Three adjectives come to mind when we think of content marketing - engaging, highly effective, and perfectly appropriate for encouraging online content creation and distribution As a matter of fact, it is the next big marketing revolution! Successful content marketing has the potential of bringing a wave of fresh and salable content ideas.
We live in a world where digital content marketing trends come and go, and the target audience's expectations keep changing. When the requirement came about for meeting the consumers' needs on a digital platform, content marketing proved to be the game-changer. And to keep up with the growing demand, savvy marketers understand how important it is to always resonate with their target audience. But that doesn't always mean that everyone can get it right. Creating an ideal content marketing campaign isn't impossible but it takes several attempts to get it right.
With every other brand clamoring for their share of voice, it's only natural to feel lost in the dissonance of great content.
While there is a different content asset that you might offer as a content marketing agency, here are Deck 7's 5 effective content marketing strategies to help you break through the noise and get your message across - LOUD and CLEAR.
The Power of Context
In 2014, Adidas revolutionized social media marketing with their FIFA World Cup campaign #allin or nothing, garnering almost 6 million followers on its social channels and becoming THE most talked about brand in the World Cup. It created a six-episode, live-streaming series called 'The Dugout', which included real-time reaction videos, featured world-famous footballer Q&As and post-match recaps plus Google+ hangouts. Their objective behind this was simple, to be THE most raved brand at the World Cup. And it worked!
What other brands can take away from Adidas's learning is that communicating with quality content and a powerful story builds strong and positive brand equity. You must know your brand value, research your target audience, and make it personal in an effort to humanize the brand to match your buyer persona. When done right, brand storytelling can put a whole new perspective to your content marketing strategy by allowing you to connect with your audience authentically. While this content marketing effort does wonder for your brand awareness program, you also get a chance to put out valuable content for your audience to bank upon and recall.
Content Personalization to Maximize Conversion
According to an article by Marketing Insider Group, almost half of the consumers won't even engage with a brand that doesn't provide content that's mapped to their interests and needs. The key to building your brand awareness is to tailor and customize content for the right person through the right channel at the right time. Instead of quality content, think of providing relevant content based on consumer data, searches and purchase history while still finding a way to convey your company's thought leadership concepts. In an interview with Think with Google's, Kelly Olmstead, VP of Brand Activation for North America at Adidas says, "It's really important for us to use data and the digital space to understand what our consumers are listening to, what they're looking at, what's inspiring them. More than ever before, data is driving the stories we tell, when we tell them, and how they resonate with our consumers."
It's no wonder that a giant e-commerce corporation like Amazon is one of the highest revenue-generating company today. With its data-driven and interactive approach to online marketing, Amazon didn't just evolve as the "go-to" e-commerce website but also as a powerful digital marketing and content platform.
2019 Calls for More Brand Collaboration
It's like watching your favorite movie while eating popcorn and drinking soda. They're obviously quite good on their own, but it's the combination that makes it so epic!
Similarly, B2B marketers have started to join forces in order to make a greater impact on their consumers and fuel growth. 2019 being rife with competition, multiple brands are now seen working together to create all kinds of content strategy, in an effort to give their fans a "new perspective and an immersive viewing experience." Not only that, collaboration between brands also means there's more room for content production distribution, cross-promotion, and product innovation besides the inbound marketing activities that a content marketer would usually conduct.
While creating collaborative content be it a blog post or even a visual content piece, look for brands that relate to your niche but aren't exactly your competitors. Working with a brand whose skills and knowledge complement your offerings will not only fuel your global outreach but also help scale your respective businesses. This will help you to churn out engaging content, that is interesting yet informative.
A great example to follow would be Red Bull and GoPro's Stratos project in 2014 that showed Felix Baumgartner's 24-mile dive from a space pod down to earth. Not only did it fascinate and leave an impact on the viewers around the globe, but it also educated them about future space exploration.
Get Influential People on Board
It is reported by HopperHQ's propriety and public data analysis that Selena Gomez makes about $550,000 for one sponsored Instagram post.
In a world dominated by social media stars, celebrities, bloggers, and YouTubers, it's not surprising at all that brands are turning to social media influencers for promotion and meaningful exposure. That's because a person is most likely to rely on a stranger's judgment than the claims from the actual brand. Besides that, collaborating with social media influencers gives you better outreach towards the audience in your marketing funnel than you doing it as a brand on your own.
Seeking out influencers on the internet might be overwhelming due to its sheer expanse, but it is possible to make your search more relevant and focused by using the existing networks first. You can look at your own followings, ask your coworkers, do a lot of research based on your requirements, and look for content creators whose followings are engaged. Cracking the various search engine techniques and paid ad campaigns is one way to hit the right audience.
You don't have to shell out a lot of money to create the most effective marketing campaign. The key is to look for people who get more likes, comments, shares as well as are capable of creating good content than famous celebrity influencers whose posts may reach thousands of fans but do not get any engagement.
Ensure your brand stands out and provides value to the customers when approaching the ideal influencers. Keep in mind that these people get approached often, so you need to establish a connection and state what's in it for them. And remember, transparency and authenticity is the key to an authentic content marketing plan.
AI Will Take You Places
From problem-solving at lightning speed to dealing with overwhelming amounts of content online, it might as well be the miracle worker!
The internet is a cesspool of information and in order to make your content marketing campaign a success, you need to make the most out of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Google's global creative director, Ben Jones says, "We need to stop thinking of machines as rivals. Instead, we should see them as an opportunity to take our creativity to the next level." By analyzing user data and user intent, Artificial intelligence is helping marketing leaders around the world decipher the ever-changing dynamics of content marketing.
It is being used to artificially generate content by companies such as Yahoo, Fox, and Associated Press. Also, with the help of artificial intelligence, social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr can analyze hundreds of variables to predict which posts a potential customer might like next.
To better optimize your website, you could integrate chatbots to answer FAQs and also collect feedback from your customers and have them analyzed by the team. Some content marketing examples like these help you to test what your audience responds well to.
It's Either a Hit or a Miss
Content is at the heart of your brand and your customer, and to be the best, you must prioritize the basics. In an age where attention is considered as the currency of the digital, social, and mobile web, it is not just important to offer relevant content experience but to be as diverse and authentic as possible by creating content that is.