Content Marketing Will Squeeze Into Tighter Niches In 2016… And Audiences Will Squeeze Back

In The Golem and the Jinni, a novel by Helene Wecker, a woman made of clay and brought to life by an evil wizard is capable of reading people’s thoughts. She’s able to reply to questions before they’re asked, allay concerns before they’ve been articulated, give customers the pastries they didn’t realize they wanted. It’s a content marketer’s dream superpower. But she has to suppress her ability. Not only are the thoughts she hears overwhelming, people also find her ability intrusive and disturbing.

That’s the dilemma that content marketers will increasingly have to manage in 2016. Big Data is getting much better at collecting information and dissecting the numbers. And that data is set to grow. Google’s purchase of Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion showed the value of the data supplied by the Internet  of Things. The connected, semi-autonomous cars displayed at CES and at the Detroit Auto Show at the start of this year suggest a future in which the actions we take both inside and outside the home are monitored, measured and used by marketers.

That data and its analysis will allow marketers to better target content to audiences based on the actions they  perform and the preferences they display. We’ll be able to tweak content and offers to ensure maximum appeal, carving out tighter niches and crafting messages that fit precisely. According to Forbes, some insurance firms are already monitoring the number of calls made by customers to identify those most at risk of leaving, and John Hancock offers customers a free Fitbit, adapting its offers to the data it receives from the fitness bracelet.

Audiences Are Developing Mind Blockers

Audiences, though, are pushing back, especially when the data collection damages their experience or lacks transparency. More than a quarter of Internet users are now believed to use an ad blocker to strip advertising from the websites they visit, and in July the Uniform Law Commission, a body that helps states draft laws consistent across the United States, will vote on model social media privacy legislation. The proposal affects access by employers and universities to the online account information of staff and students but it’s indicative of the increasing concern felt by audiences about the collection and sharing of personal information.

As companies collect more data, those concerns are only going to sharpen. Big Data collection will continue. Content marketers will use that data to direct messages to audiences based on their behavior and their past choices. The degree to which those audiences push back will depend on how well content marketers can address client concerns and worries without raising red flags.

Content marketing should always be a conversation between a brand and its audience. In 2016, we’ll be paying even more attention to the way audiences respond and we’ll be deciding how much we have to suppress our ability to read their minds.

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