There are so many things to love about this time of year – sugar cookies, parties, holiday lights, to name a few. But honestly, one of my favorite work-related December events is collecting trends lists for the New Year!

I love a good trends list. Not only are they filled with tons of new content ideas and possibilities, but they also prep me for what I need to start paying attention to and learning about in the year ahead. Since they’re trends, I don’t have to rush to add them to my content plans, but I always pick a couple that I want to test and try when an opportunity arises.

I was going to write my own content marketing trends list based on our agency’s work this year and the questions I keep hearing from our clients, but frankly, I ran out of time. (Who says there’s no honesty in journalism anymore?) Instead I thought, “Why not share all the great trends lists I’ve been collecting? So here you go, 15 articles of content marketing trends for 2018. Enjoy!

Spoiler alert: content is getting “techier.” According to these lists, voice-activated search, artificial intelligence, robots, augmented reality, and geofencing are about to hit our world.

“7 tech trends that will shake up content marketing in 2018”
Highlights: Social will serve as a publishing outlet, not just sharing platforms; machine learning will enable content conversations; and live video streaming via social will create new content opportunities.

“10 marketing trends to think about for 2018”
Highlights: Explainer videos (short, uncomplicated videos that explain your company’s product or service) will pack a big punch for driving results; geofencing content opportunities; and the rise of brand blogs.

“7 content marketing trends brands need to prepare for in 2018”
Highlights: Investments in content are paying off, publications are becoming more focused, and there is a continued rise of the micro-influencers and brand blogs.

“Content marketing in 2018: 5 trends you’ll need to know”
Highlights: Contextual content experiences, content as the building block of all marketing, and the lines between paid, owned, and earned media are converging.

“9 content marketing trends to look forward to in 2018”
Highlights: Changing content roles, taking content off the screen, content as the fuel for the buyer’s journey, and live video is taking over.

“10 marketing trends to act on in 2018”
Highlights: Integrating marketing activities into the customer lifecycle, integrating machine learning into marketing automation, and integrating search marketing into your content marketing activities.

“Content marketing trends to watch for 2018”
Highlights: Profit is centered on original content and marketing.

“4 B2B content marketing trends to watch in 2018”
Highlights: New and improved content is more customized throughout the sales funnel.

“18 marketing trends to watch in 2018”
Highlights: AI takes over website messaging, rise of quantitative-based marketing, more augmented reality content, voice-optimized content, privacy protection as a major selling point, and gated content falls out of vogue.

“10 B2B content marketing trends to watch for in 2018”
Highlights: There’s an increase in content calendars and automated referral marketing rewards.

“4 trends for social media content marketing in 2018”
Highlights: Content is more mobile-ready and leverages user-generated content.

“Watch out! content marketing trends we’re expecting for 2018”
Highlights: Content is created for voice search, Pincodes (reinvention of QR code), and artificial intelligence-driven content.

“Content marketing in 2018: Trends and tools for success”
Highlights: There is a continued focus on video and original content that doesn’t focus on selling will be big.

“5 content marketing trends to try in 2018”
Highlights: There are more videos, investing in content talent, content optimized for voice-initiated search, producing a series, and monetizing content.

“Content marketing trends that will help your small business thrive in 2018”
Highlights: Content becomes more personalized, video outperforms other content formats, and visual content becomes mandatory.

What trends are you most excited about? Did you see any ideas that you want to try in 2018? I’d love to hear from you!