In 2014, people in the advertising and marketing world had a hectic year. With content marketing making a name for itself and proving it was here to stay, brands and agencies alike embraced smaller-form content and started becoming experts on how to execute content marketing efficiently.

If you’re unsure of what to expect out of content marketing in 2015, below are a few things to get ready for:

1. Content is, and will remain, the kingdom.

Resident digital content guru, Emily Reeves, outlined in an earlier blog post that content is not king, it’s the kingdom. Great content allows your brand to be found online easier, it provides great ways to share your content across multiple platforms, and it builds relationships with customers – both before and after they are customers. If you missed Emily’s series of posts on content marketing, you can find them here and here.

A recent study by Content+ and their marketing partners showed that content marketing efforts, such as company blogs, result in 55% more site visitors. Companies with blogs were shown to get 97% more inbound links than others.

2. Micro-content and visuals make an unbeatable team.

Modern micro-content, which is optimized for social media, is instantly shareable. However, text-based micro-content, like tweets, only go so far. Pairing micro-content with visuals takes micro-content to the next level. Infographics are also starting to make a big splash in the land of micro-content. Stone Ward’s Amanda Hughes wrote on the benefits of infographics and how it made content 30 times more likely to be shared. Incredible. Expect to see a big push for infographics and visual micro-content in 2015.

3. Real-time marketing teams are aiming to be the golden standard

Marketers have been heavily invested in real-time content in the past year, and you can expect that to continue into 2015. While Oreo set the standard for real-time marketing, companies like Samsung have taken advantage of their competitors’ crises to produce some share-worthy content to gain some leverage in the markets. Samsung released this clever ad when news of the bending iPhone 6 came to surface:

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4. Cross-platform marketing is starting to reflect consumer trends.

While consumers have shifted more of their attention to mobile devices, advertisers and marketers have begun to shift their strategies to match that trend. Coupled with mobile-first strategies, some of the more aggressive brands have taken to mobile-only positions. Taco Bell’s recent strategy included going dark on Facebook and Twitter to encourage consumers to download its new mobile app.

5. Personalized content will continue to play to consumers’ vanity.

It’s no secret that playing to a consumers’ vanity is a best practice in the marketing business. Flattery can lead to long-term loyalty. No one knows this better than Coca-Cola. Coke’s “Share a Coke” campaign did this and helped turn around 11 years of soft-drink consumption declines.

Coke also broke the mold with their coke bottles that can only be opened by another bottle. This interesting strategy was created to help new college freshmen break the ice by requiring them to ask someone else with a coke to help them open their own bottle. Personally, that’s a bit of a nightmare. As someone who doesn’t regularly approach strangers for help, I, along with many other people I imagine, would just buy two cokes and open them myself. But kudos to Coke for the innovative idea.

Content marketing is starting to become the go-to for many brands. What are your predictions for changes in the marketing and advertising fields in 2015?