The PR 20/20 Blog

You’ve likely heard the hype: Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It’s taking over! ROBOTS WILL SOON DO OUR JOBS! HUMANS WILL GO EXTINCT!

Kidding. (If this is the AI news you’re hearing, you need a better source. I recommend the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute.) But AI is poised to massively influence how marketers work. It’s estimated that 80% of a marketer’s job function will be intelligently automated, to some degree, in the next 3-5 years—and AI and other analytics will have trillions of dollars in annual impact.

Overall, 2018 was a “down” year for trust, according to Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer. The study found that people are unwilling to believe information they see and read. The media scored as the least-trusted global institution, with social media and search engines following closely behind.

Some marketing and PR pros, like Beth Monaghan (@bamonaghan), were ahead of this curve. Writing for Forbes, Monaghan predicted in late 2017 that trust was at stake for every American organization and it would play a major role in 2018 PR strategies.

According to Content Marketing Institute Research Director Lisa Beets (@LisaBeets), “Nearly all top-performing B2B content marketers—90%—put their audience’s informational needs ahead of their company’s sales/promotional message.”

That’s a far cry from the marketers of the past, who pushed promotional messaging at consumers with a wish and a prayer that someone would convert.

Today, more B2B marketers than ever rely on a content marketing approach. To quantify the trends among this group, each year, Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs gather up their extensive survey findings for a B2B content marketing report.

Image credit: Content Marketing World and MarketingProfs

The trends informing the savvy content marketer’s year-end planning have become even more reliable this year, as CMI and MarketingProfs only surveyed respondents whose organizations have used content marketing for at least one year. They also qualified respondents “by asking them to confirm they are a content marketer, someone who is involved with content marketing, or someone to whom content marketing staff reports.”

Content production is one of the more time-consuming functions of a modern marketer. Most people spend 2-3 hours writing a single blog post, and many brands publish multiple times per week—sometimes multiple times per day.

This production rate is required, considering that 84% of people expect brands to provide content that entertains, tells stories, provides solutions and creates experiences and events.

That’s a tall order.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new legislation that goes into effect on May 25, 2018 and will change how companies gather, store and use consumer data. Though it’s a European law, it affects any marketer that gathers data on a global basis.

For example, if you or your clients have even one “data set” (that’s GDPR-speak for “contact”) who’s European, the GDPR rules apply to you for that individual—so keep reading.

The GDPR is positioned to tip the data scales in favor of consumers for the first time in recent history, and it could significantly alter your marketing strategy in the process. If you’re one of the 94% of marketers who aren’t GDPR-ready, it’s time to listen up.

Those who disregard this legislation could be hit with fines that would make your head spin—plus, it’s just not cool to be sneaky with other people’s data. We know you’re better than that.

Below, we’ve provided a roundup of the best information, tools and tips for preparing your marketing strategy to become GDPR-compliant.

But first, a disclaimer: This blog post is not a comprehensive guide to the GDPR legislation and should not be treated as legal advice or legal recommendation. If you have questions about the GDPR as it pertains to your specific circumstances, consult an attorney.

Alright, let’s get into it.

Consider your approach to writing a stellar piece of content. 

You spend time researching the topic, gathering resources, organizing your ideas, drafting an outline, transforming your outline into a rich first draft, passing it off for a review, making final tweaks... Phew! 

Hours later— probably at least two hours, according to Hubspot— your final product is informative, resource-rich and memorable. You’ve invested a great deal of time to ensure that your audience consumes the best piece of content you can create. 

After all that effort, you’re doing yourself a disservice to only spend 45 seconds sharing it on your social media profiles and moving on to the next project. It’s time to make your content work harder.