igital marketing as we know is changing. With Ad blockers effectively blocking out digital ads, the industry it turning from advertising on top of engaging content to becoming the engaging content. With this in mind, here we look at the major trends in Content marketing in India as compiled by Linkedin India. The full report on which this article is worked on can be accessed here.

1. Address the information need across Buyer's journey

Content marketing is becoming an indispensable part of the marketer's strategy. It is becoming essential to engage the audience across his buying cycle to have a successful content marketing strategy.

Right now the primary focus of content marketers in India are

• 59% wish to be looked upon as 'Thought Leaders'

• 41% of the content marketing campaigns aim at retaining customers

• 57% aim at lead generation

• 52% of content marketing campaigns wish to acquire customers

2. Define your success metrics to include the entire spectrum

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Do not measure success with just Lead generation as the criteria. Look for long term strategy and engaging he customer for the life time value of the customer. In 2017, it would be important to plan how to measure results for content marketing campaigns. To have the best results, you need to set expectations and secure long-term investment from the boardroom in your initiatives by ensuring your goals and measurement metrics are aligned.

3. Digital Buyer Penetration Rise from 43.8% to 70.7% by 2020

Fueled by growing infrastructure support and better business models, buyers are increasingly using internet to inform their purchase decisions. As the trend continues in India, marketers must employ a variety of methods to share their content with fragmented online audiences. A strong distribution strategy is critical for content to deliver desired marketing objectives – whetherit's awareness or demand generation. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

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'The same content ethos has to spread across platforms in the way the platforms are consumed. For example, content as a newspaper should be repurposed for viewing via an electronic medium – even an e-paper. It is imperative that the user feels she gets content that is relevant to her and drives messaging seamlessly across platforms'. Bedraj Tripathy, AVP Integrated Marketing, Godrej

4.Marketers primarily use Social Media, Blogs, and Newsletters

The content marketing techniques like newsletters, blogs, and social media dominate the marketplace. Content and social are deeply dependent and interlinked with each other. Therefore, a strong native advertising strategy means social media and content together.

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Brands will continue to invest in native ads, and actually improve the quality of their content as a way to increase engagement and close the trust gap. – Bianca Ghose, Global Head Content Marketing, HCL Technologies

5.Make your audience your brand evangelists

The focus should be to include the power of customer distributing your story as part of your content strategy. As marketers, one must remember that their messaging can be distributive. If one hopes to appeal to professionals audiences and engagements, one must still inform, entertain, and provide value. The key is to make sure your audience stand for your brand by sharing your content.

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"User behavior [is] critical for a successful content marketing plan. It will become pertinent to study the buyer persona and behaviour in a hyper-local environment and serve content to them." – Meher Sarid, Group President, Oxigen Services India Pvt Ltd

6.Use the network of Influencers for your marketing strategy

1 in 3 Indian marketers rely on influencer marketing techniques. Thought leadership will be an integral part of content marketing strategies and help lift awareness. The content marketing strategy will now evolve to address challenges beyond showing thought leadership from a brand, create demand, or lift awareness In a survey it was revealed that 77% of people buy when a person they trust recommends a brand.

Every prospect that a brand is willing to talk to across digital platforms will be treated as an influencer. This will lead to brands crowd sourcing or co-creating content with a wide audience. – Vatsal Asher, CEO, DMAi

He also added that "the influencer base of every brand will increase exponentially."

7.Visuals and Info graphics have more impact. Use it !!

Apart from the fact that Social media improves reach of visual posts, B2B marketers rely on data to gain the trust of prospects. The marketers will leverage data within messaging but will experiment with the format used to make the data comprehensible to the target audience. This will give a push to the adoption of visual storytelling.

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Snackable content is small, mostly visual content, that is easily consumable and shareable. More marketers will turn stats and info into shareable infographics. – Apurva Chamaria, Vice President and Head of Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies.

8.Augmented Reality may be a good bet

53% of the marketers are optimistic about the future of augmented reality. The impact of viral games likes Pokemon GO are testimony to the fact that AR will become indispensable in the future. The current barrier of high cost, makes it hard to create VR content. But it is a good bet to keep up with the trends in VR and watch out for good bet into this.

VR and AR will start getting adopted at scale, today it's not possible due to cost and accessibility challenges. – Meher Sarid, Group President, Oxigen Services India Pvt Ltd

9.Get User generated content to help you build your presence

41% of Indian marketers encourage user generated content. Almost every brand today is developing their content. Going beyond their own organization to create content can lead to cost-effective techniques while maintaining brand strategies and delivering results.

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'We will see the growth of user-generated content. Historically brands have created the vast majority of content about their products. Now they are realizing that their customers' feedback, comments, and content are also valuable.' – Gulshan Verma, Chief Revenue Officer, Times Internet

10.Video content and its effectiveness to be measured

Video is widely popular with audiences, yet India trails other countries in the percent of video complete rates. At the same time, video content is one of the most expensive content formats. The cost of production top challenge for agencies and brands. Marketers will look for ways to decrease the production cost while simultaneously increasing completion rates

Live Streaming is a great technology for brands, it is interactive and undeniably sticky – they allow people to comment, like, and share brand videos. – Apurva Chamaria, Vice-President, and Head of Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies

Conclusion

The world is fasting tuning the trends in content marketing and discovering that it is 40% cheaper for getting the same results as in traditional digital advertising. It is important that every marketers arms himself with the necessary tools for content marketing in the days to come.