Content marketing trends indicate more companies are using social media, e-newsletters and website articles to engage with customers, establish themselves as experts and build their businesses. With content curation, content discovery tools, personalization, optimization and storytelling requirements — not to mention changing search engine algorithms and paid advertising — implementing an effective content marketing plan as part of your overall marketing strategy seems like an ever-changing, if not overwhelming, task.

But help is at hand. As we move into 2015, work on getting your content in front of your target customer, building your brand awareness and increasing sales by aligning your content marketing strategy with these five trends:

1. Write It Down

A study by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs showed the top strategy trending in content marketing is perhaps the most obvious: Document it. While most marketers surveyed had a verbal strategy, 60 percent of those with a documented strategy found it more effective than a verbal one.

Social media strategy has become key as the millennial generation emerges with distinctive patterns of connectivity, values and spending. While they are mobile-centric — according to Nielsen, 85 percent of them own a smartphone — and are connected 24/7, reaching them has perplexed retailers, who have found that millennials don't respond to traditional marketing methods.

How do you connect with the most connected generation in history? Social media is their entry to the Internet, and it leads search engines in terms of content discovery — which means you need to develop a relationship with them on social media. Here are five steps to take.

1. Find Out Where They Hang Out

Different social networks serve different functions. Mashable notes that a report from Frank N. Magid Associates Inc. shows that teen Facebook usage dropped from 95 percent in 2012 to 88 percent in 2014. Twitter, meanwhile, saw an increase in adult users in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. Tumblr and Pinterest are popular with women, notes FinancesOnline, and Pew reports that college graduates and higher-income users are generally found on LinkedIn. Find out where your millennials hang out and engage them there.

When it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, keeping up with the digital trends is key to your successful paid search campaign. This includes considering algorithm updates, the plethora of social media sites and the big shift to mobile commerce — Pew reports that 63 percent of adult cell owners use their phones to go online.

In case you missed them, here are some trends you need to know about from 2014 and trends to look out for in 2015.

How PPC Marketing Changed in 2014

• Simplicity. This year saw the demise of digital bling. Big, flashy banners might as well be a stop sign, especially in a mobile world where they signal bulky downloads and complicated landing pages. The shift has been toward simplicity, clear CTAs and direct messages.
  
  
• Social. Changes in social media platforms have given you great opportunities to get your brand in front of your target customer. But promoted tweets and Facebook's algorithms are changing how often your fans or followers see your posts. A paid social media campaign has become an essential tool in any digital advertising campaign.
  
  
• Mobile. Marketing Land reports that 37 percent of all Web traffic comes from mobile, which indicates that users are increasingly viewing ads on their mobile devices. Mobile-optimized sites are gaining visibility, but getting ahead of this trend is imperative going into 2015.

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of content marketers quite like Google algorithm updates. Ever since Panda changed the game back in February 2011, marketers have lived in perpetual fear that the next algorithm update will be the one to kill all their traffic and send their site into obscurity. However, while it's easy to fall into this way of thinking, these updates don't have to be so scary. Here are three essential tips that marketers can use to get through these updates with minimal traffic impact.

1. Get Out of Bad Habits

The biggest things that affect website traffic after Google algorithm updates are what could be considered "spammy" techniques that have historically given sites with poor content an advantage over sites with high-quality content. Because these updates target broad practices such as keyword stuffing and link manipulation, some legitimate sites get lumped in with the poor-quality ones. Perform a self-audit of your current SEO strategies and try to scale down on bad habits regarding linkage and keyword usage that could flag your site during an algorithm update.

Google Maps has updated its mobile app for both the Android and iOS platforms. Though the first thing users will notice is likely to be the app's fresh new look — it incorporates material design, as Search Engine Journal notes — there are plenty of other new features under the hood, including a new live search results feature and instant one-touch reservations. Though these updates certainly make life more convenient for average users, local businesses can really benefit from these additions in some tangible ways.

Helping Users Find You With Up-to-Date Information

One of the best ways that the Google Maps app update helps to bring new customers to your business is discovery through simple browsing. Users looking at a planned route or trying to check out a local area will be able to browse local businesses and get instant information on any selected business with a single tap — no searching required! However, in order to get the most out of this feature, local businesses must ensure that their directory information is correct and easily available. Double-check that sites that list your business have your correct address, phone number and hours and a link to your official website. Also, ensure that your official website is updated with photos, business descriptions and social networking information.

Even if you are getting traffic to your site from organic search, you should consider paid search engine marketing, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. These are ads for your company that appear at the top or to the right in the search engine results page (SERP) when a customer searches for products or services that you offer. It works by letting you bid on keywords relevant to your business (for example, through Google AdWords), displaying your targeted ad when people search for that term. It gives you a boost, potentially pushing your business to the front page despite your organic search rankings. And what's more, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Here are five best practices for developing an effective PPC campaign for your business.

Keywords

The effectiveness of PPC depends on your choice of keywords, which means you should know who your target customer is and which words they'll use to search for your products. Then bid on these keywords — which, of course, should be closely related to your product offerings. Instead of relying on historically used words, think about your customer and your products to give yourself a competitive edge. There are also tools, like Google's Keyword Planner, that you can use to do research for keyword ideas.

Holiday marketing season 2014 is already in full swing, and according to new data released by the National Retail Federation, consumer spending will be up this year. Marketers who don't take advantage of every last second of it will be left behind. Here are some content marketing tips to help you make sure that this holiday season is merry and bright.

Despite huge strides over the past decade, search engine optimization remains widely misunderstood among businesses. In some cases, leadership still views SEO as a spam-like approach to building Internet traffic — practices that haven't been employed in years. Others may understand conventional approaches to SEO, but fail to see the benefits.

Whatever the reasoning, an unfamiliarity with SEO is a huge disadvantage for businesses. SEO can always help you increase business opportunities, whether you're selling items online or simply driving leads and in-house phone calls from a well-established online presence.

There's no shame in being unfamiliar with SEO, as long as you're willing to learn. First, there are some basic concepts you need to understand.

Shopping campaigns are emerging as one of the premiere paid search products for businesses looking to expand their reach. However, it's easy to feel overwhelmed when designing one, especially since switching from a simpler product listing ad campaign to a more comprehensive shopping campaign can be time consuming. Search Engine Land reports that many marketers were surprised by some of the pitfalls they experienced transitioning from traditional product listing ads to shopping campaigns. Keeping these three things in mind when developing your paid search shopping campaign will ensure that you start off on the right track and can meet challenges as they come.

Determining return on investment (ROI) for any marketing campaign can be a bit of a challenge. Marketers have to look at sales, cash flow, impressions and even online traffic to put together the full ROI picture. However, in almost all key metrics, content marketing can provide a better ROI than most other forms of marketing due to several factors.

Scalability: Flexibility When You Need It Most

One of the things that makes content marketing a unique marketing tool is its scalability. Whether you have a small, local business with fewer than ten employees or a huge multinational corporation with thousands of employees working around the globe, there's a strategy out there to fit your needs and your budget. Trying to reach local foodies to market a new restaurant? You can reach members of the community with targeted blog posts, reviews and social networking posts. Want to increase brand awareness among Fortune 500 companies for a multinational tech company? Publishing thought leadership pieces and pushing them through business-friendly channels will make sure your business gets the exposure it needs. Content marketing's elasticity ensures that no matter what your current goals are, a strategy can be shaped to fit your needs — giving it a leg up on other marketing methods in terms of return on investment.