Where should Content Marketing fit into your strategy?

Good Content Should Be At The Heart Of Any Marketing Strategy

Unlike content that is typically created for a brand’s blog, ‘Content Marketing’ campaigns are usually larger in scale, serving a higher purpose than a simple blog post. It’s a fact that, when done effectively, Content Marketing does a lot for a brand; its primary goal is to educate, engage and drive traffic, either through the site or through footfall in a store.  

Compelling content is used to create stories that can benefit a brand from an SEO perspective and generate broader interest around a topic; becoming a resource that offers more to the consumer, whether they are already a customer or someone who may potentially convert.

The global content marketing industry is projected to have a value of over $412 million (over £312 million).

Nothing Resonates With The Masses More Than Content Which Is Perfectly Crafted, In A Timely Manner, Working Flawlessly With A Trend Or Season.

Previously a method that few brands adopted, when brand loyalty is at an all-time low, content marketing is now used by the likes of Evernote to Pornhub. In 2020, the importance and impact of this method of marketing will continue to be a focal point for businesses and brands, who use it to help them to ‘elbow’ their way through the noise and into the conversation.

Integration At Its Finest

Content Marketing should also be used in a more integrated way, helping deliver on more than one KPI. This is where the beast that is content marketing comes into its own, becoming the centre point and perfectly amplified by other digital and traditional marketing channels – Paid, SEO, Social and above the line branding can seed the content out even further.

A perfect example of ‘seeding’ and ‘amplification’ is Spotify’s 2019 Wrapped ‘my year in review’ data, which used OOH advertising, print, social and PR to promote the year in music downloads.

In December, Spotify ‘wraps’ up the year with an OOH/digital campaign that highlights listening habits throughout the year, while also giving its users their ‘Top Songs’ in a curated playlist. Using OOH billboards guaranteed brand communication, while using a hashtag that helps to transition people from a billboard or poster to online, the brand garners interest with press explaining to users how they can find their ‘2019 wrapped’.

This year, the streaming service went bigger and better with its wrap up of the decade by using data gathered by its users to highlight some of the biggest cultural moments and streaming trends. What made it so effective was the fact that it was relatable, perfect for the end of the year and primary data gained over a long period of time. Many brands are sitting on data that is very easy to spin into a story.

Appealing To More Than The Customer

Effective content marketing does more than merely gain coverage, and ideas should be developed thinking more than just ‘the brand’.

When strategizing for a content marketing campaign, it’s important to think above and beyond the brand. Typically, content created for this reason doesn’t promote a service of product that the brand offers. Instead, it is used to draw attention to a topic that provides more to the reader.

When deciding on a content marketing idea, there are a few things that should always be considered:

• Who am I trying to reach? Never think about your direct target audience (e.g. a young couple planning a romantic weekend), but think more about the characteristics of the demographic.
• Each campaign should have a multitude of KPIs. Each content marketing campaign should have its own measurement for success. The question ‘what do I want to accomplish with this campaign?’ should always be taken into consideration when brainstorming ideas.
• Good ideas take time to be put together and develop. In an age of churnalism, trying to get an idea ‘out the door’ will not guarantee its success if it’s not thought through. Larger content marketing ideas need to be thought through from concept to execution. This also allows the opportunity to finesse a plan and find holes in it before it’s in creation stages.
• Where do you want your content to sit? When planning ideas, it’s equally important to think about the publications that you want to land coverage in – what do they usually write about? What assets would they want? Is this the ideal publication? Should Outreach be tiered?

Where to seed out content is equally imperative to both planning and execution. Involving members from Paid Media, Traditional Marketing, SEO and eCommerce can help hone in on the campaign and decide how each channel can amplify reach as an extension to the initial content marketing campaign.

Where To Look For Inspiration

If you already have the makings of an idea, your first stop should be Google. Performing a generic around an idea such as ‘interactive map’ or ‘best cities for XX’ and filtering by news in the last month or so can help gauge what people are talking about and featuring.

A few other places to have a look at for inspiration include:

Newsletters like Content Curated, which share a snapshot of some of the most interesting campaigns from a variety of sectors on a monthly basis.

Digital PR Examples – a Twitter feed dedicated to sharing Digital PR and Content Marketing campaigns of interest from all industries (whether they’re exciting or oddly inaccurate, such as Gucci x Disney collection which features Mickey Mouse to celebrate the Chinese “Year of the Rat”)

Famous Campaigns – a website dedicated to innovative and creative PR, social media, marketing, advertising, events and creative communications, such as Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll and Burger King stating they hid a Big Mac behind every Whopper in their ads.