW J. COATE: It’s hip lately to talk about how content marketing will just morph into the center of marketing, and I don’t disagree. The big change will be an advancement in reporting on content marketing success. We’re already seeing early stage attempts to bring more actionable metrics into content efforts. This will be refined, and define strategies in 5 years.

ASHLEY TATE: Content marketing has already changed much of how we approach inbound marketing, and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Here are a few big changes I think we’ll see in content marketing over the next five years:

Data-driven content becomes the norm. With a plethora of content analytics already available to us, many content marketers have already shifted gears from writing emotionally-driven content to data-driven content in order to draw their audiences in and reach their marketing goals. This trend will only continue to rise, and we’ll see content analytics benchmarks and success metrics become a requirement for every piece of content that’s created.

Content becomes crucial to customer journey mapping. Marketers already use insight gleaned from content to help improve their brand’s customer personas, which lies at the heart of customer journey mapping. The best customer journey maps present a full view of all customers, and connecting with potential customers through content holds the key to unlocking who these people are, what they love, and why they interact with brands. We’ll see a shift in how content is used at this phase of the discovery funnel to help marketers learn more about who their potential customers are in order to better serve them, and to eventually increase conversions.

“Guest posting” becomes a golden goose. It’s no secret that search engines like Google are currently cracking down on guest posting. I predict that we’ll see the general concept of guest posting for links become obsolete over the next few years (a process that’s already begun). However, guest posting won’t ever entirely disappear. We’ll see a shift in what content marketers these days consider “guest posting” be replaced by new, more fruitful opportunities.

DOUG KESSLER: The industrialization of the content marketing discipline is underway. The good part is that marketing teams will start to figure out what works, then scale it up – starting with centers of content excellence. The not-so-good part is that content will become commoditized and only the really distinctive and valuable stuff will bring home the bagel.

JESSE NOYES: More organizations are going to shift their focus from generating tons of content to building a sustainable, lasting content marketing operation. Producing content, particularly quality content, is always going to matter. But churning out content shouldn’t be your goal; generating value for your customers and your market, and business for your organization, should be. That means the smart organizations are going to double down on building an operation rather than creating more marketing copy. They’ll adopt tenants like strategy, planning, distribution, analysis, etc., and continuously seek to better their performance across these best practices. Similar to social media a few years back, the best marketers won’t just “do content,” they’ll establish content centers of excellence within their organizations.

• AS THE ABILITY TO DISTRIBUTE CONTENT AT SCALE CONTINUES TO ESCALATE, WHAT SHOULD A CONTENT MARKETER’S CENTRAL FOCUS BE?

JOE PULIZZI: Building audience, audience, audience. If companies can work to be a bit more patient and less focused on short-term goals, they can do great things with content marketing.

ANN HANDLEY: The rise of content marketing has also made us value some fundamentals. I also think that the focus on the new world of content is re-focusing all of us on valuing the fundamental skill of writing. I wrote more about this here.

SHANE SNOW: The central focus should be on telling great stories for the right audiences. The better the content, the easier to distribute. And even though all content needs a push in the early days of a publishing operation, as brands get better at building relationships through content, they’ll amass their own audiences, and distribution will get easier. A recent example with our own content marketing: we recently had a product launch where our own article on our website drove more engagement than did an article about us on TechCrunch.

ANDREW J. COATE: Many will say “quality over quantity”, and I’d add an intensity on reviewing what works and what doesn’t. Content Marketers must focus on being adaptable and flexible in their efforts, and being enabled to make changes where necessary.

MARCUS SHERIDAN: The magic of content marketing comes with simplicity, not complexity. Consumers have questions. Businesses better have answers. In other words, “They Ask, You Answer” – that’s the essence of the ideal focus for most companies going forward.

KEVIN CAIN: The key to scaling any content marketing program is figuring out how to best repackage, repurpose, and recycle your content so that everything you create does at least double, if not triple, duty. For example, think about how you can transform a series of small pieces of content (blog posts, articles, etc.) into something much larger like an eBook or report. Similarly, look for ways to break down your largest pieces of content into other things such as webinars, podcasts, and videos.

JESSE NOYES: This might sound like a cop out, but I’m going to give two answers. First, the focus hasn’t changed and shouldn’t: deliver value to your audience. Sounds trite, but it’s worth repeating. Value isn’t simply determined by clicks. Cat videos get clicks. In fact, some cat videos might get more clicks from your target audience than anything you ever produce. But it won’t make them better prepared to grow in their jobs. Good content marketing does. Secondly, focus on the metrics that show your content is moving buyers through your pipeline. Too many today are deciding whether content was successful based on likes, shares, views. These things matter, but they won’t tell you whether a prospect is ready to chat with a sales rep. If content marketing is to be taken seriously, it needs to have metrics that dive deeper into the pipeline and show they are impacting leads, sales, revenue…the stuff that grows a business rather than a website.

