Recently we held a LEWIS marketing event in Bangalore, which focused on the relevance and importance of content marketing. Key members of the corporate communications community attended this round table event to discuss effective methods of content marketing.
Content marketing is a marketing technique that involves creating and distributing effective, valuable and relevant content to attract a well-defined audience. It is the present and the future of marketing, which makes it an important aspect. A massive 93% of B2B organizations rely on content marketing for brand building and demand generation.
Seth Godin, a marketing expert, went so far as to say that Content Marketing “is all the marketing that is left.”
The discussion examined the current scenario, trends, effective use of content, tools to measure success of a content marketing campaign and much more. Some of the key talking points included:
Every successful content marketer should have a trick or two to pull out and address their toughest business challenges. For those who find it difficult to produce enough content to meet their marketing needs, they might have to forego original content and leverage regularly scheduled columns on other platforms. Companies that do well in content marketing are those that create unique content, have a strong view point and produce thought leadership content such as research.
The quality of content and targeting the right audience is crucial for a successful campaign. Content is much more than just plain words. Content has to tell a story that the customer can easily understand and relate to. A piece of content should not be read and discarded. It is meant to be absorbed and should serve as a link to build a dialogue between the organization and its target audience. Further, it has to lead the reader to an action that results in a sustainable and meaningful connection to the organization.
According Mr. Narhari KS, Director of Communications, Texas Instruments: “Content has to be innovative, smart and agile. To be more effective, you need to cut through all that noise. And to cut through all that noise, you need to produce content that’s targeted, useful, succinct and shareable – delivered at the right time.”
When we talk about content marketing, we often think about the customers, and rightly so. But customers are not the only stakeholders. To develop a successful program of content marketing, we need to start at home. Adding to this, Sunita Venugopal, Corporate Communications Head, Target Corporation, points out that content should be created internally since this is likely to be more on message, easier to understand and faster to receive approvals. With strong internal stakeholder relationships and a content strategy, a content marketing program has the foundation it needs for success.
Now that most marketers have thrown their hats in the content marketing ring, they have to start using a strategy that is more efficient and more effective. Customers are becoming increasingly distracted by the marketing messages – the content – bombarding them at virtually every turn. It is seen that showering consumers with content results in brand resentment. Suchita Vishnoi, Marketing Head of Trend Micro, rightly captured this challenge: “In Content Marketing, one needs to understand how much is ‘too much’”.
Companies see a lot of value in tailored content as it has the ability to initiate discussions or conversations with the audience. Know where customers are engaging with content.
One of the key challenges for marketers regarding content marketing is measuring the ROI. Companies spend sizeable amounts on content marketing and therefore monitoring the returns is crucial. Essentially, content marketing metrics should identify the content consumption and content sharing patterns, the leads and opportunities resulting from the content and the direct impact on sales.
Cijo Mathew, Account Director at LEWIS Bangalore, highlighted that content should be made downloadable, as this will enable the consumers to take back something. “A successful campaign tends to result in informative, engaging and highly sharable content. And to get this outcome you need to have a clear understanding of your current and target audiences’ likes, expectations and their appetite for engagement.”
The participants concluded that Content Marketing is a growing trend that has become a marketing staple, but it is good content and the right channels that will make a person stop, read, think, believe and act differently towards a brand. As Jonathan Perelman of BuzzFeed summarized, “Content is King, but Distribution is Queen and she wears the pants.”
Finding out what the audience wants to consume and how best it can be presented is the key to Content Marketing. Some points to keep in mind are:
• Know where your customers spend their time: portals, social networking sites, e-mailing?
• Find content that will resonate deeply with your audience
• Focus on Facebook – It’s where most of the consumers spend their online social time
• Add videos to create interest. Visuals are always eye-catching
• Consider the role of mobile – Create content that can be easily viewed via mobile devices.