Here are 6 big content marketing trends for the next 5 years

As the channels to distribute content multiply, the spam is growing, and one has to be nimble-footed and should possess the ability to change often and quickly to crack the da vinci's code of marketable content for their brand. The future of content consumption is keeping everyone on their toes. After all, content would define the companies which excel in the future.

Here's our list of the biggest trends that we see emerging in the content marketing space over the next five years. This is our personal view, backed by our combined experience of working in the editorial, entrepreneurial and marketing communications role of over more than three decades.

: If as a brand, you still haven't started work on owning your content yet, you better buckle up. With the businesses of future moving toward profitability, the ones that own content would have an edge in ensuring a fair balance between owned, earned and paid media. Owned content is present and the future. Paid media will continue to grow expensive, earned media will become increasingly difficult to earn. The efficiency metrics will be out like a sword, and those who are able to build owned content powerfully will have a strong leverage on effective returns from marketing communications. User-generated content on the owned platform would take your brand to a different level.

Visual Storytelling Will Be in Hot Demand: It's already the buzzword! Short or long format, the jury would decide on its own in the long-term. The tide may keep shifting, but for now one strong trend emerging is that snackable visual content where you can share your story in less than 20 seconds, and web series storytelling in engaging format will rule. With Instagram and Facebook stories growing, videos will now be seen more on stories than on feed. So buck up get your creative juices and tell your story as quickly and on web screen in as entertaining and engaging way possible. The time is ticking.

Real Influencers Will Shine: It's happening! It would just grow bigger in the next half a decade. Real influencers who are genuine authority and entertainers in their subjects rather than any and all influencers will grow. With Instagram removing its 'LIKE' option soon in India and more such changes in store on social media as it restores its brand image of connecting people for good of the society, the specialist influencers will gain immensely.

Augmented Reality is on its Way: Communicators quickly need to work on experiences that are both online and offline aligned. Use of AR in ways how experiences are created will grow. You can sit at home and view a product/ experience through digital or be at in-store and experience it how it will fit your home's. In cases of hotels it can showcase how you can upsell other products etc.

Some of the top brands are already engaging it's consumer through AR for instance IKEA, make-up brand, Lakme and many others. How engaging your AR will be, and how fun and real will be, make it exciting for the communicators to create those.

Humans Will do Smarter Jobs, Artifical Will be Manual Intelligence: AI is here and is being used wisely - be it in form of programatic marketing or chatbots, communicators are in great space where they can focus on storytelling and let other job be picked up AI. We are in the age where distribution of content can be done smartly by AI with smarter interference from humans. This will only become more refined and sophisticated, as the ones who can use it effectively and efficiently will shine.

As per one of the surveys, more than two/thirds of chatbot fail. Chatbots work best when people clearly understand the problem they want to solve through this artificial intelligence tool. By 2025, humans would be working on storytelling, as chatbots will take over their mundane jobs, and brands would have a fair understanding of expectations from chatbot when it comes to customer service and experience, or even marketing content reaching to audience faster and quicker to retain that extra edge over their competition.

Listen, Experience & Learn: Our first stories came from the radio, from the voices that made us experience a fairytale in our minds. Audio storytelling is set to make a strong comeback, as audio like a good book leaves details to the imagination, something people have started switching to in the high-intensity content feed environment.

That's the reason, podcasts are on the rise, radio channels are coming up with new format stories, chat shows and now with Spotify entering into India, new kind of audio content is on the rise. Audio searches are increasingly being used especially in tier-2 and tier-3 markets. Audio content is going to have a phenomenal comeback and we will see an increasing rise in entertaining content in this format.

Overall, we believe that technology will rise in our daily lives, would create more jobs, make humans work on intelligent roles. Storytellers would be in demand, as much as marketing communication specialists who would be able to distribute content effectively and at scale in a cost-effective manner.

Ruchika Mehta is Corporate Director, Communications & PR at Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, and Aman Dhall heads Corporate Communications at PolicyBazaar.com. The views expressed are personal.