DOUG KESSLER: Old-school, ‘interruption-based’ outbound marketing will make a comeback. We’ll all have to re-learn the core media buying concepts like reach and frequency — but with new spins for social media and real-time ad platforms.

ASHLEY TATE: A focus on content analytics is imperative to success, especially as the volume of content we produce continues to grow. As content marketers, we sometimes forget that even though content is a long-term play, the short-term metrics it produces must be the strategic drivers behind every decision we make. Any piece of content published can be measured, and it’s our job to make sure we use the available data (and trust me, there’s lots!) to grow and iterate on our strategies, rather than throwing noodles at the wall and keeping whatever sticks. When content marketers combine hard metrics (like views, visits, downloads, etc.) and soft metrics (like social shares, comments, community votes, etc.), the results can be used to make data-driven decisions around strategy, creation, and distribution.

• WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE BIGGEST CONTENT MARKETING MISTAKE?

ANDREW J. COATE: A lack of planning. If you aren’t putting a lot of effort into mapping out campaigns, you’re more likely to fail.

JOE PULIZZI: I’ll give you three. First: Lack of patience. Second: Everything revolves around the campaign (content marketing needs to survive outside the campaign budget). Third: Lack of real ownership. When everyone is responsible for content, no-one is. Having a content owner in each silo but no-one in charge of the corporate story does not count.

ANN HANDLEY: The biggest content marketing mistake is not paying attention to all of these tremendous shifts. Content isn’t just a program. It’s a mindset. I know that sounds like a throwaway line – but it’s not. Content is an amazing opportunity. And the biggest mistake is not treating it as such, and giving it the respect it deserves.

MARCUS SHERIDAN: First: Over complicating the content production process. Again, a simple philosophy of “They Ask, You Answer” will work wonders for any organization that does it the right way. Second: Too many people and businesses try to sound smart. The goal of content marketing is NEVER “smart.” Those that try to sound smart end up looking quite stupid. Rather, the goal is communion. Third: Not enough companies involve their sales departments with the content marketing efforts. This is a HUGE mistake. My company, The Sales Lion, spends a huge portion of our time giving workshops and other training to company sales departments simply so they can catch the vision of content marketing and participate in these efforts.

SHANE SNOW: There are lots of pitfalls, but I think the most dangerous mistake brands can make is to betray the audience. Breaching ethics and betraying readers is the worst thing you can do. See contently.com/ethics for more on how we think about it. :)

KEVIN CAIN: I think the biggest content marketing mistake that people make is not taking the time to get focused and truly understand their audience. Many content marketers try to boil the ocean and go after all of their target buyers at once, which rarely works. Plus, they never take the time to analyze who their buyers are, what they care about, what their pain points are, and what’s going to motivate them to make a purchase. Instead of doing the work to figure this stuff out, they rely on their gut instincts or anecdotal information. As a result, the content they create often doesn’t resonate and doesn’t drive conversions.

ASHLEY TATE: A huge mistake content marketers still make is creating content that is not tied back to overall company goals. Content strategy, creation, and distribution are all part of a creative process, and can sometimes be the most ambiguous of all a company’s marketing initiatives. But even though our creative sides must take over when we create epic content, every piece of content you create should be able to be mapped back to a company KPI. If you can’t map a piece of content back to your overall goals, you have no business creating it on your company’s dime.

Even soft KPIs like increasing brand awareness can be mapped back to a broad, company-wide goal if you plan accordingly before the piece is created. Once you nail down what broad KPI your content piece will support, follow the trail of breadcrumbs back down to the actual content piece itself, using success metrics and smaller KPIs along the way to decipher how you can tell if the piece hits its goal or not. This practice is good for your team because it shows how your work impacts the company’s bottom line, and good for your content efforts because the closer you can tie your work back to revenue, the more value it will hold.

DOUG KESSLER: Aiming too low and failing to take a confident stand on key issues is the low road to Vanilla. Now more than ever, brands need to stand up, get confident and shake their metaphorical booties.

JESSE NOYES: Not having a strategy. Every year a survey comes out, and every year I’m shocked. Most marketers don’t have a documented content strategy, yet most everyone is doing content marketing. I don’t care what you tell me - if you don’t have an actual written strategy, you don’t know what you’re doing. And this includes some rudimentary but neglected steps like establishing clear workflows, addressing specific buyer personas, collaborating across teams, regions, product lines, and actually analyzing the impact on your marketing and sales pipeline. If you don’t sit down and jot out what your specific themes, goals and team are, your content is just an ad hoc exercise in “being busy.”

Can’t get enough content marketing tips? You might like our Colossal Content Marketing Report for insights on optimizing headlines, publishing frequency, social distribution, and more.