Which content marketing trends will dominate in 2020?  

The accusation thrown at many gambling operators is that, even with significant marketing budgets, too many of them still use the generic content they’ve been rolling out for years.

To compete in an overcrowded market, companies need to pay attention to those stand-out brands that produce engaging, SEO-savvy content that speaks to customers from their perspective. Only then can they foster long-lasting and meaningful connections.

But with brands targeting players in many markets and languages, this isn’t an easy task. And the channels, tactics, and tools that marketers use to create and distribute content will evolve significantly in 2020 and beyond.

So how do gambling companies get it right when it comes to creating content? What’s coming down the road, and how should they evolve their marketing strategies to keep up with the changes?

Personalisation (but on steroids)

As any marketer will tell you, success comes from drawing customers to you and pushing your content to them. You can make this happen by offering engaging, useful, and personalised content that’s tailored to your customers’ specific interests and pushes them to learn more.

The watchword for next year is dynamic content – or personalisation on steroids. Dynamic content changes for each visitor that views it. It doesn’t just plug a name into a greeting or subject line (though that can be part of it); instead it’s tailored to the person and what they care about in that moment.

Data is king

Most of us already know that content marketing isn’t something to be approached haphazardly. A solid content marketing strategy aims to provide specific value to a specific audience – but the question is, how are brands determining what’s valuable?

Now, more than ever, the answer to that question is data.

Data tools aren’t all equal. For example, content production metrics, the most basic of analytic tools, simply keep tabs on whether you’re producing enough material. Content performance metrics are much more valuable. They analyse interaction; how many people saw your content, liked it, shared it?

ROI metrics take things a step further by demonstrating the value you’re creating for your business. And, the holy grail of data is in content governance metrics. Active governance can help improve your content and content creation processes before you ever publish anything – so you can measure what’s likely to be successful before you’ve spent the cash to create it.

The future’s in the technology

Using AI to create better, more accurate content, faster and at scale, is already a reality. But far from computers replacing humans, future AI will enrich what content creators are already achieving.

AI can help streamline the delivery of content. Whether you have 1,000 or 100,000 clients (or potential customers), people will take a scattergun approach to targeting. They’ll set a rule that says send an email at a specific time and hope for the best. AI, on the other hand, can segment those customers at a whole different level. If, for example, just 1% of them open their emails at 11pm on a Sunday night, then an AI system will make sure the message arrives in those people’s inbox by 10.45pm.

In addition, using data, AI can write social media updates, figure out what image to use, what hashtags to include, and when to publish for maximum results. Today’s AI-powered intelligent software can adjust the send date based on who you’re sending it to and change the channel to make each post as effective as possible. Humans will never be able to do this as effectively, especially at scale.

Of course, this is just the start. For those gaming and gambling companies wanting to win big in 2020, there’ll be plenty more trends to watch. But to start the New Year on the right foot, organisations should look to tech-powered personalised content strategies – ones that make use of data and leave behind the staid, predictable content that characterised the industry of old.

Christopher P Willis is Acrolinx’s chief marketing officer, responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing strategy. He brings more than 20 years of experience growing companies in the technology sector.